I saw an article about 833A triodes that says they last longer with the cathode run at 9.5 Volts rather than the full 10 Volts, and there is no loss of how they sound. Also, these tubes are built to last because they are used in AM radio stations as transmitter tubes. Running them at 1000Volts on the plate rather than pushing them so hard that they have a red glow spot will make them last indefinitely. The drivers I use are 45 globes that cost about $75 to replace on ebay and they last for years. I keep spares. Some claim that solid state requires less maintenance because you never have to replace tubes, but changing a tube is so simple that finding a bad transistor is far more complicated. Also, if you can use metalized polypropylene filter capacitors in the high voltage to run the tubes, you have indefinite shelf life and better ESR than the slightly cheaper electrolytic filter capacitors on tube amps costing five figures. This is why I build my own tube amps and preamps.
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- 91 posts total
- 91 posts total