Happens to my Apex Bartok after a power outage
Pete,
Thanks for the quick response.
I am assuming that when you say turning itself on that is not from full switch off ( i.e. from the rear rocker switch) but from sleep or off from the front panel
Yes. I seldom turn the unit completely off.
The receptor may react to external stimuli such as some forms of sunlight or other odd sources of IR.
I’ll try covering it up and let you know. I do have a pre-amp remote that uses IR, but of course it’s not in use when the Bartok turns itself on and I’m not in the room. So far as I know there are no other IR sources in the room, but there is a large window nearby.
Hi John,
Is your Bartok connected to any sort of mains or power conditioner?
Best Regards
Phil Harris
Audioquest Niagara 3000
Aren’t we already in contact regarding this?
My suspicion is that there’s been enough of a power dip for the Bartok to think it has been turned off and hence it powers up again in the “on” state but if this is the one that we have already discussed then I believe you were going to try taking the Bartok off the mains conditioner and report back?
Is it still doing it whilst not connected to the power conditioner?
Phil
Phil,
I don’t recall discussing this before. One would imagine the power conditioner’s job is to avoid power dips. I’ll try taking it out of the loop in a while, but right now covering the Bartok’s IR port has “solved” the problem. Of course it’s intermittent so I can’t be sure.
John
Good to hear!
(I love the contrast of “stray-infrared hypothesis” and the high-tech experimentation method 
)
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Oddly I do have an identical issue from another John that came in last week on the [email protected] email and in that case it looks like the issue may have been the mains conditioner (oddly) - it’s quite common for the same issue to get posted in several different locations.
A few more days of testing and I’m going to upgrade the fix to black electrical tape. 
Glad that so far you are free of the switching issue.
If you want to make the remedy more permanent I would be wary of a solution that may harm the finish of the case. I am thinking of removing old electrical or other tape types leaving residue.
When I had this problem with my silver Paganini, I simply stuck a piece of aluminium foil, dull side up, to the top of a post it. This left the adhesive strip operational. I then cut a tiny piece to obscure the IR receptor’s window. Not an exact match but it didn’t call attention to itself. Very easy to remove with no effect on the casework.
As you have a black unit you could simply blacken a small area of a post it with a felt tip marker and snip out a small piece to cover the IR window.
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Or try something like this which is only £4-99 from Amazon:
These also work well on over bright LEDs. You should be able to find a size that exactly fits the IR window.
If I remember correctly, for too bright LEDs the product is also available in transparent neutral grey instead of black. So for this purpose the LED can still be seen but with a lower light level.