Audiomat tube electronics have always been famous for their affordability, low TOC and easiness of maintenance. They use regular tubes, not some super expensive exotic ones (they know they could get even better results, but the resulting expenses would be insane). Their input tubes last around 18000 hours. Their power tubes last long (around 2000 hours) because they never use them at full power (hence the typical 30w per channel vs the possible 50w). And their auto-bias output stages (with the exception of the ones in the Récital) mean that tube swaps is so easy...
Still, since they operate in half class A (Arpège, Arpège Référence, Arpège Référence 10) or full class A (all the other models), the tubes age as soon as the electronics are switched on, even in the absence of music.
Hence, many customers have expressed the desire to be able to track the hours on their tubes more reliably than just by "guessing". With the new Sophos pre-power, the issue is solved, since the Sophos stereo preamplifier includes a timer.
For the others, a long time wonderful customer and friend, Denis, once I mentioned to him my idea of an electronic timer, designed an easy to use one, with a look identical to the Audiomat D1 Drive power supply.
He needed it for his own Recital prior to his acquisition of the Sophos combo.
You simply switch on and off the timer at the same time as the amplifier... a very simple gesture.
He decided to build a few per year, as a "home DIY" project, being not interested in turning that into a business, and sells them at his cost.
The price is 300 CAD shipped for Canadian customers, and 270 USD shipping included for US customers.
Any Audiomat owner interested may contact Denis directly at denis.claude.cote@gmail.com.
As a reminder, we recommend to check the tubes values around 2000 hours for the semi-class A amplifiers, and around 1500 hours for the full class A ones, the tester often shows that the tubes have sometimes another 500 hours of possible use left, this depending on many factors, like proper ventilation, the room temperature, etc.
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