Not another "Should I leave my amp on question???"


Warning....could be the dumb question of the week.....I own an Audio Research VT-50 (tube) amplifier and I would like to know if I should power the amp down when I am going to leave the house for a short period of time (lets say 1-2 hours) with the anticipation of listening to music when I arrive back home.
jla
Nope....if I owned a SS amp I would not be asking the question. However, since I own a tube amp and I am somewhat concerrned about burning through tubes it makes me wonder. If I am gone 1-4 hours a day that could end up being roughly an additional 10-25 hours of wear on the tubes per week. As of now I don't shut the amp off in between listening during the day.
Actually, turning it on and off a lot over a short period is actually worse. The repeated heating and cooling off of the tube is not good for it.
Thanks Sugarbrie....this is what I kind of figured and is the reason why I have not been powering the amp down when I am gone for short periods of time. Thank you...
Jla,there are some tube amps I would worry about leaving on while I was away from home. Yours is not one of them. I won't mention any brand names, but some of them are fire hazard(poorly designed)! I would hate to come home to find that my brand X amp had burned my whole house down after it spewed sparks and flames ,in a sort of, mini, Mount St.Helens catastpophic melt down. I have seen power supply failures that burned holes through circuit boards.
There are certain amps with circuits that run the tubes at almost maximum operating limits. Tubes have a much shorter lifespan when used in such amps. I have been told that VTL amps chew through tubes (can anyone else confirm this?) But I wouldn't sweat a few hours on! However, if there is a good chance of a thunderstorm while you are out, TURN OFF AND UNPLUG ALL EQUIPMENT! (You don't want to discover that surge protectors ARE NOT lightening strike protectors!)Sugarbrie makes an excellent point. Maxgain, does the name Futterman ring a bell?
Parrot, Futterman is the epitomy of reliability... try an ancient, hi-powered & untweaked (by the manufacturer) Jadis: Make sure yr power corp isn't keeping a constant voltage.
Count how many tubes have blown when you get back.

But when the tubes are there, the sound is majestic... (IMO)