gofar99 Messages: 1906 Registered: May 2010 Location: Southern Arizona
Illuminati (5th Degree)
Hi, As a tube gear designer and lover I want to add a thought to your question. I find that with well designed gear there is no need to frequently replace the tubes. It seems that this is the product of pro audio (guitar etc) applications. Tubes in such gear are often run at or even above ratings. This does indeed shorten tube life. It is impossible to generalize all non-pro gear, but most I have encountered in the past 50+ years have rather a long life for their tubes. As an exception for consumer gear I would include older televisions as devices that run tubes hard. I get asked about this in regard to my designs all the time. I base the designs on a lifespan of 10 years for power tubes and essentially forever on drivers and preamps. I feel it is an essential feature that is of great benefit to users. So unless you are experiencing problems I would not replace any tubes.
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