Older Amps - ON or OFF?

kevhed72

I just picked up an integrated and 5 channel Parasound (due my previous 3 channel went bad).
Both the integrated and 5 channel amps around 20 years old. I know this topic was kicked around quite extensively a few years ago hear, but I figured it was worth re-visiting.

What will keep these amps lasting longer (ie before something goes bad with them) - turned ON all the time, or turn OFF when not in use. Lastly, electricity use is not really my main concern. Thanks.....

mhardy6647

I don't think this is trivial to answer definitively... I'll offer my opinion; all things being equal, most of the stress on a piece of electronic equipment is the power surge at turn on. Note that incandescent light bulbs usually fail when you switch 'em on, not when burning at steady-state :-)

The other enemy of electronic components, though, is heat - and at steady state, there is going to be more heat in an idling component than one that's turned off.

I still think that the turn-on transient is the more damaging of these two "degradation" scenarios :-)

It is also worth noting that the amps probably do have some transient suppression gizmos in circuit to abrogate the impact of the turn-on inrush (what a rush, man...).

adb3da

Bump on this topic because I'd like to hear what others think.

Drenis

I leave my Adcom 5400 powered on 24/7... I only shut everything down when I'm going to be away from home for an event longer than just a day of work.

Tbone289

Drenis wrote: »

I leave my Adcom 5400 powered on 24/7... I only shut everything down when I'm going to be away from home for an event longer than just a day of work.

^ This is how I treat my older solid state gear. I power down my tube amp if I'm going to be away from it for a couple of hours or more. There's no point in losing tube life and wasting all that power and heat from a Class A amp.

ROHfan

I tried keeping mine off but found that it didn't put out any sound.

mhardy6647

ROHfan wrote: »

I tried keeping mine off but found that it didn't put out any sound.

You just need a more sensitive pair of loudspeakers.

ROHfan

mhardy6647 wrote: »

You just need a more sensitive pair of loudspeakers.

Oh, you mean like Bose?

mhardy6647

K-horns.

chumlie

My Parasound stays on 24/7.

B Run

I used to leave my old Adcom 24/7 without ever having an issue.

zingo

I would leave them on unless they are overly warm when at operating temperature. What do they temp after they've been on for an hour?

pitdogg2

I turn mine off. But i do turn them on for a while before i listen. Hell i don't even leave mine plugged in unless I'm going to listen.

kevhed72

zingo wrote: »

I would leave them on unless they are overly warm when at operating temperature. What do they temp after they've been on for an hour?

Neither the Parsound or Onkyo are really that warm at all. I was leaning toward leaving them on due the "Dad there is no sound on the TV....." factor alone.

cnh

Almost no good power amps put out much heat when idling. I've had my Adcom on for days, no problem. Heck, it never even gets warm when driving the Lsi-7s. Same with the NAD below.

But, yeah, don't "do" this with tube amps--things can happen, and "you" might want to be around for "that", just in case!

cnh

sda2mike

my adcom 555 stays on for most of the weekend...dared tube pre, on only when i listen

falconcry72

cnh wrote: »

...Almost no good power amps put out much heat when idling...

.. tell that to my BAT! I'd like to take a temperature measurement at idle. You can't leave your hand on it very long...:biggrin:

mhardy6647

cnh wrote: »

Almost no good power amps put out much heat when idling. I've had my Adcom on for days, no problem. Heck, it never even gets warm when driving the Lsi-7s. Same with the NAD below.

But, yeah, don't "do" this with tube amps--things can happen, and "you" might want to be around for "that", just in case!

cnh

well - good Class A power amps put out essentially as much heat at idle as they do at full output power;
actually, so would bad Class A amps :-)
Your statement would onl apply to class AB amplifiers (or them digital amp thingies).

hochpt21

I pretty much leave all my gear on all the time. Can't say if it's better or worse...but definitely easier :cheesygrin:

BlueFox

On Thursday night I turn on all my two channel, and HT, gear, and leave it on until Sunday night. I have found that both systems sound better after the gear has run 24 hours, and the TV looks better after a day. The rest of the week I turn it on when I get home, and off at bed time. The two channel system especially wastes so much electricity at idle, and the prolonged heat cannot be a good thing.

steveinaz

Been turning my amps off for 37 years after every use---haven't had an adverse affect yet. I've owned my parasound now for over 9 years, it gets shut off everytime as well.

deronb1

I turn my gear off as well. They are in standby mode though, so in a sense they are still "on".

recoveryone

I use a Integra 2.1 amp in my 2ch setup and it has a standby mode when no signal is detected for 30sec and comes back on when a signal is sent back through. It works great for me as the amp sits behind a piano out of reach, unless I pull the piano out from the wall.

Polkie2009

I always power down in sequence all of the equipment after using it , then unplug it from the wall. Around here, the power has a tendency to go off and on a number of times during the year. Most of my power amps are 20 to 30 years old.

michael1947

I spent a lifetime working for the FAA and everything stayed on all the time, no exceptions. If we has a power outage which was unusual the power up was always frightening. With that said, on 3 of my systems I use a Belkin pf30 which seems to turn everything on and off in sequence which I like. Another thing my in-laws had a house fire caused by one of the first "instant-on" tv's. So to sum it up: I know better but I turn the stuff off.

gudnoyez

I just fired up both Adcoms and will shut them down sunday night, instead of turning them on and off when I want to listen to one or the other, as I listen to these the mostly on the weekends and usualy wait a half hour after they have been on to listen, as this is recomended by some of you. neither one gets hot anyways barley warm for that matter even after hours of pushing them. I dont think I would leave any of my stuff on 24/7, I also unplug stuff when not using, as the storms around hear can get pretty intense.

gdb

I turn my stuff OFF, if only to avoid the chance of burning my house down. How important is a longer lasting amp........ compared to a building to house it in ?

cnh

mhardy6647 wrote: »

well - good Class A power amps put out essentially as much heat at idle as they do at full output power;
actually, so would bad Class A amps :-)
Your statement would onl apply to class AB amplifiers (or them digital amp thingies).

OK, you guys got me. Class A was NOT something I was thinking about, since they are usually "prohibitively" expensive and I highly DOUBT the OP was referring to anything other than AB amps. But you'd think as an academic, "I" would REMEMBER to QUALIFY EVERYTHING I say so that this kind of thing does NOT happen. lol

OH WAIT! I did "QUALIFY what I said!"

"Almost no good power amps put out much heat when idling"

I suppose there is still too much of the old working class boy in my past who likes to chew the fat with the guys without having to ALWAYS remember that he "also" has advanced degrees and regularly discourses with the guys who argue about pinheads and angels! lol

Then again, it was said of Morris Cohen (the great logical positivist and philosopher of linguistic analysis [what a dead end that was!]) that he had a great memory until his "stroke". After that he was no longer able to harass Paul Tillich who had no real problem responding to him, in any case!

Carry on!

cnh

mhardy6647

you and I both suffer the curse of being over-educated, cnh ;-P

gdb

Yeah. Well.

soundfreak1

I always turn my parasounds off, as when i turn them on you can here the rather loud slam of the relays kicking in for each channel so the power is directed by them first, so its not going into the system untill they engage. This is to protect from surges ( so i am told ) i also warm then up for about 20/30 min before i pour the juice too them as well.not sure about all parasounds but the 1200 has 4 relays ( i believe ) 2/ch for redundanticy.