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Can temperature fluctuations affect audio gear?

Don't know about this...some owner's manuals say that you should allow equipment and tubes to warm to room temperature before using them, but this is different. My audio room is upstairs, isolated from the thermostat. Have to keep the door closed so the dogs don't venture in there and create havoc. Hence, in summer, the temperature in the room regularly goes to 85 degrees or so. In winter (like now), it will easily drop below 60 degrees. No need to worry about equilibration, since the gear is always in there, but should I worry about the temp fluctuations? Could get a baby gate to keep the dogs out, then it would stay 70-72, but otherwise, in winter a space heater is the only option.
afc

Showing 2 responses by paperw8

paperw8
165 posts
 

some owner's manuals say that you should allow equipment and tubes to warm to room temperature before using them

i use solid state devices only so i am not familiar with such advice. the thought that comes to my mind is that the reason why the makers of tube equipment might offer this advice is so that you don't shatter the glass tubes. if you took a glass out of the freezer and immediately filled it with boiling water, it would likely shatter. when you power up a tube amplifier, i would imagine that the temperature would rise pretty quickly. so, if you left a tube amplifier out in the cold overnight, hauled it inside, immediately powered it up and started playing music at high volume, then i would imagine that the tubes would heat up pretty quickly; maybe while the glass tube housing is still cold. if the glass shatters, then your tube would be shot.

that would be my hypothesis with respect to tube electronics...
paperw8
165 posts
 

12-05-10: Magfan
Elizabeth,
You could make a decent case for me being about 1/2 gene away from washing my hands 30 times a day.
Heat DOES kill electronics, no question about it. The devices most prone to heat effects are power devices, which obviously use plenty of heat sinks. ICs can cook, too, some of which have extremely high circuit density. The proof can be found in any semiconductors 'reliability' testing program where devices are tested to failure.

i tend to agree somewhat with elizabeth's caution: your "no question about it" assertion is a deterministic statement based on statistical testing. reliability testing tests devices under accelerated conditions and then attempts to extrapolate those results for less extreme conditions. but it is statistical analysis. the reason why they do accelerated testing is because nobody can actually wait 20 years to see what would actually happen under real world conditions.
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