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In Reply to: RE: best on/off toggle switch to fix Thor phono stage posted by mcbuddah on July 10, 2017 at 12:37:46
There is no benefit of having a power switch unless you regularly power-off the power supply. If you are seeking optimized performance, I would simply bypass the on/off switch with a good piece of wire or a simple solder joint. Other than a rarely listened to audio device, I keep my gear powered-on 24/7 for better audio performance, without warm-up, and arguably less wear-and-tear on the audio gear over their useful lifetimes due to repeated on/off cycles.
Follow Ups:
Duster, That'show I have been using it for the last 5 years or so - always on. I have had most of the system in storage for several months while remodeling the space and thought I should take the down time to have a few things fixed. I brought up by Depression-obsessed parents who relentlessly drilled us kids to turn off things that are not being used. I'm trying to "walk the talk" with my own family now.
Also, I am not convinced by the argument that tube life is not shortened by staying on all the time. I have owned this preamp since new in 1999. The system was engineered with a goal of allowing up to 10,000 hours. The (relatively) cheap Gold Lion factory tubes lasted until 2016 when I replaced them with some obscenely expensive NOS tubes including a quad matched to within +/- .5%. They were glorious while they lasted - one of the quad developed a slight buzz after only a year while leaving it on all the time.
Everything is going to the dogs
I am one who would advise against the "always on" practice for tube gear, but I endorse it for solid state. If you can manage to wire up your tube gear such that the filament voltage is supplied at least 30 seconds ahead of B+, then there is no significant shock to the tube when you start it up from cold, and tube life is extended compared to the "always on" mode. For power tubes, of course, you want a longer interval of time between the application of filament voltage followed by B+ voltage. Preferably a power tube should feel warm to the touch before you apply B+.
Apart from wearing out the tubes if they are always working, there is also the lesser danger of losing bias because of component failure in the circuit, which can in turn lead to rapid destruction of valuable tubes. Something that would not happen if you are always in the room when the equipment is powered up.
I agree. If I had not assumed (my bad) it was a power supply for a solid state phono setup, I would not have suggested that the device be kept powered-on 24/7. I'll be more careful next time.
bcowen, Thanks for the tip about Mouser. I already struck out at Digikey, but the link that Tweaker456 posted looks like it will probably do no harm.
Everything is going to the dogs
Here's more toggle switches to ponder:
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