Always ON?


I have always turned my system off after every listening session. It seemed that the sound would improve after 20 to 30 minutes. I was told it was not my imagination. In a smaller forum, there was a two person concensus that you should leave your electronics on 24/7. My vandersteen subs dont have on off switch so they are always on. Front end: Carver pre, Hca-2 and a Music Hall 25 mod.

So Audiogon, whatdayathink?
kyneo

Showing 1 response by shadorne

Change in sound over time is common in speakers. The problem is acute with lower cost drive units.

Heating of the voice coils while playing music causes thermal compression. This reduces the dynamic range audibly and can cause drifts in the way the crossover performs in passive designs. It is partly the reason for blowing speakers at parties...volume goes up until it sounds good and loud....after half an hour the speaker voice coil gets very hot....sound levels/dynamic range drops due to rising coil resistance...so volume gets cranked up again to compensate...speaker coils get even hotter...=> eventually leading to failure even though sound levels may be no higher than when you first switched it on!

If you find that your system sounds better after half an hour of playing, it could be that your speaker manufacturer may have designed for your speakers to run optimally at a certain voice coil temperature (when warmed up)....or you may simply not like the uncompressed bigger dynamics when the voice coils are cold.

Large profesional studio monitors deliver some of the biggest dynamics available on the market but people who have only been exposed to consumer audio often find this too startling and not to their taste.