Effects of Power Outages Where You Live

Meant sewing not seeding machine. Thought I correct it with this tough crowd ;)

Audiophile: Sweetheart please unplug my cd player five times this month but don't tell me when. Plug it in again before I wake up or get home from work.

Wife: (Not even giving an odd look anymore) Sure, whatever you say.

Audiophile: (Comes home and puts in a cd.) Honey, I know you unplugged my cd player today.

Wife: (Cooking dinner wondering why husband is playing with his tonearm instead of cutting broccoli) Yeah, sure I did.

Audiophile: (A few weeks later recognized the tell-tale sign again.) Sweetie, I know you did it again, you unplugged my cd player. I'd say for 7 hours.

Wife: I have no idea, I plugged all that sh** into a hundred foot extension cord and ran it over to Jane's house. She plugged in to her sowing machine power strip. She said she'd take care of it for me.

On average, I'm away from home 12 hours a day while at work. When I leave in the morning and there's storms in the forecast, I unplug all my gear. I've honestly never noticed any detrimental impact of unplugging my gear, or even just turning it off while not in use for that matter. After an hour or so, it sounds great.

For what its worth, I have a Audio Resaerch CD-3mkII which does not have an on/off switch. Obviously Audio Research sees some merit in leaving digital equipment powered up all the time.

Chadnliz I'm in Columbus. I can easily see your point Tvad. A similar concept takes place when new words get added to the dictionary. A word is invented by some person and gets repeated over and over by many people. The common usage of that word eventually leads to it being added to the dictionary. And all because some person first used the word.

Gee Tvad welcome to Audio, shall we start a list of subjective unscientific mumbo jumbo....you first :)

I have heard that 48 hour rule too, not to say I agree or discount that theory but I have heard it before.

Foster, Salem Oh here, where are you????

Bob_bundus, yes my integrated is solid state (Blue Circle BMPH). Sns you are spot on with thoughts I mentioned in my original post. With all the new equipment that the power company had to use to bring the grid back and rebuilding etc it must affect the end result into our homes. I notice a difference in general in the electric at my house. And in particular my system after almost 3 dsys sounds tipped up. It has more high end but is leaner with less weight and less low end overall. Hopefully the sonics will come back into balance with time. But how can anyone expect all the work the power company has to do in these situations not to affect the power coming into your home? As sensitive as an audio system can be it surely could affect its performance.

My experience mirrors Foster, everytime my PC shuts down my system takes at least a day to sound right. My digital runs 24/7, my preamp standby, and PC transformer wiring drawing current. Think about a hard shutoff, I can imagine a lot of parts are being highly stressed, I would think they need some time to recover. Changes to the power grid may be affecting things as well, they have been highly stressed as well. Think about all the new parts, their burn in times, difference in design, you may have an entirely different sounding grid after all these changes.

I don't know about 48 hours for digital, but I do know it takes longer than my other equipment to sound it's best. I leave my digital on 24/7.

I don't think we're talking about soft shutoffs here.

Years ago I read about not turning off digital gear and the affects here:

http://www.high-endaudio.com/RC-Digital.html

At the time I deferred to Mr Salvatore's experience.

Maybe I overstated when I said "seems to be the common wisdom." That fellow gets criticized plenty in many quarters, but he knows an awful lot about high end audio performance.

I've read of quite a few audiophiles who believe you don't turn off digital gear. How long it takes to bring it back to optimal performance has not been debated as much. A member here (Raquel), whose audio knowledge I respect posted that digital gear should be left on 24/7.

Member Post On Turning Off Digital

This member doesn't put a time frame on a return to optimal performance if digital gear is turned off however.

But because you brought it up Tvad and I respect your knowledge of high end audio, I may try turning off my digital gear too. Another member I respect who has one of the same players as I turns it off after every listening session.

Just wanted to let you know that after plugging in my system it did not sound the same after a whole day of being on. Bass in particular and resolution were not as they had been. For those of you espousing a few hours of on-time, the common wisdom seems to be that digital sources take at least 48 hours to return to optimum performance after being turned off or unplugged. That's why many including me almost never turn digital gear off. So for me 48 hours would be the bare minimum of time to expect the system to sound itself. I don't think there are any guarantees however. IMO.

Emerson I assume your question regards solid state (vs. tubes which pretty much warm up almost immediately).

This really depends upon your particular equipment. Some would take 1-2 hours as others have experienced. My own: the PA takes a few hours. The PRE requires over a full day to sound its' best. Assume typically about 30 hours to attain full thermal stabilization with solid state.

When the line is bouncing I always unplug everything just as I do in stormy weather; those line transients are murder on your equipment.

Foster,

It had an "effect" on me when I was doing an auto exchange in Dublin,
near Columbus.

My metal ratchet nylon tie-downs blew off my trailer, then I watched sheets of plywood and plastic tarps lift off the roof of the dealership where they were remodeling sail through the air like a kite over a block away.

Wanna know the weather in Ohio ? Wait 5 mniutes.

True Eee3 that's happened here in the past but not so much with my current system. Hope the gear is robust enough to be unaffected.

I to have the power outage problem but I worry more about what damage it is doing to my system and components, than about the time it takes between being plugged and unplugged.
Sometimes it will cut off and back on 2-3 times in a minute!
That can't be good for components!

i did not listen to the stereo for several days. turned it on and it sounded the same in less than one hour.

Returns to normal after about 24 hours unplugged. We've had a few outages up here in Michigan as well, I too wonder about how all the new power line equipment affects the sound. I use a power conditioner on everything but the amp so it may be a moot point for me.