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I'm getting mixed opinions about how to make the life of tubes in mics, amps, comps etc as long as possible. Should I for example turn off my vintage Neumann when taking a break or should I leave it on ? Does turning on/off the gear all the time wear out the tube more than leaving it on ? Since I have vintage mics and amps with tubes that are getting increasingly expensive and hard to find, I wanna treat them with proper respect. Thanx for input on this.

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johnwy Tue, 11/23/2004 - 12:52

This may seem like a dumb question, but, how long of a break are we talking about? I would turn a tube mic off overnight and turn it on first thing when I walk into the studio, and tube gear would only turned off if there was not a session for more than a day. The only time I had problems with tubes failing is when there was not enough ventilation to help keep the gear relativly cool.