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AUDIO FORUMS >> General Discussion and Support >> Leaving the amplifier on
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Message started by DB2 on 04/01/16 at 17:42:46

Title: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by DB2 on 04/01/16 at 17:42:46

I've been the happy owner of ZMA #031 for a couple of months now. Listening pleasure has increased noticeably. :-)

Unfortunately, I only have listening time on the weekends. I have been turning the amp on Friday afternoon and leaving it on until Sunday night. My reasoning is that turning the amp on and off causes more tube wear than it just sitting on without a signal.

Any thoughts?

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by DB2 on 04/02/16 at 04:51:44

I found this in an article by Roger Skoff at Audiophile Review:

Leave it on!
http://audiophilereview.com/tubes/leave-it-on.html
Back in 1962, I was still a student at UCLA and already (since age 12) a long-time audiophile. One day, when I was in Hollywood for some reason, I stopped in at Radio KFWB's broadcast studios on Hollywood Boulevard....

When I asked this question of the Engineer, his answer was that, yes, all of it was turned-on, all the time, twenty-four hours of every day, and that they kept it that way for reasons of both security and economy: Security, because if any piece of equipment were ever to fail, the station would always have another of the same thing, already warmed-up to replace it, and would never have to risk going off the air. Economy, because, even despite the electricity cost (remember that this was in the early '60s and electricity was very cheap), all of those tubes would last MANY times longer, saving on both the cost of the tubes and the labor to replace them.

He went on to explain that the thing that causes tubes to "wear out" is not their operation, but the repeated heating and cooling cycles that come from turning equipment on and off again whenever it is used. This, he said, eventually results in a form of "fatigue" to the metal elements of the tubes and finally results in their failure. Just as a light bulb will last much longer if you just turn it on and LEAVE it on, he said, so will an electron tube.

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by DB2 on 04/02/16 at 21:01:13

During WW2, Colossus (perhaps the world's first computer) built at Bletchley Park to break German coded messages, used about 1500 vacuum tubes. The designer, Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers, convinced the powers that be that vacuum tubes were the way to go and would be reliable providing they were not switched off — so they left 'em running for years!
www.colossus-computer.com/colossus1.html

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by DBC on 04/03/16 at 00:30:32

I travel for work a lot. But when I'm home I'll leave my Super Zen on for days at a time and have had fewer tube failures over the past few years since.

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by Archie on 04/03/16 at 00:56:26

A while back I had a bad experience leaving my ZMA on. I left my house for an hour or so and when I came back there was a very loud and very bad sound coming from the speakers that was independent of gain. The meters were pegged. There was some glitch in one of the power tubes. No damage was done but I wouldn't have wanted it going on all day!

I don't have any irreplaceable tubes and they are cheap compared to freight back to Decware for amp repairs.

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by Archie on 04/03/16 at 02:39:36

Wait, that's not the movie I saw. Colossus couldn't be turned off and took over the world with the Russian computer, Gardian! :'(

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by DB2 on 04/05/16 at 18:20:43

I'm working my way through the 75 page (!!!) thread on The Mystery Amp (AKA the Zen Mystery Amp) and on page 59 Lonely Raven writes:

"Now I'm playing some random FLAC files and I'm marveling at how great everything sounds. Then I remember, Oh yeah, I've had the amp on (not playing the whole time) for 2 days straight, and I'm closing in on 200 hours. This amp just gets better and better."

Lon then replied:

"I find that these amps love to be run for days on end, day after day, they get incrementally better sounding after 24 hours and more of running time. Mine has been on since Wednesday and the sound is stunning."

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by Lon on 04/05/16 at 18:25:21

Yes, when I was living by myself I left my amp on for days when I could. I never had a single issue doing so and man the sound gets better incrementally for a few days.

Title: Re: Leaving the amplifier on
Post by DB2 on 04/05/16 at 20:30:14

Yeah, there are some advantages to living alone....
Life is full of trade-offs.

Meanwhile, back to floating away on LUX by Brian Eno.