What I generally do with tubed gear, which I've done for eons, is turn the gear on around dinner-time (if I plan to listen to music) and off after listening. On the weekends I'll turn them on earlier and leave on all day and off before bed.
Leaving tube amps on.
This is a question I had for a long time. I know it’s not a good idea to leave tube amps on all the time because of tube life and safety reasons. But sometimes I don’t have the opportunity to listen to my system / music for hours at time at one sitting. Sometimes I can only listen to it 45 min - a few hours at a time during the day / night. So my question is would it be better to leave the amps on all day / evening and listen when I can or turn them on / off every time I listen even if is only 45 min at a clip. But to just clarify when I don’t intend to listen that day/ night they will be off. Does turning the amps on / off throughout the day / night do more harm than leaving them on ? Tube life , wear and tear on amps etc. btw I have the Audio Research Ref 750s. Ea amp has 18 KT150 , 6550WE , 6H30.
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@jetter Read my post from last year about when I first bought my Ref 750s. I had a tube arc from a bad KT150. |
@tattooedtrackman My bad, I did read about it back then but forgot about your personal fourth of July. If I was not there at the time it could have easily resulted in a serious fire. |
@immatthewj No need to give a in depth explanation. It was a reliability issue My EE will keep a Tube Designed Device under scrutiny for weeks to ensure the circuit is not compromised. Even when doing general repairs on any Tube Amp' the device is kept back to thoroughly check for reliability. This approach has lost lots of customers who want the device to be sent for servicing / repair returned within a week of having sent it away. I recall back in the 90's when Tubes Amp's were becoming quite popular, it was EE's like mine that were the resource selected to repair certain Brands Amp's as the producer did not know how to trouble shoot their faulty circuits. I know my EE during the 90's has trouble shot a few Brands faulty circuits as a result of receiving Amp's that had multiple failures, usually as a result of extended periods of usage. I also know some of the circuits worked on were fire risks, due to how the Output Valve / Tranxs could be affected. Maybe he has even more of these circuit corrections under his belt in the 00's ? I have not inquired for a long time. |
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