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

Everything but the amplifier stays in 24/7, the amp usually gets turned off before I go to bed.  Everything gets unplugged when bad weather is approaching.  All of my equipment is solid state.

What if your amps don’t even have an on/off switch, just an IEC?!  I just leave them powered up all the time.  SMc Audio now uses thermal-magnetic switches (think Swiss Digital Fuse Box) that serves the purposes of both equipment protection (i.e., fuse) and on/off switch.  After sourcing two of them from SMc, I mounted them in-line, in the wall, one for each amp and replaced the line fuses in both amps with copper rod.  At least I can now turn the amps on/off without unplugging them.

@mitch2 Nice. I’m jealous of your magnetic switches.  My upgraded DNA 0.5 has the power switch disconnected so I’ve gotta unplug my amp to turn it off.  But I leave it on all the time anyway, unless I’m going away for at least a few days, so it’s no biggie but still it’d be nice to have the power switch working.  BTW, Patrick at SMcAudio said I probably prolonged the life of my amp by years by leaving it on.   All I know is the thing lasted 30 years with me leaving it on.

 

2 additional points;

1-in Roon as far as clearing the 'image cache' once you hit that button you do need to wait for at least 10 seconds before you restart Roon for the action to complete.

2-i use an Equi=tech 10WQ 10kva Isolation Transformer for my whole system. in the Pacific Northwest where i live we very rarely get electric storms, maybe once every 3-4 years. nothing like the mid west or southeast. but when we do i just throw the main breaker for my whole system and it's is isolated from the grid and protected. even when connected that transformer protects the system from spikes.

https://equitech.com/products/wall-mount/10wq/

I turn everything off the second I stop listening. And thanks guys for using this an opportunity to lecture us on climate change. 

Again lets talk about nuclear and not the other other underperforming solutions.

Interesting, inrush current having an affect on cap life. That is also not any kind of spec on caps. What is a spec is time, temp and voltage. 

On tubes, they also do not like heat, or voltage spike/changes. There are devices that stop inrush current on tubes, power them up slowly. 

On switches a lot of new stuff doesn't have one. If it does have a power switch, it's not really a power switch, but a button that puts the unit in stand-by. 

My system is all plugged into a Furman, I just flick the mag breaker off when not in use. Don't use any of the switches on my gear. However, my HT system has power all the time.

Sound wise, yes, leaving it on is best. Not sure it's best for longevity. Also think what Paul is saying when using perfect power with a regen unit, there may be less of a need to power down.