The heat of tubes...

Funny you suggest that Markanetz. I tried to post a parody that had that very title here on the Gon'. It is the only thing that has ever been bounced back to me by the moderator as being 'unsuitable' for Audiogon. I guess it is pretty racy, but as I recall I was blowing off some steam at the time. If anyone would like to read it, it's pretty funny and has entertained more than a few Audiophiles I've shared it with. Just post me using the link with your email address and I'll be happy to forward a copy with the warning that the contents may not be suitable for everyone!

Peter, it's not necessarily the tubes that suffer most for being run in a hotter ambient environment, though it's good to keep them cooler as well - it's also many of the other electronic parts inside an amplifier, especially capacitors, which will have their rated operational life exponentially shortened by running them in a marginally hotter environment. Similar laws do apply to the tubes (and actually transistors as well) - that's why there are tube-cooler tweaks for sale - but at least tubes can be easily replaced (well, maybe not some NOS...).

Some good suggestions here, especially locating the amps outside the listening room. Most often that's not an option, so make sure there's adequate room around them for ventilation. Some big tube amps throw off a lot of heat - a friend had two pairs of Atma-Sphere MA-2s behind his speakers for years, until a few months ago he replaced them. I imagine his air conditioning bill this summer will be quite a bit less. Other amps that come to mind as putting out a lot of heat are big Audio Research amps such as the Ref 600's - 'how much heat' is the number one question they get on them - and Tube Research Labs amps. The TRL 800's could just about heat a house in the dead of winter, being class A, as I recall feeling the heat from them at the '92 WCES from 15 feet away...

I can't wait to see what the heat output is from the Atma-Sphere MA-3's to be introduced somewhere down the road, with 42 output tubes each, running full bore...might set a record and make people want to live in Minnesota and leave the windows open just so they can listen to them without roasting...

Yup, I know exactly what you are talking about. We use a pair of Bel Canto Set80 monos. They're great in the Winter. Our Dachshund loves it when we turn them on. He curls up in front of one and goes to sleep. We call them our "auxiliary dachshund heaters". We don't use them in the summer though--way too much heat. My solution was a pair of "summer amps"--Quicksilver Mini-monos. They're not the equal of the Bel Cantos, but they are still very good. Being small (25 watts per channel) they do not warm the room at all.