Yingtonggao: After 500 hours I "sometimes" leave it on for days at a time, but then again (like this morning) I sometimes place it in standby. On the wknds, I usually just leave it on. As to warm up time, a cursory listen while being attentive to that very point last night indicated around 20 minutes, so not long. In standby I think the low level circuits remain powered.
"Normal People" will not know what reproduced music is capable of sounding like unless they are privy to an exceptional high-end system... so yes, you have to pay to play :)
This reminds of about 13 years ago when I owned the Legacy Whispers and a Tube Research Labs amplifier and preamp. A friend came over (a lady friend) and looked at my system and commented "That is ridiculous, it does not take all this to listen to a song). She listened and commented, my Sony stereo sounds just as good. I replied.., ok cool.
Three days later she knocked on my door, I answered.., she had an attitude with me. Her comment was that she turned her Sony (not picking on sony) on and immediately had to turn it off as it had become un-listenable after hearing the Whispers and company :)
So... yes it is worth the wait :)