Rotating (not rolling) Tubes


I have a McIntosh C2300 preamp. I rarely use the MM Phono stage and never use the MC stage. My question is, do the MC and MM tubes get as much use just being "on" as the main tubes. If not, would there be a benefit to rotating the tubes? Think of it as rotating tires on a car. Say every six months or so move the MM tubes to the MC slots and the MC tubes to the Main slots. 

I do have access to a decent tube tester, so I can test the tubes to see how the MM & MC tubes test against the main tubes, but haven't pulled the tubes to test. I did do a search and didn't find anything useful. Thanks for any and all advice.

ben77059

Showing 1 response by tomcy6

@oldhvymec If he’s not using the phono stages, would it cause any harm to leave those tube positions empty, no tubes? Or how about putting old past-their-prime tubes in the unused positions?

You will use up the tubes leaving them on even though there is no signal going through them, but not as fast as if there was signal going through them.