sunnysal Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 dean do you have a tube tester? I reccomend always testing any tube before firing it up (sorry for the pun) in your amp. a bad 2A3 was probably responsable for my melt down in the JFL amp as well. I had no excuse since I had a tube tester but assumed that New Sovteks from Newsensor would be fine...live and learn (or live and burn as I now like to say!). tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Songer Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I would never leave my gear on 24/7 and Dean has just found out why would not! I think you get about 95% of the benefit of "warm-up" after about 10 minutes anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Y'know, I was thinking of this over the weekend. Now that my 2-ch rig is in a living space where I use it much more often, I was considering leaving it on 24/7, unless I knew it was not going to used for a couple days. My question was going to be, "what is the worst-case scenario?" I hadn't considered the risk of a real fire. I thought the worst would be losing a tube or trannie. I know Kelly never really powers down, but we all remember his disregard for natural disasters!! I understand the rationale for leaving equipment on. I makes sense to me that most wear and tear is on start-up when components get slammed. I'm not the sort that is afraid to run an appliance when I'm sleeping or not home, in fact I'm at work and started the gas dryer just before I left home. I think Dean's little mishap may have made my decision for me regarding tube amps, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I have said this before but since it came up...as an aviator I often think in terms of hours of usage for many components. Tubes seem to me to be perfect candidates for this treatment, every hour the tube has current running through it is is being "used up", why waste many hours of the tubes life when not listening? especially when I think of the cost and rarity of many NOS tubes I wonder how anyone leaves there equipment on 24X7. I am all for warm up, but leaving the tubes burning while I am not listening, no way! regards, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I think the rationale is that the most wear and tear takes place only on start-up. In other words, it does more damage to turn the amp on and off than it does to just leave them running. It's not a simple matter of how many hours it's been on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunnysal Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 perhaps the "damage" at start up and turn off is one reason, but I have never heard anyone dispute that a tube has a finite life span measured in hours, thus my desire to accumulate as few hours as possible during non-listening periods. not sure what the doubt could be, tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Think about it. How many times do you have a meltdown in the middle of a listening session as opposed to on start-up? If a light bulb burns up, when does that usually happen? As far as a tube having a finite number of hours in them, I would think that figure would be a rule of thumb. They do have a life span, but it's not purely the number of hours that it has been on. I'm not an expert, so I may be wrong (even if I was an expert, I suppose I could be wrong anyway). Like I said, though, I'm still not planning on leaving the amp on all the time. Tubes are relatively cheap when compared to lives and homes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 1) Tubes are not Light bulbs ! Light bulbs do not see 400+ VDC 2) If your amp is tube rectified the Slam is limited and not nearly as extreme as SS rectified amps ! 3) Most 40 year old Scotts show up here with all but the output tubes still measuring like new and I'll bet you a dime to a dollar the 24/7 bull was not used back in the 60s !! 4) What about your electric bill ?? This stuff is not cheap no more 24/7 is just silly unless you going to listen on and off for a good portion of the time !! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cut-Throat Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I turn my tube amps on when I'm going to listen and off when I'm not. After powering my tube amps up they sound as good after power on for 1 minute as 2 hours of listening. Maybe it takes a Golden ear (or a couple glasses of wine) to detect a difference after 2 hours of warm up, but I can not hear it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Bey Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I turn my amps on, select a record, spin up the TT, wipe the record down with the carbon fibre brush, wipe the stylus with a Watts stylus brush, then drop the needle. Start to finsh no more than five minutes. I leave them on if I'll be back in an hour or two; otherwise turn 'em off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshnich Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I used to split the difference. On Friday when I got home from work I would turn the system on and leave it on all weekend. That is until the same thing that happened to Dean happened to me! The toasted resister sounds very similar to what happened to my Cary. Seems one of the EL 84s went kaput. It sure seems like a pretty aggressive reaction to a bad tube. Since then I never leave it on unless I am going to be home - regardless of Carys recommendation to leave it on 24/7! josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuber Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I have a variac installed in my system full time the amp is turned on and off slowly every time I use it. No way I would leave the house with the power left on. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guy Landau Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 I used to leave my power amp on, most of the time. Once I went out for an hour without turning it off. Came back to find a smoking house. A tube failed and that was it, a $2k collectors Marantz 8B had to go to the garbage with burnt output transformers (and that one was rebuilt with modern parts, so there goes the old parts theory). Since then, I turn my amps off, every time I leave the house. Tube equipment sounds good within 10 minutes of warm up, anyhow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Well Guy chances are much higher with 40 year old parts of a amp failing if you can't see that your blind ! A tube can fail in any amp and do the same. New parts or old doesn't make a difference. Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deang Posted October 20, 2003 Author Share Posted October 20, 2003 A little better. Lots of light sanding, used some Epoxy putty, and more sanding. I used a permanent marker to get the color -- close enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.