[rbwalt]

did you buy the amp new from bobby? you are going to crap your pants when you get the masters! i know i have them. have known bobby for 30 yrs. he was down in my neck of the woods a wk and a half a go and helped me fine tune my system. he knows what he is doing!!!

checkout my system here: Systems>R> Rbwalt . you will see the setup and a nice picture of the Masters! welcome to the Merlin club! they are simply one of the top 5 speakers of any kind on the market. truly world class in every respect one of the word. really make so many other sound broken!

rob.

ps. if i can be any help just let me know.

[Elizabeth]

My VAC Standard preamp with for 12A_7 tubes has been on 24/7 for about three years.. So I can figure 25,000 hours on the tubes easy.
otherwise there are electromechanical hour counters available. you could hook one up to the amp so it reads out the hours left on.
http://www.amazon.com/Hour-Meter-120-AC-Volts/dp/B0027NLO8K/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1361641288&sr=8-7&keywords=hour+meters

[SET Man]

Hey!

   If you are talking about the amp than minimum of 50hrs, but 100hrs would be a good point to begin a serious evaluation. Although I have to say that some capacitors need longer than 100hrs to fully settled in. For tubes I feel 50hrs is good enough for them to settling.

   As for keeping track of hours on tube. I use this to keep track hours on my KR Audio 842VHD tubes...




   I just click it after each listening session. And this also help me roughly keep track other tubes in my system also, 6EA7/6EM7s on those amps, 12AX7s, 12AU7s in my pre. 

   I actually have 2 more of the tally to use when I change those tubes in my pre if I want.

Take care,
Buddy 


 

[Quiet Earth]

I do need to keep tract of the first 50 hours of tube use before being able to leave it on over 3 hours and max volume per manufacturers instructions.

I also keep track of the first 50 hours when I install new power tubes. I just tally up the hours on a piece of paper like you mentioned earlier, and then I toss the paper when I get over 50 hours. There is a paragraph on the Emission Labs website that talks about the first 50 hours of power-tube life. It is paragraph #2, and it is right here : http://www.emissionlabs.com/diversen/FAQ.htm.

I have posted this link before, so sorry if some of you have already seen it.