[aos]

Well, I want to try this poll thing, so here it goes...

Some people keep their amps/CDPs etc. on all the time because even non-tube amps need some time to stabilize, and some exotic components require it. As an engineer I believe that you may need 10 minutes or so to let all the components heat up to the operating temperature but I wouldn't know if it influences the sound or not apart from the maybe first minute or two. I usually just don't bother turning off stuff - too much hassle

.

So what do you think/do?

 

[Braver]

ehm, I don't have any hi-fi stuff (yet, got a "donation" from my grandparents

already know where that money is going

), but I leave it on all the time. At the quality level I got at the mo, I don't believe there's any noticable difference, and why turn it off when it's going to be turned on an hour later anyway

My p-mdp (use it more than the stereo) turns itself off tho.

 

[lini]

No, I want to save the environment?

Greetings from Munich (where sorting your garbage can really be hell...

)!

Manfred / lini

 

[Neruda]

I'm moving this to the electronics & accessories forum since it doesn't really apply to headphones...

 

[thomas]

well, i usually fall asleep and forget to turn off my comp, stereo, etc... it gets kinda costly when i forget to turn of my portable amp, burns 2 9v's in 5 hours (class A, always operating at full blast) (happened more than once

)

 

[JMT]

No, I live in California. If I leave just one component on it can cause rolling blackouts.

 

[MooGoesTheCow]

Quote:

No, I live in California. If I leave just one component on it can cause rolling blackouts.

The next time the electricity goes off I'm blaming JMT.

 

[Tides]

hmm


The POLL question needs to be edit so it is same as the THREAD topic question.

Otherwise 3rd choice seems to be off (opposite)


YES, too much heat from class A and too expensive

instead of
No, too much heat from class A and too expensive


I turn eveyrthing off here. But before I listen, I turn on amp for 5+ hours before I actually plug in headphone.

Tides

 

[Deuce_Bigalow]

I leave mine on if I'm going to be using it in the next 12 hours. I think turning it on and off is harder on the electronics than leaving it on. You can wear out the on/off switch but the electronics never seem to fail, usually just the cd transport part fails which isn't effected by leaving it turned on. The only reason I turn mine off sometimes is I'm worried the dot matrix display might burn out eventually. A friend of mines cd player has no display cause it burned out. I don't know if the dot matrix display can wear out but it would suck if it did, cause I like the orange and red colors on it.

My Sony discman auto shuts off as soon as I hit stop it says 00 and then turns off, so you can leave it partly on like most players. All of them shut off after a little while anyways.

If anyone knows anything about the dot matrix display thingy let me know.

 

[chych]

I turn my amp (MG Head) and source (computer/audiophile 2496) off when I go to bed... however my MSB Link DAC stays on all the time.. and I dont mind..

 

[lini]

deuce: If it's a conventional (i.e. non-organic) fluorescent display, it should last for quite a lot of years. They can be difficult to replace, though, because they usually have a whole lot of pins. So don't worry: Most of my vcrs have fluorescent displays, and on every unit that is defect, now, it was a mechanical fault of the drive - while the 10years+-displays still work flawlessly. Similar with leds: They almost never fail. Nevertheless I once got a Sony tv-set, on which the power-led was dead.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

 

[raymondlin]

I actually wrote to Marantz to ask the exact same question, and this is what he said

"Leaving your equipment on after use will shorten the life of your equipment.

Bearing in mind when you switch the system on time is required to warm the system up to achieve the best performance."

But then I wrote back saying "Why do you advice switching the system off when it's not in use? Everywhere else I have read states that I should leave it on constantly, as solid-state electronics prefer to be in a constant state, warm and staying warm, rather than reguarly switching between warm & cold. Common sense also suggests that eventually solder & joints will degrade with all that heating & cooling. So, What is your technical reason for this?"

And he wrote back -

"My reply to your e-mail was regarding the entire system not a product, leaving a CD player powered constantly will reduce the life of the laser pickup.

Your statement below is true for solid state amplifiers, keeping an amplifier on will reduce the strain placed on the electronics when it warm up and cools down.

Switching off the system together would mean any wear induced on the system would be balanced across both CD player and Amplifier and over time as the products age, a mismatch in sound due to one machine degrading before the other is reduced, whether it
be electronics or a loss in power to the laser."

I don't know about your or other brand of equipment, but for my system, turning it off would be the best thing for me. The letter was actually published in HiFi Choice!

 

[Possum]

What a brain masher!

"Do you like cookies?" "No, I like cookies."

 

[thomas]

i seriously doubt that switching electronics on and off can have any adverse effect on them. Electronics should be allowed to warm up for about 5 minutes (more for tubes), but as longs as its operating at its normal operating temperature, i doubt it matters how long its been at that temperature.

wait, that's basically what aos said...

switches may wear out from pressing them too much, but any decent switch should be able to survive millions of cycles.

I think LCD's/LED's should last a very long time, if anything stops working, its usually because of a bad connection or it got fried due to PS problems... (dot matrix displays probably wear out faster because they have so many small segments that constantly flash on and off, but other than portable md's and MP3 players i've never seen them used in audio equipment)

BTW, if any of you believe that electronics (other than tubes) can "burn-in" then it would make sense that leaving it on after use would cause it to be "over burned in", and make it sound like crap... but i don't believe in any of that stuff anyways

 

[aos]

Ah yes, Tides, I made an error in the poll question. But only moderators can fix it. I did this poll mostly to see how it's implemented...

I was thinking about puting "Yes - I live in California" but decided to put it all under "too much heat and/or too expensive (because of electricity bill)"