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Actives & standby power

radix

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In bringing myself up to speed on current actives, I have had a hard time finding the idle and standby power consumption of the models I'm looking at. Is there anywhere that has done this already? Idle is not such an issue, but I do get a bit concerned about very high standby or lack of standby.

I see the Neumann are pigs at 26W (KH310) / 60W (KH420) per speaker. The Focal Trios and Genelec (83xx, 73xx) look OK (<= 1W). I could not find anything for D&D or Adam (S3x and S5x).

I suppose one could use a power strip or switched power conditioner or switched outlets on the Neumann....

Thanks,
Marc
 

restorer-john

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I see the Neumann are pigs at 26W (KH310) / 60W (KH420) per speaker.

Surely in this day and age, they would have an automatic <1W standby after xx minutes of no signal? I thought just about everything sold in the EU has to have a super low standby consumption.
 
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radix

radix

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Surely in this day and age, they would have an automatic <1W standby after xx minutes of no signal? I thought just about everything sold in the EU has to have a super low standby consumption.

I went through the KH310 and KH420 spec sheets and user manuals and could find nothing about a standby mode. May there is something one can set in Neumann.Control? I've seen other postings on ASR that the Neumann's are power hungry. I've seen at least one post that says the D&D does not have a standby mode, but I've also emailed them to ask. Perhaps as these are professional equipment, not consumer equipment, they are under different EU regulations?
 

restorer-john

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Perhaps as these are professional equipment, not consumer equipment, they are under different EU regulations?

Quite possibly.

I'd expect at a studio, they'd have a master power switch you'd hit as you walked out the door...
 

dfuller

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Surely in this day and age, they would have an automatic <1W standby after xx minutes of no signal? I thought just about everything sold in the EU has to have a super low standby consumption.
The 310s are an older design from before that went into effect. I am surprised Neumann hasn't updated it though...
 

MaxRockbin

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The Neuman KH120 does NOT have a standby mode. I asked them. I wish I could find their email, but I believe they said idle was 3 Watts.
It's a big reason I'm leaning to the Genelecs. The 8030c has standby and I think the y 8040b does too.
 

Trell

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I went through the KH310 and KH420 spec sheets and user manuals and could find nothing about a standby mode. May there is something one can set in Neumann.Control? I've seen other postings on ASR that the Neumann's are power hungry. I've seen at least one post that says the D&D does not have a standby mode, but I've also emailed them to ask. Perhaps as these are professional equipment, not consumer equipment, they are under different EU regulations?

The KH310 and KH420 was released 2012/2013 so likely exempt, but the D&D 8c is more surprising as it's a fairly new product and D&D is located in EU.
 
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radix

radix

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It looks like there are quite a few inexpensive mains relays with 12VDC trigger compatibility. Or the APC H15 power conditioner has a trigger in/out that can be used on certain outlets. I think for home use, one of these would work well to avoid 52W idle current.

The KH310 has a built-in 5s turn-on delay from when mains power is applied, but that should be livable.

I now feel much better about getting some KH310s and a KH750 (which already has a standby mode).
 

jhaider

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Surely in this day and age, they would have an automatic <1W standby after xx minutes of no signal? I thought just about everything sold in the EU has to have a super low standby consumption.

The standby subsystem is probably the only poorly engineered thing on KH80, so even if Neumann had it on bigger monitors it might be lacking.
 

restorer-john

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The standby subsystem is probably the only poorly engineered thing on KH80, so even if Neumann had it on bigger monitors it might be lacking.

It's all those silly EU regulations- they are over the top if you ask me. I don't believe it's poor engineering on Neuman's part- I'd say they want the speakers on, warmed up, stable and ready to go instantly. I think it's deliberate and probably quite sensible for the use-case they have in mind.
 

jhaider

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It's all those silly EU regulations- they are over the top if you ask me. I don't believe it's poor engineering on Neuman's part- I'd say they want the speakers on, warmed up, stable and ready to go instantly. I think it's deliberate and probably quite sensible for the use-case they have in mind.

Nope, it's terrible. And variable. I returned one of my pair under warranty - twice - because they would turn on literally when a cat walked into the room. I recorded it happening.

However, that episode did teach me to appreciate one thing about Neumann. My first pair and first replacement for one of the speakers were Irish-made. The second replacement was Czech made. If there are visual or acoustic differences between my Irish and Czech KH80s, they are beyond the error tolerance of my eyes, ears, and microphone.
 

restorer-john

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Nope, it's terrible. And variable. I returned one of my pair under warranty - twice - because they would turn on literally when a cat walked into the room. I recorded it happening.

Goodness. I stand corrected. I was giving them the benefit of the doubt.
 

Sancus

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The standby subsystem is probably the only poorly engineered thing on KH80, so even if Neumann had it on bigger monitors it might be lacking.

Yeah, I dunno why it's so bad. They would get stuck on with certain channels of my AVR, but not others. My Genelecs on the other hand have rock solid, 100% reliable standby and you can even change the signal level they respond to, it's great.
 

deafenears

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Nope, it's terrible. And variable. I returned one of my pair under warranty - twice - because they would turn on literally when a cat walked into the room. I recorded it happening.
Your audiophile cat wants to listen to music too - diversity and inclusion and all that.
 

Ultrasonic

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It's all those silly EU regulations- they are over the top if you ask me. I don't believe it's poor engineering on Neuman's part- I'd say they want the speakers on, warmed up, stable and ready to go instantly. I think it's deliberate and probably quite sensible for the use-case they have in mind.

Have you seen any good objective data on how long active studio monitors may need to be powered on to reach optimal performance? My suspicion is that it's not likely to be very long...

In terms of the EU regulation, if it makes manufacturers do something that is eminently ahievable but that they wouldn't bother with otherwise then personally this seems like a good thing to me.
 

Willem

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In terms of the EU regulation, if it makes manufacturers do something that is eminently ahievable but that they wouldn't bother with otherwise then personally this seems like a good thing to me.
I think this is an excellent regulation, and many other countries now have the same, of course. The contrast with silly audiophools keeping their class A electronics on 24/7 could not be bigger, and all these devices do add up in a surpisingly big way.
Power sensing master/slave power strips are a decent alternative. I use one to switch my QUAD 606-2 that was supposed to be switched by QUAD's own pre amp, but if you use something else (an RME ADI-2 in my case) the main switch is at the back. My initial problem was that the RME on its own does not consume enough power to serve as a master, so I added my CCA to lift consumption above the threshold. All other gear is behind the switch.
 

TheBatsEar

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It's all those silly EU regulations- they are over the top if you ask me.
The only reason why recent electronics don't contain copious amounts of poison to save a few pennies, is because of regulations.
The only reason why recent electronics are safe to touch in many failure modes despite the cost, is because of regulations.
The only reason why recent electronics use 1W of standby power instead of 50W despite the cost, is because of regulations.

I guess Europe will continue to regulate the markets where they move against the peoples goals, despite some US people calling it silly. :p

I suppose one could use a power strip or switched power conditioner or switched outlets on the Neumann....
There are smart power sockets that can measure power and shut off after some time or at certain levels, maybe that helps.

I'm looking into that right now, because my smart power sockets (Sonoff S20) don't have the sensors to measure used energy. Not so smart after all.:facepalm: I'm looking for a new smart socket that i can program. For example, if the used power is 55W for 20 minutes I don't use any of my stuff, so it could be switched off.
 
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