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Leaving Solid State Equipment on all the Time

Someone told me that: 
  • Leaving your gear on all the time allows all the components to "come up to temperature."  
  • Transistors, resistors and other devices all have specific operating temps that they work best at. Below these temps, they're not performing at peak capability. 
  • Transformers will generally take 2-3 days to settle down and come up to their operating temps. 
  • Capacitors will take anywhere between 3-4 days to settle down. 
  • If you're continuously turning off the gear, you're basically hearing the system as it's first waking up in the morning. After it's been on for a few days, you'll hear that the tonal balance smooths out, that the top end becomes sweeter and purer and that bass has more control, articulation, and becomes more natural. 
Any truth to any of that? 
oldschool1948

Showing 4 responses by oldschool1948

oldschool1948's avatar
oldschool1948 OP
507 posts
 
My equipment:
NAD M12 preamp/dac
NAD M22 v2 power amp
Innous Zenith MKII media player
Techniques SL-1600MK2 turntable 

I’m going to leave them on for a while just to see what happens.
oldschool1948's avatar
oldschool1948 OP
507 posts
 
Zenith setup is very user friendly. Instead of Roon, I use LMS  because I have several Squeezebox Duets, Raspberry PI Squeezelight players, and AirPlay speakers making up my whole house music system.  

I have the 2 TB model and have started ripping my CD library to it.  There are two modes. In “quick” mode it takes about 8 minutes to rip a CD.  The other mode is slower but you’re suppose to get a better copy.  I use the quick mode and have had no problems.  What I don’t like is sometimes their album art doesn’t match the CD cover.  I don’t think they are using a US based source.  

Zenith’s SQ is much, much better than my McIntosh 7008 CD changer and the Squeezebox Duet that it replaced. Local FLAC and DSD music files sound great, as does Tidal HiDef music.  

I have the MK2, their MK3 version will be out next month.  I got a great deal on a demo MK2 that I couldn’t pass up. When my ship comes in, I’ll upgrade to the Statement model :-)
oldschool1948's avatar
oldschool1948 OP
507 posts
 
I must say, my music does sound much better when I leave the equipment on.  

My NAD M12 pre/dac and M22 v2 power amp have a standby mode, but the Zenith does not.  First chance I get, I'm going to place the NADs in standby mode for a few hours and then power them up to see how long it takes for them to warm up.

I also have class A Mc MC2600 and Pioneer SPEC-4 power amps, which I rarely use these days.  I've always left those puppies off until I plan to use them.
oldschool1948's avatar
oldschool1948 OP
507 posts
 
I agree that heat is the enemy of electronic equipment.  I also think that if kept cool, you can run your equipment 7/24 with no issues.  Computers are a good example of that.  My desktop computer is liquid cooled, runs 7x24, and I've never had a problem.  My NAS drive runs 7/24 with no issues. Servers in our data centers run 7/24 with no heat related issues.  

All of my amps are in my basement where it is always cool, sometime too cool for my taste, but my wife loves it - go figure.  As I noted in an earlier post, I will try turning my gear on from standby mode to see how long it takes for them to settle down.  Also, saving a few $ on electricity and helping the environment are both good things.
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