equipment switched on

All I ask is excellent replay. It is excellent from powering up, unless one wants to dissect the sound rather than just listen to music.

ATB from George

So basic indolence replaces logic and responsibility to save energy.

Not much of a justification from for a capitalised answer that appears definitive, but certainly is not.

ATB from George

Dear George,

I save enough energy riding my bike, not a Carlton,  several miles a week.  I have known  you and respected  you  for quite a long time. Please don't patronise me!

KR

Tony

Dear Tony,

It isi you who stated that the reason for you not turning off is down to you not being bothered. That is indolence, and it is not patronising - and no patronising was intended - to point out that not being bothered to do a thing that ought to be done is actually indolence.

Basic logic, just as it is basic logic not to waste finite resources.

ATB from George

Dear George,

Point taken. We had some fun!

KR

Tony

Dear Tony,

We can have fun tomorrow [or the next day] as well, I sincerely hope.

Best wishes from George

Dear Wat,

ESLs do not require to be constantly powereed. As Peter Walker pointed out, they gain enough charge to be completely enjoyable within the time it takes a valve amp to warm up - typically a couple off minutes. My ESLs are off when not actually working.

They draw a maximum of 16 Watts from the amplifier. I don't come close to drawing this as I never get close to their maximum energy transfer from electricity to sound.

Mine are each over 40 years old, so their original manufacturing carbon footprint from being made is now well spread out over time. New horn loaded speakers could never make the efficiency gains necessary to catch up, even if any horn loaded speaker could be as fine musically speaking.

ATB from George

I have no wish to resurrect this 5-page thread but, since I had the opportunity, I thought I'd do some measurements on my system (CD5i/112X/200/B&W804S) this morning:

Supply V = 238 +/- 0.7 V (a bit low for a Saturday morning if you ask me)

Current drawn = 0.11 to 0.25 Amps, depending on volume (lower figure is quiescent)

Power used = 16 to 35 W = 25 to 55 VA, depending on volume (lower figures are quiescent)

Using Prodigit 2000MU meter (good, but nothing swish) and a CD of Mravinsky conducting the UK premiere of Shostakovich 8 in 1960 (no special reason, just what was in at the time). I pushed it fairly loud to measure the higher figures, but not ridiculously so. New neighbours seem a bit sensitive to my usual listening levels, unfortunately.

In the interests of keeping us all friends, please don't now respond to these figures! I'm sure people on both sides of the argument for leaving kit switched on will find their own justification in the data above - that's what usually happens - so there's no need to use more energy and bandwidth debating it inconclusively here. Personally, I'm going to finish listening to the Mravinsky...

Mark

Well here's another good reason to switch off, and it is one that seldom seems to get taken very seriously. SAFETY. Leaving equipment powered up is a fire risk. This is a statement of established fact and not something for debate. One of the most frequent causes of house fires is from electrical equipment that has caught fire. It only takes perhaps a surge in mains voltage and a dodgy circuit component and things could get pretty nasty very quickly.

Most people I suspect will brush this concern aside simply because the risk is a small one. It falls into the category of 'it will never happen to me'. Many things in everyday life are a potential danger of course and we still do them because we consider that the benefits to us outweigh the risks. It is a matter for each individual to make up their own minds over.

I happen to think that life is a relatively fragile state of affairs and things can change unexpectedly quickly and dramatically. So why tempt fate? As George so rightly indicated, if enjoying the music is the object of the exercise rather than dissecting the sound then the choice of what to do is pretty much already made.

Peter

Does that include smoke detectors? 

I leave it on as it decides when to go into power-save mode and switch itself 'off'. I always leave the modem/router/phone base on as these are designed that way and switching off the router drives down the connection speed... and it's way low at the best of times.

I always unplug my fridge at night, just in case.

Swami Gupta.........Allah Akhbar !!!

Yes well I can't say I'm surprised at the frivolous comments regarding safety. People seldom take it to heart unless they have first-hand or close experience that makes them sit up and take notice.

I read not so long ago of someone who lost a relative in a house fire caused by a faulty electrical appliance being left switched on. Needless to say that where possible that person now unplugs all electrical devices that are not in use in their own house.

I'm not scare-mongering. The risk is a small one, but it is a risk nonetheless that can have tragic consequences for people and their property. Better safe than sorry in my book.

Peter

I have never read in any manufacturers instruction manual, including any from Naim, that turning equipment on and off regularly is liable to cause damage to it. Indeed if this were the case then it is hard to understand why Naim would bother to fit on/off switches to their equipment. At the very least one would expect a warning in the instructions along the lines of  'although a power switch is fitted to your equipment use of it can cause damage and should therefore be avoided'. 

All electrical circuit components have a finite life span. Leaving them powered up when not in use means that you are wasting a large portion of that life-span.

We turn off everything after each use that does not require to be left switched on in order to work. I have done this all my life, as did my parents before me. Indeed to us it was/is nothing more than just common sense.

Peter

There should be zero risk with properly designed, tested and approved equipment that is exactly as supplied (i.e. unmodified) by a trusted manufacturer. 

The kit that Naim sends for safety approval comes back in quite a state.  There's robust thermal and electrical protection.  The thermal protection is there so that should any component overheat,  soon as the chassis reaches a certain temperature the whole unit shuts down.  The final safety test involves sawing the transformer in half while the piece of equipment is powered up (don't try this at home).  The equipment fuse should blow immediately - it does.  If it didn't you'd have a raging inferno in seconds.  The tested equipment with the sawn up transformers didn't even show the slightest sign of a burn mark.  Therefore even if the most apocalyptic catastrophe should befall your home, the equipment should not catch fire.

I use a MacBook Pro and a Weiss INT202 to feed my Naim DAC.

 I always power the 2 wall warts off at the end of a session.  I don't trust these cheapy switch mode supplies one little bit ( not that they were cheap to buy, Apple charges 80 bucks and I think the Weiss was a few hundred, for a plastic switch mode brick with Weiss logo).

When Paul Hynes kindly sends my new power supply to Oz I will still power off, But this time it will be to avoid waste. I'm pretty sure the Paul Hynes has an off switch unlike the warts.

just as an aside, I keep forgetting to plug in the MacBook and often run on battery by mistake. The system still sounds pretty good, but i eventually notice my error and find wall warts improve things very significantly.  They ( like the rest of the system) get lots of help from Mr Nordost's best power cord from the wall to the Qbase however. 

I think it prudent to follow the Grateful Dead's advice regarding Naim equipment and Turning on Your Love Light..

This is an extremely bold statement Richard. I seriously doubt if Naim would be happy to put it in writing. If it is indeed the case, then I invite Naim to post as such here and now.

One can minimise the risk, but I believe it is impossible to achieve zero risk. This is just a theoretical ideal. There are so many variables. Saftey systems may not always operate as they should due perhaps to manufacturing errors or oversights. It is analogous to problems with the CD drives in some of the Uniti products. With the very best will in the world faults do still occur. Also Naim have no control over local environmental factors that equipment is subjected to.

I can happily ackowledge, as I already have done, that the risk is a tiny one. But definitely it cannot be said to be zero.

Peter 

But how material is it? The chances of me being struck by lightening aren't zero but it doesn't stop me going out doors. I'm happy to leave my system powered up 24/7.

MDS 

.....I thought we were not allowed to discuss modifications. I bet this one results in better separation....now where's my Black & Decker....

Probably best not to have any electrical device then...

As I indicated earlier, I am not preaching and it is a judgement call for each person to do as they see fit. I am simply laying out the facts as I see them.

Peter