i have an all in one streamer/integrated amp from naim that i leave on 24/7, and recently tested out a NAD c 3050 LE- noticed this amp turns off after 15 mins or so of being left on standby w no music playing, which i thought was a little weird. do you leave your integrated amp on or off? thanks
I was always warned about wear and tear from expansion and contraction when heating and cooling between power cycles. Is that old school and less of a concern with modern electronics?
Maybe? There certainly could also be longevity/reliability benefits of reducing power cycles. Mostly for the power switch I would guess. (Thank God for the triac mod that saves the power switches on vintage gear.)
I’m mostly saying there are no sonic benefits to leaving it on.
Triac mod?
Since you’re here, what’s your take on using a power strip to turn everything on and off? Assuming the gear has a physical switch to cut power at the main 110v and not a relay standby switch?
Actually a very good point. I guess this is highly dependent on the component itself. I noticed that leaving my tube gear on did wear the cathodes very quickly compared to their theoretical lifespan (they were used tubes but the glass became shinier visibly over time), so I just switch off the system considering the points of the post above. It does take a few minutes to warm up the tube dac but in practise that’s irrelevant.
I had a transistor with a cold solder joint on a Pioneer record player once, but it was an easy fix and I can’t say what caused it because I got the thing second hand.
If I had to guess I would say heat cycling causes the issue. I would also say it’s likely most modern quality gear won’t have heat cycling cold solder joints often…