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In Reply to: RE: Sweet !! posted by mbnx01 on October 09, 2014 at 18:55:08
The tubes should last several years at least, unless you get restless. The power tubes have individual biasing, so you should be able to replace the power tubes one at a time, though they tend to be sold in pairs.
For the small tubes, I've found that used tubes from ebay, as opposed to NOS, work just fine. See Joe's Tube Lore for some suggestions. I'm using GE black plate 5751s and RCA Cleartops in my Rogue M-180s.
Follow Ups:
Is two thousand hours. I will do that in a year.
Is that not correct?
"We are all in God's hands... and God is a malign thug."
-Mark Twain
That's what I've experienced with my Cronus Magnum. Whatever tube types I've used (KT 120, KT 88, 6550, etc.). I guess it's to be expected when you get up to 100 watts out of two tubes.
Edits: 10/10/14
I assume that as long as they hold a bias that my KT120s are OK. KT90s would glow bright purple and make a squealing noise before blowing a fuse.
I just KT120 re-tubed my Rogue Apollo. Really didn't want to, because 600 bucks. I didn't keep a tight hours count, but I'd roughly estimate between 1400-2000 hours on the last set over 3 years. They were still holding a bias fine, and sounded almost good as new. But one night recently, a main fuse (the one by the power cord socket) blew upon power-on, and Rogue encouraged the route of caution towards re-tubing -- emphasizing that fuses usually blow for a reason. I replaced the fuse and ran that old set a few more sessions without incident, then bit the bullet and loaded fresh tubes. The new tubes have a notably healthier side-getter flashing, and probably sound a touch crisper (in a good way; not bright).Glad I replaced the tubes to lower the risk of an "incident" like a had with an EH KT-90 after only a couple hundred hours (back in 2010) -- it shorted catastrophically, fireworks & smoke, torching a resistor and mildly scorching the circuit board underneath (got a new board printed). The system was sounding really great right up until that incident, too; it occurred right at the end of a bass heavy track!
Edits: 10/12/14
Was that in an ARC amp?
They're well known for blowing resistors in a spectacular fashion.
"We are all in God's hands... and God is a malign thug."
-Mark Twain
Nope, it was in one side of my Rogue Apollo monoblocks, just before (or around the time) that the KT-120 came out. Probably just a fluke, but it bypassed the various fuse protections. After the replacement EH KT-90 and board (replaced under warranty at no cost to myself), I didn't have any problems for another few hundred hours before moving to KT-120, which are better sounding and likely to be much more reliable. They're great amps, which is why they've stuck in my system for 4.5 years now.
Edits: 10/12/14 10/12/14 10/12/14
I change power tubes once they start sounding thin in the mid-range, long before they would actually fail. This happens by the 1800-2000 hour mark with all the current production tubes I've tried (with various amplifiers). How long they would last before total failure I don't know: I would speculate another 1000 hours from what I've heard.
Edits: 11/26/14
I haven't been keeping track of my Cronus Magnum tube hours so I'll probably just swap them out in a few years. Mine have relatively low hours because I listen mostly to my solid-state integrated for a good 8 - 10 hours a day in my office.
The Cronus Magnum gets special treatment and is powered ON only for those special sit-down and pay attention listening sessions rather than background music while I work. I've never had a tube outright fail in my Rogue gear.
I had a bad batch of EL34 tubes a few years ago in my Manley monoblocks and that was a bit of a pain. I had to replace a few cathode resistors under the chassis and at 70 Lbs each, it was a bit of work..... but I felt better about doing it myself vs trying to ship those beasts half way across the country for service. I replaced all 10 EL34 (per monoblock) with 6CA7EH and all was fine.
Overall I've had pretty good luck with tubes, no major catastrophes.
The Manley amps were a couple of THE best sounding that I have ever owned. But you know what? The Rogue is right up there at a fraction of the price.
Beautiful pics Abe! Do you still use Manley in your system?
I downsized and sold the Manleys a while ago.
I thought that you were using Rogue exclusively...
I can easily put in 2000 hours in a year, so that would be a $400/year expense for me. Downside of going with the monoblocks.
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