Amplifier warm up

Cold vs hot makes no difference to my ears. But that's just my ears. They're not the finely tuned instruments possessed by true audiophiles.


My SS amp manual (Madrigal Proceed HPA 2) says to leave it on. I can't bring myself to do it. I'm hardly what anyone would call an environmentalist....more like a conservationist....but the bottom line is that even in standby mode that amp makes heat. A fair amount of it too. I have no idea what that translates into in terms of electricity usage but it cannot be negligible. And my music rooms tends to be a tad hot in the summer and a tad cool in the winter compared to the rest of the house. That last thing I want in a Carolina summer is more heat. So maybe I should leave it on in the winter.

I believe my AR LS16 tube pre-amp manual says to leave it on as well, in standby mode, but I do not remember and can't recall if it makes heat in standby mode. I would hope not.

@aeschwartz

It appears your A21+ amp is consuming 1-watt on StandBy mode, and its very possible you’ll hear a difference after 2+hrs of warmup-play, sure. I tested a smaller A23+ a few months back and it sounded better after 1-2hrs.

Most good ClassA solid state amps I’ve owned sounded pretty bad at 15-30 minutes from cold startup, and once the large transformers became warm and fully saturated, I could always hear notable changes at 1hr and 4+hrs. Some other well known Class-A amps notably improve after 8-24hrs warmup once everything becomes nice and toasty. I’m not sure I’d leave an ultra high-end Class-A SS amp on other than for weekends or long listening days.

With my current tube mono amps, 1hr of warmup is all that’s needed and the sound really does not change after 1hr. Varies some by amp type and design of course, type of transformers used, YMMV.

So if I’m using little fans to manage the temperature of my SS amp, does that mean it’s not warming up sufficiently to play at its fullest potential?

ricevs
I am totally off grid(closest power pole is 2miles away) ,I have solar ,generator backup and lithium4 batteries . I do power my hybrid down and it takes a solid hour min, to get my system to open up. I run class D in my video room that is always in standby mode .

Yes.

Temperature changes will change the biases in transistors and hence make differences.

It is almost like an ICE engine.  It runs better when it is warm.