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In Reply to: Leaving a tube pre-amp on all the time a problem? posted by magicsam on March 12, 2010 at 06:55:00:
magicsam,
In my view, running tube gear all the time creates a sense of the meter running all the time. Tubes have a finite life- often far more than their rating, but nonetheless, 24 hours a day is, say, 8 times the three hours you might listen. In that scenario, the tubes will wear out 8 times faster with 8 times the hours there is no benefit- you're not hearing them.
There is a stress turning off and on, but I don't think this is too serious. I have 1964 McIntosh gear (MX110 and MC240) and those have 90+% original tubes and a 1965 Fisher 800C has all it's original tubes. If either of these had been left on all the time, the tubes would've been changed probably 10 times or so.
The story is different with solid state as it takes so much longer to warm up. My Audio Research SP10 tube preamp takes about 45 minutes to warm up and the D115 tube power amplifier about 30 minutes. However, the ARC solid state LS3 > D130 combination for my office I always felt took five hours to warm up and I often let that pair run 24 hours per day. I run the SP10 especially frugally- it has 15 tubes including 6- E188CC /7308's that are unaffordable today! I have 3 sets of these -18 NOS- that will have to last me the rest of my life, so I don't waste them- I turn on the SP10 and listen after 20 minutes.
I don't really understand why the PAS 4 can't use it's original power switch- do you feel power switches affect the sound?- nor have I ever heard of a "circuit board on-off switch", but to save your tubes, you might consider putting an in-line switch on the power cord.
Cheers,
Bambi B
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Follow Ups
- The tubes will have the same life hours- but compressed into substantially less months! - Bambi B 03/12/1007:29:50 03/12/10 (1)
- RE: The tubes will have the same life hours- but compressed into substantially less months! - magicsam 07:38:49 03/12/10 (0)
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