Can you do anything to make power tubes last longer ?


Besides using them less.

inna

Reducing heat by venting the component or cabinet can extend tube longevity. Suggest that you visit; https://acifinity.com

for a wide selection of component/enclosure heat extraction units. I have one of their units placed directly on top of a Prima Luna EVO 400 integrated amp.  It's like they are made for each other.  It drops the temp around the tubes by about 12/15 degrees.  Btw since these are extraction units rather blowing cool air onto the tubes there is never a risk of thermal shock damage to the hot tube.

Enjoy the music..

 

@tomic601’s mention of Roger Modjeski leads me to suggest that for longest tube life, they can be installed in any of Roger’s Music Reference amps (RM-9, RM-10, RM-200), in which output tubes last about 10,000 hours. Compare that with ARC amps.

 

Yeah, miss Roger Modjeski - what a treasure he was.  He was the master of tube conservation.  Gave me a good tongue lashing for biasing my RM10 wrong and set me straight for an hour on the phone.  Never wore out or shorted a tube in over 10 yrs on my unit.  Sorry I sold my RM10MkII.  He wrote on his forum "don't worry about handling tubes w/bare hands just get the peanut butter off your fingers".  Just got a matched quad of EL34's from RAM tubes yesterday.