[robinje]

So, how many of you AVA owners perceive a difference in sound quality of your gear after a warm up period?  If so, what sort of time do you think is necessary to achieve full potential?  

Thanks.

[skrivis]

So, how many of you AVA owners perceive a difference in sound quality of your gear after a warm up period?  If so, what sort of time do you think is necessary to achieve full potential?  

Thanks.

I notice my old SuperPAS takes a couple of minutes to settle down.

I don't see any change, improvement or otherwise, with my OmegaStar equipment as it warms up. By the time I've put a CD in and hit play, everything is ready.

[Tweaker]

I own a pair of Omegastar amps and the system sounds just fine cold but it really starts singing after a couple of hours of warmup. Quite a big difference, really. Now who knows if it is the amps or some other piece of equipment, or all combined that gets better sounding when warmed up. Klauss at Odyssey Audio will tell you that his amps should be left on all of the time and if turned off they won't sound their best untill after a considerable amount of time. I don't like the idea of leaving my gear on 24/7 as I've had a capacitor in an integrated amp blow one time years ago and when I looked inside through the vent slots I could see a hot orange glow where the capacitor used to be!

[daveshel]

My 170EX sounds better the longer I play it.

[warnerwh]

One thing is for sure is that tubes take a little while to warm up.  At least a minute or two. The little while when I turn on the Dyna FM 3 tuner it's very distorted but settles quickly and after a minute or so it's fine.  I'd say ten minutes with most tube gear you should be getting all you're going to get.

SS gear takes little time to warm up and should sound fine cold but could change a hair as it warms up.  The best thing is to listen, if you can hear any detrimental effects then you need to wait.  I don't understand why people worry about their stereo equipment warm up.  I've been in this hobby since the early 70's and notice that when I settle down myself I enjoy the music the most.

[robinje]

You said:

"I don't understand why people worry about their stereo equipment warm up. "

Well, I don't know if I'd go so far as to use the word "worry".  There are far more important things to worry about!  I'd just like to understand how the performance of any given component, particularly one with tubes in it, may change as it warms up.  This would not be a factor in deciding whether or not to purchase any particular amp.  I'm simply curious!

[Tweaker]

The concensus I found doing a web search is that solid state requires a longer warm up time than tubes. I would have guessed otherwise. One  explanation I found as to why equipment needs to warm up to sound it's best is that warm up will allow the inside temperature to stabilize, minimizing offsets, bring bias currents up to their proper values, and bringing gain up to operating level. About 20 minutes to do that apparantly. I paid closer attention yesterday to how my system sounded after time and it was about four hours before it really started to sing. It is not a subtle change!
  This is a subject that can make the  "all properly designed and operating equipment sounds the same, you are wasting you're money on any thing other than lamp cord for speaker wire and Radio Shack interconnects, if you are hearing an improvement it's because of wishful thinking, show me measurements to support you're claims, it's all snake oil"  etc., etc., crowd a little nuts. Something I rather enjoy.

[avahifi]

I actually agree that audio equipment does take some warm up time.  However I strongly urge that the equipment not be left on all the time.  Doing this risks having minor faults turn into major catsastrophies if the fault occurs while you are not there and one failure causes excessive current through other parts, causing more failures and on and on. Leaving it on all the time kinda is a "friend of OPEC" attitude too.  (Although I should talk, my S6 rocketship eats gas at an astonishing rate if I drive it like I would like to drive it - darn that instant on radar. )

Anyway ---- in general our solid state stuff is up and running really well in about half a second.  Probably 15 minutes for everything inside to get to get nice and warm and comfy and happy about playing music really well

Our tube and hybrid stuff needs about 5 minutes to really start playing well, and half an hour or so to be really happy.

Both the solid state and tube/hybrid AVA products are very stable and safe for the rest of your system immediately after turn-on, no nasty DC level shifts that can damage speakers.

Best best, turn them on, then go get that glass of wine, your significant other, put on comfy robes (www.pajamagrams.com), settle back in that big recliner built for two, and enjoy.

Frank Van Alstine

[skrivis]

Best best, turn them on, then go get that glass of wine, your significant other, put on comfy robes (www.pajamagrams.com), settle back in that big recliner built for two, and enjoy.

Hmmm.... this sounds like what Harvey Rosenburg used to recommend before listening to his equipment, although I think he also wanted you to take a bath first too.

[TjMV3]

"  Probably 15 minutes for everything inside to get to get nice and warm and comfy and happy about playing music really well

Our tube and hybrid stuff needs about 5 minutes to really start playing well, and half an hour or so to be really happy.

Both the solid state and tube/hybrid AVA products are very stable and safe for the rest of your system immediately after turn-on, no nasty DC level shifts that can damage speakers.

Best best, turn them on, then go get that glass of wine, your significant other, put on comfy robes (www.pajamagrams.com), settle back in that big recliner built for two, and enjoy.

Frank Van Alstine "  



By "warm up time" are you talking about simply powering-on the equipment and not actually initializing the start of a source component?

Or do you mean actually hitting play and letting the music begin?

[avahifi]

Warm up time is the same whether the equipment is playing music during that time or not. Or - - - -

you can simply play Pink Floyd at break the windows down levels for five minutes and achieve the same results, although warning, this might make the just poured wine (or the significant other) go sour.

Maybe the take the bath or shower for two approach might work better, but then maybe then you won't even care if the system is on or not, as the warm up might be working anyway elsewhere.  

Frank Van Alstine

[lonewolfny42]

Maybe the take the bath or shower for two approach might work better, but then maybe then you won't even care if the system is on or not, as the warm up might be working anyway elsewhere.  

Frank Van Alstine

......

[robinje]

I laughed out loud for the first time in a while upon reading this thread!  You guys/gals ROCK.  Thanks for making my day!

Jim