On being cold or warmed up?

[gagelle]

Below is a link to an interesting article on a solid state piece of equipment that needs to be warmed up to sound good.

http://tinyurl.com/64l2332

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[Dennie]

I have an Adcom GFA 7607 amp that has been on for the last 6+ years and it always sounds good! [Y]

My Hafler DH-200 amp that has been on for 3+ years and again, always sounds good! [Y]

Dennie

[artto]

Nothing new here. Like the article/post says ~ "it depends"

Some of my old Crown gear I leave/left on all the time, not for sound quality, it didn't make any difference. It was just a matter of convenience. Same goes for the HK on the home theater. The Audio Research tube preamp needs a little bit of warm up time. The Luxman mono blocks definitely need a warm up, about 63 minutes to be exact (I've timed this a number of times). After 63 minutes something happens, everything comes into "focus". I can even see it on the voltmeter at the bias points. The voltage at the bias & balance test points swings up and down for a while,swinging less and less and then all of sudden "locks" in place, and then everything sounds as it should. They sound their best after they've been cooking for 2-3 hours.

[JBryan]

In my experience, SS amps need about an hour to settle in and 3 hours to sound right while tube amps and pres need at least 30 minutes to sound their best. Class A SS amps don't seem to take as long while digital amps take hours and I just leave them on 24/7 so I think the warm up time is just that. Putting aside the complexity of the circuit, caps and trannys, the time it takes for a amp to snap into focus is directly related to its thermal running level. When it hits that temp, everything seems to fall into place.

[Cornman]

"When it hits that temp, everything seems to fall into place", my ears agree 100%.

Or as our resident Blacksmith says "Get it hot & hit it hard". []

[LarryC]

I think I hear some minor changes with warm-up, but would never question what others believe they hear with their equipment.

However, earlier this year I learned that if I haven't used my high-wattage high-amperage tube class A OTL's in some time, they can sound very pinched and not at all special. The day I learned this, it took several hours for the music to finally sound transparent, rich, and alive. I and another forum member decided we'd better play that kind of equipment at least every week or so.