Kit switched on continuously?

But what temperature is 'right' - and in, for example, an amp with different brands of capacitor and resistors how do you know when they are all 'on song' at once?

If a speaker designer optimizes his design does he do it after it's been cruising at 10w, 50w, 200w.....etc ?

I think there are too many variables, not enough hard evidence and uncertainty over the audibility of these effects.

I don't dispute that speakers will perform differently in different climates but with electronics you should be able to switch on and enjoy within minutes.

 

A lot of speaker designers will make a point of running the speaker for a certain amount of time and level before taking measurements. Some of them say how long and at what level they ran them before measuring, especially with pro drivers as thermal compression is a real issue. I guess as most also fine tune by ear as the last stage, that the optimum power to run them at is whatever the person designing them did when designing them!

I theorise that with electronics the main issue is temp stability more than reaching the correct level. I could be wrong though.

 

I'm with Rob, my experience suggests that audiophile hoopla about things "coming on song" after x million hours is balls. 10-15 minutes maximum, even less for solid state gear.

Leaving kit on all the time just because you imagine it sounds a bit better after a certain period of time seems to me to be a silly waste of finite energy resources.

-- Ian

 

Digital electronics sound crap for ages after switch-on in my experience, and preamps can as well. Mind you, Naim can be a real PITA like that...

Power amps and speakers on the other hand don't take very long to come on song - as Ian says, these are nearer 15 minutes.

 

Absolutely agree. And I don't see that Isaac's capacitor measurements contradict this.

Paul