Debate: Class D amps need 48 hours of warmup


Have you listened to your amps cold? Warm? Both ways?  What was your experience? I’ll hold my own observations to not bias the replies. 

Did you leave them off while on vacation and then come back to find they sounded hard and strident? 

erik_squires

As with most of this audio stuff, the hierarchy goes:

  • Does it have an effect?
  • Can you measure it?
  • Can you hear it?
  • Does it affect your enjoyment?

Many here believe, "everything matters," and it probably does, but not everything that has a physical effect can be discernably measured or heard and, even things that can be measured and heard may not meaningfully affect a listener's overall enjoyment of their system.  System warm-up probably falls somewhere within that hierarchy but, even though I am sure my new tubed DAC sounds best with at least 30 minutes of warm up doesn't mean I don't enjoy the sound of it as soon as I turn it on.  There should probably be another step in the hierarchy asking, "do you obsess over it?"

 

Well, I’m definitely not obsessing over this. It was really just a curiosity.  I think it’s also kind of obvious I’m not selling anything.  I’m not asking you go buy a new amp or get rid of your old one, or buy a new isolating widget of some sort. 

I just wanted to know what listener’s personal experiences were.  

I leave my Classe CA-D200 class D amp on 24/7 unless I'm leaving town or during thunderstorms but I generally turn it back on when I return/when the storm is over and I've never noticed a difference. While it's never gotten "hot" regardless of volume, it's warm enough to attract my cat, who would not be happy if I didn't leave it on. 

Of all my audio components the Class D AGD Audion Mk3 monoblocs require very little time to "warm up," Ten minutes is all I have ever required, and even that seems like an unnecessary ritual. The tube pre feeding then requires two hours to start grooving. The DAC and CD transport also benefit from a two hour warmup. Everything but the tube pre is left on all the time except when I will be gone from the house for days or also during thunderstorms.

I will say that the Audions did require about 50 hours of play to "break in" fresh out of the box, and that of all the power amps I have owned they reveal more tellingly what is going on with components upstream of them.