is warm up time a waste or better to wait for optimum

leftwinger57

Hello , Today I'm on a tear and the questions keep on rolling off the old noggin.
I,m a ss amp and a ss- pre amp guy so tubes are a foreign entity to me. From what I have heard here and on other forums ,you need warm /up time for optimum performance. This is a pretty clear blanket statement and I want to know 1. how true is it and 2. how long do let it warm up before getting any entertainment out of this very expensive gear.i do relise that all tubes react differently so there might not be any concise answer,but judging by all accounts the tube owners would not convert even if it was a free gift. So if you can
explain the fasination of the tube world vs. the immediacy of solid state.

tonyb

1-yes it's true

2- your ears will let you know,usually 20-30 min on average I would guess.

Tubes bring some soul,some air, some musicality back to the sound, thats the best way I can describe it.

nooshinjohn

I agree with Tony, but with tubes, my short experience has shown me that the more I sit ands listen, the morer ewarding that experience becomes, as the tubes tend to get even better over a span of an hour or so. If I know I will have an opportunity to relax with some music, I will turn things on and leave them on for a few hours beforehand.

My Cinema 425/5 stays on all the time.

heiney9

For tubes warm-up is essential. For higher end SS designs it can vary from 15 minutes to a couple hours. All of your switching type amps (Class G, H, D and hybrids) it doesn't matter per se.

H9

FTGV

Anything that requires bias usually needs a warm up period for the semiconductors to reach operating temp and for the bias current to stablize.

F1nut

My main rig takes days to "warm up". My all tube office rig sounds great after 5 minutes.

stuwee

I'd love to leave my SS amps on all the time, but with Martin Logans it triggers the sensor to power up the panels which means they'll be atracting dust. A big no-no, I vacuum them once a month and that's plenty for me. I find after 15mins the sound gets richer and after 30mins it's even better.

Some equipment that I'm not using gets pulled out and plugged in for a few days every 6 months, just because I think it helps in the long run.

headrott

As I have stated previously in another thread; my Aragon 8008bb SS amp will send high end spikes through your head if you listen to it before (approximately) one hour warm up time. It really is harsh on the ears and brain without the warmup. As others have stated, tubes generally need more to warm up from my exprerience. Honestly, I have never left my rig on for more than a day at one time, so I cannot say what days will do to the sound. But I can say unequivocally, that 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours and more (depending on the gear used) will improve the sound of both SS and tubed gear. With the greater improvement going to the tubed gear, generally. Also, some gear will express the greater improvement with warmup more than other peices of gear, depending on design, parts used, etc.

Greg

comfortablycurt

I've found that some warm up time makes my all SS rig sound better. If I turn it on and immediately start listening, it's a little sterile sounding, and doesn't have as much warmth and definition. In my experience, about half an hour of warm up time is good. Obviously though, that's going to vary depending on your specific equipment.

Generally, I don't bother waiting for it to warm up though. I'll just turn it on and start listening...it gradually gets better sounding as it warms up. I'll usually just leave it on all day, unless I know I'm going to be leaving for a long period of time.

heiney9

Straight from the owners manual. Single ended Class A solid state amplifier. I concur 100% based on my listening experience with this amp.

It takes about an hour of warm up time to get the best performance out of the amplifier. It will take that long to reach operating temperature and exhibit lowest distortion and noise. This is not a subjective judgement, but based on actual distortion and noise measurements. Many customers have reported that longer warm up yields more improvement.

H9

Joe08867

I will just copy and paste what I wrote in your other thread. Warm up isn't smoke and mirrors, it is a truth. I have also seen some SS gear that need warm up to sound great. Especially some older amps and receivers. But as far as tubes go.

I left my Tube preamp on most of the time. Like madmax said they can and usually do take longer to stabilize and sound as they should.

I turned my Tube amps on 1-2 hours before I listen to them. I shoot for 2 hours but anytime after an hour was usually enough for them to sound like they should.

If I just came in the house and turned everything on at once and started playing music right away it sounded very poor. Tubes can be awesome but they take some planning and patience, but in the end you are rewarded with wonderful, immersing sound.

BlueFox

On weekends I turn my system on Friday night when I get home from work, and leave it on until bedtime Sunday night. Although I cannot prove it, it certainly seems to sound better on Saturday.

TroyD

I KNOW my rig sounds better after a period of time, however, I don't stress over it. I primarily listen for enjoyment. When listening becomes like doing long division, I'm done.

BDT

megasat16

F1nut wrote: »

My main rig takes days to "warm up". My all tube office rig sounds great after 5 minutes.

You main rig running from 60V power system? I have never heard a system that takes days to warm up before.

My all pure Class A SS amp takes about an hour to fully warm up. You can fry bacon and cook dinner on top of the amp.

My all tube preamp takes about 30 minutes to fully warm up and ready.

cubdog

Bel Canto recommends leaving their amps on 24/7 so I do. When I had a tube integrated I couldn't tell any difference in sound 5 minutes or 5 hours after I turned it on. But my hearing sucks. :frown:

cubdog

F1nut

megasat16 wrote: »

You main rig running from 60V power system? I have never heard a system that takes days to warm up before.

My all pure Class A SS amp takes about an hour to fully warm up. You can fry bacon and cook dinner on top of the amp.

My all tube preamp takes about 30 minutes to fully warm up and ready.

Yeah, I don't know how to explain other than to say it seems to sound better after a few days. I actually leave it on 24/7 unless there's a thunderstorm.

george daniel

he,he,, ask Klaus.

treitz3

F1nut wrote: »

Yeah, I don't know how to explain other than to say it seems to sound better after a few days. I actually leave it on 24/7 unless there's a thunderstorm.

Same here. The way I would explain it would be that while the frequencies may not change, the subtleties, the texture, the attack, the sharpness and definition thereof [concerning the frequencies] do. Most importantly the sound stage and spatial location cues along with the aforementioned all come in to a musical fruition. On some systems, less grain and a more organic sound comes with keeping the rig on and letting everything stabilize to normal [or optimum] operating temperature.

YMMV and this is not only rig dependent, it is listener dependent as well.

treitz3

george daniel wrote: »

he,he,, ask Klaus.

Oh, jeeeez. Don't get me started on what happens with his amps. Until day three, any myriad of things [not for the good] can happen. It's like the amp is on a three day high off of some REALLY good drugs and on day three, it sobers up and everything falls into place. At that point, you can listen.

This is, of course, after the break in period. :eek:

decal

Also, your brain gets accoustomed to the sound the longer you listen. This has a lot to do with the warm up period,IMHO. BTW, you started a thread 2 days ago on basically the same thing. Wait til H9 finds out!!!!!:eek:

victor. askew

I just leave mine on all of the time if its in the rotation to be played.Im not sure if this affects( improves) its sound or not but I do try to keep everything as warm and as stable as possible with the amps, pre amps and CD player. I have never had any breakdowns of any of my equiment due to doing this and the draw on the elect bill is small, on avg $5/7 a month.

Flash21

cubdog wrote: »

Bel Canto recommends leaving their amps on 24/7 so I do.

Sure, but it's easy with a Bel Canto...hardly takes any power at all.

thetawave2

Would leaving a tube amp on constantly adversely affect the lifespan of the tubes?

heiney9

thetawave2 wrote: »

Would leaving a tube amp on constantly adversely affect the lifespan of the tubes?

Yes, it certainly would. It depends on the tube and the position the tube is in. Power tubes have shorter life than small signal tubes and some NOS tubes seem to last forever and will run circles around just about anything manufactured today.

Why would you want to leave a piece of tube gear on constantly? To me that means 24/7.

H9

thetawave2

I have heard of some people leaving tube gear on 24/7... doesn't really sound like something I would want to do haha

Just trying to learn a bit about tubes. I might be moving in that direction for the first time come winter.

heiney9

I would say if you're going to be listening to them it's alright to leave them on for an entire day, if you are home, etc. I wouldn't recommend leaving tube gear on and unattended for long periods of time.

It's better to power the tubes up and leave them running, than it is to constantly power them off and on. Example, you want to listen in the morning so you power them up, by 10:00am you want to do laundry, and things around the house, etc. but again at 3:00pm you want to listen. It's better to leave the tubes powered up from the early Morning through 3:00pm than to power off and on a few times in that same time period.

H9