When I asked this question on Google, it said this is almost a religious issue.
Probably shouldn’t have brought it up.
Amp — Leave on or turn off
I always turned my Benchmark AHB2 amp off after use every night. After all, why is there an on off switch on the front panel if not to do that? Last night I accidentally left it on. This morning, when I played my first record, I couldn’t believe my ears. The same record I played last night sounded infinitely better. I tried a second record and that, too, was much better.
I know there’s a debate on the question of leaving an amp on all the time.
I now know where I stand!
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- 110 posts total
@rvpiano I think it’s fine to bring up again. Good on ya. @bigtwin I think score-keeping will eventually fall into the hands of AI modules better suited for thread-summing than those currently employed by Google etc. For now, yeah, it’s still best just skimmed maybe. 😅 These threads can be useful for anyone hoping to check whether an individual poster has a tendency to conflate personal anecdote with meaningful evidence. Plenty of that on each thread like this. In this particular thread’s case there is a clear answer (best had from the manufacturer): Benchmark can be turned off unless one prefers to be marginally wasteful of energy. The class D amps that power my subs are no different and also have a 15 min auto-standby feature (was required by law for them to be sold in EU as opposed to in US). I specifically got away from tubes in most of my devices because of the antagonistic relationship of needing to warm up but also having a finite, heat-related lifespan for increasingly expensive tubes. Only one post mentioned insurance. Check your home/renter/RVauto insurance policy and if an amp-caused burn-down could be considered void due to a manufacturer’s recommendation to leave an amp powered on, then never mind said amp designer and always turn off your amp when not in use. If unclear on this, always turn off your amp when not in use (or at least when you’re not home/awake). It’s amazing to me the haphazard recommendations that will flow out of some folks as though nothing in life is bigger than a hobby of recorded music playback. Don’t unwittingly make a fire hazard or an insurance claim hazard. Once you know folks who’ve gone through this, you develop caution by virtue of proximity. It’s probably worth heeding more than a pile of anecdotes about how a handful of folks perceive unmeasurable differences in sound based on temperatures they can’t be bothered to record and report. 😉 |
@benanders Exactly how many people do you know who’ve had a fire hazard from audio equipment? It’s probably at about the same percentage as getting hit by lightning. Using your logic, you should probably never drive a car because you could get into an accident. Gimme a break with your fear mongering. |
@soix +1 Mike |
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