I have read slightly under-biasing the output tubes will extend the life. Does it affect the sound? Yes in my opinion. That being said with most of my tubes I have to 'squint' to hear it. Another thing when the unit powers up you should let the tubes 'bias up' before playing music. I have found with under biasing the tubes it generally takes 2 to 3 min to bias up and when biased to spec it may take 5 - 7 min. Anyhow that's the routine I go through. My integrated is an Octave V70se which has standby and soft start. Soft start turns on the input and driver tubes first and about 20 sec later it turns on the output tubes.
How can do you extend the life of your tubes?
My amp premp and cdp are tubes. I read years ago, proportionatley, the most tube wears comes from powering up. And shutting down, and then powering up shortly is life shortener for sure. Shortly is too vauge. What do you tubers do to lenghten the life of your tubes, especially when we're talkng NOS and the like? thanks in advance.