This got discussed a little bit in the Allnic thread:
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In Canada brands live and thrive in different forms from toys r us to malls not being dead
About 17 years ago I think, US RadioShack abandoned the Canadian branches and left them to die. They regrouped and rebranded themselves ‘the Source’ and have been going strong ever since.
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Lifetime is somewhat dependent on the amp and the usage patterns, there is more stress on a tube during on/off cycles, so like light bulbs they tend to fail there. Tube amps often have soft starts to try and limit the impact.
Turning a tube device on and off say once a day everyday, you’ll get anything from a couple of years to a decade out of them, I have tubes in less frequently used equipment that have been in there for 20+ years.
Yes they degrade over time, but in practice I personally either just replace them because they’ve been in there for a long time, or they just fail like a light bulb wen you turn a device on.
New tubes start off with some transconductance (the opposite of resistance) over the first 150-300 hours of use (burn in) that transconductance actually increases, then very slowly over the life of the tube it gradually decreases. In practice outside of burn in tubes don’t usually change character much over their lifetime.
If you have an amp with relatively expensive tubes, you do need to understand there is an ongoing cost. But it’s usually not frequent, Lampizator claims 10+ years for the average lifetime of a tube in one of their DAC’s for example.
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We’ve heard of Chi-Fi but never Chi-Chair!
EDIT: Chi-air
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Thanks @rgdelato, @Polygonhell. Good to have some expectation on this!
Lampizator and Linear Tube Audio basically under power the tubes, working them to 25~33% of their capacity. Generates less heat and reduces the wear and tear drastically, Linear Tube Audio claims 10K hours of use from a set of tube because of this. Kinda nice as you remove one of the big worry points of going the tube route.
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If it’s good enough fot a nap i will let folks know. Initially i wanted a proper recliner but the size of this unit is better for my room and honestly it fits the motif of a dedicated music room better so sight unseen i’m going for it. I can’t compare to the original because i have never used an original but countless reviews claim this model is a faithful copy minus the US labor charges. I’ll bitch loudly if it’s a piece of crap.
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You can compare the next time you visit. I just spent $3K to replace all of the seat cushions on mine… that was around the same amount I spent for the entire chair in 2004 when I first got it.
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In the past 5 years i have had 2 tubes fail suddenly and i have had one quad which had basically reached it’s end of life. All tubes came from previous owners with unknown lifetime hours on them. My current purchases are tube rolls for items i have enough experience w/ to actually justify the cost and some tubes are simply a hedge against extinction of well known caliber pieces.
Thanks to @sa11297 for pointing me towards an opportunity to purchase a new Susvara at about the price I paid for my Mysphere on sale. Purchased a week ago, so wasn’t a long wait at all. Unfortunately, it arrived on a day where I feel like garbage lol. I look at this as more of an investment since I plan to eventually upgrade to an amp that can really show the potential in them, and I wasn’t gonna pass up a good chance to acquire one : )
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Congratulations!!!
I forget your lineup, What chain will you use to drive it now?
The current chain is La Voce S3 → Pass HPA-1. I’ll also see what it sounds like off my P6P, but I’m expecting my desktop setup to fare way, way better.
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The good thing about the susvara is it will still sound decent even off of not ideal amps, I’m sure it will sound good off the pass for the time being 
Any ideas what you might be looking to go for in the future for it yet?
A Riviera AIC-10 is the dream 
Not just for the Susvara but for the Mysphere as well.
Just gotta be patient and see if any come up on the used market.
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What you really want is one of these
http://aries-cerat.eu/products/amplifiers/genus
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A long while back, I had my girlfriend Evelyn do a shootout listening to the PC38X, a 400SE, a pad-swapped T50RP, and a pad-swapped KPH30i, and she preferred the 38X, so she now has my 38X on permanent loan. (She also uses my HD600 when she works from my house.)
Anyway, the 38X is a pretty alright low-end headphone! Let us know how you like it!
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Oh, I guess one thing is that I might recommend a wind screen for the microphone, it’s really not great with plosives, even something like this for $10 is a pretty decent improvement:
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I really liked my PC37X when I had it. Quite nice with the Fulla 3 + Dekoni Choice Leather. They scale quite nicely as well. Eventually gave them to my kid brother who still uses them alongside his Elegias. I was always put off by the color of the 38X but the recent deal made me finally pull the trigger.
Nice that they just released a new all black colorway