Solid state warm up time?

Your question is impossible to answer, is the type of thing that can't be measured. My experience today showed me that the difference with my equipment was important. I do have a fairly powerful amp with huge, heavy duty heatsinks that probably take quite a while to warm up to the temperature it was biased to. Someone with a low power amp, with lighter heatsinks might reach the working temperature much faster.

What I would say is, my feeling was that the improvement was in excess of 10% but how can you quantify that? You can only pull a number out of a hat but certainly it wasn't 1%, it wouldn't be worth talking about it if it was just that.

I would not leave on more things than I have to due to safety reasons but I can understand people who are very fussy about their sound leaving everything on.

 

That's why I put it in the "is it important enough to worry about" class ---- if it is for you, I respect that.

As I said too, can be gear dependent too --- age of the gear, type, etc has a bearing.

Whether you can quantify it or not to an exact percentage is ancillary to whether you can live with it or not, and it may or may not result in you leaving everything on 24x7.

My asking for quantification though was also a litmus test on how big a problem it might or might not be --- sometimes we audiophiles can turn the proverbial molehill......... . It's less about the ability to put an exact number on it than it is about the relative importance of the issue. But like many things audio, that relative importance can vary greatly from person to person. Don't take it personally if you think it's a bigger issue than I, we're all just sharing our experience and opinion.

Now, if the title said "tubes" as a topic, I might answer differently --- I have also owned tube gear, and these days the only thing I own with tubes is one of my six phono pre's..... and soon maybe a line stage / preamp to play with. Then again, I'd never leave tubes on 24x7 either, that would be equivalent to burning money with the cost of good NOS these days....

 

I think this comes down to our host using words to describe improvements/changes in sound which has me scratching my head what to listen for with these quotes....

If Steve would describe James Taylor's change in individual sounds as in vocal timbre as in more low end but better separation that doesn't fog up detail like his guitar or whatever other instruments are playing, you don't need percentages. The sound of music paints a picture made up of sonic textures that puts the listener right in it.

I've always suspected when I first auditioned a new CD of music recorded in the '70's having mushy sound compared to what I remember hearing it on the radio that now I feel needs a huge treble increase, I always thought it was the mastering, but maybe it was because I just didn't let the amp warm up.

 

I would prefer if there was no change but it is not really an issue that will stop me from enjoying the music as soon as I've switch everything on.

However, from now on I'll keep it in more in mind for special occasions like when I want to test something or feel picky but I am sure I'll survive. That's me, other people might not be as forgiving.

 

I'ld recommend an audio test of your system checking the flutist's thumping of the flute pads at the end of Kenny Rankin's "Doralice". It's very quiet and he hits the pads four times and then four more times but at a lower octave. You may have to raise the volume...



At 1:50 the flutist can be heard moving closer to the right channel listening on headphones as he finishes his solo. Very 3D.

 

Did those "other things" include any mind altering ingestions? That might explain the difference...

 

Are you sure the sonic improvement wasn't because CES was over, thus lightening your mood?!?

 

Does leaving them on all the time affect the lifespan of my amplifiers?

 

Yesterday I turned the system on and pushed play on the CD player. I only had listened to that cd once, probably years ago. I thought, boy this cd is kind of harsh, but by the end of the cd the sound was much better an less fatiguing. I know my system needs to warm up. Like Steve said, it takes about an hour and then gets better after two to four hours. You can’t put a percentage on this. Its more like, it sounds ok and then later it sounds better.

 

I turn the stereo on at 7:45 am and sit down to listen at about 8:10 am and everything sounds good, I get into the groove and enjoy my tunes.

I turn the system off at around 10:30am and go off and due a bunch things like you mentioned and around 1:00 pm I turn the system back on and notice I hear a difference anyway. Could it be that my physiology has changed over the last few hours of activity that would lead to the changes I hear?

 

Usually an hour or so.

On the otherhand one wouldn't bake cakes from a stone cold oven

 

From my Nagra manual.... "The best performance will be obtained after 15 minutes operation (warming-up time)..."

 

I know this sounds crazy but the old John Rappaport design Octave Research class A beast of an amp had a phase after 30 days of on-time where the sound stage suddenly expanded from one day to the next. A friend of mine owned that amp, I had a DIY knock off, and that amp behaved the same way. I'll be happy to ascribe it to my imagination but I did experience it every time I had turned it off (which wasn't often--although it consumed about 500 W , this was around 1990, i.e. pre climate-conscience times). I was sort of surprised every time, because even as it happened, I didn't quite believe it. And as I say, I won't fight anybody who claims that it was just my imagination ...

 

It only took about 20 minutes for this thread to “warm up”.

 

The warm up time varies a lot between amps. Reasonably from 10min to 2h.

 

For my Moon kit about once CD's worth so maybe 40 to 60 minutes. It is 'always on' but in standby (in my world half-powered).

 

Warm up is a real thing. The effect on the sound varies from amp to amp. A friend of mine hade a Densen combo, it sounded atrocious during the first few hours.

 

Don't see the sense in owning something that has to be on for hours before it sounds good!

 

• My S/S power amp (Symfonia) takes about 1hr before is starts to sound good, and add some more for it to hit the sweet spot.
• I think my Oppo CD/Bluray takes about 30 mins (S/S).
• My Croft valve preamp takes about 30mins.
• My S/S cassette and tuner - no idea, as haven't really used them in decades, and my gear wasn't as discerning back then.
• Phono stage S/S (Realistic) - a long time (I've read some people say their's takes about a week to sound good). Surprising, for a small box with little electronics inside.

I recall when I did some upgrades after having the gear not working for a few years. Turned it on, and there were several times when I turned it off 1/2 way through a CD because it sounded awful (only the power amp was warmed up). I then did experimentation and found the other gear needed some time as well.

Having to warm up the equipment annoys me. I need to plan my listening, can't be spontaneous. Often means if it's late at night, there won't be enough time to listen until sleeptime. Or I'll turn the gear on to warm up and plan to listen in an hour, then get caught doing work on the computer and the evening's gone without listening to music. And MrsQwerty doesn't understand why I have to warm it up - "why can't you have a normal stereo that you can turn on and listen to, with speakers that aren't huge and don't have to be in the middle of the room?" (clarification - despite this attitude, she understands how good sound's important to me and accepts that the hifi's important to me).

Interestingly, I don't bother warming up the stereo gear when I sit down to watch a movie with audio through the hifi. The movie sounds better than the TV speakers, and the "cold" audio doesn't seem so bad with a movie (and it's warmed up by the end of the movie!).

 

Pass Labs manual references 1 hour warm up time to sound their best.

 

I'm an amp on all the time guy (yamha a-s1100) and it always sounds good. I will turn it off of I am leaving for more than a day though and when i fire it back up there is a noticeable edge that it has that takes about an album to smooth out to where it was. 45 - 75 mins is probably about right for my amp.

 

Our host mentioned SS may need longer than tube which I dont understand, but it's probably a little over my head. Im a guitarist and my tube amps take about 2 - 3 hours before they sound their absolute best. I have band practice 2 - 3 times a week and the amp really starts to open up towards the end. I always assumed tube amps for playback were similar. Perhaps it's the type of tubes? I uses 6L6 RCA blalckplates.

 

A little warm up is a good thing...just ask your wife.

 

I leave my gear on almost all the time, when I turn it off for a period it takes a couple hours to smooth out.

 

Of all the gear in my main HT, the only piece that's never ready immediately after turning on is my projector, which takes a few minutes to settle in as it heats up.

I've had periods where all the amps were left on all of the time, and others where they were turned off between sessions. I honestly have never noticed any difference in how they sound, and that's all that's important to me.

Jeff

ps. I should add that I don't own or use any tube gear - to address the thread's title.