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Deirdre · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 7:45 am Post subject: Powering Up

I turn the power off to my rack gear every night. When I power up with my 2-step power conditioner, I have my mic channel strips in the 2nd tier turn-on.
When the DBX286 gets power, the gain reduction lights all come on and then they very slowly fade down. The 528 doesn't do this.
It makes me a little nervous!
Am I just being a sissy about my stuff?
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Bish · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:00 am Post subject:

D, on power up, my 286a displays the same... all gain reduction lights illuminate, and then drop back sequentially. Strangely, it seems to depend on the length of time it's been off. If it's the morning power-up, then all lights... if I've just powered down for a short while (like I did just now to observe), it's fewer. I'm guessing it's reading some type of ready-state that depends on the internal component temperature (now, that's just a guess).

I don't think your raw/conditioned power is an issue at all. I've got my Mac and hard drives sitting across an APC 1500 UPS, but the mixer, speakers and dbx are connected to the surge-only protection outlets (and then on an APC surge-arrest outlet strip).

Cheers
Peter
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CurtZHP · Guest

The reason it behaves differently after a quick power cycle versus turning it on in the morning is because the power supply capacitors haven't had all night to fully discharge. There's still enough residual voltage to keep it from having to go through its entire power-up sequence.

When the unit is first powered up in the morning, the gain reduction circuit is probably just dealing with the inrush of current by going to full gain reduction. As the circuit stabilizes, the gain reduction is gradually released. The reason the Symetrix doesn't to this is probably just because of a better design (it costs more for a reason!).

I have a preamp that has such an over-designed power supply in it that the phantom power will maintain a voltage for up to an hour after I've turned the unit off! It takes that long for the caps to discharge.

Bottom line: It's nothing to worry about.

Deirdre · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 9:11 am Post subject:

Thanks! It's good to know.
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Don G. · King's Row Joined: 11 Nov 2004 Posts: 1071 Location: MA

Wait. We're supposed to turn it off?

I keep the phantom power off until an hour or so before I record, but otherwise it's plugged in and I guess therefore, the 286A itself is "on". Am I shortening its life or just spending a few cents more per day in electricity usage?

SkinnyJohnny · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 5:24 am Post subject:

I'm no expert, but I've read pros and cons. Some say that leaving units on all the time is better for it than the wear and tear on the components from powering up regularly. I know that a ton of radio stations use the 528e 24/7 for years without a problem.
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Charles Nove · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 5:49 am Post subject:

All our gear - except the pc monitors - stays on 24/7, apart from the odd occasion when some turkey puts a spade through the cable in the street. Fortunately, that has only happened twice in the last 10 years!
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Mike Sommer · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 9:45 am Post subject:

So as long as the equipment is on serge protectors, and you use your equipment daily, it should be no problem to leave your solid state equipment on.

This would go for the folks that use tube equipment also, but tubes tend to limited life span. But it's a catch 22, the jolt of powering up will put stress on the tubes filaments. So if you use your tube equipment every single day go ahead and leave it on too. (Also keep spare tubes around)

The only other way to avoid the initial serge of powering up is to have a ramping power supply. Expensive!
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whalewtchr · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 1:25 pm Post subject:

My 528's and delta 1010 remain on everything else powers down...although I've been told by computer gurus that powering down and powering up a computer is costing me more than just leaving it on...I choose to power down on the pc.
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Deirdre · Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2010 1:49 pm Post subject:

I turn this stuff off at the rack power source because we get colossal power surges around here. The rack power source knocks out when that happens, but I've just taken to powering down at the end of any day I record (which is not every day) and if there's an electrical storm, I unplug the rack power from the wall.

I unplug the Zephyr's telephone line and power cable out of the back of the unit right after I use it. I try to do that every time. I've spent quite a bit of money repairing that beastie over the last couple of years thanks to power supply problems and network jolts.
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