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Leaving DAC on all the time OK?

I have a Museteax IDAT that I leave on all the time. The power button is on the back of it and the DAC sits in my cabinet so it is difficult to turn it off. When the transport is off the dac is trying to lock onto a signal. Since their isn't any signal the blue led light on the dac blinks. Am I wearing out the dac prematurely? How long before the unit needs to be serviced? Thanks in advance. Phil Brady.
philbrady
fatparrot
1,314 posts
 
Just unplug all of your gear if electrical storms are in the area!
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
As long as we're not including tube DAC's I agree w/ the previous statments. With transports, it's fine to leave them on too. Just remember to take the CD out of the player to insure that the laser and/or any clamping mechanism are not left in a powered-up state.
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raquel
841 posts
 
Techs will tell you to leave all equipment powered up 24/7 except for tube amps (output tubes tend to pass a lot of current and have to be turned off to prevent excessive tube wear) and Class-A biased transistor amps (which burn too much electricity to leave on 24/7 and which produce tons of heat). It is the thermal cycles (heating up and cooling down) that result from turning equipment on and off which tends to make equipment break. Cold equipment also sounds bad in high resolution systems. This is especially true with digital processors -- you have to leave them on 24/7 if you want them to perform as the manufacturer intended.

Of course, the above poster is correct about unplugging equipment to protect against damage from electrical storms. It is also not "green" to run equipment 24/7, but if you want to increase the chance that your equipment will break and if you want it to sound like crap, turn it on and off.

PS: The light on your DAC is almost certainly an LED -- it will last forever.
imin2u
392 posts
 
I usually agree with Nsgarch but tubes should be left on too. They live much longer since they are not expanding and compressing each time you turn the unit on and off.

Raquel, I am usually very envoronmental conscience but I never know when I'll get to listen and I found that I don't like waiting the various warm-up times. But I do agree that we should all be as "green" as possible.

p.s. It's nice to see a woman beside Elizabeth on the Gon. Welcome from all of us.
hifirobbie
1 posts
 
I have an Electrocompaniet DAC that I leave on most of the time.
Funny thing is, occasionally when I sit down to listen, it has this funny "out of phase" sound to it. Almost as though the entire system has been turned inside out. I would liken the sound to a kind of transistor radio feel. It really strange. It's not like the phase has bee switched 180, that would still be listenable. But it's like nothing else I've ever heard.

All I do is re-boot the DAC and all is fine. That's about the only time mine gets switched off.
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