I have yet to see a preamp tube fail, in contrast I've had a few failures in power tubes (KT120, KT88) that were either silent or resulted in a sudden burst of illumination and no more music...
SF Line 1 uses full filament power but a very low B+ so the tubes will be running without cathode stripping. It is designed to have the tubes warm without being at the expense of tube longevity.
I ran the tubes in my CJ PV8 for over a decade with no problem or noise. However, when I upgraded them, WOW, it was like a whole new amp, a huge improvement. As the poster above, noted, you might rolling some different tubes through the unit, too. Different tubes can make subtle to profound improvements in sound.
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