Life expectancy of a Tube in a Tube Dac?

[analogism]

Curious. My Mav audio dac uses a tube output stage - I upgraded the tube at POS, how many hours effective use could I expect to get before I start rolling?

Listen to about 5-10 hours of CD playback per week. Mainly vinyl you see...:cool:

[Owen Young]

Tube life has been discussed a bit here (search forums) but depends on many factors...
- tube type
- circuit design
- chassis design, ventilation/temperature, operating conditions (eg. the Maverick DAC looks enclosed & compact) :(
- Hifi users are not v good conservationists & tend to not use tubes for 100% of usable tube life.

I would guess that you should expect at least 4000-5000hrs if a well designed small tube device. Power tubes might be less, esp if not well ventilated.

PS. When GE did a study of tube life in the 1950s they found that lowering the operating temp of tubes from 260deg to 220degC, decreased the failure rate of tubes by a factor of 6 & increased tube life by a factor of 2. :cool:

[beeman]

my answer would be - bloody ages :D

[analogism]

Owen, you are a untapped resource of hifi literature. Beeman, a talented minimalist. :)