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Leave preamp on all day, off at night

Finally had the funds purchased my first tube hifi component, an arc ref 3. Very happy with purchase so far but has raised a concern. System is in main living room - wife and kids listen casually through day - non critical listening. I listen (more critically) for 1-2h at night when they are asleep.
Im used to solid state components that stay on all day long.
Question- is it a problem leaving the valve pre on most of the day, on most days of the week? Is it really just a matter of burning through the tubes faster,  or are there other expensive delicate components in there that don't like being left on all day? Thanks in advance 
divesh

Showing 2 responses by georgehifi

georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
Turning tubes on and off helps the tubes last longer.

I believe this is particularly true at turn on when you do what I used to do with my tube amps.
That is, I bring the heaters (filaments) on first, so the plates and everything warms up, then with a delay circuit after 1 min I switch the high tension on.
The reason was because NOS RCA Black Plate 805 tubes were very expensive if you could find them.
And of course tubes don’t age when they’re off, wolf was just having a dig!
Cheers George
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
If you cherish your tubes they start age from the time they get switched on, if the wife and kids don’t care about sound quality all day, get a small Sonus/Bose or whatever they’er called system for them.
And heat from tubes also effects the internal chassis temps which can age the caps, also the power transformer that is the supply for all the heaters can run warm, this is long term ageing. 

Cheers George
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