skeith Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 How can you tell if tubes are beyond their best-sounding life? When do you guys change them and I am not talking about attempting to get better sound, rather I have some equipment and haven't changed the tubes in years... do you wait till one goes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted March 17, 2011 Report Share Posted March 17, 2011 Generally power tubes go faster than any other tube type by far. The general signs I know of them being beyond their use are they start to sound soft and/or bass-shy. Rectifier tubes generally just stop working. Input and driver tubes generally have loooong lives, sometimes over a decade of constant use. They'll also sound soft and sometimes fuzzy in a distorted way when they are near the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EyeSpeech Posted March 20, 2011 Report Share Posted March 20, 2011 I wait until they go...often after 1.5 to a couple years. There isn't a linear degradation in sound quality. When the tube goes you'll hear the noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unk Posted March 20, 2011 Report Share Posted March 20, 2011 Just my experience. The symptoms of a tube needing replacement are 1) noise, 2) silence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skeith Posted March 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 Thanks Lon and others for your responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllenLowe Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 smoke - then fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unk Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 smoke - then fire. And user electrocution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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