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Power amps that wake/sleep on signal

Whaleblue

Whaleblue

Southbound
With my continued system simplification I’m considering selling my fabulous Avid Integra. I bought it to drive the mighty B&W 802D3s I had at the time, and it’s probably somewhat of an overkill into my SL2s.

That said, I tried a lowly, but respected, Marantz 6002 in its place, and was hugely disappointed in the step down - of course it’s a completely unfair comparison, but nonetheless… Marantz is in the classifieds if I’ve sold it to you :)

I’d be looking at something that at least competes with the Avid, but just a power amp, which will ideally wake/sleep on signal.

Is there anything like that out there?

EDIT - class A/B only please. No digital, valve or class A.
 
Lindemann power amps wake on sensing a signal, Class D

The Lyngdorf SDA2400 also has that facility.

Both very good amps, but will be different to your Avid.
 
Audiolab 8300mb, and perhaps their other power amps. I have the previous generation 8200mb, trouble free for over ten years.
 
My Roksan Caspian power amps wake on signal. I never use it but their front panel LEDs change to indicate their “state“
 
Whaleblue said:
which will ideally wake/sleep on signal
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Do you have a source that has a 12V trigger output? The disadvantage of signal-sensing is that it means that a significant part of the amp has to be powered on all the time it's in standby, while in most cases a 12V trigger will allow it to be very nearly powerless. I know - until recently that may not have mattered so much, but the cost of electrical power has increased to a point where you need to think about these things...
 
Antifon said:
Do you have a source that has a 12V trigger output? The disadvantage of signal-sensing is that it means that a significant part of the amp has to be powered on all the time it's in standby, while in most cases a 12V trigger will allow it to be very nearly powerless. I know - until recently that may not have mattered so much, but the cost of electrical power has increased to a point where you need to think about these things...
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I‘ve always kept my Exposure amps powered 24/7 as I like them sounding their best when wanting to play music. I’d be curious if the standby circuit keeps them powered up enough that they sound great from the get go. My Sonos Amps always sound consistently great.
 
John said:
I’d be curious if the standby circuit keeps them powered up enough that they sound great from the
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There are no doubt a number of factors and dependencies. Some amps have multiple power supplies, and only a subset may be needed in standby - which can mean that the main power supply rails may take a few seconds to stabilise fully. And then there are thermal effects, which may take several minutes or even longer for all of the components to get completely up to operating temperature - though of course there is nothing to say that the various component values when warm will *necessarily* sound better than when cold...

I've settled on a compromise: I can tolerate the fact that my gear *might* not quite sound its absolute best for a few minutes, if it will save a significant amount of electrical power. Some devices are extremely wasteful - IIRC a Cyrus DACXP takes around 20 Watts while in standby!
 
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