Question on Aesthetix / Tube Maintenance

I have an Aesthetix system (Rhea Signature, Calypso, and Atlas). I am very happy with the system and it sounds great.

I don't keep track of how often tubes need replacement, but not really very often for the Calypso and Atlas.

The Calypso has 4 tubes and the Atlas has two tubes so tracking down and dealing with a tube that is going bad is not very difficult.

Tubes deteriorate with time and usually one goes bad before the others. All you have to do is swap left for right for each pair (12AX7 and 6DJ8/6922) in the Calypso and with one or two swaps you will know which tube is bad as the issue will move from one side to the other.

You can just replace them all when one goes bad. I would determine which tube was bad so you can discard it and keep the good tube as a spare. You should call Aesthetix to find out the price of a factory tube set for each.

You should use balanced connections between the Calypso and Atlas. I found that sounded better than single ended (RCA) connections.

A good set of tubes can be like changing tires on a sports car! LOL. Its the price we pay for those little glorious bottles. I think your about to enter goose bump zone! Tube gear in general is very sturdy and tubes last several thousand hours if you dont leave them on all the time. Good rule : If you plan on listening that day turn the system on then later that night before bed turn it off. Tubes dont like to be turned on and off a lot. Other than that its nice to keep spares for emergency and run your most expensive tubes in the unit. You will know when a tube is going bad when you have no output or one side is noisy all the time. Also, it takes 45 mins at least for things to warm up before you really sit and listen. Have fun :-)

Matt M

You can listen and enjoy the music before the  tubes fully warm up and sound their best so don't let that possibly sway you away. Also, there are a number of quality tube suppliers out there so you don't have to rely upon the manufacturers supply. One of the benefits of tube equipment is being able to swap in (tube roll) different brands and equivalent tube types to tailor the sound as you like it.  Here's a link to Brent Jesse's website (I don't work there) that if you scroll threw to different tube pages you can get a sense of variety of NOS tubes versus new production and his impressions on sound. There are other competent/quality tube sellers out there as well.

 http://www.audiotubes.com/