your thoughts on this idea

[daz]

This is something i read about at the valvewizard site, and i wanted to see if you guys think it's a good idea. supposedly this helps both tubes and filters from being abused in standby mode. He states several reasons, but you should read it yourself in the link below. before i add a dpdt switch and do this (wanted to do the full mod as in the pic at the bottom of the page) i'd like to see what some of you wizards have to say about it. thanks.

http://www.freewebs.com/valvewizard1/standby.html

[tubeswell]

Hmmm... the concept sounds plausible (I guess less heat = less wear on the filaments over time). But I seriously wonder whether its worth the bother unless you are running $200+ telefunkens all the time. I wonder what 'study' he is referring to?

[daz]

i think he also mentions caps being better off like this. Plus he suggests something about tubes being punished while in standby for long periods. Something about the heaters being on with no B+ on the tubes or some such thing. I don't fully understand or recall exactly what it says, but I got the gist of it and It sounds like he knows what he's talking about. So i figured i'd look for second opinions before bothering to do this.

[txstrat]

I agree, TW.
It's surely a matter of how high you idle your amp and how hard you drive it with your playing (volume).
One of my first amps is a two 6L6 amp with a 50-60w OT with screen grid taps (very heavy). Although I idled it rather cold it's very dynamic. The tubes (chinese) are almost 10 years old and I'd played them nearly as long with no indication of wearing out. I sometimes use them as reference, still.

[stokes]

As he says himself,and I agree,emission is "irrelevant in standby".If there is no emission,there is no wear on the tube,so no affect on tube life,except to the heaters.Since most filaments outlive the tubes other components,I think a standby,or voltage reduction in the heater circuit is counter-productive.The idea of a standby is to allow the tubes heater to "warm up" the tube and make it ready to accept the full B+,seems to me lowering the heater voltage would undermine this function,not improve it.