Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Crown amps

This is topic Crown amps - power off? in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Trevor Cable (Member # 6086) on 09-28-2012, 06:58 PM:

Hello,
I just built a small screening room in our facility and I'm using 6 Crown DSi1000 amps. I'm not too familiar with theaters and how they operate but I'm looking for advice on leaving the amps turned on 24/7 or not.

Right now I never power them off. Will this hurt the amps over time?

Thank you.

-Trevor Cable

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 09-28-2012, 07:19 PM:

Hey Trevor:

There are two scolia of thought on this, and both can be correct for your situation. Unlike cinema servers which should be left on 24/7 (there is a very spirited discussion in the Digital Equipment Forum about that) there is no hard fast rule with amplifiers.

Here are my thoughts/experiences on both sides of the issue:

Leave on 24/7:

Less stress on some components due to power-on inrush, thermal stability, instant readiness (no turn-on delay, but one caution: if you power down the cinema processor, the amps should be powered down first to prevent any thumps or noise), and in my experiences anyway, less failures of the amps themselves. (I worked for Knott's Berry Farm here in So Cal and we left everything on 24/7, of the literally hundreds of amplifiers on the Farm I can count on one hand the number of failures in the years I was there.) At UC Irvine where I work, same story, the gear is left on 24/7 and failures are rare.

Power down when not in use:

Lower power usage ("greener"), less heat in the room, less dust and dirt drawn into the amp if fan-cooled, no need to worry about power problems damaging the amp or creating potentially speaker-damaging thumps or transients, and less risk of a failure of the amp which could start a fire (extremely rare but it has happened, especially with the earlier Crown D-XXX Series).

So it really depends on your actual situation. For example, in my home rack the CP-650 stays on 24/7 so I don't have to wait for it to boot up, but the DCM monitor and the DCA power amps are shut off when not in use. At the room I installed at UC Irvine, the CP650 and DCM stay on 24/7 but I do power the amps down when not in use. In UCI's HIB 100 room (see the pics in the Warehouse here) all but the video projector, film projectors and video sources stay on 24/7.

All CP-650's and most of the DCM's I mentioned are also on UPS backup for safety and to avoid momentary power issues from disrupting a show.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 09-28-2012, 10:28 PM:

How often do you use your equipment in your screening room?

If you use it daily, there's no special reason to turn it off. Use your judgement.

If you only use it occasionally, go ahead and turn it off when you're not using it.

At the Tom Ridge Center, we turn the amps off at night to save electricity but leave all the processing equipment on 24/7.

At Mercyhurst, I turn everything off at the end of every show.

The difference is that Tom Ridge Center shows movies every day and Mercyhurst only shows movies once per week.