2. amps-preamps
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How long daes it take your gear to warm up?

Assuming that one turns off/on the audio equipment every day. How long does it take for your gear to perform as it best after a cold start? I ask because my Rotels RA-1090 need about 2 hr to really shine, otherwise the highs are ear piercing and the bass notes lack some punch. Any of you have to go through a similar time of warm up period?
tiofelon

Showing 2 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,839 posts
 
My stuff generally sounds good from teh start but warm up does not hurt. Its important to me to be able to sit down and enjoy without a wait. Even the ARC sp16 tube pre-amp, which has a relay that turns on once the device warms up after power on in a matter of seconds, is 100% listenable out of the gate. Also I leave my SS DAC and power efficient Class D power amps on most of the time. You can't do that generally with most tube gear without reducing tube life.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,839 posts
 
"Mapman, Your SP-16 is not warmed up in a matter of seconds. It has merey stabilized enough to be used."

YEs, perhaps I did not say it clearly, but it warms up enough so that the relay switches on and "good" listening is possible as per ARC design. It only gets better from there. I would not rule out additional "Warm-up" as a likely contributing factor, but I cannot say for sure.

Regardless, I tend to leave it on during the day if I know I will be listening again soon, otherwise I turn it off until the next time to save tube life. Them good performing tubes are rather expensive!
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