Leaving mic pre's always on?

[gdizzle]

So I have a lunch box with 3 API 312's in it. There is no power switch, and I have the power supply behind the rack. So when i power up my rack the Mic pre's are on. Even if i aint using them.
Is this ok? I mean there's no tube so no worries? Could be on 24hrs a day?

let me know

diz

[rockstudio]

I know that in most studios the important audio equipment always stays on. consoles have no such power switch, neither does high end studio gear- like you lunch box. Please correct me if I am wrong. The electronics may perform better and last longer if they are always in a single state, more so than if they are turned off or on constantly. the thermal wear and tear breaks down components, and most imortantly, the electrical inrush at power-up wears components down. You've heard that starting your car engine is the worst thing you can do to it- its kind of the same for electronics. I do turn off my tube gear when I am not using it.

[vsr600]

Gibbs effect!
Transient solution to a continuous system....
sorry physics nerd here.
But yea turning power on and off I've heard is bad for quality gear (or at least gear you want to be nice in 50 years).

[Cellotron]

Walter Sear (of Sear Sound fame) wrote a really nice article on exactly this subject - worth taking a second to read to me -
http://members.aol.com/searsound/frmcont/onoff.html

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[JB]

Constant power cycling wears electronics out faster than just leaving them on. If tubegear is used daily or even weekly...I would leave it on so the tubes will be a consistant temp.

[A-Barr]

Just make sure that tube gear is updated! I'd hate to have a selenium bias rectifier fail (and they all will fail someday) and fill my studio with toxic foul-smelling smoke.

[vsr600]

also of course if you leave your gear on, make sure the power is clean with a good conditioner....

[cjmnash]

well- i keep all my gear on as much as possible. (i'm having second thoughts about the older reverbs due to pwr supplies failing)

i compare it to regular light bulbs--when is the last time you saw one burn out while it was on? they always seem to blow when you flick the light on, right?

chris

[trodden]

I check to make sure the door is locked. at least 10 times before bed and 4 times when leaving the house. then i'll make sure the coffee maker isn't on a few times... I'm obssesive compulsive makes it hard to leave the room with gear on. My good friends lost thier home, studio, gear, everything but the boxer shorts on their bods from a fire. I worry about that. should i? I shut down the rack gear, the computer, the mixing board, the hard drives, the blue xmas lights, the lights in the ceiling every night. i'll come and check again a few minutes later.

[lsn110]

When my house's electric bill came in at close to $400 for one month, I decided to shut off my board when I'm not using it. The power supply was rebuilt recently and should last a good long time power cycling or no.

I look at it as pay for the power now...or pay for repairs later. Either way I lose!

[A-Barr]

i compare it to regular light bulbs--when is the last time you saw one burn out while it was on? they always seem to blow when you flick the light on, right?

Yes, but they NEVER burn out when they're off!

But seriously folks...
I worry about fires too. I've heard stories of tube stereos developing a short in an output tube. This causes 300 or 400 volts to jump through that tube at full throttle, which will actually start to melt the glass before it explodes. Then the output transformer melts down, then the power transformer and all those old power supply caps filled with PCB's... yeesh.

[earth tones]

The objectives in that Walter Sear article (linked in Steve's post earlier) make a lot of sense to me. That seems to be the more logical route for the average (home/small-scale) studio situation.