Listening after your entire system was powered off cold for a week+


Have you ever had your entire system completely unplugged-powered off for a week+, turned it all on, sat down for a brief listen, and immediately became disappointed with the sound after a cold startup?

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With temporary amnesia, rediscovered again today for the 100th time there were no problems with my dac or tubes or any component failures going on.

@4-5 hours warmup, a radical transformation with the sound. Transformers on the dac, preamp, amps, all warmed up - - woah, here comes the missing tone, texture, soundstage, opening up nicely, and musicality. "There it is!".   Email this link to self, revisit periodically as prescribed. Maybe an isolated case :)

 

decooney

@phusis "Having had the amps and music server turned off for more than a few days - like a week or two - can lend a stiffness, grayness and slight distance to the sound right after power up..." 

 

Thanks for sharing the background and the details below it about how it sounds when you’ve had it playing more aggressively. I’ve noticed something very similar over the years yet failed to mention this in the OP. Interesting in any case, 👍

Most of what I notice is slowness getting Ethernet connected again with the network sreamer and innuos needing an IP refresh.  As far as sound, once everything is updated sound has been the same for me. I'm on comast if that matters.

I leave my preamp and CDP on 24/7. Only the amp gets turned off after a listening session. The pre and CDP get turned off and unplugged for about a minute then re-plugged and turned back on once a month to reset the electronics. 

Takes about 20 minutes for the amp to warm up and sound its best.

With all the monsoon storms we've had here in AZ this year, several times I've had to power down and unplug for several days at a time. For casual listening or background music, an hour or so of warm up is OK, but for serious listening, the SS Amp, DAC and CDPs take several hours to start sounding good and about 12 Hrs.  to sound their best. My tubed Pre sounds great after about a half an hour......Jim