Best temperature for optimum tube performance


Is there an optimum temperature range in which tubes perform best?
I've been running tube amps/preamps for over 40 years and have always placed a small, quiet fan in front of them to prevent excessive heat build-up (a modified, two-door antique silver cabinet is where they reside).
I'm aware that electrical resistance increases in proportion to increasing temperature, but am I somehow decreasing the optimum performance of my tube components with this strategy?
128x128rettrussell

Showing 3 responses by millercarbon

Okay so look, all these replies and only ONE (mine!) actually addresses the OPs question: Is there an optimum temperature range in which tubes perform best?

No one else attempted so much as to even consider this question! Only me! And with the only answer that really makes any sense: check temps, listen, and see! Even explained how to do it!  

Only thing I got wrong, too optimistic. Assumed this being an audiophile site and the OP pretending to care, he (or someone, anyone!) might actually try and see. Right! That'll be the day! However, because I thought just maybe someone might actually BE an AUDIOPHILE they would maybe try.... and then the flying monkeys would rip him apart for having the temerity to say what he heard. For not being double-blind enough. For expecting something might or might not happen. For whatever. On and on. All the usual stories guys blather to avoid having to actually, you know, LEARN SOMETHING!  

For not lowering my standards enough, I do apologize. Will try to do better, by which I mean worse, going forward.  
Check it out: people taking this seriously. People who most of them never even notice a difference as their components warm up. People who will argue and deny there even IS any difference as a component warms up. But here they are imagining all kinds of crazy theories about how to optimize this imaginary tube temperature performance envelope.   

Sentence first, verdict afterward! Lewis Carroll knows you guys all too well. 

A snark, a snark! My Kingdom for a snark!
So what you do, get one of those temperature guns and listen. Play a record, record the temp, play the record, record the temp. Repeat until either you hear a difference or you don't. Report back here- where fifty people who have never bothered to compare anything their whole life will rip you apart for your expectation bias and sloppy experimental technique.   

Either that or just run the fan and call it good.