Faced with electric bill which just doubled, Mrs Steve has questioned Hifi being left on all day and night. I have Ndx2, hicap, 282 and 250. Which, if any, can be switched off at night without affecting sound quality on start up?
Interested to hear what others do…
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My situation is not typical, I suspect, but due to my working hours Mondays to Wednesdays inclusive (up at 4am, in bed by 9:30pm), I turned the pre and power amps off on Sunday, and turned them back on on Thursday (probably). TBH, it sounded fine to me.
It has saved approximately 2kwh/day though.
The CD player, Lingo4 are left on. Streamer and cassette decks are off.
I switch off my Integrated since in standby it’s still pulls 50 watts. I leave Dac and scaler and streamer on since they pull very little
How’s the kwh pricing in the UK these days?
Anything with valves in it.
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I can say the NDX2 (when using its native power supply) is designed to remain on such that a small high efficiency SMPS power supply kicks in when the unit goes to standby to significantly reduce power consumption. In standby I understand sensitive components remain powered for optimum performance on activation. When in use the auxiliary SMPS is deactivated.
It’s a good design and appropriate for these times of very expensive electricity.
I am not how it applies or whether it functions at all if you use a seperate DC power supply such as XPS2.
My current non Naim power amp also has a slightly similar standby function … I have noticed when I moved away from my previous 552 and 250 which I kept on all the time, my power usage did notably drop.
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You can set the NDX2 to go into standby, which works really well. Presumably you’ve already swapped every light bulb to LED, turned down the thermostat and are washing clothes at 30 or 40 degrees. All these things save way more than turning off the amplifier.
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I was just about to post the same query, got an enormous electricity bill last month and unit prices have gone through the roof here. I’ve taken to powering down the SN3 in the evenings and if out for the day, I haven’t noticed the slightest drop in SQ on power up. Is this detrimental to the life of caps etc in the psu over long periods? Just seems so wrong to leave things on these days. My NDX2 stays in standby as per design.
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Since the start of the new year, I’ve now started turning everything off everything at night, as my vintage components are either are on or off with no auto standby. I’m sure I’ll be in the minority on this, but I’d rather put up with the small drop off in sound quality rather than waste power unnecessarily - better for our monthly outgoings and of course the environment.
Thinking long term, if energy costs continue to spiral then I do wonder if Naim sales will be affected, as ‘always on’ is not the greatest of marketing strategies in this day and age.
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Don’t power the pre amp down and leave the power amp powered.
Hi Steve. You are certainly right to question this. I had a very similar setup to use which at the time would draw about 56Watts, totalling 40p a day at current capped rates. There are a few discussions on this, but I prefer to leave mine on for SQ, and the fear of blowing something. Instead I have concentrated on other items in the house and see what savings I can make there. I purchased a power plug in meter to help with this so that I can get a picture of what all my devices use. The biggest change I made was to replace my 25plus year old freezer for a new one, and this will save £110 in a year
You have to include the cost for purchasing new things replacing old too. When I bough a new fridge I calculated it would go break even after 12 years. That’s about the life time for those these days.
Absolutely. In my case 2.5 years at the current capped rate, but of course that will be if less when the rates go up in Oct. I also passed on my old freezer on Freecycle to someone who was desperate. I did tell them about the cost, and its age.
My Siemens fridge has entered its 26th year and still working fine, not the most efficient I’m sure.
Why not just try turning off overnight and turn back on a couple of hours before you usually listen and see how it sounds. Dealers often have customers wanting to listen to say the next pre or power amp up in the Naim range unplanned for that demo and they usually sound pretty good even cold.
With amps, unless they are Class A they will not be at the same temperature idle as when playing music, and the louder you play the warmer they will get, so any change due to temperature on standby/idle compared to off is questionable. (Class A is a different matter - but due to the high energy consumption when idle certainly can’t be recommended to be left permanently on!)
I switch my amps off at the end of a session, and try to turn on half an hour or so before use. They are as warm as likely to be idle in that time and I’ve never noticed change after. I can’t say I’ve really noticed change if less than half an hour.
As for longevity, I have never left amps on continuously - and I’ve never had an amp fail as a consequence of turning off and on. (The only failures I’ve had of any amps in 50 years have been blown output transistors in my original Sinclair amp due to absence of protection circuitry, and once a preamp went into oscillation on the moving coil input while playing loud, and that in turn took out the output stage of a power amp channel).
N.B my amps are not Naim.
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As for energy hungry things in the home, don’t forget to look at the use of computers (especially anyone ‘gaming’), TVs and freezers. Would a less powerful computer (e.g. laptop) do? Can kids be provided with exercise bikes fitted with generators to power their games machines and get fit? Is it time for a new, energy-efficient freezer?
I leave my kit on for weeks on end and only turn off during bad storms or when stripping right down for some spring cleaning. I have found that after being on for a considerable amount of time it reaches an equilibrium that is very hard to ignore. The system just sounds right and when it does boy is it an addictive experience, at which point i’m very reluctant to disturb things, such as powering down. It gets daily use too.
However to alleviate any significant power consumption i have done as others have suggested here, and it works - replaced all lighting for energy efficient bulbs, replaced old fridge freezer for a new Bosch energy saving one, only boil the required cups of water for hot beverages and so on…why compromise the stereo? We need some pleasures in our stressful modern lives, it’s not all doom and gloom.
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You look to be on the same track as me Stephen.
I started the move to LED lighting a long while back, plus a lot are dimmable saving even more. The last remaining are some halogens that are only used once in a blue moon, but they are scheduled to be changed before next winter.
My electricity deal has a user selectable peak/off-peak schedule, we mostly always cook at lunchtime so the off-peak is 08:00 to 15:00, since we’ve been on this we also try to run the daily dishwasher in the morning.
After all this real measurable cost saving the cost of running a Naim system seems a drop in the ocean, but even so I’m now thinking ahead about what’s going in the coming week & time in or out of the house, I’ve started to power off some or all components more regularly.
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