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Best Way To Maximize Preamp Tube Life?

I would love to learn how to best maximize tube life. Tubes have a limited lifespan, of course. So when you're not listening for a time, is it best to shut everything off to preserve the "hours" left on the tube's life? OR does the act of powering off/on itself shorten tube length as well? If so, by how much? Something like "powering off/on costs 3 hrs of tube life, so taking a music break of less than 3 hours, better to just leave it powered on." Or 1 hr, or 10 minutes, 6 hours, etc? Where is the tradeoff point?

In my system FYI, I am running a Don Sachs preamp with 4 6SN7s and 1 6BY5 rectifier.  Don says the preamp is only running the tubes at 40% of their rating. I would greatly appreciate some input from people with tube knowledge. Thanks in advance!
sid-hoff-frenchman

Showing 1 response by gkr7007

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gkr7007
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I also have the DS preamp and the 6by5 and its variants are anywhere from 6 to 20 bucks for NOS that should last 8 to 10k hours...at least.  The 6sn7 tube is not in short supply and aren't very expensive for NOS either.  I happen to like the Shuguang Dawning series WE6SN7PLUS tube and have a spare set.  Unfortunately they are out of production but if you get past 50 hours or so on them they should last you thousands of hours......especially in Don's preamp.  Basically, buy a few spares of the 6by5 and a spare set of the 6sn7 and you'll be good to go for many years assuming you get a reliable set.
No 24 hours on.  No waiting an hour or two for warm up.
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