I have a Mac C2500 preamp and the tubes should last 10,000 hours per the manufacturer. However, I have found that the NOS Mullards can get noisy in a year or two time.
Preamp tubes ran their life?
I believe I do know the answer, but I would like to hear inputs from the community.
Approximately 1.5 years ago I replaced the stock tubes in my preamp with some vintage Mullard UK ECC83’s. I spend a fair amount of time listening to music. I’d say, on average, anywhere between 10-15 hours a week. For the first year I had them in, I was running my Home Theater with my 2-channel, via HT passthru; which would swing that 10-15 hours/week way up. I liked the tubes and how they’ve sounded, pretty smooth throughout the band. Today, I started noticing weird “slurring/distortion” in certain frequencies, especially with vocals and cymbal crashes. I believe what I’m hearing is the tubes have ran their lifecycle. Note: I do have room treatment and room/speaker correction and what I’m hearing just started happening this morning.
I won’t hold anyone to their words if it doesn’t end up being the tubes, but that’s my initial hunch. Would your educated guess be the same?
Approximately 1.5 years ago I replaced the stock tubes in my preamp with some vintage Mullard UK ECC83’s. I spend a fair amount of time listening to music. I’d say, on average, anywhere between 10-15 hours a week. For the first year I had them in, I was running my Home Theater with my 2-channel, via HT passthru; which would swing that 10-15 hours/week way up. I liked the tubes and how they’ve sounded, pretty smooth throughout the band. Today, I started noticing weird “slurring/distortion” in certain frequencies, especially with vocals and cymbal crashes. I believe what I’m hearing is the tubes have ran their lifecycle. Note: I do have room treatment and room/speaker correction and what I’m hearing just started happening this morning.
I won’t hold anyone to their words if it doesn’t end up being the tubes, but that’s my initial hunch. Would your educated guess be the same?