solid state gear- leave on?

El: Obviously, "well designed" has different meanings to different designers / engineers / end users. There are those that feel that the addition of ANY unnecessary parts / circuitry is a poor design. Then again, there are those that think that a unit without every form of circuit protection known to mankind is a poor design. Personally, i prefer that the units be built like tanks with only the bare essentials in terms of circuit protection. To each their own... Sean
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I personally spoke to Pass Labs about this issue. If anyone should know, they should, especially being under the tutelage of Nelson Pass. The answer? Basically a toss-up, as heat ages things, especially capacitors. I think those who believe 24/7 is not stressful are remiss here Capacitors that are kept in a fully charged state most of the time (listening sessions being far shorter than 24/7) only shortens their life span and 'dries' them out sooner.

As others have stated here, well-designed gear has circuitry that prevents an initial unrush of current upon turnon. Such as my Halo amps.

Sean...Of course "Well designed" applies to the protective circuitry also. Protective circuitry should be designed so that it does not affect performance. If this is a stated requirement it can be done. This rule applies not only to performance, but also reliability. Any protective circuit, if it fails, should not affect operation, thereby degrading reliability...false alarms should be recognized as such and disregarded. (Come back and fix them later).

There are two schools of thought regarding the merits of "Continuous Operation" of missile guidance systems. Some are kept "spun up" and ready to go all the time. Some are kept in a temperature-controlled "dormant" condition, and only spun up within minutes of launch (if I said how many I would have to kill you). Of course there have been intensive studies regarding the effect on accuracy and reliability of the frequent spinups and shutdowns of the dormant systems, and the bottom line is that, if the system is designed to be operated this way it is more reliable than continuous opearation. This is contrary to what people tend to believe from their everyday experience with light bulbs, which always die with a flash on turnon.

You are right that additional circuitry will TEND to degrade reliability, and can affect performance UNLESS the designer addresses these issues.

I leave my solid state electronics on all of the time. So far in decades of audiofoolery I have not had any electrical failure or repair that could be put down to that practise.

Eldartford, Kevziek

Let's see Missiles and tollerance. Then we have Millitary communications and crypto gear. Why did we (I haven't been in for a quite a while) always leave our gear on. Some of the finest gear in the world from a design stand point. Also why were taught that the on/off switch is harder on SS equipment than almost any other factor.

Capacitors, Transistors, Inductors, Resistors. Components A dried out cap or a stressed piece of silicon in a transistor = noise. If memory serves me correctly caps rarely went bad. It is usually a transistor.

In high end audio as with any SS electronic equipment any time you turn on the equipment current begins to flow through the circuit as long as there is a load at the other end soft start or not. Therefore you go from cold to hot. (Missile Temperature Controled Environment) increasing the wear on any silicon device.

For those of you that know this I apologize. As for the manufactures that want you to turn your equipment on and off to induce wear on the transistors and therefore generate noise it's your money.

Remember to take the system as a whole.