Just how much do you spend on tubes per year on average ?

Assuming the amp is operating as it should, anyone ever heard about Mullard XF2 blowing up and taking part of the amp with it ? I bought this quad on the Mart as test NOS set. I don't have a tube tester so couldn't confirm it. I put about 1500 hours on them, I'll see how far they will go. And signal tubes are Mullard 12AX7 long narrow plates from late 1950s, bought NOS from Brent of Audio Tubes, and Sylvania 12AU7 long black plates from 1950s, bought used test NOS on ebay. Sylvania were inexpensive, each pair of Mullard was $450. Brent said Mullard long plates should last at least 5000 hours in my VAC. very possibly longer.

Didn’t mean to make you paranoid @inna 

:)

audphile1, you didn't. One reason why I use these tubes, besides the sound, is that they are known to be very sturdy and reliable. And they are getting more and more expensive. I paid $500 for this quad a little over a year ago, now it is $700-$800 for two matched pairs. Finding matched quad from a reliable or seemingly reliable seller is next to impossible. So yes, there is some pain involved but I will manage.

I have a few tube amps and I haven't had to replace any tunes yet,lol.

I’ve been running tubes for 30 years, and haven’t done many replacements due to wearing out tubes.  Cost wasn’t high enough to pay much attention to until recently, but even with much higher tube costs, the actual annual cost for me is reasonable.  I tend to buy new issue tubes that run $250-$300 per matched quad.

These days I average roughly a thousand hours a year on my tubes, and I’d expect the output tubes to last 2-3 years, and they can go longer depending on how they’re biased....driver and preamp tubes will last nearly twice that.  I track them with a daily spread sheet.  I’ve been tube rolling for the past few years to find the Goldilocks combinations, which means I’ve been swapping them long before they wear out, and I tend to keep them as back ups.