I’m not a big fan of rolling valves. Perhaps it’s likely to do with the fact that I don’t have too much free time these days. However, I do look into burning in the valves. A noticeable change found on my 4P1L preamp after 350-400 hours use. The microphonic noise reduced to a minimum whilst the sound became more rounded. I added an electronic clock (LCD module) to the HT supply to monitor the exact number of hours between any changes I made to the system. It’s very handy. I’ve been running now the same pair of 4P1L valves for over 850 hours and they sound better than before. No further mechanical expansion noise is heard during warm up, something which was noticeable at the early days of use.
The second aspect I’m also in constant monitoring is the impact of the filament starvation in the 01a. Running them at 20% less current than expected is not recommended as the filaments will not operate at expected target temperature. However, after some years of joy, I’ve not seen any issues. I may remove and trace the pair of 01a in use currently to check their health.
Have fun!
