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Pre and Power amps

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Posted on November 20, 2016 at 07:42:19
Bill the K
Audiophile

Posts: 8383
Joined: June 3, 2006
I am upgrading from Integrated to Pre Power amps. Now the rudimentary question. Which do I turn on first, the Pre or the Power. And turning off sequence? Just want to be absolutely sure. Please excuse.

Thanks
Bill

 

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RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 20, 2016 at 08:33:06
airtime
Audiophile

Posts: 11287
Location: Arizona
Joined: February 4, 2003
 preamp on first then amp

turn off amp first than preamp.

 

Its a marriage, posted on November 20, 2016 at 08:34:03
Charlie8521
Audiophile

Posts: 914
Location: South East Michigan
Joined: October 2, 2004
 Oh Man, just say I completely misread the question. Deleted my message.

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 20, 2016 at 11:17:13
Mike K
Audiophile

Posts: 13973
Location: 97701
Joined: September 23, 1999
 What do the user manuals recommend?

And btw, separates are not necessarily an upgrade over an integrated.
And besides which, with separates, you have all those nagging questions
about cables ...

Lack of skill dictates economy of style. - Joey Ramone

 

Always: ON - Source(s)-Pre-Power, OFF - Power-Pre-Source(s)... , posted on November 20, 2016 at 11:48:23
musetap
Audiophile

Posts: 31872
Location: San Francisco
Joined: July 8, 2003
Contributor
  Since: January 28, 2004
 If you need to stack your components (as a recording engineer housemate did) in that order

SOURCE
PRE
AMP

it becomes second nature.


"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure



 

Right, you don't need the manual, posted on November 20, 2016 at 11:49:29
M3 lover
Audiophile

Posts: 6599
Location: SW Mich
Joined: May 29, 2005
Contributor
  Since: July 4, 2007
 Amps always on last and off first. You don't want any stray pops or clicks to be amplified through your speakers.

"The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing, if you can fake that you've got it made." Groucho

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 20, 2016 at 15:22:36
John Elison
Audiophile

Posts: 23900
Location: Central Kentucky
Joined: December 20, 2000
Contributor
  Since: January 29, 2004
 It shouldn't make any difference which you turn on first. I have a solid state power amplifier that I leave turned on continuously. I turn my tube preamplifier on when I listen and off when I'm finished. Unless you have crappy components, it shouldn't matter which ones you turn on and off first. However, if it makes a difference on your system, you will discover the proper order of things the first time you do it wrong. ;-)

Good luck,
John Elison

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 20, 2016 at 15:46:11
JURB
Audiophile

Posts: 2056
Location: North Ohio
Joined: May 29, 2016
 While I do agree that good components should have muting circuits that work and take care of these transients, you can also put your Mercedes into drive while rolling backward. (remember when they used to sorta roll up the back axle and raise the back of the car for backing out of driveways ?)

With a tube preamp it should be fine. The value of the power supply caps should have been chosen to take care of that. On turn on it should rise slowly and not put out a thump. On turnoff it should drop slowly enough that there is no thump.

There has been talk of only turning of the filaments but there is a rebuttal to that regarding what is called "cathode stripping". That theory is why guitar amps have standby switches and some advocate turning it on in standby for a few minutes before taking it out of standby mode which of course applies the B+.

The contention is that when it asks for conduction the cathode cannot supply there is some damage to the cathode coating. This is actually supported by statistics on television CRTs with chassis' with continuous auto color balancing, called AKB. In fact Sony set up a delay circuit to keep this from happening, which meant shit because their CRTs went bad just as fast as anyone else's, if not faster. So basically those facts prove nothing. We simply do not know and nobody is likely to do any research on it at this stage of the game. And these days, a high end tube preamp might just have a relay on the output, who knows ? Nothing stopping them.

I put it this way, do it wrong and see what happens. If you hear a thump don't do it that way. Hopefully you have gain controls on the power amp so you can keep it down to non-speaker destructive levels. If not, maybe just don't bother.

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 20, 2016 at 18:43:21
AudioSoul
Audiophile

Posts: 4594
Location: north central AZ
Joined: July 9, 2005

I have a Superphon Revelation 2 preamp that is wired to stay on all the time with a mute switch. My Supephon SA-120amp I turn on as needed. Usually one half hour before I start listening

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 21, 2016 at 08:49:12
Jim Smith
Industry Professional

Posts: 1097
Location: Atlanta, GA area
Joined: April 5, 2000
 I would leave the pre on constantly. If you must turn both on & off, simply remember the amp should be on the least amount of time (last on, first off).

Best regards,

Jim Smith

 

easy way to remember:, posted on November 21, 2016 at 10:26:54
Prisoners
Audiophile

Posts: 4493
Location: Chicago
Joined: June 13, 2004
 Turn on the equipment in the same order as the signal flow.

Source-> Pre-> Power.

When powering down simply reverse the procedure.

 

In my case..., posted on November 21, 2016 at 10:47:57
kootenay
Audiophile

Posts: 8445
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Joined: October 16, 2007
 I'm using the remote to turn both amp and preamp on, which are connected via 12 volt trigger. However, I did notice that during the power up there's a 5 ms delay before the power amp turns on. On the other hand, when I powered them down they both turned off completely at the same time.

Go figure eh!...


 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 21, 2016 at 12:34:33
jedrider
Audiophile

Posts: 15166
Location: No. California
Joined: December 26, 2003
 Well, many pre's and power amps will have their own turn-on sequence, so that really, you should be able to turn them all on at the same time and they will properly come up with correct output. But, not all. Most modern amps will, though IME.

Tube amps will just come up raw normally, which is fine, but the pre's should have a timer on power up. Solid state amps should have soft start circuitry.

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 21, 2016 at 13:49:05
BigguyinATL
Manufacturer

Posts: 3475
Joined: April 10, 2002
 I think you are doing yourself a favor... Separates allow you to gain a significant amount of power over integrated amps...
Power amp is always the last to turn on BTW.
Even a good integrated will allow the output to stabilize before connecting the load.
Cabling and ground loops and hum are the major drawbacks of separates. and of course the size/mounting/heat dissipation and management are also concerns.
Power amps and preamps with voltage trigger inputs offer precice control of turn-on sequence...


"The hardest thing of all is to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if there is no cat" - Confucius

 

Appreciate, posted on November 21, 2016 at 20:32:38
Bill the K
Audiophile

Posts: 8383
Joined: June 3, 2006
the feedback and thanks. Now I know the sequence and feel safe.

Regards
Bill

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 22, 2016 at 05:35:10
fantja
Audiophile

Posts: 15518
Location: Alabama
Joined: September 11, 2010
 Pre-amp on 1st, then power amp.
Power amp off 1st, then pre-amp.

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 22, 2016 at 05:53:46
Bill the K
Audiophile

Posts: 8383
Joined: June 3, 2006
Excellent. Thanks.

I was wondering what happens if there is a Mains power outage. Do audiophiles with expensive pre and power take some precautions? I was thinking of a battery operated Inverter to save my not very expensive Pre and Power components that are very dear to me.

Cheers
Bill

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 22, 2016 at 06:23:15
airtime
Audiophile

Posts: 11287
Location: Arizona
Joined: February 4, 2003
 When you get thirteen replies on how to turn on your stereo you know you are talking to a bored bunch of guys.

I'm going back to my other hobby - watching cactus's grow.

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 22, 2016 at 14:11:01
Chris K.
Audiophile

Posts: 400
Location: West Central Florida
Joined: August 15, 2001
 Yes, the sequence as mentioned by the others is important. I'd just like to add that in order to avoid any problems, I always wait one minute before turning on the amp after the pre is turned on and likewise, I wait one minute after the amp is turned off before turning the pre off. I accidentally turned either a source or the pre off in the past before turning the amp off and got nasty noises. Nasty noises are not good.

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 22, 2016 at 23:17:00
pictureguy
Audiophile

Posts: 22597
Location: SoCal
Joined: October 19, 2008
 Such uninteruptible PS rarely put out a good sine wave.
And the capacity needed to run a stereo is a LOT. If you were struck with an outage, you'd have time to do a controlled shutdown and not much else.


Too much is never enough

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 22, 2016 at 23:35:36
Trouser Trout
Audiophile

Posts: 286
Location: New England
Joined: August 25, 2010
 Bob Carver solved the problem with Sunfire amps. No power switch, except pulling the plug.

 

RE: Pre and Power amps, posted on November 23, 2016 at 07:37:26
fredtr
Audiophile

Posts: 1987
Location: Phoenix
Joined: January 4, 2005
 A couple of years ago we had a lightening strike that took out a lot of elecctronics. As it turned out, Hifi was the least of my concern, but since then I unplug when I start to hear thunder. We have 6 lightening rods and surge protectors, still took out equipment.

 

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