Leaving tube preamp always powered on.

[cbutterworth]

Stevie,

Ah....Manchester Central Library. I remember that place and the amazing echoes in the central dome area. My sister's studying nursing at Salford. I am originally from Rochdale and will be back there for a couple of weeks in early June - hopefully escaping the fierce Arizona heat for some cool Pennine weather and beer at the right temperature.

Are there any used electronic places in the north Manchester where I may be able to pick-up some used tubes?

Anyway, I switch off all my audio gear when not in use. I very much doubt that my ears and speakers are really that well tuned to pick out sonic differences in equipment that isn't fully warmed-up. As I said earlier, switch the gear on, go get a drink, pee, or whatever, then enjoy the music.

I also am reminded that many capacitors only have a limited life-span maybe measured in tens of thousands of hours. Now if rated at 10,000 hours a cap would only last just over a year! That is probably a little extreme, but even at 10 times that lifespan, leaving equipment powered-on will shorten it's lifespan.

I would also hate myself, if my equipment set the house on fire, grotesquely burned and painfully killed by two dear dogs, and left my family homeless. I am especially concerned about this as my preamp and main amp are DIY. Although, I feel confident of my handiwork, it would be very difficult to live with myself if my projects resulted in anything nasty occuring.

Regards,
Charlie

[Stevie342000]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cbutterworth
[B]Stevie,

Ah....Manchester Central Library. I remember that place and the amazing echoes in the central dome area. My sister's studying nursing at Salford. I am originally from Rochdale and will be back there for a couple of weeks in early June - hopefully escaping the fierce Arizona heat for some cool Pennine weather and beer at the right temperature.

Are there any used electronic places in the north Manchester where I may be able to pick-up some used tubes?

Hi Charlie

Well they do say it is a small world and getting smaller by the minute from what I see. There used to be a great place New Cross Electronics or Radio, at the top of Oldham Street, it went some years back, the bulldozed the whole row of shops, I got a couple of Vortexion amplifiers out of there, they had loads of stuff they day they closed down c1990, I got one Brimar E88CC-01 and a Mullard E88CC-01 both for the grand total of £2.00. Yes Yes I know I should have got more but I was out of work at the time, funds were even more limited than they are now that I am student at Uni.

Oh as for the cool weather if your from the north of England then right now I do not need to tell you that it is unseasonably warm this spring so far we have had over two weeks of sunshine even the bank holiday weekend was sunny, tomorrow is a flag splitting 20 C, right now I got to run there is a programme on BBC 4 about Dinah Washington....catch you laters guys

Have a nice day
steve in the UK