What do you do?

smglbrth · November 2003

My wife was recently wondering why I leave my equipment on Standby mode since it still uses electricity. I justified her to boredom and that was good enough for her.

Which do you with your power amps?

Leave them on all the time?

Leave them on Standby?

Shut them down when you are done?

I am just interested in which people prefer and why.

dorokusai · November 2003

Off. I have no reason, just habit I guess.

brettw22 · November 2003

My B&K 307 just goes into sleep mode when I power it down via the remote, but the CD and DVD player I leave on all the time. I hate having to power every effin thing on when I wanna sit down and listen to stuff. When I wanna listen to a disc, I wanna put it in and play, none of this wind up and search BS. (the source changing on the 307 is a bit of a pain in the ****.....from a time delay standpoint)

pjdami · November 2003

smglbrth

I leave my PT5 in standby mode and use the trigger on the preamp to power up my ST125.2. I leave the push buttons (power) on all of the time. This uses very little electricity and when the PT5 comes out of sleep / standby mode it powers up the amp. This is both convenient and simple for me.

By the way, the PT5 / ST125.2 combo is absolutely stellar. My units and wire are fully broken - in and it sounds killer. I see why you are still two channel and lovin' it!!

Take care,
Paul

glemay · November 2003

I leave my Denon AVR-1803 on except when I'm at school. When I am home it is always on, but I turn it off when I go to bed if I don't feel like listening to any music during the night. I find that it sounds better once it has warmed up. Just my opinion.

Gerald Lemay

polkatese · November 2003

I have all my gears on standby/sleep at all times. The down side is when power out/ circuit trip, and power is restored later on, some of them will stay on (kinda a pain when I am not home.)Luckily pre and power are set to go back to sleep right after the power is restored. I've read also that putting digital gears on standby mode is advisable (rather than hard off, especially on some gears that use switching power supply) FWIW...

Tour2ma · November 2003

for amps: standby now since the sunfire has its own trigger, but with the old carver it was on excepting vacations and storms...

imo when the only choices are on - off, staying on is easier on ss gear...

mantis · November 2003

All off,

I turn on only the gear I want to use.I have Pronto(actually 2 of them)I use Macro's to dictate what goes on and what goes off,when why and how.

I don't perfer to leave anything on while I'm not using it.TiVo is the only thing that stays on all the time....as it needs to be.

Dan

Airplay355 · November 2003

i turn everything off when im done, i dont mind the wait to find the cd format or anything and my receiver has a learning remote that has all buttons to all of my stuff programmed into it. i also dont have alot of extra stuff, just receiver and dvd player so its not a big deal to turn everything off. i would bet that the people with amps for each channel would wanna leave things on

kelley · November 2003

I have 5 amps in my system plus the rest of the crap and it all gets shut off. The only time I ever had a problem turning on and off is when my meridian DAC took a dive. The thing is I shut it down and unplugged it for an electrical storm. Somebody on Ebay got a good DAC for 50 bucks.

smglbrth · November 2003

Thanks for all the replies!

I must admit that more people than expected voted. I have read many times that "audiophile" people tend to leave amps on 24-7 since they feel it's better for the equipment.

Told my wife it's like starting a car. It takes more fuel to start it than let it idle for 5 minutes, she understood that part fairly well.

While I am pretty anal about the little equipment I have I must admit that "Standby" is an excellent feature, IMO. The best of both worlds really, not total consumption of electricity but still "warmed" for when you want it. If I ran a receiver I'd probably feel different about it.

Thanks for all who voted, it's always nice to hear what others do, you almost always seem to learn something!

pj - Glad to hear that you are enjoying your new amp. Pretty soon I tend to upgrade all my cables with SignalCable, including the power line. So..., that should be interesting in the near future. Now, how to get that justified......:p

Ron-P · November 2003

Off when done.

Peace Out~:D

Grimster74 · November 2003

I power down when I'm finished. No particular reason though.

thehalo8 · November 2003

I turn everything off except for two of my items. I leave my Tivo on to do its thing; plus I don't think you can turn it off? My receiver I always put on standby. My wife is finicky about the electric bill price, so if she new the standby mode used some electricity still she would turn it off all the time

jmanolinsky · November 2003

I thought this was a what do you do for a living kind of poll.

Oh well, I leave my receiver on standby which powers up my CD player and tape deck when turned on. Everything else gets turned off. I have an IR/RF remote that does macros, but I don't have it programed to control all my new stuff yet. I'll get to it though and it will be one button off and on again. It also has a Home Theater mode that allows control of the most used buttons on each of the devices.

Jman

jmanolinsky · November 2003

I was rereading my post and it got me wondering. How many here use X10 or something better for remote control lighting and stuff? I have a theater macro for the three different lights in my HT room. It turns them on and dims them to specific levels for optimum lighting conditions. I can turn my fireplace off and on from the same remote that controls my HT. My outside lights are programed to come on and go off automatically. I have cameras that allow me to see who's at the front or back door or in the driveway by clicking on the PIP on my TV. Just a total geek I guess. Come on fess up guys.

Jman

Tour2ma · November 2003

Originally posted by jmanolinsky
Just a total geek I guess. Come on fess up guys.

ok... i confess. you are a total geek...

wallstreet · November 2003

Standby unless no use for extended period of time.

sachinsood · November 2003

Standby mode for me...just out of habit both receiver and dvd player...

kinda like putting my brain on standby while sleeping

easier to start the day when i wake up in the morning.

George Grand · November 2003

I have a couple power amps that I left on for about ten years, only shutting them them down for bad electrical storms. Now, because my opportunities to sit down and listen are less frequent, I shut them off. HT rig also.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grand's)

Fireman99 · November 2003

standby unles not going to be used for a few days and for storms.
Dan

ezc · November 2003

Off when not in use. If I leave in the morning & plan to use the gear later in the day I leave it in stand by, otherwise its switched off when done.

paulsturbs · November 2003

A while back BBC Audio did a test involving leaving all their gear on all the time. The result was at least a 30% drop in tech calls.
The general rule is:
-ANYTHING with moving parts should be turned off when not in use. (Tape decks w/ capstans etc....)
-If gear tends to [normally] run hot turn it off if you are not going to use for 2-3 days.
-Anything else turn it off if you're not going to use it for a week or so.

The reasoning is, every time you turn gear on it gets an initial surge of juice until the capacitors fill up. This surge can put extra stress on components inside the gear and increase the risk of failure.

Then, let your gear warm up a bit before use. (turn the stuff on 20 minutes to an hour before use depending on the piece.)
This allows the gear to reach it's normal operating temperature and avoids potential problems in terms of physical expansion and contraction of components.

What do you do?

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