Tubes Asylum

amp design effect on tube life?

209.86.246.254

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Thread: Display Email Next ] [ Tubes Asylum ]

Corbu

(A)

There are many tube amps available. My question is are some designs better at extending tube life than others, and if so why.This is primarily for power amps.

Follow Ups:

Re: amp design effect on tube life? - Sector-7G 20:55:49 06/10/04 (4)
a good exaple is that running the ratings to the maximums results in max power. go to max voltages and dissipation limits simultaneously and a shortened life is usually the result.
regards,
Douglas
general RoT, would love to see examples where this is not the case!
- those tiny tubes.... - steven oda 07:57:41 06/11/04 (2)
  Douglas,
  Funny thing is that amps I've seen (okay mostly guitar amps) are very "hard" on their signal, gain stage, phase splitter tubes.
  These tubes (eg: 12AX7, 12AT7, 6SN7, 5687, etc) tend to sometimes have short lifetimes. Particularly, in amps with heavy duty power tubes (like mil spec 6L6GC's or 6550's).
  - Hi Steve, I used think that getting a tube near its max or even just above . . - John PA 08:14:20 06/11/04 (1)
    sounded the best but ofcourse the tube life was not near what it should or I would expect it to be. And, when working with nos, that can be a shame and expenisve. I have since come to realize that I can, by working with the voltage a current, get the tube to sound just as good at lower settings and the tube life is much extended. It just takes a bit of time to find that lower setting that has the quality of sound I desire.
    ja in clear and dry, and rather warm, Tucson, AZ
    
    The Elaborate DAC=55/76 or 27 Balanced Preamp=Balanced Six Pacs=Newform Research 645
    - I'll have to agree with J... - Sector-7G 10:54:34 06/11/04 (0)
      The high current/voltage op point with 6SN7's gave the expected good sound. At cost of short life usually due to noise and sensitivity to distrubances( mechanical, as in twisting the volume knob or changing a CD ).
      It takes far more fiddling than I usually have patience for in the beginning to determine an operating point at ~half the maximums which sounds good, however, the failure rate is negligible at this sort of use...
      regards,
      Dogulas
- Re: amp design effect on tube life? - truep 07:56:13 06/11/04 (0)
  VTL amps are noted for their long tube life. They run at low idle current to reduce dissipation. I had a pair of 160's and they ran for over 10 years with no problem with the outputs.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Kimber Kable

You can not post to an archived thread.