DAC'S NEEDING PROLONGED WARM-UP

[edstrelow]

I recently returned from a 2-week trip and next day turned on my main listening set-up, a Denon 3000 CD Player feeding a Monarchy classic jitter remover, Musical Fidelity A324 DAC, Stax SRM-3 amplifier and Stax 404 set-up, and found that it had gone flat. I.e. poor bass, poor dynamics, minimal ambience, no sparkle to the sound. I wondered if my hearing hadn't gone bad, possibly from being on aircraft so I went downstairs and checked my secondary system, a Sherwood Newcastle CD player feeding a Koss ESP 950 with an upgraded power supply, and thought that the cheaper system sounded fine and in fact better than the main system.

Usually I find that the Stax systems may need 1/2 hour or more of warm-up, if not used within the last 1/2 day and so I ran the whole set-up for about an hour with only modest improvements in sound.

Finally I remembered comments I had read in the original Stereophile review of the A324 DAC that it needed a lot of use to sound best and turned everything else off but left the DAC on for about 8 hours.

Now when I turned the system on again it sounded pretty much back to normal, i.e. good sound, better than the secondary system.

Anyone else experience this type of warm-up from solid state equipment? Is this generally true of DAC's, or of Musical Fidelity DAC's?

 

[DeeJayBump]

edstrelow-

Arthur Salvatore recommends that digital sources be left on all the time because they need 48 hours to settle in and provide their utmost fidelity.

I have not verified that personally, since I only recently came across that recommendation, but it might be the answer to the effects you observed with your digital gear.

Arthur Salvatore's Recommendation <-------See Optimizing Digital Components

 

[elmoe]

I keep my DAC on at all times, even while im sleeping. I'd turn it off if I went away for over a week I guess, but other than that it sounds its best when on 24/7.

 

[edstrelow]

The more I think about it why should I be surprised. The Musical Fidelity ACT and X-24K DAC's don't have on/off switches so would be left on all the time. However the A324 does have an on/off switch but the manual doesn't say to leave it on.

 

[lini]

edstrelow: Just for the record - did you do the warm-up the plain way (= without playing anything)? Then it might indeed take quite a bit. With operation, three hours should usually do, in my experience...

But it could very well be that your hearing contributed to the effect, too - at least my own hearing usually is somewhat screwed for a few hours after landing... Sonical effects of this are very similar for me to what you've described above. And relaxation also is quite important for me - if I'm stressed or if it's a tad too cold for me to relax, things don't sound right either, just like I couldn't connect to the music then... To me, there seem to be plenty distractions to my hearing. For example, I also found that asymmetrically placed light sources can really distort my stereo balance - mostly so, when I'm listening with my eyes closed. Another factor is smoking: More than half a pack of cigarettes a day in my case seems to have quite a detrimental effect on the blood flow in my ears - especially on the right one, strong upper mid-range signals will easily seem somewhat distorted then. I usually can get rid of the effect with some aspirin, though... All in all, I'd think that far too many people falsely believe their hearing to be constantly fine.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini