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Threat of fire from audio equipment

Just read Art Dudley's new piece in Stereophile, and found myself becoming all sorts of worried. For many, many years now, I've left solid state equipment powered on -- except during thunderstorms or when heading away from home for extended periods. Now, I'm rethinking this practice.

See Mr. Dudley's article here:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/listening-193-nordost-flatline-cables

My questions:

Is what happened to him the rarest of things, like someone's being struck by lightning? Is putting an amp (or another piece) into standby mode any better than leaving it on -- when it comes to preventing fire, that is -- or can a unit in standby mode burst into flames just like one that's powered on fully? Do others worry about fire? As much as I appreciate a fully warmed-up system, if fire is a legitimate concern, I'll routinely switch things off when I'm not around and listening. Or about to listen.

I'd love to learn what others -- especially those who understand engineering and electricity -- do with their equipment.

Thanks very much.

Howard
 
hodu

Showing 2 responses by onhwy61

onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,136 posts
 
The title of this thread should read "BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID".  The chances of your equipment, excluding tube power amplifiers, catching fire is virtually nil.  Your laptop computer or cell phone are far more likely to self-incinerate than your stereo equipment.  A few sparks, a little smoke and a foul smell -- that's possible, but again highly unlikely.  And those events won't set your house on fire unless you've placed your equipment upon a bed dried evergreen needles.  If you really are going to worry about transformers exploding or lightning strikes, then you should also worry about making your system earthquake and tsunami proof.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,136 posts
 
Hodu, I read the Dudley article and thought it was unfortunate.  But then again, I don't think Dudley's experience reflects a typical audiophile.  He's into esoteric and/or vintage tube amplifiers which truth be told, I wouldn't leave unattended either.  Also, he swaps out dozens of pieces of equipment a year.  If a fire is going to happen, it would happen to someone fitting his specific profile.  For a typical solid state amp/preamp/dac or even a small tube preamp owner, fire and explosions are not something to give much thought to.
Someone mentioned a power substation burning and the resulting possibility of damaged equipment.  I'm just not going to lose sleep.  An unnamed rogue nation in western Asia sending malware or a virus to corrupt your computer/music server/phone is far more probable.
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