|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
72.130.96.11
In Reply to: RE: I turn my tube gear off posted by airtime on September 21, 2014 at 06:29:32
I had a customer with a Cary 300B integrated. He used the reissue WE 300B's and never turned the amp off for 7 years before one channel died. In checking the amp out, he was afraid that the tubes had gone, but testing them out showed them to be like brand new (TV-7D). Failure was due to a resister in the B+ of one channel going out.
Certain tubes have extraordinarily long lives, and I believe WE is one of those, as being an industrial company and using the tubes for telephone repeater amps, reliability was probably more important than performance.
Not all tubes have such reliability, of course. If run within the recommended design medium range, most NOS types have rather extraordinary life length in my experience. The myth of having to replace tubes every year starts off with the Chinese and Russian types in the late 80's. As with everything in life, build structure changes and the metallurgy and cathode coatings have improved significantly in the past decade.
Still I have NOS tubes in my gear, turned on 8 hours a day, 6 days a week and they still sound and test good oven after many years of use. In fact in thinking back, my 30's Cathedral radios have the original tubes in them and they still work well...
Follow Ups:
Being an on again, off again Tube user,If there is anything I've picked up
it would probably be that the determining factor for Tube life is how conservatively or aggressively the circuit they're placed into is going
to "drive" the tubes.
If you've moved into the world of using NOS Tubes, I can't imagine anyone looking to run the tubes in a design that does'nt run the tubes conservatively as the wonderful sound characteristics don't need a "boost" from the circuit to "strut their stuff" (Now here is where I will attempt to not make too much of a fool of myself)
I'm hoping my current little E84L/CV4034 Headphone amp "runs" the tubes on the conservative side. I guess I should stockpile a few Siemens & Brimar to play it safe though. Will using the Novib socket savers affect tube performance negatively ?
"I'm hoping my current little E84L/CV4034 Headphone amp "runs" the tubes on the conservative side"
There's no reason to settle for "hoping".
Get a multimeter and find out.
Tre'
Have Fun and Enjoy the Music
"Still Working the Problem"
You are absolutely right , unfortunately , measuring things was one of the skills
that II've never acquired, electrical anyway.
Give me a set of callipers to check the thickness a piece of spruce for a guitar top I can do.
Take electronic measurement ? That's not among my skill set.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: