Another Journey into Valves....

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I guess it could prob prove costly aparently these output valves have about 3000 hours in them and cost £200... ...
Marco, haven't you got some valves that last for donkeys years?

[Marco]

Yeah, the G.E.C KT88s in my Copper amp were first installed (brand new) in 1997, so they've had thousands of hours of use, yet test great, and above all sound superb...

That's quality for ya, ma man!

Marco.

[Steve Toy]

The TESLAs in mine have only roughly the same hours of expected use yet cost more than the GECs...

Having said that, the Copper amps don't drive output valves quite as hard as the Puresound but then the power output (30wpc) and HT are lower.

NB: we can't really refer to your amp as an A30 (refering to the rated power output in Class A) as Anthony's mods raised its measured power output to just shy of 40 wpc.

The good news is that Anthony has set aside two quads of GEC KT88s to replace my TESLAs and Marco's aging GECs. Marco's are over ten years old and 20 years of life is not unremarkable (more than we can say for Naim caps )

[Ali Tait]

Alex,
Another factor to take into account is thermal cycling I.e. lightbulbs always blow on switch on or off.You would get more hours out of valves by leaving them on rather than switching them on and off a couple of times a day.Not to say you should just leave the amp on all the time,just reduce as much as you can the amount of times you turn it on and off.

[Alex_UK]

Thanks Ali. To be honest, I'm thinking valves would be a longer-term standalone project - I have plans to build an extension in a couple of years and we are hoping to include an "adult" lounge - (no not that sort of "adult" Marco! ) so that the current lounge can become a Family Room, and we'll have a nice valve-based system in the "adult" lounge, with the Garrard 401 as a main source, (duly fettled) into some nice shiny bottles... Unfortunately the cash for the building project won't be available for a couple of years though. Well, we all need dreams, don't we?

[Ali Tait]

Sounds like a plan! Be great to have the chance to build a listening room from scratch.

[DSJR]

Well, three of the GEC KT66's in my Crofted Quad II's date from 1962 and are still running fine I think (HiFi dave gave me another GEC to replace the duff one), although they haven't had the kind of use that Marco no doubt gives his...

Alex - might it not be better to move when the time comes????????

[Alex_UK]

Alex - might it not be better to move when the time comes????????

Oh God no, I hate moving, hopefully I'll be here until they'll carry me out in a box (speaker enclosure, obviously!)

We'll see - but we love this house, and even after 5 years still pinch ourselves sometimes that it's ours (well, half ours and half the Britannia's!) - would just love a bit more room someday, not that we're short of it, really, would just be nice.

[Spectral Morn]

Nope - providing the amp (and where it's located) is well ventilated

Of course, such extended use means lower valve life, which can get expensive if (rare) NOS valves are being used... An HT on/off switch is therefore useful for periods of music inactivity.

Marco.

That was the thing I loved about the T&A V10 amplifier I had. You could do that and it would tell you how much life the valves had left in them (Valve Life Clock). It was stunning looking, but was veiled.




Regards D S D L