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Importance of warm up. I hope this helps someone

I was checking a cassette I had made last month back to the original CD source for comparison. All my equipment had been on for 4-5 hours except CD player. I cued both up and the CD player was overly clear (bright) compared to the cassette made from the same source a month earlier. I thought well since this is a cassette I should expect some roll off in the highs after a period of time but not so soon. OK everybody. Im a cassette fan. I grew up with it and I know other mediums maybe are better. OK back to the warmup. I decided to let CD player warm up for 30 mins. I compared again and cassette was a perfect copy of the CD!!!. I can only figure the CD player was not warmed up. Everything else stayed ther same and was constant. I pay more attention to warmup now. I know it was important but I did not see how much until today.
128x128blueranger
jdoris
972 posts
 
Cassettes seem to me have at least one advantage over CDs for the car: they are less sensitive to the kind of rough handling that may occur when ones is doing something else -- like driving! I try to stick to copied CDs for the car, for this reason.

jmd
s7horton
1,077 posts
 


You can edit digital to pull out defects and add other sonics with many different things such as pro tools
donbellphd
205 posts
 
Blueranger writes:

"Most big recording studios still use analog tape. If they record in digital, the digital recording can never be improved upon. With analog they can have it digitally recorded as better digital machines come into being."

I'd ask if he is sure of the validity of that statement. Analog tape, even with half-inch at 15 IPS we used to use in the lab, has problems like print through and instablility in storage. We used to rewind our tape backwards, but even so storage was a problem. Digital tape seems much more likely for use in recording studios these days, but I don't know.

db
spiro
115 posts
 
I have met many people who claim that the system is without warm up necessity. I have not found this ever.
I've not had mega bucks systems, but in the 10-12 brands I have owned, they all took 20 mins to 2 hrs to warm up, *from constant on condition*. So this is not a power up, this is a signal up if you will.
Some gear like Spectral and Mitner have shown 24 hour power up in my experience. The Spectrals will actually get louder in power up.
But I'm glad to see that Warm up is being recognized.
It's a real pain, because if you take it to the enth degree you have to record a warm up copy before you record the final copy so that all circuits get that time.
I don't go that far, but it is where the theory goes isn't it?
Best Regards all.
blueranger's avatar
blueranger OP
719 posts
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I always heard warmup was important. I thought I could hear a difference but did not have a good example to go by. There was a big difference. From thin or slightly shrill to a more rounded sound with more bottom end. Mike
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