2. amps-preamps
  3. 1321932893

Solid state warm up?

I recently Put in a BAT vk-250SE with bat pack into my system to power Dynaudio Contour S 3.4 speakers. I was using a B&K reference amp with pretty good results, but I wanted more detail and subtlety. I got both, but I also got a darker, almost mushy sound. Some material is worse than others. I have pulled the speakers a few more inches from the back wall which helped a bit. The sound may actually get better the longer the amP is on...hours. Could the amp just need to warm-up and maybe be left on 24/7? It does get quite warm. I use the 12v trigger to put it in standby. Any ideas?
phoenix469
singleendedsingle
664 posts
 
Not needed to leave it 24/7, a 30-40 min warm up is fine.
SS amps get better over days though.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
It's not the blame that the amp can't drive speakers. Certainly it can, but it's a fact that there are amps that can drive these speakers better than VK250SE and the llist is HUGE even if taken the same budget point.
highend4me's avatar
highend4me
16 posts
 
SS warm up? Tubes yes, SS maybe 15min tops. Your not going to get a dramatic improvement from a warm up. It's probably your setup and the listening room.
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,824 posts
 
I have yet to see a solid state device of any kind that did not benefit from at least 24 hours of warmup.

Certainly in this case its worth a try- if it makes no difference then don't leave it on all the time :) But I think you will find that it does make a difference.

Now- will that fix the mushiness at high volume? Hard to say. If it does not, its probably not because of insufficient power; if a speaker needs more than this amp makes then the speaker is simply impractical for the real world. But if there is not enough filter capacitance in the power supply (or if the filter caps in it are having some issues), mushiness at high volume will be the result, regardless of the power the amp makes or how long it is left on.
marakanetz's avatar
marakanetz
5,473 posts
 
Highend4me,

Tubes need only 5...10min to get all DC voltages steady while transistors need at least 25min to reach operating specified parameters.

In fact tubes are not sensitive to temperature at all while transistors are. That's why they need radiators so their temperature does not go above certain point otherwise the power will produce heat instead of current.
More to discover