should I turn off or keep on the auto standby (Auto Power off) ? Or just keep it On for hours?

[Mantra]

Hi

could be a silly question , but a friend of mine has borrowed a Marantz MODEL 40n ,beautiful amp (made with to much plastic) , it does sound very good for my ears

well many marantz and not only ,they have an auto standby feature (they call Auto Power off), after 30 minutes ( i guess ) they are used to go in standby (Auto Power off)

I have never understood if it's a feature to save power or keep the amp healthy
since it's not my amp ,and she has borrowed it for 6 months , i'm asking if it much better to turn off the auto stand by
for what I know , an amp does sound better when it's warm
30 minutes without an audio signal are not so much ...
i have seen many amps like cambrige ,audiolab and many others with standby feature
now , should i turn off the Auto Power off ( or just stand by ) or keep it ?
it was designed to preserve the amp healthy ?

thanks

 

[Grotti]

I suggest to turn it off. The automatic power off was implemented to save energy and it does to a certain degree. Turning off the amplifier won't do any harm, whereas leaving it on 24/7 could shorten it's life due to heat emission and sooner aging of electrolytic capacitors.

Finally most amplifiers have stabilised their performance from the start or at least within a few minutes (some valve amplifiers seem to need this time of warming up), so no real loss of performance here.

 

[Mantra]

I suggest to turn it off. The automatic power off was implemented to save energy and it does to a certain degree. Turning off the amplifier won't do any harm, whereas leaving it on 24/7 could shorten it's life due to heat emission and sooner aging of electrolytic capacitors.

Finally most amplifiers have stabilised their performance from the start or at least within a few minutes (some valve amplifiers seem to need this time of warming up), so no real loss of performance here.

Hi
I have found out that on other amps like cambridge are only 20 minutes ,I guess at least the rotel a11 tribute can be setuped to

Valid settings include: DISABLE, 20 MINS, 1 HOUR, 2 HOURS, 5 HOURS, 12 HOURS.

I can understand 1 or 2 hours , but not 10 minutes or 20 minutes ... is too less even for a shower , a coffe ,a cup of tea ..
thank Grotti

 

[MCH]

it was designed to preserve the amp healthy ?

Most probably it was designed with the EU power saving directive in mind, that makes it mandatory for certain devices, including audio amplifiers, to go into standby mode after "a reasonable period of time". In some devices this period can be selected by the user, in others is sort of whatever the manufacturer decides.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

Turning on and off for short periods of time will shorten life. Mine has stayed on for years.

 

[Mantra]

Most probably it was designed with the EU power saving directive in mind, that makes it mandatory for certain devices, including audio amplifiers, to go into standby mode after "a reasonable period of time". In some devices this period can be selected by the user, in others is sort of whatever the manufacturer decides.

hi
good point , would be nice some usa/american amps made in Usa
thanks

Turning on and off for short periods of time will shorten life. Mine has stayed on for years.

hi
it's esactly what i was thinking ,that's why i 'm asking it
thanks

 

[Multicore]

I turn off electrical appliances I'm not using. I really hate waste and it doesn't seem to have done my gear any harm.

 

[Grotti]

Turning on and off for short periods of time will shorten life. Mine has stayed on for years.

My power amplifier runs in class D but has a class a buffer. If I would leave it on for years, I would literally burn a lot of money and waste energy. There's nothing wrong in turning it on when needed and turn it off after finishing my listening session. Who switches on and of in cycles of minutes anyway???

And if my amp would run at any time, the quite hot running buffer stage would age a lot faster and shorten the life span for sure. There is no valid point to let an amp run 24/7.

 

[thunderchicken]

Interesting. I was waiting for this to come up. The answer depends on whether the model was manufactured with lead-free solder.

If it uses lead free solder, I would leave it on if the power draw is not a financial or moral concern.

Others may know a bit more about this, but the simple explanation is that lead-free solders exhibit dendritic growth with power cycling, leading to shorts and failure over time.