Should I leave my amp & CD player powered on all the time?

[radrd]

I've always shut my stuff off at night. Do I need to?

First, should I for any technical reasons? Will they die faster if I do or do not shut them off?

Second, does this stuff consume a lot of power when it is on?

Finally, when my CD player is powered up, is it better to leave a CD in the player or not?

I'm talking about my Music Hall MMF-CD25 and Gilmore V2 amp
I'm not talking about leaving them playing all the time; I'm talking about simply leaving them powered up.

 

[Rizumu]

I'm curious as well. I always turn off my CDP if I'm not using or won't be for a bit, and I have to turn off my amp since it is battery powered.

Sort of like should you power off your computer every night or leave it on all the time

[size=xx-small]Mine is ALWAYS on...[/size]

 

[Gopher]

I've been leaving all of my solid state gear on 24/7 for the last few months with no problems. Power consumption has never been an issue, so I wouldn't worry too much.

One question I do have... my cd player RUNS for about 90 hours a week... is that a bad thing?

 

[Sovkiller]

In theory yes, you can leave them on, but practically, what for? They will just will consume more electricity, and I don't know if this extended use, may streess any critical component, or part, that runs at high temperatures, specially transistors and resistors in big amplifiers when running in class A, they use to discipate a lot of energy. IMO if you are not gonna use them for many hours, more than 6 or 7, why not giving them a break? The temperature of the room also may be a couple of degrees higher, not an issue in winter time, but if you have an air conditioner on, it will work an extra 15 minutes or so, just to low the temperature a couple of degrees, sometimes, so this is another estra waste of energy....In the corner of my room, when I have the PC on all the time, usually the temperature is higher that the rest of the room...just an idea....

 

[Hirsch]

Some amps, the X-Can v2 and the Emmeline HR-2, resolve this issue by not including a power switch. If you want to turn these off, you unplug them. Otherwise, they are on 24/7 by default.

My guess is that the designers feel that being on constantly doesn't hurt the amp, while repeated power cycles might actually be more wearing than the continuous power.

 

[tom hankins]

I leave everything but my tube headphone amp (home system and headphone system) on all the time.

 

[Sovkiller]

Now I have a concern: Switches cost money, and not only the switches, also some capacitors, etc, associated with that part of the circuit, in one or two amps is OK, but in a big production this is an amount to be taken into consideration, so why most of the rest of the manufacturers, include them in the design then? Is that maybe not all of them have the same considerations regarding this issue? Or maybe this is simply different from one design to the other?

 

[Sugano-san]

Quote:

Originally posted by radrd Should I leave my amp & CD player powered on all the time?

Yes.

 

[zowie]

Most line level stuff is okay to leave on. Higher power stuff is iffy. Most components with moving parts and most tube equipment should be turned off. Many good components have soft-on circuitry so you needn't worry. This is talking about if it won't be used for a day or more. If you're coming back in a couple hours generally leave things on.

Personally, I turn everything off (some items have 'standby mode' and unplug vintage gear. I'm paranoid about a house fire, it reduces the chance of surge damage, and I pretty much only use my home rig on the weekends.

 

[scottpaul_iu]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sugano-san Yes.

Ditto. Leave them on.

 

[tom hankins]

I think all high powered amps should be left on all the time. There almost all self biased so they draw very little power after no signal for a couple of minutes.

 

[scottpaul_iu]

It's not like the Gilmore amp is some huge arc welding mother of a power plant like a Krell, Levinson or Rowland amp. It is just a headphone amp after all. It should not draw too much juice.

 

[Nefarion]

I asked the same question a ways back to the techs at holm audio. They said that solid state equipment has a very long warm-up time and should generally be left on 24/7. Now im not sure if they were refering to amps or cdps but i bieleve they were refering to all solid state in general. Tube amps require less warm-up time and tubes have a limited lifespan. So, for tube equipment, its a little less practical to leave them on 24/7. With my MG head: I do not turn it off if I am planning on listening to it within the next 3 - 6 hours. I leave my cdp (nad c541) in standby mode unless im not going to be listening to it for a few days or so.

 

[Beagle]

Quote:

Originally posted by radrd I've always shut my stuff off at night. Do I need to? First, should I for any technical reasons? Will they die faster if I do or do not shut them off?

If you want to shorten the life of the transistors, resistors et al, leave it on. If not, turn them off when you are not using them.

 

[tom hankins]

I've talked to tech's at both Krell and parts connextion about leaving there amps, preamps, and cdp's on 24/7. They both said it causes no extra wear on there products (cd25, krell amp and pre) and in no way lessens the life of there products.