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Warm it up before using

J

jfine

Super Member
I searched around and did not find much on this, so excuse if it's already been covered.

I have heard and read (somewhere :D ) that warming up the amp, receiver first before using creates better sound, or the amp comes into full *something* :headscrat

Well the hafler I used to have seemed like it said that too somewhere in the instructions, like maybe warm up 1 hour first before using.

Then I heard that really you should never turn it off :sigh: !

I left my Marantz 2252 on today for an hour before I used it, and you know it did seem to sound better--seemed like it had more bass and overall clarity.

Or am I just thinking it did cuz I left it on for an hour :confused:

What do you guys do???
 
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Agreed. It takes my equipment, from a cold start, anywhere from a half to a full hour to warm up. For instance, I let my Fisher 400 warm up for at least 30 min. before listening.

Gotta get that iron hot! :music:
 
Most electronics need some time to stabilize as to power and temperature; settling in. Typically for tube units it can be as much as an hour and for SS about 10 minutes. Some tube owners use a variac and bring the units down to a point where the tube heaters are staying warm. It prevents turn-on shock causing failure and spikes. For SS, some just leave the units on 24/7 when they are going to use them on some regular basis. I will do it occasionally on a weekend.
 
A Pioneer SX-990 that I recently bought, cleaned and Deoxed had not been used for many years. When I first used it I thought the sound was a bit coarse sounding, hard to describe. It has been on now for 3 days and the sound has mellowed and also a certain amount of clarity is there that was not before. I think the old caps just needed some time to warm up and rehab themselves from their long time of non use. At least in my case, I believe there is some validity to warming up.
 
I always felt that my Adcom sounded better after about a half of an hour, I have got to where I turn it on when I get home and shut it off when I go to bed :music:
 
"......the amp comes into full *something*"

"Full Song" is the expression that comes to mind (I read that someplace in Audiophile magazine, A British expression I think)

Mark T.
 
I'm definatly a beleiver of warming up your system. I usually just set my system really loud at first anyways, sit down at the comp and tit around for a while online with the white noise of this huge computer fan, and then go sit down for critical listening.
 
It takes my Eico HF-12's a good half hour before they really settle in and sound sweet. Of course - they get hot enough to fry an egg on.

The only solid state where the effect was really obvious was with is a Yamaha A-720 that would sound pretty harsh on cold start. You know it's bad when instead of sitting back and listening you get restless and have to fiddle with the bass, treble, loudness cos' something just doesn't sound quite right. It would take 10-15 minutes before the sound (and the amp) really warmed up.
 
KingBubba said:
A Pioneer SX-990 that I recently bought, cleaned and Deoxed had not been used for many years. When I first used it I thought the sound was a bit coarse sounding, hard to describe. It has been on now for 3 days and the sound has mellowed and also a certain amount of clarity is there that was not before. I think the old caps just needed some time to warm up and rehab themselves from their long time of non use. At least in my case, I believe there is some validity to warming up.
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... it would be interesting to hear back from you after the unit has had a few weeks of normal use to see if you can still observe some of this effect after powering the unit off for more than a couple of hours.
 
In the deep dark past, when we played with tube type ham and communcations gear, the equipment had a standby switch that shut off the B+ supply but left the filaments on. The idea was that,

a. The equipment was ready to use at a moments notice.

b. The tubes would last a lot longer if the filaments did not go through the repeated shock of being turned on an off.

I have never heard of worrying about it with solid state stuff. Maybe you will get a bit better sound after it has been on 5 minutes or so, but that is about it.
 
graywolf said:
I have never heard of worrying about it with solid state stuff. Maybe you will get a bit better sound after it has been on 5 minutes or so, but that is about it.
Click to expand...

I can say I have personally experienced some warm-up effects for up to 20 - 30 minutes... others suggest even longer warmup cycles for some digital gear.

I don't generally worry about it though.... just power it on and enjoy!
 
A couple of things, I would never leave my Marantz on all the time, bulb replacements ya know, it does not seem to take much time to warm up anyway, now my SAE SS amp has never been turned off in 30 years and always sounds great from the get go! It did sit on stand by for a month and, I noticed that it took about a half hour to sound right. Tonight I played it hard for about 5 hours and the heat sinks were barely warm, the sound was right on :thmbsp: So I would say for most SS stuff leave it on all the time!!

Peace Craig
 
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