OT about .....

[ilulilu888]

your thoughts :

powered monitors - , should i shut down my 2 pairs of monitors , and sub (all are active....)
i have been told that it is more healthy for their power circuit , not to be powered on and off each day - and it is better just to leave them on always (unless i'm going on a vacation and i will not use them for more then 4 - 5 days


wondering how many of you turn their monitors off and how many just let them be.....

i should note - that every thing in m studio goes thru a furman power conditioner ....

[Sean Russell]

Leave 'em on.

[formfunction]

Originally Posted by Sean Russell

Leave 'em on.

Yup,,, I leave all hardware on which is easy and my control 24 still has all l.e.d.s working.... My partner has the same vintage 24 and many of his are fried. Only difference, ... he turns his off at night.

When I paid 2k for tube for my 47, I was told to "never turn it off"....which was hard concept to accept, given how hard that tube was to locate, and how much it cost. ff

[crizdee]

Hi,

I turn everything off!! but i don't want the build up of heat over night/weekends etc. Control 24 been fine for 5 years now. Plus my room never gets really cold! so there isn't much temp difference which can be a problem with components expanding and shrinking all the time going from hot-cold-hot etc.


Remember to be careful when powering on equipment with the monitors turned on!! they should ideally be the last thing turned on and the first thing turned off.


Chris

[ilulilu888]

Originally Posted by crizdee

Hi,




Remember to be careful when powering on equipment with the monitors turned on!! they should ideally be the last thing turned on and the first thing turned off.


Chris

i have all of my monitors running thru a presonus Central station unit - so when ever i don't work the mute button in engaged on the central station so i won't have any pops or prrrrrfff or hzzzkae coming out of my priceless dynaudio's

[DigiTechSupt]

While it may be a little harder on the circuitry, most good equipment is built such that power cycling even several times a day shouldn't cause any undue harm.

[KingFish]

Originally Posted by DigiTechSupt

good equipment is built such that power cycling even several times a day shouldn't cause any undue harm.

The long debate, is actually not really just about "Power Cycling", it's about the operating temperature of circuit boards, and components, over long periods of time... weather the microscopic expansion during powered operation, and equal contraction when powered off, completely cooled overnight... over time.... years... contribute to gear's long term reliability.

I've read a few published things along the way, that seem to indicate components (Excluding anything with moving parts) will function problem free, longer, with constant power / temperature - Criz, it has very little to do with room temperature, it's all about the temperature "Of that capacitor, Transformer, IC and socket etc..." Inside your gear. We had 2 Control 24's - treated them the same way (We actually did power cycle them at night) one died, and needed repair within 2 years, the other is still fine 8 or 9 years later - theres an element to all this, that is random, and almost impossible to design a perfectly controlled test, as 2 differnt pieces of gear, will often perform, and react differently then each other.

In my experience... power cycling gear thats 20 years or older, (Mostly consoles) is never a problem... Powering it DOWN for a day, can often result in some disassembly, reseating of cards, a long overdue cleaning, and occasionally re soldering a solder point that's gone "Cold"

I've owned several pieces of gear that ran for years - "Until we shut it off"... as a result, it's a bit of a catch 22.

Part of me thinks, "Do I really want to work on gear that's Hanging by a thread" ?

So... "I" do a bit of Both, kind of work with both philosophies...

I generally leave everything on, while life is busy, and in the middle of projects... and when there's some down time, I'll shut stuff down for the night, and schedule a maintenance day, where the tech, assistant engineer, and myself, will be all hands on deck, and we'll pull, test, clean the gear, back up the System / OS drive, Wipe, install, and troubleshoot any problems we noted along the way when we were busy.

All Gear is going to inevitably fail. weather you turn it on or off, it will fail you at some point. the trick is to have enough stuff around you to keep a session rolling in as many scenarios as possible.

Debate is still on about heat / expansion / shrinking components and solder joints, I DO know... weather you power it on or off... Gear... Likes to be used, it likes signal flow, and pots and fader movements, and being on at least once in a while. Gear that's been "Sitting off" for a long period of time, for me, has often proven to be the most unstable of any of my gear.

[Postman]

I used to be of the "leave it on forever" camp, because I saw too many instances when a giagantic console would not come back on without a problem. But, these days, it is really a non-issue.

10 years ago I began to turn the rooms off every night. No longer SSL/Neve, these were PT and small footprint consoles (Yamaha). It saved about 35% on electricity (HVAC) costs over leaving them on continuously, and we simply did NOT have any reliability problems. Now I am in my own one room, continue to turn it off every night, and continue to have no problems of any kind.

When you add in the rising cost of energy, leaving gear powered continuously seems unjustifiable to me.

[jeremyroberts]

Originally Posted by Postman

I used to be of the "leave it on forever" camp,

...

When you add in the rising cost of energy, leaving gear powered continuously seems unjustifiable to me.

I'm with you 100%

I left my studio running 24/7 for many years, including vacations.

Then about 2 years ago, I started to think about my electricity bill, and the waste for powering a studio for 10 hours of non-use...
Factored in a budget for repairs or replacements...

I am saving more than $300/month in elec now that I turn off at night. HVAC alone is probably the biggest energy pig. And with the $3500/yr in savings, after 2 years of doing this, if something craps out due to power supply or cold solder joint failures, I can have it fixed.

Unless you are a 24/7 commercial facility -- its hard to justify leaving it all on.

AND -- there's a calm and peacefulness in the control room each morning during startup. And during startup, I have my coffee. And I read the DUC on my laptop. And it forces a restart every day -- which isn't always necessary, but it doesn't hurt the stability for a restart. And it's part of my morning routine now... it's a pleasant 10 minutes while everything starts up and prepares for the day. Speaking of, time to go make music!

[formfunction]

Originally Posted by jeremyroberts

I am saving more than $300/month in elec

Wow.. are electric costs that high in NYC? How large is your space/place?