Albarry's

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Originally Posted by trio leo

I agree with you Simon, I went to Whittlebury and heard the Albarry dem, it was OK with some kinds of music but not so with others, the room wasn't good and I thought maybe the speakers were a bit too big for that room.

I hope you get the chance to hear them in a better environment, or maybe hear them at home.
The trick with Albarry's is to leave them switched ON, permanently, my M408's have been on for 25 years and they are still exciting.

Enjoy your music

regards Al

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Why?

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Originally Posted by trio leo

The trick with Albarry's is to leave them switched ON, permanently

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That's the advice Neil (Burnett) gave me for the PP1 - he was right too :)

It was explained to me that the capacitors get up to 62.3% very quickly, then it takes quite a while to fully charge up.
I don't know an Ohm from a watt, but it is not to do with the actual temperature when they "warm up" it's to do with the capacitors apparently.

I think the power amps from "cold" sound uninviting, but after 20-30 minutes you can hear them become more lucid.

It states in the hand book that comes with the amps that one should allow 24 hrs for optimum performance and according to Neil they are designed to be left on, the pre-amp and power amps combined use 8 watts when in "standby" mode.

Given that they use so little energy and they are so reliable, leave them on IMO.

Enjoy your music

regards Al

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Originally Posted by Tim

That's the advice Neil (Burnett) gave me for the PP1 - he was right too :)

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..same with LFD and Exposure they are a bit bright when you first switch them on. Sounds way better when left on all the time same with my NVA headphone amp and I suspect the same with Naim amps...

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Originally Posted by trio leo

The trick with Albarry's is to leave them switched ON, permanently, my M408's have been on for 25 years and they are still exciting.

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Has your amp been re-capped in that time? Electrolytic capacitors in use continuously for 25 years have to be shagged by now! 219,000 hours is a loooong time, the most important factor in determining their their lifetime is temperature but those caps are elderly whatever the temp.

I have a dumb question, but its bugged me for years. With these power amps that need to be left on and warmed up for a day, what happens if you switch them off for a few minutes? Do you have to start all over again? This is a critical question when comparing pre-amps. Can I switch off for a minute to change pre-amps without having to warm up again for 24 hours? Sorry, its probably very obvious.

If the capacitors really take 24 hours to reach full charge (very, very weird) then having speakers plugged into the amp outputs will probably discharge them. If the amps are stable without a load across their outputs then removing the speaker connections may prevent the capacitors discharging.

You needn't lose any sleep over such matters. All amps sound better once they are warmed up but this usually occurs after an hour or so and it isn't a night and day difference - just a very slight change.

I'd also respectfully repeat that the 608's have the benefit of more modern and better intrinsically matched components these days. This in itself should enable the amps to fully stabilise much quicker now.

To be honest Clive, Neil (Burnett) "serviced" them about 6 years ago, I don't know if they were recapped or not, they sounded good before and they sound good now, maybe they were re-capped, but 20 years or so on original capacitors is pretty good eh.

I'm not saying they NEED 24hrs to fully charge up, as HiFi Dave said they sound fine after an hour or so as probably a lot of amps do, I'm not being drawn into an argument about capacitors, I don't know the first thing about electronics, as I stated before it is how Neil explained it to me.

I have faith in Neil, he designs amps to last a long time and I enjoy the musical involvement Albarry's bring to my system, especially the little moving coil amplifier, it has enhanced my enjoyment of my Vinyl collection tremendously.

I'll be glad when I can afford a new pre / power combo

enjoy your music

regards Al