I would bet money that I can find 100 things in your life that are unnecessary and that take up far far more energy than a home audio amplifier. The first thing any serious environmentalist should be taught is math.
(Ahem) Class A amplifier?
I just checked up on what you meant by class A, since Burson don't offer a class A power amplifier, AFAIK.
So, you are concerned about a headphone amplifier/DAC/preamp being run 24/7 ?
Admittedly its a toaster rated headamp with enough power to melt your headphones and set your hair on fire but there are only 2 x 35VA transformers there and having a constant current, will be over-rated to minimise buzz from the windings. The point is that at there is little thermal mass in the baseplate of the box and the power is variable, by choice of output stages, from just 180mW to 4W. Any benefit from just leaving on is not likely real or of only short duration.
The danger of fire in the event of a fault in any of the devices you choose to leave on 24/7 and in your absence may be slim, but real enough though.
I just checked up on what you meant by class A, since Burson don't offer a class A power amplifier, AFAIK.
So, you are concerned about a headphone amplifier/DAC/preamp being run 24/7 ?
Admittedly its a toaster rated headamp with enough power to melt your headphones and set your hair on fire but there are only 2 x 35VA transformers there and having a constant current, will be over-rated to minimise buzz from the windings. The point is that at there is little thermal mass in the baseplate of the box and the power is variable, by choice of output stages, from just 180mW to 4W. Any benefit from just leaving on is not likely real or of only short duration.
The danger of fire in the event of a fault in any of the devices you choose to leave on 24/7 and in your absence may be slim, but real enough though.
I just checked up on what you meant by class A, since Burson don't offer a class A power amplifier, AFAIK.
So, you are concerned about a headphone amplifier/DAC/preamp being run 24/7 ?
Admittedly its a toaster rated headamp with enough power to melt your headphones and set your hair on fire but there are only 2 x 35VA transformers there and having a constant current, will be over-rated to minimise buzz from the windings. The point is that at there is little thermal mass in the baseplate of the box and the power is variable, by choice of output stages, from just 180mW to 4W. Any benefit from just leaving on is not likely real or of only short duration.
The danger of fire in the event of a fault in any of the devices you choose to leave on 24/7 and in your absence may be slim, but real enough though.
The manual says the sound gets better the longer it's on (although now in reading it closely I don't know if it means that you should leave it plugged in, or that you should leave it on). p. 5 here. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxn23njCr8VCaW9oTTZYQ0Ywazg/edit
I thought it was a class a but it might be class ab. definitely not a class d though since burson hates those.
p.s. a purported expert, Jon Risch, claims you should leave your amp on because it takes days for the capacitors to "fully stabilize."
Is it OK to leave the receiver on 24HRS? - Agoraquest - Sony Forum, News, Reviews
This debate literally goes on endlessly in thousands of internet discussions across the audio world. You could read 20 threads and no one will definitively tell you how it impacts sound and reliability. On sound, some say it has no effect while others strongly disagree and cite to experts. On reliability, some say leaving it on downgrades the capacitors, welds and other parts, and other say no the surge from turning them on and off degrades those things.
Someone should create a list of the unsolvable audio equipment riddles.
Is it OK to leave the receiver on 24HRS? - Agoraquest - Sony Forum, News, Reviews
This debate literally goes on endlessly in thousands of internet discussions across the audio world. You could read 20 threads and no one will definitively tell you how it impacts sound and reliability. On sound, some say it has no effect while others strongly disagree and cite to experts. On reliability, some say leaving it on downgrades the capacitors, welds and other parts, and other say no the surge from turning them on and off degrades those things.
Someone should create a list of the unsolvable audio equipment riddles.
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It may keep your coffee pot hot if you leave it in the top of the case
Or above the heatsinks..but for sure, after a couple of years...one or two maximum, your capacitors gonna dry out.
Naturally all depends where the capacitor is..if they are receiving fresh air from fan blower or not...if cooled..then no problem..will survive from 5 to 10 years... and even more.... also depending the capacitor quality.
regards,
Carlos
Or above the heatsinks..but for sure, after a couple of years...one or two maximum, your capacitors gonna dry out.
Naturally all depends where the capacitor is..if they are receiving fresh air from fan blower or not...if cooled..then no problem..will survive from 5 to 10 years... and even more.... also depending the capacitor quality.
regards,
Carlos
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One forum said that capacitors actually dry out faster in unpowered storage, like in your closet. ???
"I thought it was a class a but it might be class ab. definitely not a class d though since burson hates those."
The amplifier will be operating in class A alright, but previous replies have assumed this is a power amplifier - like for loudspeakers that annoy your neighbours etc.
There's a lot of difference in the size, power, user concerns, and use of these, so they have a separate forum here.
Burson say the amplifier needs a 30 min. warm up because that's what it takes to settle heatsink temp and bias current. That settling will have little to do with sound quality in class A. Conversely, a class AB amplifier with poorly located bias controller will have a lot of trouble settling to its best bias level, which is actually quite sensitive in some designs and probably at it's worst in listening to small amplifiers like this one but there are plenty of examples of AB amplifiers that still require that warm-up.
Like I said, your amplifier is tiny - only needing to produce around a watt which is of little consequence in warm-up time, considering dissipation is much higher at perhaps 20W total but this depends on your headphone output power setting.
You asked for a short answer on Burson's "no IC" policy, even though the DAC they use has them? Simple - Burson make and market expensive discrete "ICs" and voltage regulators too. Well, how could they credibly promote one product unless they support it across the board? Like any novelty products, most here see them as snake oil but those who spend the money naturally think they are great, until the next fad product, of course.
The amplifier will be operating in class A alright, but previous replies have assumed this is a power amplifier - like for loudspeakers that annoy your neighbours etc.
There's a lot of difference in the size, power, user concerns, and use of these, so they have a separate forum here.
Burson say the amplifier needs a 30 min. warm up because that's what it takes to settle heatsink temp and bias current. That settling will have little to do with sound quality in class A. Conversely, a class AB amplifier with poorly located bias controller will have a lot of trouble settling to its best bias level, which is actually quite sensitive in some designs and probably at it's worst in listening to small amplifiers like this one but there are plenty of examples of AB amplifiers that still require that warm-up.
Like I said, your amplifier is tiny - only needing to produce around a watt which is of little consequence in warm-up time, considering dissipation is much higher at perhaps 20W total but this depends on your headphone output power setting.
You asked for a short answer on Burson's "no IC" policy, even though the DAC they use has them? Simple - Burson make and market expensive discrete "ICs" and voltage regulators too. Well, how could they credibly promote one product unless they support it across the board? Like any novelty products, most here see them as snake oil but those who spend the money naturally think they are great, until the next fad product, of course.
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If it is winter time then any excess heat is that much less heat that the home heater has to produce. Same thing with light bulbs, or rather incandescence bulbs. That little fact is usually not considered when arguing against that type of light bulb use. This means that in the winter time, use of incandescence bulbs indoors is actually quite efficient.Switch bulb types in summer and don't leave the class A 'heater' on continuously.
Same with the "indoor farmer" . I have suggested to rent a building with
electric heat , the 1000w discharge lamps/ballasts will use the same power
and produce heat. This almost perfectly mimics the original heating scheme.
Utility power usage will not be excessive enough to bring attention to
the operation. This "suggestion" has worked many times.
PS - I only sell them the lights/industrial timers.
OS
Drawing about 500W from the mains, the mighty Aleph 4 costs about 10p an hour to run. That hardly breaks the budget.
A documented case where they dry out faster in storage: Sitting on a pallet on the top shelf of a hi-bay in an un-vented warehouse in Colorado. Killed them all in 6 months! Ambient probably over 140. Just a bit of a warning, you don't know the provenance of your parts.
lol I just saw that diyAudio has an entire forum devoted solely to the type of thing that Burson hates, integrated circuits in amplifiers.
I could have fun in that forum if I had any clue what integrated circuits were as compared to their alternative, or even knew what the alternative was. lol.
I could have fun in that forum if I had any clue what integrated circuits were as compared to their alternative, or even knew what the alternative was. lol.
Start here: Elliott Sound Products - The Audio Pages (Main Index)
If you still have no clue about ICs after wading through the relevant sections in that lot, which admittedly is pitched at DIY rather than store-bought products, I wouldn't be too worried what Integrated Circuits were.
The world of modern electronics only depends 100% on them as the only viable means of squeezing some incredible number of teraflops of data operations into your PC, mix the sound in both analog and digital formats for your recordings, manage your auto controls, diagnose your ailments and give your TV something to show you. They are the modern electronic industry backbone, without which, everything would be massively oversized and completely unaffordable for Joe Public. Think of life in the 1960's. That's likely where we'd still be... .
.....Now, 50 years later, up spring the boutique product manufacturers and DIYs like us who prefer things we can still see and solder together as we like.....yep, the good old days of discrete components and big hot boxes of tubes and new-fangled chunks of silicon in tin cans that were called transistors. That's the alternative
__________________
regards
I see your point, some crappy vendor is cooking them in storage. The temperature inside my Class A amp sits at about 50 Degrees C. That's about 120 Degrees F in old money.
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Interesting. I personally have never had a solid state audio item fail ever in decades of using them. I have a radio shack receiver purchased in like 1990 that works. Similarly, if you check on ebay, there are tons and tons of old solid state receivers being sold (and some tube receivers although those usually have had their tubes replaced).
Theoretically caps do fail over time as confirmed by countless sources but in reality it seems to be an extremely rare occurrence.
Indeed, and here is where you read about why they are being sold - because many do have faults that need repair and that costs the seller $$$ so they are up for sale - maybe still working but maybe messed with and not sounding so good.
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