Silly M1200 question

After burning my M1200s in for 9 days I decided it was time to start putting them in standby when I wasn’t listening to them. Today was only the second time I took them out of standby by pressing the front panel switch. In noticed that it takes 3 to 4 times longer than the M700s did for the light to go solid and the amps be ready for use. I certainly don’t care that it takes a little longer but I am a little curious if anyone (probably a PSA employee) knows why? Is there something in the new ICE modules that takes longer to stabilize? Is it letting the tubes warm up? This won’t keep me up at night but I was curious so I thought I’d throw this out.

Likely the warmup time for the tubes. The BHK pre has a 45 seconds from warm start delay and 90 seconds for cold start delay. I would be surprised if these didn’t have a warmup time.

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Correct, warmup time for the tubes to stabilize. BHK pre-amp and power amps do the same,. The ice outputs are switched on via the switch on the rear panel and remain on even in standby.

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Great question the delay is for the filamint heater in the cathode to heat up the cathode until
cathode is hot enough to produce a continuos flow and supply of electrons for the audio signal.
Not warming up the cathode could damage the cathode known as cathode stripping…and generally loss of the tube…

You may like to look at this article very interesting reading…

https://vacuumtubes.net/How_Vacuum_Tubes_Work.htm

Cool! So I’m not crazy. I was downstairs listening or I’d read the tube article tonight. I will definitely read it. I’m a mechanical engineer but the electrical side is interesting to me. I’m constantly reminded how much I don’t know about that world but very grateful to the electrical folks who’ve endured my silly questions and taught me so much. I wouldn’t be half the mechanical designer I am without the help of all the electrical folks who’ve tried to explain their world to me so I could design solutions that were better for both worlds. Thanks for enduring my questions.

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