Do You Have to Play a Component to Warm it Up?

Tubes off (1/2-40 warm up). Rest on. 

Warming up speakers, for a few minutes, may also help increase the plasticity of the surrounds.  That being said, the improvement may be difficult to hear.

Also, the manufacturer of my new preamp suggested breaking-in the unit by playing music, not simply having it turned on.  I did not ask why.

Really, @erik_squires? My Lamm SETs like to play 45 minutes or so before they come on song. Ditto, my other tube components.

Hi @whart - I stand corrected and informed!  Thank you. I’ve not used much tube gear I’m afraid. The worst case of warmup I’ve ever had were a pair of Class D amps that took 2-3 days to warm up, but did not need to be playing at all.

Are you confident that the same effect wouldn’t happen if you left your gear on longer?

Also, when I said speakers, I was really talking about breaking them in, both drivers and caps seem to need it, but not really warming them up.

@erik_squires - I’ve done it both ways. My experience with the Lamms is that they sound better warmed up using music than simply turning them on and letting them run without signal. The vintage Quad system is quicker to warm up--you can hear them open up after about 20 minutes of music playing. I do that sometimes, just to hear the transition. I don’t know if this is universal to all tube amps- they will certainly play after a couple minutes-- the Lamms use a soft start, the old Quad IIs do not.

When I had the Lamm L2 line stage, which was a solid state audio path and tube power supply (two chassis), that thing took forever to come back on song. Vlad urged that users leave it on all the time -- though I don’t like running tube gear when I’m not home (and I used to pull power during electrical storms). That thing did not sound right for a long time from a cold start.

I hear you on speakers--

What’s odd is that a fully "broken in" phono cartridge seems to like warm up too.

I don’t think I have "golden ears" either- I’m getting older-- 70 years now. Back in the day when I ran all ARC tube gear, I wasn’t as picky about warm up time-- that stuff was pretty much turn it on and let it play. (I did not bias those amps myself (I had several over the decades and still have my first one, a Dual 75a-- that usually required a trip to the shop for tubes and biasing).