Powering up

[Steven J. Gross]

Having a 2230 Marantz receiver in really good shape I have found it's good to leave the plug in the safety plug thing off when not in use, just flip it on and then power on to the receiver.

My question is that, trying to preserve the receiver in every way possible would it be a good idea to just leave the power button on and just turn on at the safety plug panel?

Would this increase or decrease the life of the on off button? (Spring, etc.)

 

[Rudy]

Electrically it shouldn't make a difference. Some electronics owners use the switch on their power strip to turn their systems on.

But, you could possibly reduce wear on the power button. While the spring would probably be OK, the electrical contacts in the switch could get worn, pitted or oxidized at some point. I haven't heard of it happening, though, on older receivers like that. Even so, there are probably enough units being repaired or restored that new power switches might still be available. (If not the button, the mechanical part of the switch behind the faceplate.)

 

[Steven J. Gross]

So you say use the receiver button...

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Virtually every stereo component system I ever had, I would plug the whole works into a power strip and turn it all on/off at once. The system literally doesn't care either way.

Our digital movie projector at the theater cost over $65,000, but it has a cheapo power switch in it that will wear out if it's used more than a dozen or so times (I learned this the hard way), so after we replaced the switch once, we have never shut it off. It's controlled by software instead.

 

[Rudy]

So you say use the receiver button...

I think you'd be safe doing that.

Virtually every stereo component system I ever had, I would plug the whole works into a power strip and turn it all on/off at once. The system literally doesn't care either way.

Our digital movie projector at the theater cost over $65,000, but it has a cheapo power switch in it that will wear out if it's used more than a dozen or so times (I learned this the hard way), so after we replaced the switch once, we have never shut it off. It's controlled by software instead.

So much equipment today goes into a standby mode when the power button is pressed; in fact, anything operated by a remote with a power button pretty much shows that the item it controls goes into a standby mode.

With a couple of the newer components I have, The "power" button on the front puts the unit into standby mode, yet there might be an actual power switch in the back that cuts power, intended to be used when the component was being disconnected. Other components don't have any power button at all, while some might only have the switch on the rear, the unit meant to be left on all the time (as they only use a trickle of power).

One issue with using a power strip on some components is that they should be turned on in a specific order. Example--the power amp should be turned on last, as any transients from powering up (thumps, etc.) would be amplified and could play loud enough to damage speakers. (Although modern equipment often has a turn-on delay to avoid the thumps.)

Things were so much simpler with good ol' fashioned power switches.

 

[Harry]

Nearly totally unrelated, we just had to replace the wall power switch to our garbage disposal. It had gotten flaky and a new one did the trick.

 

[Steven J. Gross]

I think for me it'll be something in the middle, use both methods which should conserve the button life a little at least. Good answers, thanks!

 

[Steven J. Gross]

I've been using the surge power switch and all is good. Probably saved hundreds of power button pushes already..