Time/Process of Hooking up New Equipment


Does anyone else ever felt this way?  My new amp arrived with cables and I want to wait until the weekend to hook it up.  I don't want to rush through it after work when it is dark and I am tired - almost rushing to get through it.  I want to make it a longer event and have time to listen to my existing system, then do the work to hook it up (a bit of a pain) and then rest and have time to listen to the new amp.  Maybe stretch out the fun and be fresh on a Saturday morning.  What is everyone's timing / process for installing new gear and the before and after listening?  

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Showing 1 response by mike4597

Yes, I usually do the same.  I recently replaced my Rogue Audio RP-1 preamp with the RP-7.  I had spent the better part of two weeks auditioning both the RP-7 and the Backert Rhumba 1.3, and I ended up preferring the RP-7 by a “smidge.”  In my hearing, a wider soundstage, and I preferred the tonal qualities of the Rogue, although I must admit that the Backert had, again—in my hearing, a “smidge” better definition.

So, I was not in a hurry to “install” the RP-7 in our system.  I am a disabled veteran, and I was tired the evening after the 60-mile round trip to return the demo units and pick up my new unit, so I waited until the next morning when I was fresh and had more energy.  I have open rack/stand system—not a closed cabinet—so it was fairly easy to hook up the XLR cables from my DAC to the preamp and the preamp to my Benchmark AHB2 power amplifier.  I did run into one glitch: I turned on the “master” power switch on the back of the RP-7 and, after a minute or so, I turned on the front power switch.  This resulted in the display showing some combination of what appeared to have been Roman, Cyrillic, and some unrecognizable text.  A call to Rogue immediately solved my problem—turn on the “master” power switch on the rear of the unit and then wait about 5-10 minutes to turn on the power to allow the unit to properly go through its start up cycle.  I did so, and it worked just fine, with the appropriate text on the display.  Had I tried to set it up the previous evening, the guys at Rogue would have left for the day, and I would have been left annoyed and frustrated.

Patience, after all, really is a virtue.  Even in relatively simple tasks.