[lazydays]

I have to worry about lightning for about 4 months in a year , (June to September), that's when we have proper monsoons. This is also the time when we have sudden power cuts due to heavy rains
Otherwise electricity is stable. In fact where I live has the most stable electric supply in the whole of India. But there are times when voltage would jump or down drastically for a second or two, or keep on happening for a few minutes

Can anyone of you suggest me some budget solution so the amp withstand such situations whenever they may occur and I am not home to power it off
Are the spike guards by Belkin enough for it?

I somehow don't believe in them and feel they will do nothing good specially for a high current amp like Stratos

Also do I risk shortening the life of internal parts of the amp drastically If I keep it on for long periods?

I use a Monster. When I bought it, it was the number two unit (the last one they built with an analog read out). There are better and of course some pure junk. Somebody makes a small two output one that plugs into a wall socket. It's supposed to be 20 amp capable as well. (cannot remember who in my old age). Anyway when I move my system, and make several wiring changes to be 20 amp capable; I'll incorporate at least two of these into my system. As for lightening strikes, I've had the DSL box hit a couple times that's about thirty feet away. I've had the Monster unit kicked out two or three times, but nothing got past it. The newer units are even better than mine.
gary

[Hank]

Brick Wall or Zero Surge - one licensed from the other as I recall.  Excellent surge protection and they don't use parts that degrade over time when zapped, unlike consumer "surge protecting" power strips.

[Alberto DeRoma]

Hello, rikhav.

I don't own an Odyssey amp, but my amp has a 'standby' or 'idle' mode that keeps it warm while using just a few watts. When I want to listen to music, I click the switch to activate the amp into full on mode. Is there such a feature in your amp?

Michael

Crazy and not really audiophile idea, but there are timed AC switches, or remotely controlled ones (even via smart phone ... I believe) that might do the job for you. First you'd have to determine if the switches have a negative impact on the sound.

Alberto

[Roger A. Modjeski]

One possible effect is that SS amplifier bias can take a long time to come up as it is very temperature dependent. The bias is usually optimized with the amp hot. You might find that a heating pad has the same effect as having the amp on, but since the same heat is required you might as well let the amp heat itself. A power conditioner will not likely help this situation at all. The amp is going to do what it is going to do.

On the power supply thought. It does not take a large power supply any longer to come up than a small one. All power supplies come up in a few seconds. They really cant do otherwise.

If you want to explore the cold vs hot bias question get a "KILLAWATT" device for $20 and see how the watts drawn from the wall vary from cold to hot. It will also tell you how much electricity this device uses over time so you can see how it affects your electric bill. It will tell you your voltage also and  you might find that affects the amp. There are very few power conditioners that can fix that either.

I think an amp should sound good hot or cold.

 

[klaus@odyssey]

Oh man,  how I wish ......

[Hank]

Klaus:  don't hold back, man - it's not your style. 

[rikhav]

One possible effect is that SS amplifier bias can take a long time to come up as it is very temperature dependent. The bias is usually optimized with the amp hot. You might find that a heating pad has the same effect as having the amp on, but since the same heat is required you might as well let the amp heat itself. A power conditioner will not likely help this situation at all. The amp is going to do what it is going to do.

On the power supply thought. It does not take a large power supply any longer to come up than a small one. All power supplies come up in a few seconds. They really cant do otherwise.

If you want to explore the cold vs hot bias question get a "KILLAWATT" device for $20 and see how the watts drawn from the wall vary from cold to hot. It will also tell you how much electricity this device uses over time so you can see how it affects your electric bill. It will tell you your voltage also and  you might find that affects the amp. There are very few power conditioners that can fix that either.

I think an amp should sound good hot or cold.

I am not worried about how much electricity it draws, rather what effect less then perfect electric supply would have on the amp
We have a bank on the ground floor which uses about 15 tons of air conditioning and apartment bellows us have many air conditioners switched on through out the day. These are the equipments which draw maximum current apart from the elevator which is not used much
Not all the air conditioners have a inverter based compressor (inverter based compressors don't completely switch on and off to regulate temperature, rather regulate their speed. Problem with normal rotary compressors is when they switch on after staying off for a few mins they draw loads of current for a second and normalise. This dips the voltage a little bit as there is a huge draw. Maybe from the usual 230 volts it should be going to maybe 215 or 220. I am not sure as I have not been able to measure this dip.
This is not constant, I guess it happens more with some specific units switched on. But it's difficult for me to know when they will be in use

I don't know what effect this dip in voltage will have on the equipment , so I fear keeping the amp on whole time or from the morning as suggested by few in this thread

I know there is a dip in voltage as light from the bulbs dim flown for that second


About the effect of warm up
Today I knew I would be free to listen to music in the evening, so I switched on the amp at 4 pm in the afternoon and right now listening to music and the time now is around 830 pm. So a warm up time of 4 hours
Now when I compare the sound from the last two times I listened to music with warm up time of only about 15 mins, the change is phenomenal.
More depth, more holographic image and whole load more smooth then zero warm up. The change is quiet drastic

I have not owned many amps so I don't know if this is specific to odyssey but more warm up time brings a smile to my face but it also restricts my music sessions as I have to plan my music session in advance and with the kind of work I do, I end up listening to music once in 4 or 5 days.

The sound is so good with warm up comparing without it, that I prefer to listen less rather then listening without warm up

I guess any amp with a big power caps, warm up becomes a necessity

I am not much technically inclined, came to this conclusion with whatever little i know

[klaus@odyssey]

You got it....to be honest,  many customers don't hear the differences in their systems,  but they are there...and I had this discussion dozens of times,  and will not engage anymore, especially with electronic engineers and electronic designer's...to many it's like the proverbial pink elephant andit just can't be explained...as for me,  I don't give a shit about explanation or design areas,  I listen...that's where the proof hits the pudding.

Now,  as for your situation:  not only is the warm-up crucial,  but also, and more importantly, there is a change in bias (thus heat..thus performance and/or reliability overall) with voltage swings....this happens with any design.  I would be more worried about higher voltages than down-swings,  but it's easy without measuring:  if the amp is warm to the touch,  you're ok...if it gets hot, then..well,  not so good....

Have fun,

Klaus

PS. unfortunately you'll have to wait a bit.....

[rikhav]

Hi klaus

It's mostly down swing. Higher voltage rarely happens, I don't even remember when it last happened but it did once
Maybe I can say it happens once in 4 or 5 years. Happened mainly due to an issue in main electric station

The amp is never hot to touch, never ever. It's just mildly warm since ambient temperature is less and becomes a few degrees more hot in peak summer. But it's just warm, never hot to touch

[worldcat]

There is no question that audio equipment sounds better when warmed up.  I use to run Nuforce and the longer they stayed on the better they sounded.  I ended up getting the 18's and those amps where not as finicky and sounded better quicker.  So i believe amps are different on how long but no question there is something to it.  I have tube amps and at the 3 hour mark its like you flip a switch and they just open up.  I had a few guys over that come over 5 or 6 times a year.  The last time they came over i hadn't let the system warm up, well it sounded ok i listened about a hour and half with them went down stairs to eat.  When i came back i could tell they had started to opening up a bit.  Twenty minutes later its like the switch was turned on, there was a wall of sound, magic in the room.  They said what happened, i laughed and said, it takes 3 hours for them to warm up.  They said you never said anything about that.  I told them well every time you come over its all warmed up 

Another big thing is the grid on days if its hot my system doesn't sound as good as days there is normal temps. or late at night the system does sound much better.  I don't know why but its real..

You got it....to be honest,  many customers don't hear the differences in their systems,  but they are there...and I had this discussion dozens of times,  and will not engage anymore, especially with electronic engineers and electronic designer's...to many it's like the proverbial pink elephant andit just can't be explained...as for me,  I don't give a shit about explanation or design areas,  I listen...that's where the proof hits the pudding.

Now,  as for your situation:  not only is the warm-up crucial,  but also, and more importantly, there is a change in bias (thus heat..thus performance and/or reliability overall) with voltage swings....this happens with any design.  I would be more worried about higher voltages than down-swings,  but it's easy without measuring:  if the amp is warm to the touch,  you're ok...if it gets hot, then..well,  not so good....

Have fun,

Klaus

PS. unfortunately you'll have to wait a bit.....

[rikhav]

The wait still frustrates me

All the more now a days since I get very less time for music , sometimes have to go without it for weeks due to work.
Hopefully it won't be same after few months

Try my best to make sometime for music, but sometimes I can't. Guess everyone goes through that phase in life where hobby had to take a backseat

That brings a thought to my mind that is it worth changing the bias of the amp just to make it warm up faster?

Will be keen what is the view of others and specially klaus