Indeed. As I wrote, it was easy for me to arrange that from the source, so that the whole system turns on and off from one place. A signal-sensing circuit is also a possibility.
Electronic components - especially electrolytic caps - have a limited lifetime, and depends rather strongly on temperature. The common rule of thumb is that the lifetime drops to half for every 10C of increase in temperature.
Yes but what's worse, constant charge and discharge, or letting rest at temperatures not too much higher than room temp? There must be some point where that rule of thumb no longer applies. So does life time drop in half going up to 30c from 20c?
You might be surprised to hear that this is a not-too-infrequent question in electrical engineering.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
So as you can see, it is a logarithmic relationship. Yes, constant charge and discharge factors in (the I and U terms), but compared to the constant ripple partial charge/discharge going on in normal operation, the one full cycle of on and off is insignificant.
So shutting down, partially or fully, is beneficial for the lifetime of the caps.
Further reading, for those so inclined:
Gasperi, M. L., A Method for Predicting the Expected Life of Bus Capacitors, IEEE Industry Applications Society, Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 5-9, 1997.
Mirsky, G., Determining end-of-life, ESR, and lifetime calculations for electrolytic capacitors at higher temperatures, EDN, August 20, 2008.
Parler, S.G., Deriving Life Multipliers for Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors, IEEE Power Electronics Society Newsletter, vol. 16, no.1, 11-12, February 2004.
Parler, S.G., Thermal Modeling of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors, IEEE Industry Applications Society Conference, October 1999.
Venet, P., A. Lahyani, G. Grellet, and A. Ah-Jaco, Influence of aging on electrolytic capacitors function in static converters: Fault prediction method, Eur. Phys. J. AP 5, 71-83, 1999.
Feedback camp, school, same thing. Not in any school either.
It is interesting to listen to the Ncore 400 being from a tube perspective although I have made hybrids to with tube front ends, that there is not much to complain about. There is one niggly bit and it's about the bass, and when listening to extraordinarily well recorded pipe organ (Dorian's Jongen Saint Saens No. 3 comes to mind), that the pedal notes are just not as well developed, but I am comparing this to something that is quite extraordinary in the bass (DPA-300B)and not much else does come near that and you will only hear that rarely when the musical content takes you there, like Cosmic Hippo is one of them and speakers willing. Alas, with low Watts does not go as loud, but you would still be surprised.
You might be surprised to hear that this is a not-too-infrequent question in electrical engineering.
An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
So as you can see, it is a logarithmic relationship. Yes, constant charge and discharge factors in (the I and U terms), but compared to the constant ripple partial charge/discharge going on in normal operation, the one full cycle of on and off is insignificant.
So shutting down, partially or fully, is beneficial for the lifetime of the caps.
Further reading, for those so inclined:
Gasperi, M. L., A Method for Predicting the Expected Life of Bus Capacitors, IEEE Industry Applications Society, Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 5-9, 1997.
Mirsky, G., Determining end-of-life, ESR, and lifetime calculations for electrolytic capacitors at higher temperatures, EDN, August 20, 2008.
Parler, S.G., Deriving Life Multipliers for Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors, IEEE Power Electronics Society Newsletter, vol. 16, no.1, 11-12, February 2004.
Parler, S.G., Thermal Modeling of Aluminum Electrolytic Capacitors, IEEE Industry Applications Society Conference, October 1999.
Venet, P., A. Lahyani, G. Grellet, and A. Ah-Jaco, Influence of aging on electrolytic capacitors function in static converters: Fault prediction method, Eur. Phys. J. AP 5, 71-83, 1999.
Now everyone will be so paranoid about cap life they won't be able to focus on the music
I find they sound better when left on. If the caps end up burning out, or drifting from stock specs after 10 or so years, it won't matter. Because I'll be on to new amps long before then
Back when I was in school (when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and some people still had tube radios) it was definitely not the same thing. Oh, the number of times I wished I was camping instead of in school...
Usually, when people complain about bass when listening to a transparent amp, it is low-order harmonic distortion that they are missing. Easy to test, of course...
Now everyone will be so paranoid about cap life they won't be able to focus on the music
They shouldn't. But in general, I prefer to reach for my trusted Horowitz & Hill to find out the facts before I get back to listening to the music.
I have to agree. My amps don't sound very good at all when left off.
I think it is still an informed decision for each of us. Personally I am not switching amps every week. My main speakers are from 1987 (albeit overhauled), my active monitor speakers are from 1999, some of my digital sources are from 2002 or so. I see no reason to get rid of the nc400's in quite a while.If the caps end up burning out, or drifting from stock specs after 10 or so years, it won't matter. Because I'll be on to new amps long before then
I didn't say the Ncores were not transparent. They are. But in this instance something else is at work. No amplifier is perfect. Having said that, I will very probably get a pair of Ncore 400s in the new year, they go close to doing more things right than any amplifier I may have heard so far and the cost is very hard to resist. Indeed tubes is not for everybody and most tube amps are not that good, period.
I suppose to be on the safe side, periodically take measurements to see if performance has been downgraded. If so, swap out around $3 worth of caps. At this point you can even do a cap upgrade to see if theres any sonic benefit. Exciting stuff!
I suppose to be on the safe side, periodically take measurements to see if performance has been downgraded. If so, swap out around $3 worth of caps. At this point you can even do a cap upgrade to see if theres any sonic benefit. Exciting stuff!
Or you could just use good old common sense and engineering experience. But I guess common sense isn't, these days.
I think with the nc500 swapping out Caps may not be easy with all the gum Hypex have put around them!
Hopefully Colin is still selling these by the time Caps have worn out as the nc500 modulè is not exorbitant alone...cap degradation with McLaren amps seemed to be around 5-7 years of constant use - cost me £300 to service in these instances.
Hopefully it's all relative ;-)
Hopefully Colin is still selling these by the time Caps have worn out as the nc500 modulè is not exorbitant alone...cap degradation with McLaren amps seemed to be around 5-7 years of constant use - cost me £300 to service in these instances.
Hopefully it's all relative ;-)
It's just silicone. Not difficult to peel off. Either way unless you have a cap less amp, you have to deal with caps. The Hypex amps run much cooler, and have far less capacitance than class A or A/B amps with LPS's. This is at the bottom of my list of worries.
The absence of any distortion or noise is stunning though, much better than any other tweak I've tried
The absence of any distortion or noise is stunning though, much better than any other tweak I've tried
Unfortunately it makes me realize I have to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of my neighbours...
Yeah
Happy to live at 9,300' in a rural area on 3 Acres. My nearest neighbor is quite far away, and it is very quiet at night, as long as the winds are settled!
Happy to live at 9,300' in a rural area on 3 Acres. My nearest neighbor is quite far away, and it is very quiet at night, as long as the winds are settled!
I power cycle them, the smps inherently starts a little soft, and there is enough heat generated that I'd rather give them a cool down cycle.
I don't always worry about it if I'm tired when listening's done and I just want to stumble off to the sack- being left on isn't terrible with these amps.
Honestly, it's just not worth worrying about, power cycle them and save some energy and then you don't have to worry if an errant vacuum causes a fault condition in your rig- nobody likes kaboominated speakers.
I don't always worry about it if I'm tired when listening's done and I just want to stumble off to the sack- being left on isn't terrible with these amps.
Honestly, it's just not worth worrying about, power cycle them and save some energy and then you don't have to worry if an errant vacuum causes a fault condition in your rig- nobody likes kaboominated speakers.
NC500 power supply question.
Having been (contently) out of the loop with my old-school UcD180 multi-channel amps and linear PS's, I feel it's time for an update.
I'm going to build a 4-channel NC 500 amp (actually two of them) and wanted to get a general recommendation which of the Hypex PS's is recommended. I'm not interested in maximum sustained output since this amp will be used for multi-amping with electronic crossover.
I was planning on using either SMPS3kA400 (or SMPS3kA700) but realize that these units only have three 10-pin headers and one 20-pin header. Are these headers important for general functionality? All I need is the ability to (un)mute the modules via a front panel toggle switch.
Would I be better off using two SMPS1200A400 (or 2 SMPS1200A700) at a premium cost?
I'm sure this question has been asked/answered in this thread, so if anyone could point me to specific posts or have new insight, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
Cheers,
mac
Having been (contently) out of the loop with my old-school UcD180 multi-channel amps and linear PS's, I feel it's time for an update.
I'm going to build a 4-channel NC 500 amp (actually two of them) and wanted to get a general recommendation which of the Hypex PS's is recommended. I'm not interested in maximum sustained output since this amp will be used for multi-amping with electronic crossover.
I was planning on using either SMPS3kA400 (or SMPS3kA700) but realize that these units only have three 10-pin headers and one 20-pin header. Are these headers important for general functionality? All I need is the ability to (un)mute the modules via a front panel toggle switch.
Would I be better off using two SMPS1200A400 (or 2 SMPS1200A700) at a premium cost?
I'm sure this question has been asked/answered in this thread, so if anyone could point me to specific posts or have new insight, I'd appreciate hearing from you.
Cheers,
mac
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