[Beefy]

Quote:

I just discovered I left my crack turned on for the last 4 days without being home. Problematic?

 
Whoa dude! At a power draw of ~35W, and 96 hr, and 15c/kW/hr, that would have cost you 50 cents!!!!!!!!!111
 
No, its perfectly fine.

 

[2359glenn]

Quote:

I just discovered I left my crack turned on for the last 4 days without being home. Problematic?

That should be no problem in the past tube equipment was on 24/7
When I build a new amp I leave it on 24/7 for a week before I ship it.

 

[Ultrainferno]

Quote:

That should be no problem in the past tube equipment was on 24/7
When I build a new amp I leave it on 24/7 for a week before I ship it.

 
Quote:

 
No, its perfectly fine.

 

 

[TheKillerPiglet]

Quote:

I just discovered I left my crack turned on for the last 4 days without being home. Problematic?

 

Doubt it, tubes are made to run 24/7. My DAC has been on 24/7 the last 8 years. As long as the transformer can take it and there are no cold solder joints.
 
KP

 

[Beefy]

Quote:

Doubt it, tubes are made to run 24/7. My DAC has been on 24/7 the last 8 years. As long as the transformer can take it and there are no cold solder joints.
 
KP

 
Well see, I joked about the power usage for the Crack above...... but leaving something on like that is just insanely and unnecessarily wasteful.
 
It is something like 70,000 hours, which is *definitely* a drain on tube function, but also passive components like capacitors. Not to mention a minimum of $100 in electricity charges assuming just a 10W draw..

 

[TheKillerPiglet]

Quote:

 
Well see, I joked about the power usage for the Crack above...... but leaving something on like that is just insanely and unnecessarily wasteful.
 
It is something like 70,000 hours, which is *definitely* a drain on tube function, but also passive components like capacitors. Not to mention a minimum of $100 in electricity charges assuming just a 10W draw..

This the recommended use of the DAC, power cycling puts greater strain on the tubes that leaving it on. The only casualty so far has been a rectifier tube going after 7 years, although the other tubes do get rolled. I would not do this with a power amp, though. Having said that, I've left the big tube monoblocks on for 3-4 days running over long weekends.
 
KP

 

[Beefy]

Quote:

This the recommended use of the DAC, power cycling puts greater strain on the tubes that leaving it on.

 
Complete and utter audiophool rubbish.

 

[TheKillerPiglet]

Quote:

 
Complete and utter audiophool rubbish.

Thank you for playing, do pickup a parting gift.
 
KP

 

[btrancho]

The folks at Bottlehead recommend that you shut down the Crack if it isn't going to be used within 2 hours.  I'd take their recommendation over most others.
 

 

[Beefy]

Quote:

Thank you for playing, do pickup a parting gift.
 

 
Please, tell us all exactly what "strains" in a tube during power cycling. I'm sure we'd all love to hear your explanation of what imaginary effect is worse than other very-real-and-well-characterised degradation effects.

 

[BmWr75]

Quote:

 
Complete and utter audiophool rubbish.

 
+1 on that.

 

[Doc B.]

I don't recall having said shut it down if it isn't going to be used in 2 hours. Maybe one of the other guys here did. My take on this is that tubes are kind of like incandescent light bulbs (does anybody use those anymore?), but not exactly. There is a limit to the lifetime but it is typically much longer lifetime than an incandescent light filament. The cathode (filaments or cathode heated by a heater) gradually loses its ability to emit electrons with use. Like a light bulb, power cycling the tube heater or filament probably does create some potential stress from the thermal change. But generally a filament or heater break is not the way a tube dies. More often the cathode runs out of emissive material. So it's probably better to leave tubes off if you don't plan to use them for a while.  
 
The other side of the coin here is that a tube needs to heat up for a while to sound its best. So my suggestion is to turn the amp on for a while, like 20 minutes to an hour before you do any critical listening. And shut the amp off when you know you are finished with it for the day.

 

[mikek200]

I posted this on the buy/sell forum,just in case,someone here might be interested:
 
   http://www.head-fi.org/t/664605/bottlehead-crack-amp-w-speedball-upgrade
 
Please PM me if interested
 
Thanks
Mike

 

[EraserXIV]

Getting a mainline?

 

[MrEleventy]

it's the wait time for a bottle head crack still about 4 weeks? what about with the speed ball? thx.