Life of KT150 tubes on ARC Amps

@ stereo5   

At $22,000 each I would be willing to bet a $1000 a year is pocket change.
Jim


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I had a pair of KT120s last around 2 years of daily listening (amp on 8 hours maybe every day I'm around) to a Jolida 502p...I recently replaced a pair of KT77s in my current Dennis Had SE amp as one of the tubes stopped working...lit up, looked fine, no sound...damn...the good news is the amp only uses 4 tubes total, and one's a rectifier...smaller amps will bind you to efficient speakers, but otherwise assuage any concerns about tube cost being a big deal...ARC's tube wear seems extreme but maybe they drive tubes harder or something...are the new Carver claims of very long (five year warranty includes tubes) tube life an actual thing? 

It costs $4000 if I have to retube with ARC tubes and around $2000 if I buy from third party sellers. That is for every 2000 hours if they don't go bad before that. Might be I need to look for SS amps in the long run. 

Dave Gordon on KT 150s:
"Quoted specs for the amps have not changed. Although we could change some of the operating voltages and get higher rated power output," says Dave Gordon of Audio Research, "we are going the conservative route, which we think will provide greater reliability and tube life. We expect owners to get 3000 hours out of these tubes, about 50% longer than KT120-equipped amps."

Quote from my Ref 160M manual which is also available on line at the ARC website:
"A Note about Vacuum Tubes Life Expectancy The vacuum tubes in your Reference 160M have been burned in, tested and electrically matched to provide the best performance and reliability of your amplifier. That said, vacuum tubes must be replaced from time to time. The KT150 output tubes in the Reference 160M should have an expected life of approximately 3,000 hours, while the smaller 6H30 tubes should have a life expectancy of approximately 4,000 hours. These life expectancies are only approximate."

I’m surprised that the ARC website now contains a general statement about tube hours which does not distinguish between KT120s and KT150s as the website used to do. I think this was an inadvertent failure.

@jea48................

just because the amps are 22K each doesn’t mean the guy is rich.  For all I know, he could have taken a home equity loan on them.  It is a lot of money for anyone to own those amps and have to retube  them every 2000 hours.  Most amps will do 3000 hours but I guess ARC drives their tubes harder than most.