My class A amps take over an hour to sound their best.
Vinyl Warm Up Time
Curiously, I am finding it’s only after a few vinyl albums into a listening session that my system starts to sound convincingly good.
For instance yesterday, I started off with a couple of Billy Cobham albums, Spectrum and a live one. This was followed by Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. All three albums sounded quite harsh in places, although good sound shone through in others.
It wasn’t until I got to a fourth album, Yes’s Tormato that the sound became really convincing. Then with the fifth album, Yes’s Drama things started cooking. It sounded absolutely superb.
This seems an inordinate length of time for the system, presumably the cartridge to warm up particularly in summer. It has been fairly humid recently.
I have returned to vinyl last year after a gap of five years. I don’t remember this ever being an issue in the past. In general, I am getting a much better sound than before due to various upgrades to the turntable and the rest of the system.
I am using the same model of coil cartridge, a Linn Kandid that I used for many years previously. I bought the current one used, so it may well be getting towards the end of it’s life. The turntable was rebuilt and upgraded towards the end of 2024.
Maybe, it’s just me who takes a long time to relax and get into the listening zone. I don’t get the same issue with streaming, but then I never reach the same heights as I do with vinyl.
Is this typical of other members’ experiences? Any advice will be much appreciated.
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- 37 posts total
@tcutter If these are SS Amp's, I sense a little music heard as Background Music will make the optimisation period feel speeded up. If Valve Amp's I can only suggest keeping close and having 'eyes on' the Amp's when in use. 'Eyes On' has always been the discipline in my home, hence the SS set up for the Wife that is now being investigated / built for her purposes. Vinyl Source and conventional Box Speakers for the eyes on sessions. CD / Streamer for the mooching around the home, maybe for this a Wireless Speaker set up as well. As somebody who has been to experience Cartridge Demo's using Same Headshell > Tonearm > TT and Audio System. It is experienced on quite a few occasions that a Cart' that has been declared as not used for a period of time, takes a period of time to come on song. Usually those doing the listening / assessing are needing to agree when the perceive it is performing at the point it is now worthwhile commenting on. I have absolutely no doubts Cart's of the designs I am familiar with are needing a period of usage to offer a optimised performance, when the effects of Kinetic Energy on the Cart' has diminished. There is absolutely nothing to suggest from my end this is a Bad Thing. Mr J Carr has made known other inefficiencies about energies being encountered, which is what it is, the Cart' is not perfect as a mechanical device for using the embedded data it is designed to pass on to become electrical energy, much of the energy sent is dumped. The energy dump is not discriminating, both Valuable and Not so Valuable are sent on as Signal and Dumped. |
- 37 posts total