stupid tube question of the day

turn the amp on and enjoy it, this is all pretty silly.

Another question: Any suggestions or guidelines on turning tube gear off when taking a listening break, and then back on again when the listening session resumes, if the break only lasts a couple of hours? The point of the question is predicated on the notion, perhaps wrong, that the process of turning tube gear off and an again -- by itself -- stresses and preliminarily ages tubes. Does the suggestion or recommendation change in the case of amplifier power tubes versus signal/audio tubes?? Thanks

"i run my tube amps 4 hours max. if i want to keep going, i turn them off for 30 minutes then back on.”

The seller of my premium tubes gave me very similar advise. I wish that I’d pressed for an explanation at the time, but I was suffering from sticker shock. Does anyone know?

I dug into the records and found that Alfred Kayser of KR Tube Products sold me my nos Mullards and advised me to not run the amp more than 4 hours at a time. That was over 3 years ago. Absolutely no issues with the tubes in that time. Also, the tubes I bought have almost doubled in price since then...

I believe turning the tubed device off for a short listening break (such as the few hours referenced) will not contribute to the overall life of the tubes. I think/believe it is better for the integrity (physically) of the tubes to remain at a relatively steady state and temperature versus cooling off and heating back up.

Additionally, with a lot of tube equipment that does not incorporate a soft-start type of approach for the tubes, it is my belief and understandinging that the turn on process is more wearing and a greater risk to the tubes than leaving them on for a mere few hours.

In such a case it would be my advice to leave the equipment running for a good portion of the day versus turning it off and back on. But please note that I am not a tube expert but have over the years owned some very good NOS tubes that I paid a fair amount of money for.