It’s the time of year for saving money!
One of the things about living in the Southeast is one must become accustomed is summer thunderstorms. This is not to say other parts of the country are lacking in such weather, it’s that the Southeast can easily have several each week. Thunder, lighting, hail, driving wind and torrential rain is not uncommon. And for whatever reason, there is the occasional loss of power. When that happens, it always scares me because I rarely power my system off – unless I will be gone for an extended period. I do so because I try to avoid one the more curious aspects of high performance audio, equipment warm up.
For most things in our life we turn on a switch and the thing powers on. No waiting, no fuss, just flip the switch and presto, instant use. So it was the other day, when we were having one of our more common 4:00 PM summer storms that usually lasts an hour at most, my power went out. Poof – no lights, no A/C and no stereo system. This always besets a feeling of apprehension because I worry when the electricity is restored, my system powers up, some sort of overload happens and something subsequently burns up. Why take the chance? Simple, I leave my system powered on so I can avoid the time necessary for it to warm up and sound its best. For my system, that time frame is about three hours. Certainly more time than I have or even want to spend waiting on my rig to sound its best.
Warm up is one of those believe it or not things and like so much in audio there is no real clear cut answer. If you have tube equipment, it’s probably not wise to leave it running 24/7. Unless, of course, you like additional heat in the room, increased energy costs and best of all, frequent replacement of those expensive vacuum tubes, or “valves” for those in Europe. If you have solid state equipment it’s a little different. Class A amps, particularly those with no bias control, create considerable heat. If your class A amp does have a bias switch that can throttle down the power at idle, then it is not so much of a heat producing, power consuming component. Class A/B, one of the more popular solid state amp designs, do tend to run warm, but not hot, so leaving them on all the time may not be as problematic.
My A/B amp is constantly powered on. Much debate swirls about Class D, or switching amps, and the presumed wisdom of having the power on when no music is playing. Other components such as preamps, DAC’s and typical source components generally consume little energy anyway so the threat to them is likely not as great as an amp – depending, of course, on the actual component, design and manufacturer.
Another consideration in all of this are things like transformers and capacitors. It is undeniable these parts of any component can and do wear out at some point, although that time can be quite varied. Some receivers still work fine forty or more years after their manufacture.
Still, because a capacitor, for instance, is a device that stores a charge when power is applied and eventually drains the charge when power is removed, the life of the capacitor may be shortened the more charging and discharging that occurs. Leaving a cap charged all the time therefore seems to make sense. And then there is the question of the capacitor type and how it might react to constant power and if it will leak. And on and on and on. This is a discussion with many different variables.
Another factor worth mentioning are utility costs. How much does it cost your monthly power bill to run all these components night and day? 10% more? 20%? More than that? At my previous residence I tried an experiment.
I left everything powered on for one month and off for one month. I only noticed a utility cost difference of about $20.00, and that could have been because of other factors such as how much I was running the HCVAC, dryer, stove, etc., etc. In my current home I have yet to check because I have yet to really care how much it costs my power bill. I want the system powered on all the time and so it shall be, utility costs notwithstanding.
Recently, during one of our all too common storms, my power went out for about a minute. As previously stated, this always concerns me. When the electricity was restored, I went to my audio room. I powered everything back on, in the proper order, and decided to play some music just to be sure everything worked. Immediately I noticed how different the sonics sounded. Did I say different? I meant worse! I could not believe how bad things sounded compared to what I was accustomed to hearing.
Deciding to wait, I kept listening and after about an hour, I noticed that all of the sudden things sounded much better. I went downstairs and came back to the audio room three hours later and whaddya know, it sounded normal once again. In my mind that confirms the validity of warm up. However, I do realize there are those that do not believe in the concept for any number of reasons. I will only go so far to say that for my system, warm up is very real and undeniable. I believe in the practice of keeping my system powered on all the time. I don’t have the time, or desire, to wait three or four hours for my system to sound its best when I decide I want to play a song.
Like so many audio subjects this one can be, and has been in the past rather divisive and without agreement. And that’s fine. Each to their own. All audiophiles should have their own methodology and do what works best for them with their system. Regardless, warm up is a very real aspect of an audio system. Whether it is a believable aspect is, as always, up to the individual audiophile.
Paul, thanks for another great article. This was very informative with all of the different examples/variations that you provided.
I too have noticed that my system sounds better after listening for a while. But I don’t know if it’s because I’m having a great time or that the Rum and Cokes are convincing me it’s better. LOL
This is my set up. If you had this, would you still recommend leaving it on 24/7? It’s all plugged into a power conditioner / surge protector so I think the equipment is safe. Also, I don’t care what the electric bill as we don’t have many expenses.
Amp: Rotel RB-1590 – Class A/B, Solid State
Pre: Linear Tube Audio Microzotl Pre – Tube-based
DAC: Lab12 DAC1 SE – Tube-based
Digital: Auralic Aries G2 Streamer
Speaksers: Tekton Design Double Impact SE
Subs: 2 ea SVS PB-2000
Surge/Conditioner: Panamax M5400-PM
Hey Michael, I certainly appreciate the kind words. Glad you enjoyed the article. I have a hybrid phono stage with both a solid state section and a tube section. I am able to switch the tube section off and leave the solid state section powered on. But I still turn off the power button on the front that controls the tubes. Replacement tubes are just too expensive. So if I want to play an LP, I usually warm up the phonostage for about 2 hours before I sit down to listen. My digital section is solid state so it stays on all the time. Because your preamp and DAC are both tubed, you will be replacing tubes far more often if you leave them on. Because of the cost of tubes alone, and if I had your system, I’d probably leave the tubed equipment off and simply plan for a listening session where time for warm up could be provided. Of course it is probably a balance between the cost of tubes and how irritating it is to wait for the system to warm up. As far as the surge protector is concerned, well, I will only say lighting is a funny thing. If I am home and see that we are going to have a really bad electrical storm, I will run upstairs and power mine down, and unplug everything. My system is protected as well, presumably so anyway, but again, lighting and electricity are very unpredictable. I’d rather avoid a power surge burning up a component. And as far as the Run & Cokes are concerned, whatever makes it work, right?
Hi Paul,
Excellent article and you illustrate the issues those of us who live in the SE (in my case SE FL) experience all the time.
First, I couldn’t agree more. “Warmup” is real and why I leave my equipment on all the time. I have a CH M1.1 amp, which is self-biasing and despite that, it doesn’t sound it’s best until warmed up.I also think there is some legitimacy to a speaker warming up as well, but that is a different topic.
I will also add that those of us in the SE face additional problems. There is no doubt the power in the summer is “dirtier” and no matter how much you cool the room is more humid and, IMHO, both really effect sound for the worse; that in addition to the usual brownouts and blackouts. I recommend anyone living in the SE monitor the humidity and compare it among the different “seasons”. I have what I consider a very good AC system in my house, but, nothing can compete with Mother Nature and despite my best efforts to mitigate the ambient humidity, it does take its toll on the sound.
The reason I bring up “dirty power” AS WELL as humidity is I also believe my system sounds different (meaning worse) in the summer as a result of both. This is just conjecture regarding the humidity but I am not the first “audiophile” living in the swamps to observe this. In my current house, I have pretty good power from FPL and I have done all the appropriate things to ensure “clean power” from the outside, to the extent I can and have a power transformer for the equipment.
Long and short is that those of us in the swamps, at least in my opinion, have a less enjoyable system in the hot humid summer than we do in other seasons; warm-up is real, but as you poignantly pointed it our, in the swamps, you take that risk. Besides the latest solid state designs being much closer to tubes, living in SE FL is another reason I gave up on tubes.
Hey Priaptor,
I do thank you for the compliment on the article. I really do. You more so than I are familiar with the storms in Florida. I once took a customer to lunch in Miami. When we entered the restaurant the sun was shining. While there we had a torrential downpour, and by the time we left about an hour after we arrived, the sun was back out and not a drop of water in sight. So yes, I know all about Florida summer storms. We had a barn buster just the other day here in Charlotte. Looked like the world was ending. That certainly makes a stereo system a fun adventure! Thanks again for your comment and for reading Audiophile Review.
Audio can sound gritty when first powered on, then sound seems to round off / warm up after an hour, the audio from the Speakers seems to lose it’s location and direction, some sound engineers have claimed that the caps are like soda bottles etc, they have large bubbles in them when they are cool, and require movement of electricity to shrink /disipate them, which in turn could be the cause of the audio becoming more refined or smoother.
It also seems that music has more headroom at the later hours, that is music does not to be turned up as loud, turning music up louder is a function of background noise overpowering the signal, it could be a phenomenom of ~ as the electrical grid reduces its power consumption during peak hours, the S/N ratio increases at later hours.IMO.
I absolutely have experienced equipment warmup, and for those who dismiss the idea out of hand maybe they haven’t had experience with components that do this. Typically I hear systems “open up” after anywhere from a half hour to a few hours (sometimes longer), and go from flat and sometimes grainy-sounding to smoother, less “electronic”-sounding and having a bigger soundstage. With some components, like a friend’s Cambridge DAC Magic 100 or my Creek Destiny 2 power amp, the difference is obvious. My 1968 Ampeg Reverbojet tube guitar amp ABSOLUTELY sounds better after it’s been on for a half-hour. Note that this is different from equipment break-in, a whole other subject.
I’ve always thought gear sounded better once it was up to operating temperature, but it was never more apparent until I started running Pass gear. The difference in presentation straight out of stand-by mode compared to after an hour or so of playback is startling, so much so that I started asking other Pass owners if they noticed the same thing just to see if mine was operating correctly. When they all concurred, I called Pass Labs to find out why? The short answer, according to them, it the caps they use simply sound better after they get a lot of heat into them. I won’t pretend understand why that makes a difference, but it most assuredly does.
Know what else Darin? This is one of those things not easily measured or quantified. It is almost a believe it or not thing. And if your particular system does change after warming up, you will be a believer and almost no amount of argument will change your mind. You hear a change, therefore there is one. If others do not, that works also.
Happy Listening.
Agreed 100%
As an Electrician, I always advise my clients to use a Sine Wave UPS between your audio gear and the supply. Typically, for a few hundred bucks you can buy essential protection, more money will extend your run time.
Subjective observation of a phenomenon you expected to happen is not really “undeniable”. Maybe it’s real,
maybe it’s not.