I own a Lyr and love it although it's had about 8 hours of use since it was new. I let it warm up for about 3-5 minutes. You can't hurt the tubes by listening immediately. If I'm getting up to prepare dinner and plan to continue listening later it stays on. If I'm not going to listen for another hour and a half I shut it off.
I personally would not run this headphone amp with extremely expensive and rare tubes. I'd do that with say a high end all tube unit, but not the Lyr. No reason other than why spend half of what the unit costs on tubes? I'm sure there's plenty of great sounding tubes that aren't as rare or expensive. I still run stock only because I barely use the Lyr to justify owning it.
I personally would not run this headphone amp with extremely expensive and rare tubes. I'd do that with say a high end all tube unit, but not the Lyr. No reason other than why spend half of what the unit costs on tubes? I'm sure there's plenty of great sounding tubes that aren't as rare or expensive. I still run stock only because I barely use the Lyr to justify owning it.