Amp — Leave on or turn off
I always turned my Benchmark AHB2 amp off after use every night. After all, why is there an on off switch on the front panel if not to do that? Last night I accidentally left it on. This morning, when I played my first record, I couldn’t believe my ears. The same record I played last night sounded infinitely better. I tried a second record and that, too, was much better.
I know there’s a debate on the question of leaving an amp on all the time.
I now know where I stand!
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- 110 posts total
@hilde45 👍👍 thanks for the link |
All ya need to do is leave your amp on for a day or two. Get yourself a good cheap thermometer and lay it near the hottest part of your amp (heat sinks).
Check the temp and remember. Let amps cool as a normal part of listening. Check cold temp and then redo checking temp until it gets to above temp. Now you can turn your amp off and know how long it will take to get to proper operational temperature. Win-win. You're welcome.
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My Ayre V-5xe Amp on/off switch (front of amp) is really an on/stand-by switch. (The actual on/off switch is on the back of the unit.), which implies that the electronics have a low wattage draw that keeps them 'warmed' and ready when I 'turn on' the front switch. That being said - I agree that morning listening is markedly better than at other times. Line -noise? Low Humidity? Rest? Sum of all...? |
By all means, keep your equipment on 24/7. Everything will sound better that way.. Remember that recording studios and broadcast stations keep everything they have on 24/7 so they'll aways be able to get the maximum performance from it whenever they need it. This includes the remote trucks too. And as pointed out, some equipment is designed for it, or requires it, such as class-a and tube equipment, and power conditioners and UPSes. If you power your equipment on and off it really won't be ready to give you the sound you appreciate sometimes for days after you turn it on, and you really don't spend that much money doing it. And I've found that my equipment lasts so much longer. I have 6 amps (Anthem, Denon, Sony), 5 Sonos Connects, a Parasound AM/FM tuner, a DAC, a Teac cd recorder, an Arcom cd player, a Revox RtoR, and a Carver preamp that are all on 24/7. Some of them are plugged into sine-wave UPSes, and my main stereo stack is on a Furman power conditioner. Everything is on 24/7. I also have a home data center with 4 servers, 2 switches, a router, 4 desktop boxes, and a wide-screen monitor, These are also on 24/7. All told I figured out this costs me around $50 per month. |
- 110 posts total