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In Reply to: AES Sixpac - Tube question... posted by Jeff TOJ on February 23, 2007 at 13:40:44:
What do you expect us to know?
One year is good for poor quality 12AX7 tubes/variants.
If you have any doubt buy some good tubes.
Are you expecting thousands of hours from a cheap tube?
If you need six bucks email me and I will send it to you.
!
Tom
Follow Ups:
Tom, sorry, I thought I explained what I thought was pertinent. If you think I didn't tell you anything, please state what that is, and I'll fill in appropriately detail.The one-year life I received was from two NOS GE 12BZ7, one from AES, one from Upscale Audio.
I'm merely trying to ascertain if this is the life-expectancy of this tube in this amp. If so, so be it. If not, maybe something in my usage is not proper, or there's a problem with the amp.
Sure, send me the six bucks, though not out of need. Or send me some old crappy throw away vinyl that will knock my socks off.
Jeff TOJ
Do you leave the power on? If so the tubes might last 500-3000 hours depending on the voltage and whether filament voltage is applied before plate voltage. This means a life of roughly 40 days to six months. Certain Chinese 12AX7's have only a 500 hour life although they do sound good.
Do you listen a lot? If so maybe a year is all you can expect from certain signal tubes. They range in price from $6 to $20 for tested good ones so just change them every year.
I've had tubes last much longer. For instance I have some original tubes in a Scott mono tuner. I buy tubes when I run across ones I want or a good price, etc. If things start sounding dull or you are experiencing listener fatigue, change them out.
Tube life will always be an issue with tube gear. It's a little bit more expensive short term than maintaining solid state maybe, but tube gear is very easily repaired and maintained. If a solid state amp breaks it can be hugely expensive to fix due to the labor and surgery involved.
ND,Power is on about 6 hours/day, so ~2000 hours on the tubes before they started to go. Based on your comment above, it's possible they just reached aged out.
I'm sure lifespan depends on circuit design. I had and ARC LS-7 for 10 years and only changed the tubes once. I think the 12BZ7 in the Sixpac is a more brutal application, but I was kinda fishing for other owner's experiences.
I'm not opposed to buying new tubes, in fact rolling is a lot of the fun. This 'death' though seemed a little pre-mature.
Cheers, and thanks for your comments.
Jeff TOJ
both NOS and Richardson. They seem to be good for a few thousand hours.
I had an LS-7 also and never changed out its tubes. I used Mullard gold pin 6922's. It was on for most of the time over 4 years. They must have had > 10,000 hours on them.
When I sold it I put the original, still new Sovteks back in. That was a good pre, shoulda kept it for what I sold it for ($700). Just came off of a four year stint with solid state. Back into tubes again which is where I spent most of the '90's. Prices have gone through the roof.
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