When does your system hit it's "sweet spot" after turn-on?

[JackD201]

Over here near the equator we kinda like our rooms cool, cold when its closer too 40 C out. In short we usually run air conditioners. That can be. a problem getting amps up to the right temp. If I turn the ac on at the same time as the equipment, it takes me about an hour for the sound to start opening up and about 4 hours truly singing. Soooo, I developed a trick. Start the system playing for an hour without the air conditioning on, leave and come back and turn the ac on. This works for the Lamm, Constellation and CH amplifiers. Since only the CH has a temp read out, I can say the magic number for them is 49 C. I think it is actually the consensus among CH owners here and in other forums. Since it takes the same time for the lamm M.2.2 Hybrids (Class A/AB) and Centaur II 500s I figure they should be in that ballpark too. The KR VA 200s take about 30 minutes to an hour with the air conditioning on but I guess they cheat by having 8 842 tubes per side providing their own ambient heat LOL

A handy thing about the CH App is that I can monitor the amplifier temps through my tablet from anywhere in the house. Now if only it could send a notification that it's prime time........hmmmm.

 

[tima]

A handy thing about the CH App is that I can monitor the amplifier temps through my tablet from anywhere in the house

Does that mean your amp can be hacked?

 

[Lagonda]

My SS pre and power amps need at least an hour to sound good, the tube phono needs half an hour. I normally turn everything on an hour before use, including TT and air pumps. Playing sound from Netflix or a CD at low level until use. The cartridges also need about 15 min of playing time to sound OK.

 

[JackD201]

Does that mean your amp can be hacked?

I hope not! LOL

I remember our older home automation system. Marge and I were in the US and we pranked the kids by playing with the lights. They called saying the house was haunted Hahahahaha.

 

[kodomo]

My power amps are vacuum tube sets and the rest are ss, the pre is passive. In about half an hour I can start enjoying music, about an hour everything seems to settle and sound very nice. From there on there are subtle but nice improvements. I think it is around 3-4 hours everything becomes as good as they can be.

 

[Mikem53]

My power amps are vacuum tube sets and the rest are ss, the pre is passive. In about half an hour I can start enjoying music, about an hour everything seems to settle and sound very nice. From there on there are subtle but nice improvements. I think it is around 3-4 hours everything becomes as good as they can be.

My experiences as well with tube amps that have output transformers. They sound their best when the output transformers reach normal operating temps.
Do the OTL amps come Up to max SQ quickly ?

 

[izeek]

Mine sounds harsh and thin for about the first fifteen minutes. The presentation is flat. Then begins improving.
About an hour in, bass starts rolling, mids a bit more present, hi begins to sweeten.
At three hours, ish be cooking.
Bass is very lively, muscular and musical, mids especially low mids sound lush and detailed, hiS really becomes sweet and detailed without brightness. I was listening to Alice Coltrane's Turiya and Ramakrishna and you can actually hear the drummers brush as it MAKES contact.

 

[andromedaaudio]

The ML DAC ( and system) is now about 8 hours on the juice, but when you then put some tiesto on its high end audio all the way .
A warm developing super rhythm with those stiff eton woofers rolling in a rock solid housing and super resolution decay / overall
Its this sound what got me into this high end thing in the first place , super dac

 

[MarcelNL]

My audio front end PC stays on all time as does my DAC, the KL402a starts to sing after an hour, even better after three hours or so, but the real magic starts between 11PM and midnight, what is it...the grid getting cleaner, the City getting more quiet?

 

[andromedaaudio]

My audio front end PC stays on all time as does my DAC, the KL402a starts to sing after an hour, even better after three hours or so, but the real magic starts between 11PM and midnight, what is it...the grid getting cleaner, the City getting more quiet?

Who knows , wie weet?

 

[andromedaaudio]

Nice with those red dac lights / tubes .
I sometimes think about buying solid state as well , but its really a waiste of money i think .
The CAT delivers alll the bottom end pressure/ control one would want , and i dont think solid state can beat the resolution / speed / overall decay.
The problem with a 360 S in the system is, you dont wanna turn it of

 

[TooCool4]

I really don’t know as I leave everything on all the time except the tape deck and turntable as the motors would burn out. I just had a look at my regenerator and it shows the system has been on for 687 days 21 hours and 42 minutes, so that’s from about 1 week after I moved into this flat.

 

[twitch]

The second scotch.

after reading (and laughing) through all the multiple of hours long warm ups(ridiculous), yours Jeff was without question the best answer !

 

[jeff1225]

after reading (and laughing) through all the multiple of hours long warm ups(ridiculous), yours Jeff was without question the best answer !

It's funny because it's true.....

 

[BlueFox]

I guess for those of us who don’t use alcohol to distort our hearing we just have to wait for the gear to reach its optimum warmup level.

 

[twitch]

I guess for those of us who don’t use alcohol to distort our hearing we just have to wait for the gear to reach its optimum warmup level.

perhaps Bud but if you think it takes many multiples of hours I'd suggest you start drinking !!

 

[Gregm]

The second scotch.

Mine sounds good 25-30mins after i fire up the amp. I only switch off the power amp, the rest of the system is always on.
Mind you, I had forgotten the amp on all night recently. It warmed up the room nicely and sounded outstanding the next day (even more low-level detail and, subjectively, more pronounced dynamics)

 

[Kingrex]

DAC and server are always on. Everything else is tube. Maybe 15 to 20 minutes. But really, cranking it up and getting the drivers moving for 2 or 3 songs is what makes it sing. It could play 24x7 on low and it still needs to be revved up for a song or two to get into stide.

 

[amey01]

The second scotch.

Incredibly true........and probably a more significant "upgrade" to our sound systems than anything else you can name.

 

[amey01]

It doesn't matter what time I turn it on - it starts to sound good about 10PM or so........whether that's to do with cleaner power or our primal instinct of hearing taking over sight as primary sense (or even mind modification as referenced above), I don't know.......all I know is that I can sit there into the night when I would otherwise fall straight asleep.

It just sounds better and better the later it gets. Poor neighbours.