Leaving amps on

sda2mike

so....do you leave your power amp on..all the time, all weekend or only when you're listening??? your opinions, please;)

thanks
mike

EndersShadow

sda2mike wrote: »

so....do you leave your power amp on..all the time, all weekend or only when you're listening??? your opinions, please;)

thanks
mike

I leave both my reciever and amp on 247. No issues yet w/ the amp, reciever had issues, but they are apparently quite common (HDMI HDCP handshake issues).

fishbones

hey hey, another Florida Polkie!!

Well, I can tell you that my stuff stays unplugged whenever not listening, cause I don't need to tell you how it is with lightning down here in south Florida. Surge protectors will only stop so much, and in the 20 yrs I've lived here, I've had 2 direct hits to homes I've lived in! :eek:

...my 2 cents

steveinaz

My Parasound is like a space heater, so, no. It only takes about 10mins to come up to temp/max performance.

sda2mike

fishbones wrote: »

hey hey, another Florida Polkie!!

Well, I can tell you that my stuff stays unplugged whenever not listening, cause I don't need to tell you how it is with lightning down here in south Florida. Surge protectors will only stop so much, and in the 20 yrs I've lived here, I've had 2 direct hits to homes I've lived in! :eek:

...my 2 cents

luckily, i'm in a very stable grid...the next town over tho, is notorious for outages and surges

heiney9

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56387

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51351

My Aleph 30 will raise the room temp by about 4-6* over a 3 day period along with my preamp and now the dac puts out a little bit of heat as well. Leaving my rig powered up in the summer makes for a toasty listening room. The winter isn't so bad.

All my gear powered up has an idle draw of about 500W so I try not to leave it on if I know I won't be listening for a few days. Ironically it takes 3-6 hours for it to sound the best. Especially the Aleph which doesn't reach full operating temp until about 2 hours in.

I typically leave the gear on unless I know I won't be listening on a regualr basis simply because of heat and current draw at idle.

H9

steveinaz

Another way to "cheat" if you don't like the idea of everything staying powered up, is make sure the first few CD's you throw in are of really good sound quality...that's the trick I use. Usually after the first CD, my Parasound is up to speed.

I know, I'm sick right?

Ricardo

I use a similar approach but using wine. After the first two glasses, everything sounds great!!

heiney9

steveinaz wrote: »

Another way to "cheat" if you don't like the idea of everything staying powered up, is make sure the first few CD's you throw in are of really good sound quality...that's the trick I use. Usually after the first CD, my Parasound is up to speed.

I know, I'm sick right?

I don't get it?

With the Aleph the first 60 minutes sound dark, closed in, narrow soundstage and at that magical 60 minute mark everything opens up, midrange become more liquid and the highs are simply wonderful. It hits full speed about 6 hours in.

No amount of great sounding cd's can fix that. But of course it's different for all gear, etc.

H9

heiney9

Ricardo wrote: »

I use a similar approach but using wine. After the first two glasses, everything sounds great!!

For me it's Vodka Martini's or Tequila.

H9

cstmar01

Normally I don't leave mine on. When I do listen its normally Friday night through Sunday and I'll power up my stuff on Friday morning to get it rolling from there and then shut everything down Sunday night and unplug seeing I would rather do so if there was a storm that rolls through when I'm not around ect.

DaveHo

+1 on the room heat gain thing. When I had cooler running equipment, it was left on 24/7. At one point I'd say the amp for the front 3 was on for nearly 4-5 years straight, minus vacations & other times when I'd be away for more than a day or two. The Aragon amps I have now generate way too much heat to be on all the time.

-Dave

Ricardo

I have a Tequila bottle here waiting for a special ocassion. Maybe next Thursday...but then we won't get to Polkfest too early.....

Willow

my amps are on all the time, except if we travel, then I turn them off.

steveinaz

heiney9 wrote: »

I don't get it?

With the Aleph the first 60 minutes sound dark, closed in, narrow soundstage and at that magical 60 minute mark everything opens up, midrange become more liquid and the highs are simply wonderful. It hits full speed about 6 hours in.

No amount of great sounding cd's can fix that. But of course it's different for all gear, etc.

H9

It's a matter of relativity. Cold equipment + poor sounding CD = awful; Cold equipment + great sounding CD = not too bad.

In reality, my Parasound doesn't take long at all to get up to speed--and never sounds bad.

heiney9

steveinaz wrote: »

It's a matter of relativity. Cold equipment + poor sounding CD = awful; Cold equipment + great sounding CD = not too bad.

Ah, that's what I was thinking but then I thought maybe there was more to it.

H9

sda2mike

i noticed last night...the last 45 min or so of a 2+ hour session: it was really sounding fkn good! every aspect..maybe especially down low..and little layers of stuff that normally goes un-noticed..horns sound more hornish and pianoes...yeah you get it:D

my wife just does not get it...i like it like that:)

heiney9

If my gear is off I always plan around having to turn it on an hour or more before I sit down and listen. I rarely just power up and then sit down and listen.

H9

cfrizz

I leave it on. But my amp goes into standby mode when not in use.

cstmar01

If I was drunk and listening I could be playing the latest single from Cher and I would think its good....

well I would have to be very very drunk...

but otherwise when things warm up it does sound better I think, and I think more so with tube stuff.

sda2mike

heiney9 wrote: »

If my gear is off I always plan around having to turn it on an hour or more before I sit down and listen. I rarely just power up and then sit down and listen.

H9

that's a good plan...i did that last night - not on purpose..i think it helped w the enjoyment factor

heiney9

sda2mike wrote: »

that's a good plan...i did that last night - not on purpose..i think it helped w the enjoyment factor

If I'm not too busy on the weekends I usually turn the rig on Thursday night and leave it powered up through Sunday unless I'm going to be out a lot over those days. During the week I'm finding harder and harder to find time to listen or I'm listening to 1 of 3 tube amps in the office/computer rig while I putz around in there. Those take about 30-60 minutes to reach full operating as well.

H9

dorokusai

I usually leave my amplifier on if I know I'll be listening within the next 24 hours, otherwise, I shut everything down. I believe that my rig sounds better when everything is warmed up.

I've also not been disappointed in the sound on the fly, depending on the company. If it's a critical listener, I would take better steps but if its just a regular individual...its simply not neccesary. Most ppl that just think audio is cool don't require a lot of prep and its easy to sound awesome.

FTGV

On 24/7

megasat16

All my stuff takes about 5 minutes to warm up, properly biased and ready to R&R.

I'd be broke to leave any of my stuff on for 24 hours before listening. :eek:

Having said that, I sometimes left my preamp on for a day or two coz I am so lazy to push the button. :eek:

cokewithvanilla

I have wondered about this for a while. I know my GFA-5800 takes a long time to get warm, so I've left it and my preamp on for the last two days. I think it has totally improved my sound. I usually have short listening sessions so I think it is a good idea for me to keep them on... we'll see what happens with the next electric bill.

Ern Dog

I typically like to listen to my rig when I'm showering and getting ready every morning and then again in the evening. I turn my rig off when not in use.

zingo

My SET tubes get turned on about 1 hour before I listen to them, but it's not realist to leave them on 24/7 because of the heat/power consumption/tube life.

PSOVLSK

On 24/7 unless out of town, etc.

FTGV

zingo wrote: »

it's not realistic to leave them on 24/7 because of the heat/power consumption/tube life.

Yeah you would'nt want to burn through B300's and the like too quickly.

FTGV

FTGV wrote: »

Yeah you would'nt want to burn through 300B's and the like too quickly.

fixed:D