Amp burn-in..Best technique


I will soon be getting my new Mcintosh MC591's. I am curious,......does it matter how loud you play? If I run a CD on continuous repeat,...does it matter if I turn it way down? Or does that not offer enough resistance/load to drive to have a "break-in" effect. My wife would not be happy if I had my system playing at high levels all day.
noonan

Showing 1 response by sean

Put the amp through normal paces and verify that it is working properly before messing with anything else. Throttling the amp hard will break it in the fastest as it pulls the most current and generates the most heat / temperature swing. Leaving the amp play on a steady state basis, even at lower volumes, also helps. The cycling of the amp, especially if it is of a high bias design, may also help. Lower bias amps will benefit the most from leaving them on and playing them as much as possible rather than cycling them off and on. That's because they don't get nearly as hot, so there's not much temperature swing from being off to being powered up and running.

All of the above is for SS amps, NOT tube amps. Tube amps should be played as needed with sufficient warm up time prior to throttling. Not only should tube amps be allowed to "warm up" prior to cranking on them, they need to be allowed to "heat down" prior to turning them off. One can do this by putting them into "standby" mode when done listening and letting them cool for 15 - 30 minutes. This will increase the lifespan of the tubes and longevity / stability of the circuitry too. Sean
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