He can always leave the amps & sytem on during the day, even when not listening. That is what I did. With the 845 tubes in the PF-100, their tube lifespan won't suffer much, unlike most other modern production tubes.
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Ron’s New System
- Thread starter Ron Resnick
- Start date
Shouldn't you have a signal running through them for burn-in?
The system's source & preamp must be turned on, but not necessary to play music through, in this case and in general with electronics, as long as the amplifier's transformers& circuitry has electricity running through them, that is good enough.
That’s not entirely correct. Many parts do require signal in order to break in. An example is an input load resistor. When the amplifiers are powered up but do not have an input signal, the input resistor will see no voltage and pass no current. It’s just sitting there exactly the same as if the amps were turned off. There are other examples including coupling caps in some locations but the input load resistor is easy to understand.
To break in amps properly, leave an input source connected and playing. Even at low volumes, all of the components will then break in uniformly.
Frankly I am not comfortable leaving tube amps powered up when I am not in the room for an extended period, but safety is another matter.
That is interesting to learn. I had always thought that with tubes, one generally wants to listen to them because of their lifespan. But I don’t know much about tubes and they are new to me.
It depends on who designed the amplifier. If the idle current is 60-70%, I'd give the tubes 8-10 years without any loss of quality in my experience.
Working point 1kv dc/90mA grid -140volt class a1
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That has been my personal experience with two 845 based Mastersound amps, and one New Audio Frontiers unit.
Don't turn it on and off so often, just let it run. It's like an old light bulb. In California, a light bulb has been lit continuously for 120 years. Ok its dimmend
I've been powering them down every couple of hours to cycle the capacitors and the transformers.
I was not comfortable leaving the Frenchies on when I was not in the room. For some reason I am more comfortable leaving the Italians on even if I'm not in the room.
This looks like another box swap that didn’t work, to satisfy a swap itch. Let’s wait to see what comes in next and goes out. Box swapping is fun though glad he is enjoying
If the Frenchies are still the Jadis JA100, IMO you can leave them all the time.
They have automatic cathode bias - it self limits tube current. Worst case you get a blown fuse or a blown cathode resistor. People have not recovered yet of the poor work of a previous US distributor long ago.
If you want to have an amusing moment about AI ask ChatGPT
"why do some people find Jadis non reliable" and next
"why do some people find Jadis reliable" . The bot will do the best to make you happy!
I don’t think this is necessary, and can even be harmful as turning other components on/off in tube amps with filaments isn’t usually recommended.
Nelson Pass himself says just leave the amp on for five days and then start listening. Audio Research just says play music. Now some are uncomfortable doing that with tubes overnight but 12-16 hours should be easy.
For these amplifiers , the input load resistors burn in is not an issue at all, those probably have long "burned in" by now. The way their particular transformers are constructed and with type of Litz wire used, just keeping them on with the preamp& source also turned on & speakers connected as well is suffice for continuing the proper burn in, as long as the electricity is running thru them, without a need for music being played.
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Can you bring Jadis back into the system and see if you prefer them over the Italian sound at this point? If yes, the answer is simple — you’re never going to prefer the Italians.
There are a couple of amps I have owned (and still own) that would have been sold short if I had got rid of them before they were fully broken in. If the MasterSound was new, I would still give it some time to transform. The changes I have heard I would honestly not believed to be possible before experiencing it firsthand. That said, if no change whatsoever has been noticed to date, then perhaps it isn’t going to change much. In my case they were changing weekly, almost always to the better.
Thank you for the burn-in recommendations, gentlemen, but y'all are over-ruled. 
I still have the JA100s.
Don't be so sure.
I agree there is truth to this, especially with tube amps. I experienced this first hand with the Zanden Signature series (with both the line level and phono pres). That said, even though I would be the first to say "give it some time" -- given my Zanden experience -- 500h (as a high end number) just seems way too excessive. It's almost a year's worth of music listening. I mean, it sort of defeats the purpose of evaluating gear.
What I am saying is by this time surely you would get to within 80-90% of MasterSound's sonic signature.
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