Leave it on?


I just listened to Paul McGowan explain that turning SS equipment on and off degrades the capacitors from the tiny power surge and that leaving SS equipment on ALL THE TIME is best. What do you do? 

maprik

Showing 2 responses by mulveling

In most cases this is just picking nits. Well-designed gear that is relatively low in idle power draw (preamps, class D / G / H amps) should have NO problem either way. Do what you like. Gear that is high in constant power draw, are therefore heat dissipation - tube power amps, class A and high bias AB solid state power amps - should really be kept OFF when not in use. In my experience, hotter components are also more likely to sound good quickly after warmup - simply because they hit thermal equlibrium quicker. SS is always slower to warm up than tubes.

@soix 

Yes, definitely ask the manufacturer on that. The more sophisticated (expensive) balanced tube preamps I’ve owned (ARC Ref 6, Rogue Hera, VAC Master) have relay-timed outputs: the outputs are not "live" during a warm-up period, and are first disengaged on shut-down. These have been OK when I’ve inadvertently violated the usual start up / shut-down order - no thumps. BUT I think for general "gear hygeine" it’s still smart to stick to the usual order, as much as possible. But also, these days, with all the protection options available, I think it’s very hard to justify manufacturing any preamp that could cause an awful THUMP in speakers!