[TomS]

I've had the Extreme SE's for quite awhile and never really turn them off, for reasons covered many times.  I generally had not been using a preamp so worrying about powering the front end up and down has never been an issue.  Now I have a Candela in the house so...

For those with both Candela and Stratos, do you keep the preamp powered up all the time or do you cycle the Stratos each time you turn the preamp on or off? 

Normally, when the power amps aren't left on, this sequence would be:
ON: front end, preamp, then power amps 
OFF: power amps, then preamp, then front end

With Stratos kept on almost all the time as I do, proper sequence would need to be:
ON: turn off power amps and wait for bleed off, turn front end on, turn preamp on, turn power amps back on
OFF: turn off power amps, preamp off, front end off, power amps back on

Just wondering, what do you do with yours?

Tom

[mcullinan]

Tom,
I just left the amps and candela powered up. I think the tubes draw very little power and should last a long time.
mike

[TomS]

Tom,
I just left the amps and candela powered up. I think the tubes draw very little power and should last a long time.
mike

That's what I've done so far.  I just hate to go through tubes at too high a rate.  Once you get used to the right set, they can be hard to replace satisfactorily.  So far so good.

Tom

[lazydays]

Tom,
I just left the amps and candela powered up. I think the tubes draw very little power and should last a long time.
mike

that's not a very good thing todo. The life of the tubes will be greatly shortend by leaving them on 24/7. I do leave my monos on 24/7, and actually run them independently from the rest of the system. When I turn my system on I hit one button, and it turns everything on in stages. The preamp comes up about fifteen seconds ahead of the source. With my phostage I have either turn it on seperatly as well as the T.T. powersupply, or just leave it off.
gary

[martinr]

I basically start mine up the same way Gary Does - the Monos stay on all the time (plugged into the wall) and my Candela and Source is plugged into a power supply.  The Candela comes on first, then the source.  I cherish my CBS Hytron tubes - don't want to lessen their life span.

- Martin

[mcullinan]

I have placed myself into “The Corner of Shame.”
Mike

[TomS]

I'm a little gun shy to just power a preamp up and down into live amps.  I know someone who did this with a preamp that actually had a previously undetected problem on turnoff.  It managed to send DC to the amps and fried some innards of very expensive monoblocks.  Fortunately it didn't take out the speakers, which were equally expensive.

Perhaps the Candela is just "friendlier" and more trustworthy 

[mcullinan]

Unless there is a mute button, I wouldnt do it either. Though I have put myself in the corner of shame for leaving them on
Mike

[Pars]

The Candela doesn't have a mute? Hmmmm....

I have used a Counterpoint pre with my stratos for a number of years. I leave the stratos on all the time as most (all?) of you do. The CP has a mute switch which basically shorts the outputs to ground. I leave it muted and off all the time other than for listening. Powering it up, I never have any noise thru the speakers. I was thinking about a Candela; lack of a mute function might put me off a bit.

Chris

[TomS]

I've been turning it on/off now with the amps on without pops or problems.  Scares me to death, but it seems to work ok.  Tom

[AlexG]

Based on the way the Candela was originally designed, it will produce a very small amount of DC voltage at power on and off. Very small to the point that at the most you could hear a small "thump" (non destructive). As further security and piece of mind, a protection delay (20-25 seconds) circuit was included at the outputs.

As such, there is no risk of damage to the amps by turning the Candela on/off while the amps are on.

However, do turn the amps off first if you are changing components/cables or if you feel more comfortable this way.

The original Candela prototype has been on for the most part well over 18 months with no degradation in the tubes. I suggest however, to turn them off once in a while if you are using expensive tubes. aa

Thank you,

Alex

[TomS]

Thanks for the clarification Alex.  This helps a lot.

It was great meeting you at RMAF also!

Tom

[Cactus Bob]

These SE's are pretty robust iron ... I don't worry about them much ... leave 'em on all the time,
but turn my Candela off at the end of the listening day (dropping the gain to zero)
So far so good.