It’s the time of year for saving money!
Back in 1962, I was still a student at UCLA and already (since
age 12) a long-time audiophile. One day, when I was in Hollywood for some
reason, I stopped in at Radio KFWB’s broadcast studios on Hollywood Boulevard,
introduced myself, and, with a degree of nerve or naiveté that I wonder if I
could muster now, I asked if I could take a look around.
KFWB was then one of L.A.’s most popular AM music stations and,
although I’m sure they must have had a great many more important things to do,
one of the station executives very graciously assigned the station’s
Maintenance Engineer to give me the “grand tour”.
The actual broadcast studios were very interesting, of course,
with treated walls to control the acoustics and RCA, Electro-Voice (and even, if
I remember correctly, one Altec 649) microphones, but what was most amazing to
me was that there were what seemed to me like endless rooms of floor-to-ceiling
tube electronics, ALL TURNED ON and glowing brightly! The whole studio was
air-conditioned, so it wasn’t excessively warm, but I was absolutely blown away
by the thought of all that equipment, all in operation at the same time.
Even though the station had a number of studios, I thought, only one of them
could ever be “on the air” at any given moment, so why was all this equipment
running, apparently all the time?
When I asked this question of the Engineer, his answer was
that, yes, all of it was turned-on, all the time, twenty-four hours of every
day, and that they kept it that way for reasons of both security and economy:
Security, because if any piece of equipment were ever to fail, the station
would always have another of the same thing, already warmed-up to replace it,
and would never have to risk going off the air. Economy, because, even despite
the electricity cost (remember that this was in the early ’60s and electricity
was very cheap), all of those tubes would last MANY times longer, saving on
both the cost of the tubes and the labor to replace them. He went on to explain
that the thing that causes tubes to “wear out” is not their operation, but the
repeated heating and cooling cycles that come from turning equipment on and off
again whenever it is used. This, he said, eventually results in a form of
“fatigue” to the metal elements of the tubes and finally results in their
failure. Just as a light bulb will last
much longer if you just turn it on and LEAVE it on, he said, so will an
electron tube.
From that point on, I’ve always left my System turned on,
whether with tubes (EICO integrated amps, when I was a kid and VTL now) or with
Klein, Rowland, Krell, and other solid-state, and I’ve always been glad I did.
I know that many or possibly even most audiophiles, hoping to
preserve their precious (and pricey) tubes for as long a useful life as
possible, turn their System on only when they actually intend to listen to it,
and then turn it off when they’re done. My advice to you, if you’re one of
those people, is to simply LEAVE IT
ON. It’s not the hours of operation, but thermal cycling that shortens tube
life and, at today’s tube prices – especially for output tubes – it will save
you money.
Not only that, but your System will sound better, too! All
electronics, whether tube or solid state, sound better when they’re fully
warmed-up and have reached their point of thermal stability. And it’s not just
the output devices, either: Capacitors and even resistors need time to fully
“form” and function at their very best, and all too many audiophiles, intending
to be frugal, wind up listening to their System and turning it off again long
before it ever reaches its optimum level of performance. This is particularly
true for owners of Rowland and other cold-blooded gear, which can take as long
as several days turned-on before it reaches peak performance.
Even if you’re running Class A electronics, which draw full
power out of the wall at all times and can be viciously expensive to keep
running, there may be an option: Often such gear, either tube or solid-state,
will offer an “idle” or “standby” position on its power switch that will allow
you to keep it running and warm while still being able to afford to feed your
family. If it’s got it use it.
Whatever your System is, though, at least try leaving it on for
a few days. My guess is that you’ll find that it sounds better, and you may
never turn it off again.
About Roger Skoff
Roger Skoff is the founder of XLO Cables. The company was sold in 2002. Roger is not currently affiliated with any audiophile companies directly but is still passionate about the hobby of audiophilia.
While I basically agree with much (but not all) of what Mr Skoff has to say, my own pondering of this question over the years has led me to a different conclusion.
Mr Skoff ignores two basic factors that need to be considered here, The responsible use of energy, and home safety.
I don’t want to get into a big debate about global warming, but in any proposal that could lead to an individual expanding their personal carbon footprint by several times, the subject should at least come up. A big low efficiency system will burn through at least 1kWh per hour just sitting there idling, that’s almost 10,000 kWh per year. In 2010, the average family home used 11,496kWh, so this proposal to keep your hi-fi running could itself burn as much electricity as an average family uses. That’s simply irresponsible in today’s world.
Mr Skoff cites savings on the cost of replacement tubes due to reduced heat cycling as an economy measure, but this argument doesn’t hold water either. Yes, tubes may last longer if they are on continuously (although the type of catastrophic failure he cites is quite rare in my experience), but the savings are soon lost due to the added cost on your utility bill. Here in New York, electricity for domestic users runs around 8 cents per kWh. Using our 1 kWh system, that means almost $700 added to your electricity bill each year. Even if you change the tubes every year, this is most likely more than the tubes will cost.
Over many years as head installer for one of the leading high-end audio stores in the US, I witnessed several cases where high-end equipment caught fire or otherwise “went ballistic.” Had there been nobody around to take immediate action, some of these cases could have easily resulted in a devastating fire. In one case I recall, a power amplifier had a meltdown that charred the paint off and burned the shelf it was sitting on, and in another case, the carpet in one of the store’s demonstration rooms had a distinct singed area where a tube amp had shot flames several feet into the air.
My own solution is to compromise. I have found that some equipment is far more sensitive to warm up times that others, I think Mr Skoff referred to this as “cold-blooded.” So with low power consumption source components like phono stages, preamps, DACs, and digital transports I do leave them on continuously, but with big power suckers like my three power amps (I have a tri-amped system), I turn them off if I won’t be listening any more on that day.
I have found that the sonic benefits of warm up tend to follow a logarithmic curve. Within one minute you’re at 90%, and after 10 minutes you’re at 99%. The problem is that the last 1% could take a week or more. That’s a compromise I’m willing to make, given the other considerations I mentioned.
I, too, use Michael’s more pragmatic approach. Low power – leave on; high power turn on before use and off after use…
Great comments.
While I am a pig with my Pass Labs class-A amp. I try to shut everything else off.
With my house up for sale – I am looking to solar for future electrical thus I won’t feel so bad about power consumption. That’s a ways off for me. Easily a year if not longer.
I fear the god of thunder! So therefore I unplug when not in use. My system is all solid state so warm up is minimal.
If you’ve never tried leaving your system on for at least a few days, you really don’t know how how long it takes to get fully warmed-up and sounding its best. Try it; you may like it. If you’re really concerned about lightning strikes, a good, well-grounded lightning rod is a lot easier than having to plug everything in and out all the time. And if you’re concerned about power consumption, see if your amp has a “standby” position, and, if so, use it. That way it really WILL be able to get up to temp in just a few minutes after you turn it to the ful l”on” position and you’ll have the best of both worlds.
I have the Prima Luna tube equipment with the “soft start” circuitry. It does start sounding better after about 45 minutes.
I agree, I have a PL Dialogue Premium HP amp with KT120’s-8- & a PL Dialogue Premium preamp. Absolutely, it sounds MUCH better after 1 hour of warm up. I leave the preamp on all the time, the amp on all the time unless I’m not listening for 3 day’s or more.If you value sound quality, there you have it, never had a problem, running almost 2 years this way! Try it, you WILL hear a sonic improvement.
I also have the Primaluna Dialogue Premium preamp & the PL Dialogue Premium HP amp with 8 KT120’s.Sounds WAY better after 1 hour of warm up.Preamp on all the time, amp on for 72hrs or more.NEVER a problem,only positive sonic improvements across the board! It’s audible & not only to the “audiophiles”.
Roger Skoff Rick Klages•a few seconds ago
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If you’ve never tried leaving your system on for at least a few days, you really don’t know how long it takes to get fully warmed-up and sounding its best. Try it; you may like it. If you’re really concerned about lightning strikes, a good, well-grounded lightning rod is a lot easier than having to plug everything in and out all the time. And if you’re concerned about power consumption, see if your amp has a “standby” position, and, if so, use it. That way it really WILL be able to get up to temp in just a few minutes after you turn it to the full “on” position, and you’ll have the best of both worlds.
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If you’ve never tried leaving your system on for at least a few days, you really don’t know how how long it takes to get fully warmed-up and sounding its best. Try it; you may like it. If you’re really concerned about lightning strikes, a good, well-grounded lightning rod is a lot easier than having to plug everything in and out all the time. And if you’re concerned about power consumption, see if your amp has a “standby” position, and, if so, use it. That way it really WILL be able to get up to temp in just a few minutes after you turn it to the ful l”on” position and you’ll have the best of both worlds.
I leave my Pass Labs XA30.5 plugged in all of the time. Class-A baby. It sounds so good.
In my opinion, it’s irresponsible to characterize advice like this as being appropriate across the board. As a collector of vintage audio equipment, the idea of leaving a vintage Macintosh or Quad tube amplifier powered-up and unattended for days seems insane. It’s not a “rare” occurrence for tube amplifiers to, without warning, create fire hazards. Over the last 18 months, three of my four Quad II’s have suffered catastrophic failures, two of which resulted in serious overheating. And, yes, all have been fully overhauled by the Quad factory. In one case, a one-month-old new-new-stock Golden Lion KT66 tube shorted out, creating a current draw sufficient to burn out an output transformer. I would have thought such a thing impossible, but the sequence of failure was confirmed by Quad’s valve guru, the notorious “Mr. Bunting,” who further stated that he’d seen this sort of thing before. Every credible tube tech who has restored or repaired tube gear has agreed: It’s unwise and, often, downright dangerous to leave tube gear turned on and unattended. Many agree that today’s tubes simply don’t offer the reliability we took for granted back in the 50s, but even under the best of conditions, 300+ volt buses and high-current heaters are not the kinds of things you want to leave powered up and sitting on a hardwood floor while you’re out at the links.
My 2c.
Significant typo: That should have been: “Every credible tube tech who has restored or repaired tube gear has agreed…”
I don’t see any point in leaving solid state gear on while not in use, even small pieces. Electrolytic capacitors deteriorate from heat. Warming up is very quick, it’s not tubes.
From the point of view of physics of the processes, there won’t be any difference, if you leave it on for a few days or for ah hour, unless components change irreversibly over the longer period. Perceived sonic differences are in the head of the beholder, most certainly.
Re: stand-by on, it depends on the design. Commonly, stand-by only keeps unrelated to sonic performance bits powered. Unless it says in the user manual, e.g. Arcam alpha-9 CD player I own has that, there’s no point in keeping it on stand-by either.
mmmmmmmmmmmm why not just heat it up with a little thermal heater for 1/2 hr before start up……….. cool down should be slow if you turn the unit fan off……