leaving the digital mixer on overnight

[twiggyband]

Is it okay to leave a mixer board with amplifiers/microphones/speakers/etc. hooked up for several days without checking on them. Meant to say can you leave them on without turning them off?

 

[jkowtko]

theoretically I would think yes ... and theoretically leaving electronics on continuously vs power cycling them frequently is supposed to lead to longer equipment life.

But would you leave your stereo and television on for several days at home?

 

[MNicolai]

It's not a big deal if you leave it on, but I wouldn't, because:
1) Consoles and amplifiers have cooling fans that suck in extra dust, which can cause premature failures over a number of years.
2) Energy savings --- more and more equipment sucks up less power when idle and some equipment is even smart enough to turn itself off when the input signals are quiet for long enough, but nonetheless you don't want to suck up unnecessary power.
3) You can't prevent a runaway feedback scenario. Someone or something bumps a fader and feedback happens --- it can blow out your speakers before anyone figures out what's going on it and is able to do anything about it.

 

[Footer]

I leave our 15 cq boxes and processing on 24/7/365. Console gets turned off every night. Won't hurt this stuff to stay on all the time. Once a year vacuum everything and you will be good to go.

 

[themuzicman]

In reality, no it shouldn't make a huge difference leaving things on all the time. I generally don't just because I don't like people touching things when they shouldn't be. That being said, there are times I do leave the console on for a few days, and just flip the speakers off when I'm out of the room just in case something does go wrong, you won't hear it. That all being said, when I am working with more finicky legacy gear that is starting to show its age (PM1D, LCS, etc.) I keep the DSP fired on as much as I possibly can just so I don't hit random boot errors as I find most of the issues arise on power-up.