Is it preferable to leave amp on all the time?

[alboy1975]

Hi I recently purchased an Arcam A18, which after repair I am truly enjoying. I just wondered if it was preferable to leave the amp on 24 hours a day, or power down each night. When I power up each morning there is a small click sound (the amp is obviously meant to do this), but I would like to know if it's simply better to leave it on all the time - i have set the front panel to display only when volume is altered or sources are changed, therefore minimising the chance of the screen burning out.

It may simply be a personal choice whether or not to leave amp on, but thought I'd check with you guys?

 

[falcoron]

No complete waste of Leccie it should be good to o after a few mins omho others my disagree

 

[MF 1000]

Takes my MF A370 a good 30 mins to reach its operating temp (around 50 C on the heatsinks).

Wouldnt want to leave it on all of the time due to its operating temp, and consuming 650 watts just sat there !!

 

[Guest]

No. :^

 

[Tel]

There is no reason to leave any amp on all the time unless it has inherently unstable power supplies (Although I wouldn't mention Naims)

 

[alboy1975]

ok cheers for info

 

[SMEagol]

An amp manufacturer friend of mine says you just slowly cook the internals. Apparently some very well known foo pimp prescribed this in a magazine article a few years ago and my friend says he's got a lot to answer for. The rumour mills been grinding ever since.

 

[Pussycat]

There is no reason to leave any amp on all the time unless it has inherently unstable power supplies (Although I wouldn't mention Naims)

Well, I never knew that was why so many Naim owners find it beneficial to power up 24/7. Live and learn ! I thought it was because Naim had a large shareholding in National Grid.

 

[Liquid]

It's recommended by NA to do so.

I decided to make my own mind up but found their recommendation to be spot on. As always, try it and find out to see if it works for you.

 

[falcoron]

Why would anyone want to waste energy?

 

[syep2001]

Quite, go hug a tree, but on the way out turn the amp off.

 

[i_should_coco]

Why would anyone want to waste energy?

Because they're Naim ownersgullible morons.

 

[The Strat]

Well definitely not if you have valves as your house will in all likelihood be burnt to the ground :TheBird:

 

[Liquid]

Why would anyone want to waste energy?

That's just a by-product of having superb sounding amps whenever I need to hear them.

Besides, I have a penchant for huge engined cars so I suppose I'm pre-disposed to not give a shit.

 

[gjm]

I've seen this recommended for tube amps, with an explanation as to why.

A tube is a lot like an electric light bulb. Light bulbs stop working after being switched on and off many times. Ergo, leaving a tube amp on all the time would mean (aside from it always being warmed up) that the tubes never fail.

Sounds silly to me. The money spent on leccy could be spent on tubes instead.

 

[i_should_coco]

I've seen this recommended for tube amps, with an explanation as to why.A tube is a lot like an electric light bulb. Light bulbs stop working after being switched on and off many times. Ergo, leaving a tube amp on all the time would mean (aside from it always being warmed up) that the tubes never fail.

Sounds silly to me. The money spent on leccy could be spent on tubes instead.

Except that tubes have an emissive layer with a finite lifetime which gets depleted. Filament breakage (as per lightbulb) is far less likely than emission failure, even when switched on and off. To minimise thermal stress, switch off if not using within an hour or so, otherwise switch off.

It's not just the tubes, electrolytic capacitors have finite lifetimes, e.g. 2000hrs at 105 deg. C. Life approximately doubles for every 10 deg. drop in operating temperature, so running them cool helps, but still, lifetime is not enormous and needs to be considered.

 

[The Strat]

That's just a by-product of having superb sounding amps whenever I need to hear them.Besides, I have a penchant for huge engined cars so I suppose I'm pre-disposed to not give a shit.

Compared with the additional energy consumption of valves (no one ever gives a definitive answer to this but I'm Serge could measure it!) and the fact that it takes 3 days for them to warm up before anywhere listenable I doubt you spend anymore. And one other thing it's the thermo fools who can't hear any difference with cables - well are you surprised when their kit produces such a mumbo jumbled mushy sound.

Happy listening chaps :^ ;-)

 

[RSand]

A pure class A amp would use a ridiculous amount of electricity and heat if stood idle day in day out.

My valve amp sounds great as soon as I throw the switch, has warmed up in about 15 mins with little discernable/no difference thereafter.

 

[The Strat]

My valve amp sounds great as soon as I throw the switch, has warmed up in about 15 mins with little discernable/no difference thereafter.

You can't prove that - relying on your ears in such a audiophoolish way is pure delusion............