Studio equipment always on or not?

[lem]

Constantly turning on and off gear will shorten their life span, so you have to replace the gear sooner.

Really?? Where did you hear this?

[Barfunkel]

Constantly turning on and off gear will shorten their life span, so you have to replace the gear sooner.

Really?? Where did you hear this?

Someone already explained the light bulb phenomenom; they almost always break when they're turned on, not in the middle of using them.

I'm a bit embarrased I can't explain it scientifically, as I'm studying electronics actually. Probably something to do with a sudden power surge warming up the components very quickly. I'll as my teacher tomorrow!

Meanwhile, if you want to experiment: Get two units of the same gear. Keep the other piece of gear on for x hours, while you turn on and off the power with the other for x hours. See which breaks first.

[lem]

Meanwhile, if you want to experiment: Get two units of the same gear. Keep the other piece of gear on for x hours, while you turn on and off the power with the other for x hours. See which breaks first.

Hahaha, wait are you serious?? Thats quite a lot of effort to go to to break equipment! It could take years!

Light bulbs are quite different than most electronic devices. It doesn't have internal components, its more like a big fuse. Fuses are designed to break.

The only thing that will break on an portable appliance because of turning on and off is a power supply and even so, a power supply has more chance of dying if its left on constantly. Unless you have a PSU with 100% efficiency... but I am pretty sure they don't exsist.
Most power supplies are rated in hours of life exectancy not on how many times it can be turned on and off.

If your teacher can provide you with some sort of link to back this up then I would really like to see it.

[Barfunkel]

Meanwhile, if you want to experiment: Get two units of the same gear. Keep the other piece of gear on for x hours, while you turn on and off the power with the other for x hours. See which breaks first.

Hahaha, wait are you serious?? Thats quite a lot of effort to go to to break equipment! It could take years!

.

Mostly joking, but if someone really would conduct this experiment, I'm pretty sure the one with constant on/off switching would break first. Does this have any real world effect, I'm not sure. You might die of old age before the gear does.

Overheating breaks components too of course, so leaving your gear on all the time is not smart either. Still, I wouldn't turn off my gear for a short break. For the night yes, but not for a cigarette break.

If your teacher can provide you with some sort of link to back this up then I would really like to see it.

I'll ask him tomorrow, it sounds like a subject which manufacturers very likely have researched. Quick googling didn't find anything (one way or another) at least, but it could just my poor google-fu.

[lem]

Overheating breaks components too of course, so leaving your gear on all the time is not smart either. Still, I wouldn't turn off my gear for a short break. For the night yes, but not for a cigarette break.

Yes that is true, but beyond the power supply most components don't heat up very much. Some chips and trannies get a little hot. But these are designed to heat within a certain range, heat certainly doesn't destroy them like a fuse/filament. A good power supply doesn't allow the surge to pass though as the voltage is slewed by capacitors.. Bearing in mind that the surge is lasts nanoseconds, It doesn't really translate to the rest of the circuit.

You might die of old age before the gear does.

Haha, most probably!

...I'm pretty sure the one with constant on/off switching would break first

I can imagine this breaking the switch or blowing a fuse, but effecting the internal components... I don't think so. It would be pretty time consuming to test! So in a way, we will probably never know.

Ask your teacher though. See if he can provide a link to something where this is explained. I would be interested to find out more.

[oblioblioblio]

i asked about this on muffs:

http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewto ... 72&start=0

check out the info from daverj

[deccard]

Constantly turning on and off gear will shorten their life span, so you have to replace the gear sooner.

Really?? Where did you hear this?

Someone already explained the light bulb phenomenom; they almost always break when they're turned on, not in the middle of using them.

I'm a bit embarrased I can't explain it scientifically, as I'm studying electronics actually. Probably something to do with a sudden power surge warming up the components very quickly. I'll as my teacher tomorrow!

Meanwhile, if you want to experiment: Get two units of the same gear. Keep the other piece of gear on for x hours, while you turn on and off the power with the other for x hours. See which breaks first.

reminds of the lightbulb conspiracy

[simonb]

i dont understand why anyone would leave anything switched on when they are not using it, what a waste of energy, money and how bad for the environment.

i have a switchboard in my studio with which i can isolate any part of my studio thats not being used, so say i'm editing, i can switch off all of my gear except for my monitors / computer / mixer, or if i'm practicing a live set, i can switch off my computer, and have my rig all on.

if you're only switching your gear on/off once or twice a day, there's no way thats stressful for your gear.

Same here, I can't imagine having a jam then leaving everything switched on for 8 hours while I go to work or sleep, it doesn't make any sense. Just save files/patches and turn it all off. Even if I'm going out for a short walk or to the shop or something during a long session I'll turn off the machines and put my computer to sleep.

I've got a degree in electronics and work in engineering and I don't think there's much credence to the idea that switching things on and off a lot shortens their lifespan more than leaving them on unnecessarily, reminds me of all these people who keep their computers on constantly and try to justify it by saying turning it on and off is bad for the power supply...