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I'm sure this has come up before. I have a DAC with both solid state and tube analog outs. The tube is NOS GE modeled on the Western Electric 396A.
Should I turn off the DAC when not in use with tube output connected?
Thanks!
Follow Ups:
Yes -- turn it off to extend tube life. Whenever the filiments of a tube are glowing, it is wearing out. Depending on the tube and the circuit's design, one is typically looking at a lifespan of anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 hours up to 10,000 hours. Small signal tubes generally last longer than power output tubes. So, unless you want to be replacing the tube on a routine basis, you should turn off the DAC. (Note that are some who claim the on/off cycle is harder on the tubes than just being left on continuously. While that may be true of light bulbs, vacuum tubes don't go from dark to full light in the same way light bulbs do.)
Unless there's a way to power-OFF the tubes separate from the whole DAC, I would shut it down when not in use. No sense in wearing out the tubes.You might also want to experiment with the tube output vs solid-state output to determine which you honestly prefer.
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I once owned a couple Cary CD players that had tube output stages. I loved the Cary CD308T but the more costly CD 303/300, not so much.
The tubes in the costly Cary CD 303/300 CDP are just buffers. The tube section in the Cary CD308T is in fact the gain stage along with the buffer.
I felt that the CD 303/300 tube output was slightly dynamically challenged (a little "muffled"), smooth but slightly veiled no matter what tubes I rolled in it. This CDP sounds better on its solid-state outputs IMHO.
I simply felt that the CD308T was a significantly better sounding CD player if comparing tube output vs tube output between the two models.
Edits: 12/17/20
I would turn it off when not in use. I doubt there's any sonic advantage to leaving it on as most tube gear sounds just fine after 15-20 minutes of warm up.
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