Hello all,
Of course I always try to have the system warm up for 15-20 minutes before any serious listening.

Found it's not enough.

After 15-20 minutes, getting started it sounds very good. But as listening time goes on, it sounds WAY better. After about 1.5 hrs., everything just locks into place in a way that is just missing up until that point. It goes from good to sublime.

The problem, of course, is that after it locks in after 1.5 hrs or so, the presentation is so sublime that I can't listen anymore until it gets there.
Means I've got to do a better job of planning listening time, as listening before that magic 1.5 hrs ( or so ), is just so unfocused compared to later on that it's hard to listen.

And, believe me, martini # 2 has nothing to do with this. The difference is really night and day.

Anybody out there experience anything like this ?

Curious in Danbury.

Cheers,    Crazy Bill    :)

I agree completely. In fact, when I first got my ZMA and fired it up at a friends house, my heart sank because it sounded rough, brittle, just not exciting. I could see the other people in the room looking at me to see how I was reacting, because they could hear it too.

About 15 minutes later it was starting to warm up and sound good, and we all settled in for a listen. 30 minutes later it had finally reached it's stride. In my review of the ZMA (the very first one released to the public), I said it reminded me a horse warming up and eventually getting into a gallop. Once it really got it's stride, all the other amps in the room sounded weak in comparison.

Since then, whenever we have a listening session at Palomino's house - he sets up a staging area with power and cheap speakers to plug the amp into, and while we're demo'ing one amp, the others are warming up on the sideline. We've found once the amps are warmed up, if we swap them out quickly, it only takes a few minutes for them to reach their stride again, rather than an hour or whatever.

When I'm at home and I know I'll have time for a listening session, I'll usually turn the gear on and have it playing at a medium low level in the background while I cook dinner, or just powered on and idling while I watch a TV show.

Only once did I forget my little Zen amp on for 3 days straight, LOL.

I remember reading in the ZMA manual that this amp, unlike all other Decware amps, should not be left on overnight.  I haven't inquired as to why this is beyond what is written in the manual, but I turn my off after each listen because of this.

Quote:


My ZMA's output transformers can run hotter as time goes on, especially when biased higher.  I don't hear anything like the improvement that others are from cold to warm but as the evening wears on and things sound better and better I wonder if it's more due to Steve's "magic hour?"  Listening late at night has always been rather special.

On many occasions I will turn on my superzen and listen to a few CD's in the late afternoon. I just leave it on for the nite-time vinyl listening session. Yes, 30+ min warm up is definitely a benefit.

I always turn my equipment on as soon as I walk in the door and give it a good twenty minutes at least to settle down when possible.
On the weekends I turn it on when I get up, early riser, and wait for the wife to get up, not so early riser, so plenty of warm up time there.

That magic hour Steve refers to is even more striking with hi-rez headphones. I am relegated to headphone listening during these late hours, and it gets almost psychedelic at times. No spirits or smokables necessary.