Pearl Tube Coolers

[Midnite Mick]

I read in an add that these can "conservatively triple tube life". Does anyone believe this?

Thanks,
Mike

[Emlyn]

I have a bunch of them but don't use them. Extending life of a tube would depend on the type of tube and the design of the circuit it's in. Some amp/preamp designs are a lot easier on tubes than others in terms of the heat produced in operation. If the tubes don't run all that hot, there's probably little reason to use the tube coolers. The main reason I don't use them in preamps is because the last set of tubes I had to replace had lasted five years (without the tube coolers) before a couple of them started getting a little noisy. However, I also found them to overdampen/dull the sound, which I didn't like. I do use them on driver tubes on a tube amp because the tubes do run very hot in that design.