Or the usual soporific pseudo science used to claim xy or z can’t possibly improve sound quality.
2 Likes
What may be the case, is that when you power off a Naim device, the carefully selected Naim electrons inside, will pause, and get chance to regain their composure, such that when power is then applied, the’re raring to go, hence you get best SQ. Then after a week, they tire, and effectively need regenerating. Simple science really when you think about it.
1 Like
It depends on what one applies it to
Has anyone done a blind A/B comparison over a statistically valid number of trials to compare powering down and not powering down?
I just found it funny that suddenly someone states that in this thread it’s all anecdotal
3 Likes
I do the system clean and rebuild probably once every 6 months. I wouldn’t do it any more often than that. The system dust down is regularly done, perhaps once every two weeks. I enjoy the look of my kit and I hate dust collecting on top of the boxes.
I wouldn’t do a power down every two weeks, it takes about that long for the gear to come on song so I dont see the point of that.
1 Like
Like @Richard.Dane, I turn off my power amps, well, the amp packs on my speakers, after a listening session. This is mainly for financial and environmental reasons. I’m not sure how much electricity switching the amps off saves, but they certainly get pretty warm when they’re on. ATC reckon that the amps come on song almost immediately but I usually leave it about half an hour before serious listening.
Roger
3 Likes
I find that my Naim system benefits from a reboot every couple of weeks. Only needs to be off for a few minutes. Immediately better on restart and improves over 15 minutes or so. No idea why.
Willy.
as others I find 6 months for complete strip down and re build about right - plan to do this in August
just returned from weeks hols in Pembrokehire - system was off, re started on saturday - always follow what I believe to be correct shut down and re boot then just leave on low with I radio to get eveything back up
plan to warm the deck through this evening as I in the garden most of Sunday, Radikal on but not in use need to play and Urika & cartridge to get warmed up - one side should do this nicely
apart from hols and any thunder around stays on 24/7
I would do the same but I keep forgetting. Just cannot get used to the idea of speakers that turn on and off!
1 Like
It’s been on the warm side lately and it looks like continuing.
I don’t have aircon and there’s only so much you can do with strategic shutter closing. The 500 and ND555 and power supplies are rather warm to the touch at idle so I’ve started powering the amp down at night and putting the ND on standby. The other boxes are generally cool when idling so can stay on. It might be worth a degree by the morning but I’ll take it.
What does it mean to “power down”? Are you talking about simply turning off the main power switch and putting things in standby, or are you talking about completely disconnecting the power by removing the mains plug from the socket (or flipping a breaker or a switch upstream of the equipment)? Thank you.
For me it’s turning off via the switches on the front of the amplifiers and power supplies.
Willy.
If you put a streamer or Uniti in standby it is, in effect, fully powered down. The main PSU, amp, DAC and streaming board are all disconnected.
The only thing that remains powered up is a tiny switching power supply that keeps the network card and remote alive, and this supply is turned off when the unit is turned back on.
For the separate amps there is no standby, only a mains switch. The newer streamers with onboard ps do have a standby SMPS as described and so do the unitis including the Core but a streamer powered from a 555ps or presumably an XPS has a standby button that closes down some of the circuitry but what’s left powered up is still run from the big transformer in the ps.
I’ve no idea if the recent Naits have standby SMPS and at the moment don’t particularly care, having no inclination to own one.
Thanks. Just trying to figure out what is “powered up” and “powered down” from a Uniti Nova standpoint, given the advice on this forum from time to time to leave things on or let them warm up before listening, etc. Perhaps some of that doesn’t apply for those of us at the “kids’ table” in terms of gear, but I wanted to give it a try just to see whether it made a difference.
The manual for Nova says
Typical use: 140W
Network standby mode: <2W
Deep sleep: <0.5W
Network Standby (with SD Card and/or USB devices attached): > 15W*.
*Actual power consumption will vary depending on the size and type of attached SD card or USB devices
So in standby mode (as @ChrisSU says) uses very little energy of about £5 per year. You could go one step further and go into a Deep Sleep to save an extra £3.70 per year.
You know how much a 250.2 and an xpsdr with a 272 consumes in standby?
I always leave energized except during holidays and lots of thunderstorms
The 250 is either on or off, there is no standby. When quiescent (no music playing) it uses about 25 watts.
I didn’t find the info about the 272’s consumption any more on the Naim website, but being a streamer and a preamp it will be comparable to those. Although I’m not sure how much of it is really off in standby when using an XPS.
Search for power consumption and you will find lots of threads about the topic, including specs from the website/manuals as well as actual consumption measured by forum members (which is very similar to the consumption as given in the manuals / specifications on the website). Simply click here for the search results:
https://community.naimaudio.com/search?q=power%20consumption
For me it is less about power consumption (electricity is pretty cheap where I live) and more about sound quality. Does anyone have any recommendations about whether the Uniti range benefits from being warmed up or on most of the time? It does put itself on standby after some period of time with nothing playing, but I assume I can change that in the settings if needed.