To warm up or not to warm up, and...?

How does AC destroy your sound, exactly? So far I've noticed only improved sound. Plus, I run all components through a Monster Component Power Conditioner, and I can tell you there is no hum, hiss, or anything else, even at high volumes... in musical pauses. My only question is if I should let the temperature get higher than the 77 degrees I have it set on? Thanks for any input!

Relax, its just the normal lack of reading comprehension. People can't read, don't get that AC Infinity is a name, they think its air conditioning, then one after another misconstrues until its one big mess. Welcome to A'gon, short for the agony of audio.  

Coolers are really only useful if the thing is getting hot to the touch, and even then only when its long and often. Otherwise you can bet your unit has thermal shutdown and will be fine. 77 degrees is practically refrigerated and beyond overkill. 

Next question, longevity. Heat itself, as long as its not excessive thermal shutdown level heat, is not the problem. The bigger problem is thermal expansion/compression cycles. This together with good old fashioned oxidation is where most wear comes from. So if you want it to last a long time the answer is simply leave it on.  


Finally there is sound quality. Being a receiver there isn't much, but what there is will certainly be helped by leaving it on all the time. What will happen is the sound quality will improve very slowly and gradually over time and you won't notice any difference. But you will get used to it. Then one day you turn everything off, and when you turn it back on guess what? You will notice its a lot worse! So there was a difference after all, it was just hard to notice because it was so slow and gradual.

Power cords and conditioners are similar, by the way. The noise they remove was never there in the sense of anything obvious you could hear and point to, like static or hum. Instead the noise is so woven into the fabric of the music it doesn't seem like noise at all- until its gone. Just like leaving things on 24/7 didn't seem to improve anything- until it was gone.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.

Why do people continue to ask questions that only they can answer? Try listening to your system and make a determination for  yourself. You expect strangers to know what you hear? Some may be based upon logic or myth. When it comes to audio and synergies the variables can be endless and no two identical systems will ever sound the same in different environments. All you will be receiving is others opinions which are worth what you paid for them. Trust your own ears.

The only components that suffer from the heat are electrolytic caps (they dry-out). As for the performance - hot electrolytic caps have higher ESR, hot bipolar transistors are faster while hot FET transistors are slower. It is hard to make any sense of it, but warming gear up and keeping it warm lowers temp. gradients (always good). Lowering temp. from hot to warm with forced air is OK, IMHO.  It will extend life of electrolytic caps.  Their life will double for each 10degC temp drop.  Slow uniform air flow should be the best (any forced air speed is better than convection cooling).

tom6897,

Oh I do trust my golden ears, you have no idea. As I stated in a reply, there is no hum or hiss or anything else in the form of noise. There is amazing, beautiful musical sound that I very much enjoy, my question was rather simple, would a system perform better warmer or cooler based on the readers experiences, or at a certain temperature, period. I know what I hear, I'm simply asking what do YOU hear differently, if anything when a component is warmer or cooler? Don't get it twisted.