[FullRangeMan]

OLDTIMER: When lacking electricity in your home, this equipment may be damaged, and also on the return of energy. Of course you may know it.

[rollo]

   Well never again for me. My amp using a Full music 211 went taking the trannies with it. if I was in the room when it occurred the trannies would not have melted. Just a bad tube. Only 15Hrs on the sucker. They were tested by the dealer. Measured pefectly. There is no way of telling when it will go. Thanks to Grant Fidelity and Consonance who stood by there products helped me big time in getting Humpty Dupty put back together again.
  I leaned my lesson the hard way. Never again. Now using either RCA or GE Mil spec 211s.


charles

[Elizabeth]

One tubed preamp i use as a 'tube buffer' for my digital gear I leave on 24/7/365. It has four small tubes and is sealed. it just gets a little warm only, even left on all the time.
I have another preamp i use just the tubed phono in it. That one i leave off, as it is not my main phono, and thus only gets used once in awhile.
I listen to music all day every day, and leave all the main electronics on 24/7.
Agree a tube amp should never be left on, unattended.
My preamp, being sealed up, I do not worry about a tube failure. Or resistor failure causing a fire.
As for being kind to Mother Earth.. I had NO CHILDREN. That is enough, I figure, to have done my part in not using up future resources.

[TONEPUB]

Well, old timer, when you were in the military, you didn't have to pay for tubes!

These days just leaving my ARC REF 5SE and REF Phono 2 SE on 24/7, with an anticipated life of about 5000 - 7000 hours on the tubes means, if I shut them off for the 12 hours a day I'm not using them, I double the tube life.  And at a cost of about $500 per to retube it makes more financial sense than worrying if something is going to burst into flames.

[Quiet Earth]

   Well never again for me. My amp using a Full music 211 went taking the trannies with it. if I was in the room when it occurred the trannies would not have melted. Just a bad tube. Only 15Hrs on the sucker. They were tested by the dealer. Measured pefectly. There is no way of telling when it will go. Thanks to Grant Fidelity and Consonance who stood by there products helped me big time in getting Humpty Dupty put back together again.
  I leaned my lesson the hard way. Never again. Now using either RCA or GE Mil spec 211s.

If a power tube fails catastrophically, shouldn't a fuse blow before a transformer melts? Sounds like the amp was not designed correctly to me.

[FullRangeMan]

If a power tube fails catastrophically, shouldn't a fuse blow before a transformer melts? Sounds like the amp was not designed correctly to me.

I already noted it, seems this is a usual procedure on many manufactures, no only chinese.

[TONEPUB]

If a power tube fails catastrophically, shouldn't a fuse blow before a transformer melts? Sounds like the amp was not designed correctly to me.

Every once in a while weird things happen.  99 out of a 100 times a fuse WILL blow.  Same thing happened to one of my Manley 250's.  Big fireball came out of the amp and instead of taking the fuse, it took a cap, resistor and charred the PC board.  On inspection, it came from the factory with a slow blow installed where a standard fuse was supposed to be.  OOPS!

Never had a transformer melt, but those big SET amps use some pretty high power on the output tubes as well.

[AllynW]

My power amps use tubes all the other gear is SS.  All my gear is powered up 15 to 30 minutes before use and shut down when I am done listening.

I use the system at least 2 hours every day. 

[Old timer]

Well, old timer, when you were in the military, you didn't have to pay for tubes!

These days just leaving my ARC REF 5SE and REF Phono 2 SE on 24/7, with an anticipated life of about 5000 - 7000 hours on the tubes means, if I shut them off for the 12 hours a day I'm not using them, I double the tube life.  And at a cost of about $500 per to retube it makes more financial sense than worrying if something is going to burst into flames.

 Okay, I can see your position. I don't have to pay a tube reseller hundreds of dollars for a tube that he bought for a couple of bucks. I had bought a lifetimes supply of tubes years ago, (or maybe 2 lifetimes) and paid less than a couple of bucks each for them. But if you are at the mercy of a guy who resells tubes, ... With the prices they charge, okay, fair enough.

Still, I have had my 6SN7 tubes in my preamp for years and they still meet spec. I own a TV-7D military tube tester, just like the one I'd used in the Navy.

[TONEPUB]

6SN7's are pretty robust tubes...  I've been told that some of the RCA and Sylvanias, went well over 50,000 hours.  And sounded great to boot.

I'll be curious to see how my ARC gear does with the 6h30's.  They say 5000 hours, but when I had the CJ ACT2, it went almost 20,000 hours on the first set of tubes.

Now, if I only had some of those 6CA7's from back in the 70's...

[medium jim]

6SN7's are pretty robust tubes...  I've been told that some of the RCA and Sylvanias, went well over 50,000 hours.  And sounded great to boot.

I'll be curious to see how my ARC gear does with the 6h30's.  They say 5000 hours, but when I had the CJ ACT2, it went almost 20,000 hours on the first set of tubes.

Now, if I only had some of those 6CA7's from back in the 70's...

TONEPUB,

In addition to RCA/Sylvania's, I've heard that Raytheon makes a hell of a 6SN7!  Man do I agree with the cost of retubing, it cost me 2k to retube NOS in my Marantz 9's and I bias the output tubes about every 2 months whether they need to be or not and bias them a little on the cool side, i.e., about a 16th of an inch shy of the bias line.  They seem to be more robust and dynamic a little cool and with more headroom. 

Jim

[doug s.]

...I will agree with Doug S here, who stated that he would only remove expensive phono stage tubes in the event that you owned a pre with a built in phono stage...

to clarify, what i said, it was amps that i would not want to leave on 24/7, not fono stages.  and not for cost of tubes, but for safety.  but, if i did have an outboard tube fono stage, i might not run it except when in use, because most of my listening is to fm - if i were constantly spinning winyl when listening, the fono stage would likely stay on.  tho if i had an aesthetix io, i might not wanna leave something like that on 24/7 even if i were constantly spinning winyl, as it has a zillion tubes in it.

which brings up another side issue - i won't even consider purchasing a piece of equipment if it costs a small fortune to re-tube it.  i'm simply not interested.  my mesa baron is the most expensive equipment i own when it comes to retubing costs, and it's ~$300 for a complete retube.  it's not gotten any use in a couple years, tho, as i don't need its power for my efficient speakers.  when i move and can set up more than one system, that may change.

ymmv,

doug s.

[Ericus Rex]

These days just leaving my ARC REF 5SE and REF Phono 2 SE on 24/7, with an anticipated life of about 5000 - 7000 hours on the tubes means, if I shut them off for the 12 hours a day I'm not using them, I double the tube life.  And at a cost of about $500 per to retube it makes more financial sense than worrying if something is going to burst into flames.

I would guess that long, LONG before you actually wear out the tubes you will turn on your system to find a tube either very noisy or not working at all.  The day before, that tube (or any internal part sensitive to thermal cycling) worked just fine leaving you to wonder what happened at shut-down/turn-on.  As I said before, I've had this happen to me several times.  But I've never actually worn a tube out; my tube tester says so.  Chances are, you'll preamp will run longer and not need repair if you leave it on 24/7 so long as it's adequately ventilated.  I personally don't do this as I don't have the time to listen like I used to.  I also don't consider it any more dangerous than leaving an SS pre on 24/7 (again, adequately ventilated).

I agree with others here that tube amps should never be left on all the time.

[TONEPUB]

One thing that might be interesting, as I've got a REF Phono 2 and a REF Phono 2 SE these days, I should run one of them 24/7 and see what happens.  That might be fun...

[Wig]

I'm currently running in a tube integrated amp, I'll listen atleast 9-12 hours a day until I reach the 200 hour mark and typically listen 2-3 hours daily but I turn off when not in use and never leave the area unattended.

Wig

[Ericus Rex]

I'll listen atleast 9-12 hours a day until I reach the 200 hour mark and typically listen 2-3 hours daily

Is this just to burn in the tubes when new?

[Elizabeth]

which brings up another side issue - i won't even consider purchasing a piece of equipment if it costs a small fortune to re-tube it.  i'm simply not interested. 
ymmv,

doug s.

Yeah. I had found an Audio Research Sp-10 mk2 locally(at a used equipment stereo dealer!!) and paid only $600 cash plus some junk trade in stuff I got for free. It had not so great tubes, but worked. Welli just could not see paying a medium fortune for tubes to retube it.. So i ran into an ARC SP-15 and liked it better than the Sp-10. I wa able to sell the Sp-10 on Agon for enough  to pay for it, and the Sp-15 And have a few hundred bucks left over.(And I STILL sold it for $800 below the market price.)
Anyway, If i had collected piles of tubes back when they were just old surplus junk, I too would be a happy tube lover. As it is, i remember most of those NOS tubes costing an arm and a leg now, were dollar surplus at one time. and cringe.
I have 4 items using tubes in my piles of stuff. Thank goodness they all use cheap to find tubes, and few of them too!

[Wig]

Is this just to burn in the tubes when new?

That's correct; burning in tubes & associated circuitry...

Wig

[medium jim]

Yeah. I had found an Audio Research Sp-10 mk2 locally(at a used equipment stereo dealer!!) and paid only $600 cash plus some junk trade in stuff I got for free. It had not so great tubes, but worked. Welli just could not see paying a medium fortune for tubes to retube it.. So i ran into an ARC SP-15 and liked it better than the Sp-10. I wa able to sell the Sp-10 on Agon for enough  to pay for it, and the Sp-15 And have a few hundred bucks left over.(And I STILL sold it for $800 below the market price.)
Anyway, If i had collected piles of tubes back when they were just old surplus junk, I too would be a happy tube lover. As it is, i remember most of those NOS tubes costing an arm and a leg now, were dollar surplus at one time. and cringe.
I have 4 items using tubes in my piles of stuff. Thank goodness they all use cheap to find tubes, and few of them too!

Elizabeth:

I have a stockpile of Guitar Amp Tubes, but for some reason not EL34's as I am a Fender and Gibson amp guy.   However, I still think even at the current prices, NOS or gently used tubes from the Golden Era are still a good value, why?  Because they typically will have 2 to 3 times the life span and aurally are superior (as a general rule). 

Let's say a NOS Mullard 6CA7/EL34 with a XF2 factory code (Blackburne), costs $150.00 and will last 3 times longer than a Eastern Eurpopean, Russian or Chinese copy that costs $50 each....

More so for preamp or linestage tubes....

Since there is a diminshishing supply of tubes from the Golden Era, (the 40's to the late 60's), we need to respect them by turning them off when not in use!

Heck I have a Metal Base Phillips Miniwatt GZ34 from 1957 that I've owned for over 20 years and still tests new and has to have over 20K hours on it.  Then I have a 1948 Gibson GA-30 Guitar Amp that still has its original RCA smoked Glass 6V6G's....they don't make tubes like that anymore!!!

Jim

[Steve]

Lifetime of new tubes can be very long, although maybe not all.
I think over the years, quality has been improving.

For example, I have heard of JJ E88ccs lasting 20,000 hours. I have a Quad of EL-156 (Shuguang) and at one year, the idle current is still right on target. Not 1 ma less idle current.

Cheers.