I did search around before posting this question. I found a lot regarding amps and preamps, but no real answers from a technical standpoint regarding cd players (or other sources) and whether or not they can be or should be left ON all the time.
I recently purchased a preowned CD5i-2 that was just completely serviced by Focal-Naim in Canada, June, 2020. It received a new laser transport, etc. I’m using it with an XS2 that I keep ON all the time.
Questions:
What exactly is ON when leaving a cd player powered all the time and NOT playing a disc?
Is the laser doing anything when it’s NOT playing a CD?
Does the laser ever go into any kind of “sleep mode” when it recognizes there is no CD in the drawer?
As you can see, my concern in leaving a cd player ON all the time is whether there is any “premature laser wear” when nothing is playing a disc and the drawer is empty.
Does the laser always emit a beam when there is no disc in the drawer and/or is not spinning a disc?
To the best of my knowledge (in the confident knowledge that I’ll swiftly be corrected if this is a steaming pile):
When (most/all?) CD players are left on but a disc isn’t currently being played, all the internal electronics are powered up: DAC, PSU, display etc. If you have an external DAC and/or PSU connected, the player may switch off its internal equivalents or not, as the case may be. Knowing Naim, I’d strongly suspect connecting a PSU to a player disconnects any internal supply, otherwise there’d be, erm, no point. I’m less sure about the DAC.
Unless actually playing a disc, the laser is switched off and the mech just sits there stationary, waiting for you to press play.
Whether this adds up to an argument for Leaving It On is perhaps a separate question. Personally, I do, on the basis that lots of kit (and not just hifi) has its life shortened by power-cycling, and takes at least some time to reach its optimum operating conditions from cold.
‘Laser wear’ isn’t a term I’ve heard before. My knowledge (based more in Physics than Engineering, to be sure) of lasers is that this isn’t something I’d expect to have any impact on a CD player. If anything, I’d expect playing discs would shorten a mechanism’s working life, not the opposite.
For what its worth I’ve left my CDS3 on for extended periods without a disc in and what happens when the lid goes down is the laser looks for the CD for a few seconds and then parks itself until the lid is lifted again and a CD is inserted. I doubt that any wear and tear takes place throughout this stationary period as nothing is moving. The circuits are on though as there is a distinctive sort of rubbery “live circuitry” smell that isn’t there when the unit is switched off.