[TKonrad.NOLA]

I had wanted a tube amp since I first saw one back in my military days, circa 1988.  Last year I pulled the trigger on a CARY SLI-100 and the sound is wonderful.  Easily the best sounding amp I have ever owned, but I can not get used to the heat that tube amps generate and it flat out makes me anxious.  I find my listening sessions to be shorter than normal because I worry. In my head, heat = BAD.  I have the amp in a console and I leave the doors open while I listen but that worries me too with two puppies running around.  Yes I know I am a pretty anxious person in general and maybe I am spoiled by the coolness of Class D amps. 

I am going back to solid state because music listening should not make me want a Xanax.  Now to find a tube sounding solid state amp.  Perhaps McIntosh?

[jriggy]

You could relocate the amp so it has all the breathing room/airflow it needs. Or you could sell and get tubes in a preamp and/or DAC.

[TKonrad.NOLA]

You could relocate the amp so it has all the breathing room/airflow it needs. Or you could sell and get tubes in a preamp and/or DAC.

I had it on top of the cabinet for a while but I still found myself thinking, "okay, that is long enough, don't overwork the amp".  Yeah I know, dumb.  I listed it for sale.

[JLM]

Had similar anxieties with my only tube integrated.  Worried about tubes not matching after a while.  Worried about forgetting to turn it off after a listening session.  Worried about which tube would be ideal when time to swap/replace.  Worried about colorations.  When I realized it was barely better than my class D mono-blocks that I'd picked up for 1/3rd the price I knew it had to go.

[opnly bafld]

If you guys can't stand the heat, you need to get out of the kitchen, ........I mean the "tube" circle. 

[jjss49]

...and that is why the good lord had man invent solid state amps   

all this stuff is for our pleasure... if it makes you worried or anxious, move on!

[FullRangeMan]

I noted this amp use a lot of tubes.
If using the big KT150 it delivery huge wattage.
So lots of heat also, hope you live in a cold area.
For less heat you could use EL34 tubes.

If your speakers have benign impedance and 100dB sensitivity you could use a small SET amp as the Decware Rachel EL34 6W at $1600, should be said hi sensitivity speakers dont cost more for this hi electrical efficiency.

If you have family safety concerns you could change to a fine headphone as HifiMan Ananda or Arya and a small SS amp.

[Les Lammers]

I had wanted a tube amp since I first saw one back in my military days, circa 1988.  Last year I pulled the trigger on a CARY SLI-100 and the sound is wonderful.  Easily the best sounding amp I have ever owned, but I can not get used to the heat that tube amps generate and it flat out makes me anxious.  I find my listening sessions to be shorter than normal because I worry. In my head, heat = BAD.  I have the amp in a console and I leave the doors open while I listen but that worries me too with two puppies running around.  Yes I know I am a pretty anxious person in general and maybe I am spoiled by the coolness of Class D amps. 

I am going back to solid state because music listening should not make me want a Xanax.  Now to find a tube sounding solid state amp.  Perhaps McIntosh?

Relocate the amp outside of the console and you will be fine. High power tube amps do generate heat and it is normal. Class A SS amps run hot too.

[Saponetto]

My little ones (two EL-34 based single-ended amplifiers) gets hot too.
One bought, the other built after a lot of educational attempts.
Both gets hot like hell.
Tried to help with forced airflow, then installed little fans inside the chassis but had to negotiate with noise, then removed all this stuff.

Ended by getting a heavily drilled metal plate and placing the amplifiers above it.
Heat was limited due its natural convection, calling air from below the plate.

Ah, of course my listening sessions are 2-3 hrs. max.
Other than this time, I have to open anyway the windows.

[RDavidson]

Had similar anxieties with my only tube integrated.  Worried about tubes not matching after a while.  Worried about forgetting to turn it off after a listening session.  Worried about which tube would be ideal when time to swap/replace.  Worried about colorations.  When I realized it was barely better than my class D mono-blocks that I'd picked up for 1/3rd the price I knew it had to go.

I share your thoughts. Too many tubes to worry about made me seek out alternative routes to very similar (if not better) listening pleasures. Now I run a custom tube preamp (only 2 tubes in it) and class A solid state. Heat is of some concern to me with my amps, but I know if something breaks Pass Labs will take good care of me. I think the latter point is key to freeing one's mind of some of the worries...buying gear from a reputable maker with great customer service. I now just listen, enjoy, and keep spare tubes on hand for the preamp. I have a small collection of amps to swap in and out as I please too. Life is good. Enjoy!

[FullRangeMan]

My little ones (two EL-34 based single-ended amplifiers) gets hot too.
One bought, the other built after a lot of educational attempts.
Both gets hot like hell.
Tried to help with forced airflow, then installed little fans inside the chassis but had to negotiate with noise, then removed all this stuff.

Ended by getting a heavily drilled metal plate and placing the amplifiers above it.
Heat was limited due its natural convection, calling air from below the plate.

Ah, of course my listening sessions are 2-3 hrs. max.
Other than this time, I have to open anyway the windows.

By what you said you live in a hot area, for these reasons I dont like tube amps with small chassis or steel, they should be alu and large as pointed by Morgan Jones.

[Tom Bombadil]

I've owned various tube equipment for over 25 years.   I've found that tubes last much longer than what many may believe.  But I only run my audio gear for about 15-20 hours per week.  My small signal tubes, 6922 / 6SN7 / 12AU7 seem to have almost unlimited life.  Even after 10 years they test almost as new.  If I forget to turn stuff off, that's only a tiny fraction of a tube's life.   

Power tubes don't last as long but I've had no problem getting 2500+ hours on them.  Given that I travel a fair amount, that works out to 3 to 4 years.  I've had EL84 tubes last much longer than that.   I've picked up backup sets on good deals over the years, so no fears of having to go out and buy expensive replacements. 

Thus I have learned to not worry much about my tubes.  Just relax and enjoy the beautiful music.   I find the "hassle factor" of using tubes to be worth it, most of the time.

I do use a Class D amp to power my A/V system for watching TV and movies.  No reason to burn my tubes up for that.

[Tyson]

Some amps run the tubes 'hot', ie outside of their optimal operating range, in the belief that it makes them sound better.  This will definitely shorten the life of tubes. 

Luckily, the large majority of tube amps run the tubes in their optimal operating range and when that happens I find I get about 5000 hours out of small signal tubes and about 2000-4000 hours from the power tubes.  That's a lot of freaking music. 

I also find that I like to tube roll, because I like to hear how things sound with different combos.  This means I rarely even use a tube for it's full life.  In practical life, if the amp is well designed, tubes are actually quite robust. 

[rwanda]

Well I run an integrated Almarro 318b.....and it gets damn hot. I realize so hot that sometimes to the touch the volume control is too much...but it sounds fine and I have left it on for the entire day.....in fact fuse would likely blow before it caused an issue. All tube amps run hot though the 6c33 tubes are really hot and good for frying eggs too:-)

[I.Greyhound Fan]

Why worry?  It was made that way.  Just keep  it in a well ventilated space.   My BAT preamp uses 8 tubes and it gets hot.  My Pass amp also gets hot.  I play music for hours sometimes and have had no issues except the room getting warm if the doors are closed.
If you have concerns you can buy a quiet music computer fan from Noctua which makes very quiet fans down to about 12dB.  I built a custo computer using several of them and it is whisper quiet.

https://noctua.at/en/products/fan

[Tyson]

A well designed tube amp is very robust.  Think about all the audio and radio equipment used by broadcasters (and the military) for the first half of the 20th century.  Tough and battle tested.  Literally, haha. 

So stop worrying about it.  Relax and enjoy the music.

[DaveC113]

A well designed tube amp is very robust.  Think about all the audio and radio equipment used by broadcasters (and the military) for the first half of the 20th century.  Tough and battle tested.  Literally, haha. 

So stop worrying about it.  Relax and enjoy the music.

The main issue is unreliable new production tubes IME.

I've had many lose vacuum and the resulting arc-overs have done damage to my gear 3 times in the last 15 years or so. Just had it happen again with a Gold Lion KT77 a couple weeks ago, I think it just took out the cathode resistor but I haven't had time to fix it yet. The other 2 times it's happened were GZ34 type rectifier tubes, but it hasn't been an issue for the last 10+ years because I swore off using new rectifier tubes. One time it took out a PS resistor but another time the PT was damaged from overheating.

If you do have tube gear I think it's best to use NOS tubes for better reliability.

Also, the heat created by tubes is mostly a result of the fact there are heaters in the tubes, the plates must be hot for tubes to work properly so heat is certainly part of the design. 

[Tyson]

Dave, agreed - new production tubes can be dicey.  The new Russian tubes in particular I've had issues with (Gold Lion, new Mullard, ElectroHarmonix, new Tung Sol, etc...). 

You know what I've actually had very good luck with recently?  Psvane tubes.  When they first came out 15 years ago it was a bit dicey, but the more current tube production runs have been solid.  And they sound very good too, especially the Cossor line, the WE line and the new Art series.  Much better space and way better tonality and smoothness compared to pretty much all the Russian tubes.