Leaving tube amps on.


This is a question I had for a long time. I know it’s not a good idea to leave tube amps on all the time because of tube life and safety reasons. But sometimes I don’t have the opportunity to listen to my system / music for hours at time at one sitting. Sometimes I can only listen to it 45 min - a few hours at a time during the day / night. So my question is would it be better to leave the amps on all day / evening and listen when I can or turn them on / off every time I listen even if is only  45 min at a clip. But to just clarify when I don’t intend to listen that day/ night they will be off. Does turning the amps on / off throughout the day / night do more harm than leaving them on ? Tube life , wear and tear on amps etc. btw I have the Audio Research Ref 750s. Ea amp has 18 KT150 , 6550WE , 6H30.  

tattooedtrackman

Showing 1 response by benanders

Where do most of the world’s KT-150 tubes come from? And where did all the semi-reasonably priced (if compared to alternative) KT-150 tubes come from?

One large altercation later and those tubes aren’t being imported anymore. 
With Russia doing its thing and China redirecting much of its attention to newer tech development / fabrication, the world supply of current production power tubes is quite a bit lower than it was a few years ago.

KT-150 now = NOS unless perhaps you’re buying the costly version produced outside Russia.

I’ve zero interest in anyone making this political - please do not.

But so many of the power tubes that are unhealthy to manufacture come from two nations that are not up to makin’ em like they used to; that probably shouldn’t be something out-of-sight/out-of-mind for the audiophile who likes using tubes. Turn power tubes off when not in use.