California electrical shortage audio


California is experiencing an electrical power shortage and has random brown outs. Many current audio products are now designed to be left with the power on (they say producing no harm or wear to the unit). Many manufactures recommend that leaving the power on allows the circuitry to remain at a constant operating temperature, providing better performance and longer life. Should I continue to leave my CD Player and integrated amplifier on in mute mode considering the California electrical power shortage and random brown outs? thanks...
hgeifman

Showing 1 response by panzercat

I usually leave on everything that doesn't have moving parts, like the preamp, DAC, and power amps. I used to leave everything on, but some tape decks and cd players have motors that continue to spin, and then belts and motors wear out too fast. I also have a power conditioner on my stuff since the power is so bad in my area, and I don't like to give up listinging to music during storms just to protect my equipment. I have read that brown-outs can be very hard on equipment like amps because when the voltage drops, the power supply draws more current than normal which can damage the circuits. In general I think its better to leave the eqipment on because it is warmed up and ready to go, but also keeping it at the operating temperature is easier on the components because you don't have the heat up/cool down cycle that can cause components to fail early. However, if your power is not clean, as during brown-outs or electrical storms etc, then you can be doing more harm than good if you don't have protection on the power line.