x-can v3 do you leave the power on?

[redrich2000]

Noticed in the manual it says its designed to be left on. Is this advisable?

[Deleted]

Jan 15, 2011 2:09:25 GMT redrich2000 said:

Noticed in the manual it says its designed to be left on. Is this advisable?

If the power is left on, the valves will be at the correct operating temperature all the time. The downside would be a shorter lifetime for the valves. However repeated on/off cycles of lamps and valves will cause thermal stress to the filaments on switch on. A light globe for example, invariably fails at switch on.

[Deleted]

Another downside (when left on) is the lifespan of the caps.
With the temperatures in the amp and them having voltage on it permanently they literally 'dry out' quicker.

Hooray for Mike's upgrade kit !

[Deleted]

Now it's getting tricky!!

Leave on - tubes can die quicker (?) caps dry up quicker.
Turn off - tubes might pop easier on switch on but at least the caps are OK.

Now I'm all messed up.

I leave mine on over the weekend and turn on in the week. It would be rather nice to have a slow turn on ( ) Eek the mains up slowly so you get best of both worlds!!

[elysion]

A Little Pinkie enables you to switch the amp on/off without plugging out the wallwart.

Heat isn't as much a problem with V3 as with the V1/V2. The bigger case of the V3 makes cooling easier.

I suggest that you leave the amp off if you don't use it for a longer time, but if you are listening very often to the V3, then it could beneficial to leave it on.

[Deleted]

Until VERY recently I used to leave my kit switched on all the time - unless I was away for longer than a weekend.

Then I bought one of those current consumption indicator devices - and I saw that while idling, the entire stack of kit was drawing about 300 Watts. Which is the same as running a 2kW electric heater for 3.5 hours a day. I decided that keeping my kit warmed up was an expensive luxury.

But I have my X-DACv3 and X-CANv3 and neither of these has a mains switch, and my sockets at the back of the equipment rack are not easy to get to. So I bought a set of remote control switched sockets so it's now easy to kill everything whenever I want to. And I reserved one remote control socket solely for use with the X-CAN as this is rarely used.

I can't be ar@ed to worry about how long my amps etc take warm up in audio terms.

Derek

[xerxes]

I used to leave my hi-fi powered on all the time years ago, but now I turn it completely off at the mains. The sound does improve slightly as it warms up, but I reckon after about 10 or 15 minutes, it's pretty much settled down.

I would have thought that well designed equipment would be made in a way to limit or prevent problems caused by switch on. For example power amps and equipment that contains a large transformer might have a soft-start circuit that limits the current for a few seconds after switch on.

Given that valves have a fairly short life span compared to solid state components, I definately wouldn't leave any equipment that had them on all the time.

[Deleted]

In all the years I have been in electronics (over 30 years) I have not encountered a single (normal) tube with a blown heater.
Not talking about exotic tubes but the ones used in audio.

I have seen a lot of tubes with emission loss, but this is due to cathode problems, aging and being left on for long periods.

Although they do take time to warm up it remains a personal choice.
I for one switch everthing off, certainly when I am not around.
Like Xerxes I switch of the mains (with a very big relay that can handle the big inrush currents and switch-off inductance sparking that comes with it)
Have seen too many electronics with little fires that have been raging inside (and sometimes outside) which may be another insentive to switch things off.
If you haven't experienced this ... be glad and ask firemen if they leave gear on unattended...

[PinkFloyd]

I never leave an X-CAN switched on 24/7 (especially one with the stock capacitors).... I have seen many that have been left on all the time and the caps soon start to bulge / dry out. It's a lot easier to replace two valves than it is to replace all of the capacitors in an amp. The 105C panasonic FM capacitors last years longer than the stock Jamicon 85C types in this application.

Power consumption IS another thing... some people prefer not to switch their amp on and off in case it shortens the life of the valves (doubtful) with the false impression that they are "saving money"... in actual fact, if they turned their equipment off after listening they would "save" a lot of money