Working away, turning off ?

That's a bit of a tricky one! Ideally, the system should be powered on to perform at its best, but the risk of damage by lightning would then be out of your control. Also, if the house is unoccupied during the week for a whole year, you may find that your house insurance is not valid, so you may want to check the small print.

I wouldn't leave them on for a week in an empty house. They will still sound good when switched back on - particularly by Sunday night!

I had a job like that for a couple of years. East Midlands Monday to Friday. Home in Somerset at the week end. I was married, so this sort of thing wasn't a problem. Too drastic a solution for you, I suspect.

I had a similar situation for three summers. Working ten days away then home for four. No way did I want to risk lightning, rare as it is in my region. The night I got home I'd immediately fire up the gear. It's decently warmed in 30 minutes and sounds good. Next morning it will sound great. I also threw a sheet over the boxes and rack while I was gone to reduce dust accumulation. Can't do that with the gear powered on.

I recall back in the multi olive active box days, i worked away for weeks at a time and would leave it on, but agree lighting and other issues unattended a concern but to be honest no different that one of us being at work and it happening.

My latest feat is with my Amazon Echo Show to Drop in and check on my Nova (so sad) and toying with the idea of a smart plug to switch it on and off, for a one box system ok not sure about multi box setups.

Still think Naim should add functionality to remotely control the Uniti type products, then have cool ifttt automation commands to turn on heating and Uniti in your geo fenced range or on demand when leaving work.

Obsydian posted:

Still think Naim should add functionality to remotely control the Uniti type products, then have cool ifttt automation commands to turn on heating and Uniti in your geo fenced range or on demand when leaving work.

I get what you're saying here in theory, apps and such. Going back to a more basic and perhaps practical mode, my old Harman Kardon integrated (circa 1990) and my current Plinius integrated both had/have "standby modes" via a button push on the remote at the end of a listening session.  Basically keeps the amp warm, but in a lower power stasis than in ready-play mode. No guaranteed protection from power surges or lightning, but no app can do that either (it's still plugged-in). Still a greener option and the amp performs readily once awakened from standby, again by a button push to begin the next listening session.

I think that legislation will eventually make similar power conservation measures mandatory.

In the past I have worked away quite a lot. When working on the mainland I'd be away for 3-4 days a week and would leave the system on. Thunder is quite rare here and I'd trained my son in the proper power down and disconnect sequence so could , by text, request this be enacted.

When I was regularly away for a couple of weeks at a time (usually 8 hrs of time difference and not au fait with latest weather conditions in the UK) I'd shut down and disconnect everything.

Probably not that much help to the OP, lying between these two circumstances, unless he as a trainable offspring. They are quite expensive to run but eventually they can be trained for lots of other useful things, car washing, grass cutting and eventually driving you to the pub and picking you up afterwards. If you have a 24 year old offspring of the female type you could save a lot of money over paying for professional arguments. (OK maybe age and gender are small factors relative to inheriting the cantankerous gene from her dad).

Willy.

I just leave most of it switched on at home all the time regardless of where I am in the world and for how long. The only exception is that if I'm away for more than a week, I tend to turn the Superuniti in my office off at the same time as I turn the network laser printer off.

And the last two holidays, I took the musu Qb and the UnitiCore with me, so they don't count.

best

David

I turn off when going away for more than 3 days.  I’m about to turn off now & I’m only going away for 1 night.  It’s been a while since it’s last off/on cycle & that seems to envigorate it a little, maybe imagination but it’s what I try to do every month or so. 

Hello Stuart,

The forum is great to get a range of opinions but it should be borne in mind that we (myself included) are the lunatic fringe. The vast majority of Naim owners will never visit these hallowed cyber-halls and will inevitably switch their Naim kit on and off as required - just like any other electrical appliance.

Okay; we can extract a tad of extra performance from 24/7 power-up, but quite frankly, if you're regularly away from home for five days at a time, I'd turn it off and disconnect from the mains supply in case of thunderstorms.

Paradoxically, I think cold Naim kit can give the music an engaging alacrity. It's 24 - 36 hours into power-up that I find things can go a bit fat/bloaty/slow. Then one has to get beyond that time period for the positive sonic aspects to return and build.

We're not mad .............. allegedly.

Enjoy the music.

John.

I only power off for thunder storms and when I am away for 4 days or more. I would argue that the gain of sound quality is back after half a day, and after 30minutes it’s decent. I am sometimes having the feeling that things sound more relaxed after a power down after a long period of being on.

My last power down was a couple of days ago when we had an unexpected and unusual power cut at 2am which I suspect (because of which household appliances had to have their clocks reset and which didn't) lasted only half a minute or less. I know it was 2am because the cooker clock counts up from switch on, but helpfully flashes as well, to warn you that it is running free as it were.

We were asleep and my attention was drawn to it only because the cooker and the microwave oven demanded my attention as I stumbled blearily into the kitchen just before dawn. The Unitiserve survived this non-Naim approved shutdown and startup and the only audio-related thing was that my NAS had to be started manually.

But I can't say any of the Naim sounds any different to me....

best

David

Five days is on the margin for me, I think. I'd probably end up leaving it on one week and turning it off another. I never trust the weather forecast, although if it were stormy as I was about to leave home I think I'd turn it off. I guess turning it off is the more environmentally aware choice and I suspect I'd let that inform my decision.

When I worked offshore, the system was always shut down for the 30 days or so that I would be away from home.

Worked very well until one dark o'clock morning, when, in my haste to get out of the door and head to the airport for a redeye flight, I shut down the HDX via the rear power switch.

On returning home, argh, one dead HDX - the operating system had been corrupted by my bleary eyed incompetence, though my local dealer was able to re-install the Naim software, and it all ended well.

Note to self : if you're gonna shut it down, do it properly, as recommended in the manual. 

Thank you one and all (paraphrasing tiny Tim) for all the replies, very informative as always. I guess it’s one of those situations which is a bit tricky, no real right or wrong. As the naim is currently sounding so good I was tempted to turn down the role due to “being unable to bridge the hifi issue!” but that may not go down to well. Like the answer about the wife!! Steady on, that seems a bit drastic????

David Hendon posted:

. The Unitiserve survived this non-Naim approved shutdown and startup and the only audio-related thing was that my NAS had to be started manually.

best

David

a black out is a simple power failure that means turning off the kit (a normal procedure used all over the world), so why it could turn out to be a killer for the Naim boxes?

Anto68 posted:

David Hendon posted:

. The Unitiserve survived this non-Naim approved shutdown and startup and the only audio-related thing was that my NAS had to be started manually.

best

David

a black out is a simple power failure that means turning off the kit (a normal procedure used all over the world), so why it could turn out to be a killer for the Naim boxes?

The Unitiserve is a bit delicate this way as it's a hard drive and you are supposed to turn it off in a controlled manner. First you press the Naim logo and then you turn off the power button on the back. If you don't do this it'll end up with Naim for repairs - as did mine.

Mr Fjeld posted:

Anto68 posted:

David Hendon posted:

. The Unitiserve survived this non-Naim approved shutdown and startup and the only audio-related thing was that my NAS had to be started manually.

best

David

a black out is a simple power failure that means turning off the kit (a normal procedure used all over the world), so why it could turn out to be a killer for the Naim boxes?

The Unitiserve is a bit delicate this way as it's a hard drive and you are supposed to turn it off in a controlled manner. First you press the Naim logo and then you turn off the power button on the back. If you don't do this it'll end up with Naim for repairs - as did mine.

Exactly. The Unitiserve and HDX are embedded Windows XP computers and you are supposed to shut them down in the same way as any windows PC, not just turn them off by disconnecting the power.

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David

The only times that a more recent Windows PC (NT4 or later, with a transactional file system such as NTFS) should be at risk of disk corruption on power failure, is if a power failure or power surge occurs whilst it's physically writing to the disk.  >95% of the time even this can be fixed by a simple check disk ('chkdsk /f') run during the boot sequence.

(If this happens while writing to the pagefile or hiberfile, then the error should also be recoverable by reinitialising the pagefile or hibernate function respectively.)

Not sure any of that helps with a Unitiserve Huge?

best

David

Can you get to the boot menu after plugging in a keyboard or has that been disabled?

My Unitiserve has survived occasional power cuts over the few years I’ve had it with no ill effects. One notable exception was when our phone line had a direct lightning strike, which destroyed my first US, but you can’t really blame it for that, and I now use an optical LAN to give some isolation. 

Despite it surviving the odd unplanned shutdown, I still observe the correct shutdown routine, as I would with any computer. 

I bought a nait 1 in 1984

Turned it off EVERY time I wasn't using it 

Sold it in 2015 ... still in great working condition

Think that answers that one.....

It answers something, but not what this thread is about. Apart from servers like US and HDX, the issue isn't about damage to the equipment if you turn it off between uses, it's about whether on the whole it sounds better if you leave it on all the time because it's always warmed up and ready to go.

best

David

Nait 1 was like a light switch

30 mins warm up and suddenly the sound changed for the better ...was always the same...

David Hendon posted:

if you turn it off between uses, it's about whether on the whole it sounds better if you leave it on all the time because it's always warmed up and ready to go.

best

David

I turn off the Superuniti once or twice a week and in my experience after about 30 minutes from the restart the performances are already at 85% to reach 100% after 5/6 hours.