A Question about Counting Hours

judsonw

Super Member
I keep seeing things like "These tubes last 2000 hours" or this "this stylus is good for 1000 hours" and whatnot (numbers pulled out of nowhere for the sake of argument). I also see people stating that they have put 40 hours on this stylus or these headphones before changes started to be noticed.

My question is how do you keep track of the hours? Are they more or less rough estimates or do people have a system for keeping track.

I do realize that most of these numbers are suggestions and are meant more for "After awhile its sound will improve" or "After awhile its sound will degrade". I am just curious of people's methods.
 
There are at least one or two high end tube amps that have tube timers incorporated into them.
 
Stylus wear is such a pernicious problem that I habitually use timers like this one to keep track of stylus operating hours. They don't cost much:

722-0001_p.jpg
 
I'd guess the majority of people don't actually count (keep track of ?) Time on gear.
In the two cases you mentioned there are variables which render those #s suspect any way.
The operating point of a tube (to a very large extent determines its lifespan.
Run at say 70-80% of its rating with lower filament voltage could perhaps double (Or more) it's life.
Likewise, stylus (styli?).
If tracked on the lower end of their spec, not being abused cueing, on clean records will increase life.
They are at best conservative estimates .
If abused, you won't get that #
 
My preamp has a timer that I use as a reference point for tracking the tube life of both it and the power amps.
 
I've got a white board in my study .. I just keep track of the number of LP's I spin on a particular cart.
LP's times average minutes per … I use 45 minutes per album as the baseline .. keep it simple .. estimate but it works for me. :)
 
I keep a book like a diary with each piece of gear listed with the dates, start and stop times listed for each piece of gear . Seems like a pita but it’s part of my everyday routine with listening so it’s not so bad .

Audiofreak71
 



River
by musichal

Don't count the years;
they are too few.
Don't count the months;
they are but days.
Don't count the hours;
so full of pain.
Nor the minutes;
they never last.
And the seconds
come too fast,
flowing down the terrain,
steeply inclined,
rushing, roaring
through this stream,
the River Time.
We'll count the people,
we once knew.
Count the love
we gave away.
Count the flowers
in the rain.
Yes, our children
grow too fast.
We know the best times
cannot last,
the River ticks them
swiftly past.
Just be helpful
and be kind,
swimming strongly
down this lonely
River Time.


 
hours-counter.jpg
 
Thanks for the input. I was curious since if you asked me to guess how much I listen in a month... I have no idea. There are weeks where I listen a lot, and then there are weeks where the system hardly gets turned on because things are busy.

I may look into some sort of external timer like what @BinaryMike mentioned. My integrated amp certainly does not have one a built in one, nor do any of my turn tables.
 
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