[Bill Baker]

Hi guys,
 In regard to break in, I would not recommend leaving it on 24/7. It is the power up/down cycles that help to bring things together much faster. My recommendation is to run it a few hours, power down for about a half hour and then power it back up again. Continue this cycle for as long as possible and your amp will come into focus much quicker than simply leaving it on all the time.
 This holds true for most any audio product.

[AmpDesigner333]

Hi guys,
 In regard to break in, I would not recommend leaving it on 24/7. It is the power up/down cycles that help to bring things together much faster. My recommendation is to run it a few hours, power down for about a half hour and then power it back up again. Continue this cycle for as long as possible and your amp will come into focus much quicker than simply leaving it on all the time.
 This holds true for most any audio product.

For the record, we still recommend leaving the amp on 24/7 initially, but there is still room for debate.  If you leave power on all the time, the "warm" components stay at temperature and "get used to it".  There's also another bias at play here.  In the "old days" I got into the habit of power cycling equipment as few times as possible.  For example, computer power supplies ran for years no problem if you didn't power cycle, but all bets were off for those who shut down daily.  Anyway, our amps are designed to make break-in have as little of an effect as possible.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[Bill Baker]

Hello Tommy,
 I guess I stand corrected. You would know best when it comes to your gear and I would not be one to try to contradict the designer.

[AmpDesigner333]

Hello Tommy,
 I guess I stand corrected. You would know best when it comes to your gear and I would not be one to try to contradict the designer.

No worries.  Like I said, the debate is still on.  Sounds like something fun to experiment with...  Thanks for your post!

[Bassphil]

Hi Tommy, I have a quick question. It's safe to run the amp with nothing plugged into it, right? I wanted to disconnect it and take it downstairs where I have a dedicated AC line to see if the transformer hums. I have a feeling that it's noisy AC issues upstairs like you suggested, but I want to be sure before I hire an electrician.

Thanks!

-Phil
www.philpalombi.com

[AmpDesigner333]

Hi Tommy, I have a quick question. It's safe to run the amp with nothing plugged into it, right? I wanted to disconnect it and take it downstairs where I have a dedicated AC line to see if the transformer hums. I have a feeling that it's noisy AC issues upstairs like you suggested, but I want to be sure before I hire an electrician.

Thanks!

-Phil
www.philpalombi.com

Yes, it's safe.  Can you bring it to someone else's house?  Sometimes the AC is dirty for the entire house .  Good luck experimenting.  Thanks.

[mfsoa]

My Plus is very quiet when all is hooked up and the preamp is on, but makes a small noise if the pre is off, so make sure you are testing under the same conditions, fwiw...

-Mike

[Bassphil]

It's dead quite through the speakers, I want to check the hum from the box itself. It seems to be quieter sometimes, so I'm pretty confident that it's an AC issue. I may as well be sure, though. I certainly don't want to send it back- it's a family member now!

-Phil
www.philpalombi.com

[Bassphil]

Okay, I finally have an update! I've been breaking it in using both methods described- leaving it on for a few days as per Tommy suggestion, and spending a few days powering it off after each listening session. I do feel that the amp has opened up, though it hasn't moved (sonically speaking) that far from the original sound. However, I have discovered something very interesting about it.

I packed it up and took it over to a friends house the other day to hear it in his system. Actually, it was Alvester Garnett, who originally hipped me to the Cherry Plus and is mentioned in the review that Tommy just posted from StereoTimes.com... Anyway, we listened to Alvester's system with his NuForce monoblocks in place for a few hours, then we popped in my Cherry Plus.

At first I was in shock! The bass was totally undefined and fuzzy, and the midrange was weak. We had just spent about three hours being knocked out about it's sound over at my house, so we all were a bit confused. We started shuffling through his library (he has a music server) and started discussing what we were hearing (i.e. ignoring the music). After about 10 minutes, we popped back to that first track we checked out and the bass was A LOT more focused. Whew! Sooo, the Cherry needs to warm up. We cranked some Erykah Badu "Live" to help it along. After about 20 minutes the bass was right were it should be.

The midrange was still a little metallic, or maybe "less warm" than his NuForce's, though. For this, we decided to try a different power cord. We were using one of Alvesters high end PS Audio cords I think. We switched to an Analysis-Plus Power Oval 2 power cord- BAM - the bass was still great AND the midrange came to life. (Disclaimer- I endorse for Analysis-Plus, but only because I believe in their cords!)

Soo, the lesson I learned is the Cherry Plus seems to need a 30 minute or so warm up to reach it's potential, and the power cord definitely makes a difference. That amp really gripped the heck out of Alvester's Hyperion speakers! It was a lot of fun to listen to, and the music sounded great.

About the hum I had mentioned in my earlier posts. At my house, there is one of those halogen lamps with a built in dimmer switch in the same room as the system. That was the culprit! Luckily, it's on an outlet that is connected to a light switch, so I can kill it all together when I'm listening. I was a little surprised that it was affecting the system since I have everything behind a power conditioner, and it's never cause a problem before... Not a big deal, though.

It still has a slight hum that you can hear if you put your ear above the amp, which was present at Alvester's house as well. That is completely inaudible, though, when you're standing up in front of the system, and you certainly can't hear it from the listening position. I'm guessing that's normal- it does have a giant transformer, after all.

Another surprise was, according to Alvester, my Cherry Plus seemed to sound even better than the Cherry Plus that he and Perry reviewed for that StereoTimes article. I'll post something about that in the other thread.

-Phil
www.philpalombi.com

[watercourse]

Phil,

Interesting post. What's more interesting is that I have recently begun shutting down the Cherry Plus (following Tommy's suggestion to leave it on for the first few weeks), and noticed the exact same warm up period of 30 minutes being needed to get to the best sound. Good ears hear alike.

Wilson

[Barry_NJ]

It likely takes a while for all the caps to fully charge.

[gme109]

Phil,

Interesting post. What's more interesting is that I have recently begun shutting down the Cherry Plus (following Tommy's suggestion to leave it on for the first few weeks), and noticed the exact same warm up period of 30 minutes being needed to get to the best sound. Good ears hear alike.

Wilson

Every piece of equipment needs time to warm up, regardless if it's broken-in or not. That's why bringing equipment over to other peoples homes, and comparing it to say an amp that's been powered on for weeks, is not a fair comparison. When I leave for vacation I unplug all my equipment, and upon returning, plug everything back in again. I swear it takes two weeks to sound it's best again.

[watercourse]

Hope my previous post isn't read as a slight in any way. I'm merely adding my consistency in experience as another data point that someone in the future can take into account.
The Cherry Jr. did not have as a long a warm up period - probably only minutes - in my experience with it. But after warm up, the Plus is friggin amazing.