Keeping your Pass Labs Amplifier on all the time

The X350.5 draws about 550 watts at idle and takes about an hour to warm up to peak sonic performance according to the manual.

The 550 watts would mostly be turned into heat. The cost would be the same as leaving 5 or 6 100 watt light bulbs on all the time. I don't know if that heat would result in lower heating bills in the winter to offset the cost, but I know that people sell amps because they heat up their listening rooms too much in the summer.

I would leave the amp in standby and turn it on an hour before I was going to listen or, if that's not possible, turn it on when you sit down to listen for a month. Then leave it on all the time for a month. Repeat this cycle until you can say for sure either it does or doesn't sound better when it's left on all the time. If it doesn't sound better in your system, there's no good reason to leave it on all the time.

You can also compare heating and electric bills to try and determine what it's costing to leave the amp on and then decide if any improvement in sound is worth any extra cost.

It doesn't really matter whether other people think it sounds better when left on all the time. The only opinions that matter are yours and those of anyone else who will be listening to your system a lot.

Enjoy that great amp and let us know what decision you arrive at regarding the leave on/turn on and off question.

Alan,

We put our Pass XA-200.5's on a few days before hand for serious listening, and let them warm up for at least an hour for unscheduled listening.

Is there a noticeable sonic difference? It's easily noticeable - our system sounds more natural and has less listener fatigue. But in all fairness - we also turn on our front end digital Meridian 800 series components.

Leaving the amplifiers on is NOT an effective method to heat your home (more so for XA but still for X series amplifiers) - electric is one of if not the most expensive methods to heat a home.

Enjoy your music, TJF.

I'm a proud and happy owner of a Symphonic Line RG7 MK4 amplifier. The amp's designer, Mr. Rolf Gemein, recommends to leave the amp on all the time for best sonic performance. I highly concur. After approximately 2-3 weeks of being left on, the amp's sonic qualities jumped from being excellent to revelatory! Liquidity, transparency and sheer musicality were immensely improved. I once read a post here that says a SL owner, after hearing the benefits of keeping the amp on, kept in powered continuously for three years!

I have a pair of XA100.5's which remain in standby mode until I want to listen. From my time with them, I have learned that after about 1 hour of being ON I am 90%+ on the quality of listening.

No sense in paying the electric company more $$ that can go to buying more music :).

Try the experiment yourself and hopefully you can save some $$.

I would not keep any amp on all the time! All you need is
about 30 minutes warm up for just about any amp. Why make the
electric company richer than they are now?

.
I have X-600 monoblocks (4 of them). I left them on 24/7 the first month that I owned them. I got my electric bill and I nearly had a heart attack. The elctric bill went through the roof. The amps are now always off until I am ready to use them. The cost is just too prohibitive to leave them on all the time. I don't notice any real difference in warm up time...I'm not listening for it. The system always sounds good to me.
.

I agree, not really any difference between leaving amps on or off, still takes an hour to sound good, I keep my amp completly off, fire it up from cold, i do this to save on capacitor life more than the power bill.

I agree, not really any difference between leaving amps on or off, still takes an hour to sound good, I keep my amp completly off, fire it up from cold, i do this to save on capacitor life more than the power bill.

I keep my pass int-150 on standby. If I will be away a couple of days it gets unplugged

Serious listening requires 1 hr warm up. Until then, I still listen and have never left the room screaming in horror

XA160.5 keep them on standby it only takes about 20 minutes for warmup. Best of Luck

I keep in standby mode until Friday morning then leave on through weekend since I listen a lot on weekends. It does sound better after a couple of hours. I have the xa30.8

I have XA60.5's and leave them on continuously for days, and every so often turn them off over night.

My electric bill went up $20/mo, over turn on one hour before listening.

I do not like to wait an hour before good playback, and they sound better after 2 days on.

I listen 3 to 4 hours every day.

Power transistor failures can occur after too many cold-hot temperature cycles.

I was told by Pass that from standby, my X250.5 takes about 1+ hours to sound it's best, more than a few hours from the fully off position.

I want to thank everyone for taking the time and getting back to me.

To all, have a great Holiday.

Best Regards,

Alan

I'm going to keep it in the stand/by mode for the record.