Tube DAC Conundrum

The audiophile in me says: "leave 'em on".

The rest of me which is where most of my rationale behavior emanates from, says: "turn 'em off when you're not using them, dummy"!

My rational side can be harsh. It also usually ends up winning these battles ( I hope).

What are the tubes? Have you researched the average or expected life of these particular tubes? Some small tubes are good for 10,000-15,000 hours.

it seems to me that from the comments so far , there is an implied trade-off infavor of optimizing the sonics at the expense of the electricity bill.

in the interet of ecology one should never leave on any component, even though the sound of myour stereo system may not be ideal when you turn it on again, or you will have to wait an hour or two until you realize the best your stereo system can offer.

i think one should be a responsible citizen and save the planet's execessive use of fossil fuels even if it degrades the sound of your stereo system.

Could someone please explain the "risk" involved with leaving small signal tubes on 24/7.

Mrtennis, couldn't agree more with the environmental impact, but it just ain't gonna' happen. Actually the largest negative environmental impact is due to the dedicated listening room. To have a dedicated room usually means you have a large free standing house. Imagine if every family in China and India lived in free standing houses averaging 3,000+ sf? There wouldn't be a single tree still growing anywhere on the planet. Reality sucks when it intrudes upon our sybaritic pursuit.

"The issue with digital equipment is that the clocks need to be at thermal equilibrium for optimal performance."
I would hope that modern DACs would not be bothered by this too much, if they're designed right. When a DAC starts processing information, it will start warming more. A CD is constantly changing speed from its beginning, to its end. The data stream is always changing. With all of these variables happening, I'll trust the engineers, hoping they made these things right. The DAC may even change temperature with the different parts of a song being played. I enjoy the music while it warms up.