Solid state power amps.; on or off?


Some people keep telling me that solid state gear should be left powered on all the time during day to day listening. They claim that thermal consistency will improve long term life and reliability. Power cost consideration appart, what is your opinion; experience?
jmr

Showing 3 responses by jadem6

I leave my amp on all the time. A side story to illistrate the issue is with my Proton T.V. It's about 13 years old now and is used by our whole family, this means it goes on and off many times a day. Each time it's turned on the solder and electracal connections heat up and expand. Turning it off again the heated now contract. By cycling through thousands of times on our T.V. it final quite. I took it in, no problem with the componants, the solder joints had cracked. It was $250 to re-solder the mother board and power supply.
So my point is, in the extreme case we can see the damage done. Chances are you'll never own your amp for the approx. 5,000 on off cycles my T.V. experienced, but the same damage is done. The only issue I could see is if it runs in class A it could consumme alot of power just sitting, often times there is a stand-by mode for this issue.
Yea Craig, if you ever have a chance to pick up a Proton, they are ausume. Best piture tube made (Hattachi). I got mine at a close out dealer for 70% off and it was still over $1000, but that was the first and only issue I've had. Now it just needs to last another 13 so that HDTV finds it's place. J.D.
Elizabeth, your on botton got stuck! Best way to resolve this problem .....