Would you consider tube amplification? Morning warm-up time for my monos take the same as my Latte brew-up time. (5 mins) Coincidence..??
Only my higher authority knows for sure. |
I also have a pair of XA160.5s. I agree they take some warm up time to sound
their best. I turn mine on about 2 hours before I plan to listen. Usually
before I start cooking dinner. When I am finished with the dishes, I go and
listen to music. During the winter and on weekends when I plan to do a lot of
listening, I turn them on Friday afternoon and turn them off late Sunday
night.
I think you should be able to find an acceptable balance somewhere between
leaving them on 24/7 and listening right after turning them on ie. with no
warm up. I turn off the radiators in my listening room during the winter, so
the extra I spend on electricity, I save on natural gas. Or so I tell myself. My
electric bill went up about $40 a month with the XA160.5. Heating the
listening room costs slightly more. I consider the increased electric bill well
worth it for the sound they provide.
There is a lot of discussion about these amps and the heat they give off
during the summer. And how environmentally unfriendly they are. So is an
SUV. We make our choices.
There should be other great amps out there, and some SS amps that aren't
class A. It could be fun trying to find some that you enjoy as much as the
XA.5s. Let us know what you find. I'm sorry I can't make any
recommendations.
Scratch that. Have you heard the Pass X.5 series? Less class A, less heat. |
In that price range, I would recommend either the:
110 wpc Lamm M1.2 reference hybrid full Class "A" monoblocks.
or
220 wpc Lamm M2.2 hybrid Class "A/AB" monoblocks, (which are heavily biased into Class "A". (The first 41 wpc are biased into Class "A", and then they go into Class "AB".)
These hybrid amps sound very similar, with the M1.2 reference sounding just a bit sweeter in the mid-range, (as you'd expect from a full Class "A" amp). The M1.2 will drive most speakers with average impedance and/or efficiency, whereas the M2.2 has enough power to drive virtually any speaker. The sound is fairly neutral, with just a touch of tube sound in the mid-range. (They have a great bass response, and the treble response is very refined and well extended.) These amps will warm up fairly quickly. Upon startup, they sound good. Within half an hour they sound very good, and after an hour, or so, they sound great.
However, to get the best sound out of them, you will need to replace the stock Sovtek tubes with some sort of NOS tube. (Something like the Amperex Orange Globe 6DJ8, for less than $100 a pair, will make them sound very, very good. However, something like the Amperex Pinched Waist 6922's will take them to their ultimate sound quality, but they are fairly expensive, at a few hundred dollars a pair.)
FYI: I have two friends that own the M2.2 amps, and I own the 200 wpc M2.1, the predecessor to the M2.2. We have all owned Lamm amps for several years, and none of us has left the Lamm family of amps since we bought them.
Good Luck in your search. |
How about using a programmable timer? |
I think warm-up time is a constant for any piece of equipment. One or two hours is relatively short compared to other solid state amplifiers. I had the X.5 series, and those required 6-8 hours, and really sounded their best after 12-24 hours. The XA.5 is considerably less dependent upon time for me. Even tubed equipment can benefit from 1-2 hours.
I would recommend the Tripoint Troy, which is an external grounding system for all your components. You will not complain of your system sounding 2D, flat, and non-engaging. This is precisely the effect it has. Your system will sound great at start-up, it will only get better after that hour.
With all the care required for quality connectors and power, I would not use a timer. |
while a step back, the mac 501s provide very good sound with no warmup. i had the xa60.5s, which were better, but not much. 501s have less transparency, top end extension, or microdetail retrieval. but again, not much. the immediate gratification of instant good-enough sound and not having schwetty balls while listening in houston in july tipped the decision for me. |
I like the Ayre MX-R. I do not have any experience with the Pass so I could not give you a comparison and I do no know if it will work with your pre.
However, the MX-R needs to be warmed up as well. I can listen to them when turning on from standby but they sound their best after warming up for 3+ hours. Listening cold they are a little brittle. |
Will it seems like any Reference class amp requires a bit of warm up time to perform their best. I tell you these Class A mono blocks just do their magic that not too many amps can even for double or triple their cost. The sound quality of theses amps are so incredible they just put me in the state of nirvana every time I listen to them. I’m afraid if I sold them, that state of nirvana would be very elusive for a long time searching for replacements. Heat they generate is not an issue as I have AC. I guess it’s like this, you can’t have a 10sec ¼ mile car and get 40 mpg too. That’s why I don’t drive mine every day.
As Peterayer said, when I plan on listening to my system in the evening during the week I'll just let them warm up for 2 hours just before I set to listen and for the weekend I'll turn the amps on Friday afternoon and turn them off Sunday evening. A plan like that I can live with for sure.
NIRVANA HERE I COME! :) |
I just want to say thanks for the response I recieved here. You guys are great! |
Lamms are a great recommendation.
Another are the MBL amps. |
Rampage60, I believe your amplifiers should have a standby mode. |
Since there is no mention of what speaker is being used, am I to conclude that matching an amp to a loudspeaker load is overrated or unnecessary? |
Try an audition with the quicksilver silver 88. Ridiculous price new, but magical sounding and reliable. If you are in the SF Bay area, you can try mine for a couple of hours. Jallen |
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I have a pair of Martin Logan Summit X speakers which loves lots of good clean power! Yes, it is very important to match amp with speakers. The Summit X and the XA160.5 are a match from heaven. I have decided to keep the Pass amps and not downgrade and loose that magic of reference class playback. |
Rrog, yes they do and I have it set to standby 24/7. |
Rampage60, Then I guess your only option is to turn your amps on and go do something else for a couple of hours. I find it interesting that you own $22,000 amplifiers and your electric bill is an issue. |
Do yourself a favor. Get some Dynaco Mark II s or Mark IIIs or better yet a Dynaco ST-70. It will cost you under a 1000 dollars and the sound is to die for. Make sure they are stock with no issues and use NOS tubes or brand new Sheguang Black Treasures. You will save a lot of money and frustration and the warm up time is very short. If those are not for you try a used Conrad Johnson EL 34 amp. You wont be sorry. I have all the above amps and I love them all. |
Don't like to give money away. Those couple of hours I'll eat dinner, watch the news and take my shower. Then my wonderful amps will be ready to perform for me. |
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Yeah, well, I think you just have to find a way to keep the amps you have. As much as I like Lamm, I would see no point of getting them unless you actually like their sound with your speakers more than with Pass. |
You might be interested in this test that I did.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=101551.0 |
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Jtwrace: great link and post. thank you. i tried something similar when i got my amp a couple years ago. my test used a more caveman like technology then yours, as i laid a wall thermometer on top of the amp =). i noticed no increase in temp after about 45 minutes.....lets call it an hour to be safe (from standby mode).
i've read countless posts about 2 hour++ warm up times and always wondered how/why it would take this long?. up to 2 hours i can maybe buy into....but 3? 4? or more i just don't get.
i'll just file this under the thousand other thing i don't get about this hobby.....unless someone has an explanation. |
I have a different take than measuring temperature.
I took my last Pass Aleph 30 & plugged (only) it into a PS Audio P300.
The amp drew 210 watts on the P300 meter upon start up.
(This amp has no standby mode).
After approximately 35 minutes, the amp would draw a constant 190 watts, and just stay there from then on.
The sound stabilized in conjunction with the temp...
My source was a Sony XA7ES with variable out. This player was on in my bedroom system for the last 10 years, unless I left town. |
I advise you to test a sds470 classdaudio stereo amp, releasing 2X500W on 4 ohms,price 590 usd.
Il you prefer monoblocks, you car order 2 , bridged, releasing each 1x1000W on 8 ohms.
I am NOT joking !!! this stereo amp has an absolutely incredible sound! pure, transparent, dynamic,rather tubelike.
Since class D, immediately operative as soon as lighted on!electricity consumption:nothing when in stand-by(14watt i think!)You can let it lighted on all the day....
I am a french audiophile, and i tested this amp by hazard since originally bought for my daughter..a crazy bargain! This is a very serious advice,my own (other) amp is a tubed AYON TRITON II . Sincerely |
Electrocompaniet Nemo monoblocks.
These amps sound great and dont get hot at all. |
