First off, I would like to say well done on this fantastic mixer from Allen & Heath! I’ve recently picked up a CQ-12T and have been more than impressed with it!
I actually picked this mixer up more for an interface and summing a mix to stream with on my PC. It won’t see much of the road as it’s found a permanent spot here in my home studio. I know most of this could be more preference than anything, however, is there a reason to not leave this mixer on 24/7? With previous interfaces (powered by AC), they just stayed on with my studio monitors and all.
I just wanted to get some of the community thoughts on something like this.
If the screen is LCD, screen burn should not be a problem. Electronic equipment tends to fail at switch on (and to a lesser degree switch off) rather than while working, so it may be better to leave it powered on with respect to reliability.
I have the CQ20 not the 12 do it has the mains power supply built in. I believe the CQ12 has a separate “brick” power supply and of course the switch on reliability is more applicable to that than the main unit.
One caveat is the ambient temperature, if that is likely to rise unduly while you are away from the studio, it may be best to power off. Of course leaving the unit powered on will use more energy.
Another consideration with the CQ is that it’s fan cooled, so leaving it powered on will mean it’s constantly pulling in air/dust/particles.
Whilst we don’t recommend leaving mixers on permanently, it also shouldn’t be a problem (other than the things listed in this thread) and we often hear of mixers being left on for years at a time!
You need to think of it as like leaving your PC/Mac permanently on, it won’t be a problem until like, @KeithJA&H points out, the fan will be pulling in dust particles. If you were to open up a traditional desktop system (tower) all the components would be covered in dust. A quick blow out with compressed air and everything is good again. That isn’t as easy with a digital mixer, regardless of model.
Just something to be mindful of if leaving permanently powered on, dust could be the potential downfall of your CQ.
I notice that if you use the home menu shutdown it does a soft switch disconnect in the mixer.
Power stil on at ac outlet.
I guess the log off button logs out with power still on to mixer although not tested that.
Won’t mind betting that the soft switch shutdown makes sure all file writes are complete on the recordings before switch off as well.
With electronics the usual thinking is that leaving on is better than hitting them with the power surge when switched physically, but I guess that depends a lot on the components in circuit.
