Spare tubes? How many?

I have always found that 1940-1970 tubes are unequaled by newer tubes. Years ago I began buying good buys on a broad range of miniatures as well as output tubes. I have nearly 1000 tubes. They have been a great investment, even though now I use both a solid state amp and line stage. Tubes that one could buy for $8 in 1970 now sell for hundreds of dollars, some for more than $1000.

It is one of the costs of using tubes that you need to have a reserve stash.

Wow!

It is great to see that I am not the only one with a sh*t load of extra tubes.

Luckily, I have a Lamm hybrid amp (M2.1), which only uses
one 6922 tube in each monoblock.
But to make up for the fact that I only need two tubes, I have the following pairs of tubes:

The stock Sovteks;
Two pairs of inexpensive new tubes;
Two pairs of medium priced NOS tubes (Orange Globes);
And, one pair of expensive NOS tubes (Pinched waist);

6 pairs of tubes which supposedly will last me a couple of thousand hours per pair.

6 pairs x 2,000 hours = 12,000 hours.

12,000 hours divided by my average of 4 hours per week (which includes an hour of warm up time) for my listening sessions = 3,000 weeks

3,000 weeks divided by 52 weeks a year = 58 years.

My conclusions from my calculations are:
One, I am not listening nearly enough!
Two, I have way too many pairs of tubes!
And Three, apparently my daughter, who will inherit my gear, is set for life too!

PS Anyone know of a cheap (and reliable!) place to buy more NOS tubes?

:-)

Kurt, I used to know of several. They are all gone now. Most of the Western Electrics are in Asia now, as they appreciated them before we did.

Elizabeth, I had the Opera Consonance 211 which give about 16 watts. I was quite impressed with them relative to my Reimyo PAT777 which only has 8 watt output. Unless the 300B amps are PP, I would be concerned about have enough headroom for your music.

I have 93db efficient speakers and found the 8 watts were just not enough. I have no experience with the Dared products. Whichever you buy, 300Bs or 211s, NOS American output tubes will blow away what you will get in the amps, but they are pricy. I bought some of my WE 300Bs when they were $15@, some at $300@, and one pair at $750@. I use neither a 300B or 211 amp now.