Why you should not turn off equipment

[jamesharmer]

I worked in IT for 20 years. Nothing to do with audio, but the computers lasted longer if you left them switched on all the time. When you've got rooms full of racks of computers, you don't want them to die on you, because it's a pain to change them out in a hurry. So we left them on, for years and years and years. Of course, I wasn't paying the electric bill...

[pgmurrin]

I’m not listening to you anymore, I left my truck running and it ran out of gas .

[nomorokay]

When I spoke to a factory rep from Yamaha about this, he told me that it's better to leave most components turned on, with the exception of receivers and other units with displays, since the displays dim over time if they are left on. Accordingly, I leave my power amps on (they only draw a trickle of power at idle, and they're Class D, so it's an even smaller trickle), but my receiver is only turned on when it's time to listen to it.

As for the plasma TV, it gets turned on when it's being used, and turned off after.

[keithneal]

Here in the UK we were told years ago not to turn off our hi fi at the mains but to leave equipment in standby mode for the exact reasons you give. The amount this adds to your electricity bill is miniscule. Less than the cost incurred in the items reduced life expectancy.

[stephenbrodeur]

Back in the 90s I figured out that the thermal cycling, due to ON & Off switching, was what shortened the lifespan of equipment. So in my new found brilliance I left my NAD 7240PE receiver on and after 3 days the tuner had gone out! So much for that theory!

[isettech]

As an engineering technician in R&D, Failure Analysis, etc, many components age and have age related failures, so power on or power off have the same defect rate. We have some equipment with failing parts and new old stock parts have the same defects showing as in use parts. The parts are end of life due to age. Power supplies and linear devices have heat baking failures. The plastics outgas and the capacitors fail, regulator IC's go out of value, and become electrically noisy. Thermal cycling breaks solder connections on power devices installed in thru hole board designs. In newer components, multilayer ceramic capacitors crack and short resulting in failures.
In very humid locations the heat reduces corrosion.
Power switches and relays subject to high inrush currents have a limited number of operations before the contact resistance becomes high and fails.
Summary, Keep the equipment cool, dry, and avoid age, thermal cycles, and power cycles.
If you are not going to use it overnight, or longer, turn it off. If going out to the mailbox, leave it on.

My backup scope is a Tektronics TDS-220. My main scope had a voltage regulator fail, so I had to troubleshoot and repair it. Completed a calibration test on the scope which had intermittent use over the years and had about a decade in storage. No issues. It passed a calibration test and has zero problems. I can't say the same for most always on electronics of the same age. This was bought in 1999 brand new. On the bench it was used for storage functions as the analog scope was brighter, and had higher resolution. The storage scope was used for single shot capture mostly. If you are not using something for an extended period of time, shut it off. I power down my workstation, computer and all at the end of the day.

[jolyonwelsh]

This guy sounds as if he is a spokesman for the local electric utility.

[earthling]

Had just the opposite experience with Crown iTech 4000 amps. We had a rack full of amps that were all on standby power when not being used except for our main FOH amp that was on a relay switch. In caparison to the main FOH amps the others were hardly used at all but one by one they all started failing on the power input section, same exact problem. Our FOH amp is still working fine because we shut it off completely every night. We don't make that mistake any more.

[ninehundreddollarluxuryyac]

Another reason is that transistors and other solid state devices are most prone to failure during thermal transients. Back in the 80's I left my computers on all the time because they were so expensive, the power consumption seemed trivial compared to the threat of an IC failure ruining it.

[Music.Movies.]

I always turn my equipment off after use, never had any problems.
Best to turn off equipment by plugs to keep electricity bill down and don't want a fire in homes

[andrewganley]

Fine Paul will you pay my electricity bill!

[hicknopunk]

I use a class A amp and a tube preamp. I turn them off when not in use.

Edit: I always give a 10 min warmup.

[franciscojosecastanedojord]

Hi Paul! You must always turn the equipment off! At least I have a very good reason to turn them off, even if it is a once-in-a-life-time thing. And here is why:

Back in 1985, I was working at a great record company as a Cutting and Mastering engineer. I had been trusted to exclusively work on a state of the art Neumann VMS-80 lathe, with all the audio equipment also from Neumann and an MCI player with delay hubs. Every single day I will turn the machines on in the morning and off late in the afternoon. When it was lunch time from 12 m to 2 pm, I went away to eat and back to continue work and during this lunch time I never turned off the equipment just because it was better to have them warm to immediately continue working.

This had been going on for almost one and half years. One day I felt very sleepy and decided to take a big nap during my lunch time. Therefore, I just sat down and leaned over a deskto sleep. At about 1:30 pm, I happened (by pure chance) to open my eyes and watch the control console beside the lathe and saw a thin plume of smoke coming out of it!

Without thinking, I threw myself directly at the mains and turned them off.

If I wouldn't have been there at that time the whole studio could potentially have caught fire, and been surrounded by flammable materials (plastic, wood and vinyl) the whole studio would have been lost, to say the least.

The plume of smoke and a little flame, was due to a tiny faulty tantalum capacitor.What would you know that this possibly could happen to a state of the art machine with the finest electronics money could buy and that it was only 2 years old!!!

My boss then and I learned a good lesson that day: no electronic equipment should be left on unattended! And if you are going to leave it on unattended then you must have extraordinary fire prevention measures in place. You could say that this happening is just one in a million but it did happen, so unless you are prepared to fend off any possible occurrence of fire, no matter how small, you should not leave your electronic equipment on.

That goes for computers too!

Cheers

[lukeskywalker]

It’s called a soft start circuit. Modern electrical engineers know how to do that.

[yippie]

Don't leave your Class A amp on. The heat alone will degrade the parts inside over time much faster. Not all components have stand by switches, only on or off. What then?

[backthesradio]

This message has been brought to you by the friendly staff at your electricity company. When you leave things on, we love you more for it!

[RealHIFIHelp]

Yes this especially applies to transistor equipment, making the sound more warm/smooth/big/evolved. But on tube gear, many times it can sound better if you just turn it on when you use it, and wait like 30 minutes to fully evolve, to give it more edge. Leaving tube sound on for many days, will not only cost a lot of money in regards to your electrical bill, but will often create a more flat and not so correct type of sound being too warm some times. It's all relative to the gear and the conditions so one has to just find out what is best for ones own self.
But yes especially tube sound that is on for a couple of days, will normally go through a couple of sound development stages within the first 48 hours, and then it's a question what you prefer.
So if I had for example a mcintosh mc275 tube amp that I personally think is boring and too conservative, I would then personally turn it on, and may listen in 15 minutes time, and turn it off after an hour or 2, because I would personally not want that sound to get even more warm in sound. Unless I maybe was using a cd player that naturally has a thin ish type of sound.
But yeah something to think about.

[TNPFan]

I agree that my stereo sounds better when left on for long periods of time but have always turned my gear off for fear of “wearing out” my caps. Now that I know that is not going to happen, I plan to become my power company’s new best friend. Thanks Paul, love your passion, love the vids and hope to visit one day soon.

[needsLITHIUM]

It likely has to do with heat generation and as you said, burn in. Circuitry, wood, and things like speakers, these things expand and cool every time you turn it on and off. Also, the switch itself is a point of failure. It's the same reason servers are left on as much as possible, it's the same reason live audio people at live venues come in and set up, test real quick, then put in standby as opposed to turning off - the wear and tear on the caps with adequately cooled solid state power amps and digitally remote controlled sound reinforcement fixtures from that initial surge of power. Stage hands, local crew, and career concert runners understand this kind of stuff, too, as do electrical engineers. People's concerns with leaving things on is likely from the electric bill, or risk of fire if damaged by a pet knocking things over while they are not home. Some units are prone to overheating, if left on indefinitely. There are other things to ponder or put into consideration with consumers living in reality, as opposed to controlled environments, small businesses, or people having to meet the standards for being on the road with the live entertainment industry. There is no "one size fits all" solution.

[niconours]

my less than 1year 34" ultrawide monitor caps a dead.
there was an issue with my company laptop that made the monitor never going to sleep mode. keep restarting looking for a signal.. forgot to turn it off few times for maybe a total time of 3 or 4 hours.

now power led flashing blue. caps dead.

just to say that capacitors failure is a real thing.

this video enlighted me. I was turning off my NAD receiver. Im thinking keeping it in sleeping mode.

thx a lot Paul.

Ive watched several of you videos already over the months. helped me a lot to understand audio device subtilities. Im pretty sure your videos will still be watched in few hundred years.