Pre amp/amp turn on order

Amp on first,off last,correct?

 

Tube Gear
Turn on: Pre amp, Amp
Turn off: Amp, Pre Amp

SS Gear
Ideally, leave it on all the time for optimal sound.

 

Source after amp?

 

Turn on

source first ( as it always should be! )
then phono stage
then pre amp
then power amp
then speakers (if they need plugging in)

then turn off in reverse order

 

What I do: ON/Preamp/Amps/TT OFF/Amps/TT/Preamp CD player, phone stage, TTPSU stay on all the time.

 

Digital source first? Before pre?

 

Shouldn't really matter that much unless the gear has problems (like sources or other things that give a blast of noise when you turn them on or switch stuff around).

However, with particularly big amps that aren't on their own circuits, it's generally best to power those on first. When they click on, as many don't have inrush current limiters and unless you have limiters installed on your electrical circuits or are running through an ICE type power device they can give a pretty big sag to the power to everything else on the circuit. It won't break anything, but I've seen really processor-intensive devices glitch up when hit with a brown-out like that. Easily fixed with a reboot, but with large systems that have sequenced turn-on, it's usually the really big stuff that you want to fire up first and turn off last. And you want to sequence the turn-on of multiple big amps and things like that.

On the other hand, if you've got a big system like a live system and you're plugging/unpluggin, switching stuff around and things like that which can easily give some large thumps to your speakers, then it makes a lot of sense to leave the amps off until the end when you're ready to go.

/depends.

 

I always turn on my tube pre first, which takes about 60 seconds. Then I put it into mute using the remote. Next I turn on the power amp and while it is preparing to power up, I turn on the cd player. Once I've put in a cd and allowed it click on, I use the remote to put the pre back to operate and hit play.

Take much longer to type it out than to do it!

 

Thanks for the replies.

 

You should always power up progressively from source to speakers. Going backwards invites a large transient switch on form the source to be reproduced in all its glory through your speakers. Turn off speakers to source for the same reasons.

 

Mr. Wiggles said it didn't matter. #confused

 

I just leave them on all the time, but if I was going to turn them off it would be power amp on last/off first for the very good reasons John gave above.

 

Are you planning on sending him the bill when you have forgotten to turn the volume of your preamp down and your precious tweeters vapourize?

 

My tweeters are rather pricey and toxic. Beryllium could be lethal if inhaled. I do expect advice on here to be accurate especially concerning critical matters.

 

Any order you like as long as the amp is the last. Or the pre-amp then power amp if you have that configuration. For reasons Mr. Buchanan mentioned above.

EDIT: Re: leaving high on all the time, IMO likely not needed in the vast majority of cases. Solid state will power up to normal operating temperature in a short time.

 

This is a public forum. The responsibility is down to you at the end of the day. And you're right regarding Beryllium. Ca'canny and all that.

 

Power Amp=LOFO (Last On, First Off)

When the Power Amp is OFF, No Accidental Bad sound can hurt your speakers...
As stated above by John...

 

And now you have accurate advice, my friend.

 

Indeed JB, luckily, we have an easy solution for this. Don't sniff the damn speakers...

 

ON: Tube preamp > sources > tube xover > tube amps. The digital amps are always ON which causes a slight 'thump' on the woofers when the xover is shut down. I used to shut them down after the tube amps and before the xover and preamp without any noise but warm up takes hours (slow, woolly bass ) so its better just to leave them on.

OFF: Sources > tube amps > tube xover > tube preamp

 

On last, off first. You can quibble about what comes between particularly if you are dealing with tubes.

 

^I agree with these responses.



My Audio Research SP6 preamp owner's manual states very strongly that the preamp be must turned on and warmed up before turning on the amp is allowed. And, to turn off the power amp first, then the preamp.

 

Indeed, there was a timed turn-on mute included in versions of the SP6 that made sure that the turn on sequence was safer. Does your SP-6 have the switchable moving coil gain switch on the back?