Tube DAC Conundrum

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.

I'm sure glad that's settled!

To answer those questions, the tubes are 6N1P from Russia. They're not expensive to get more (the Blacknote DAC30 comes from Italy). I usually turn it on in the afternoon and off just before bedtime. I think I will stick with that process as it then runs only 33% as much as 24/7.

""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."

WTF? You must not understand the clocks then. They do need to reach equilibrium- period. It is how they are made. There is a reason why crystal ovens exist. It has nothing to do with signal(data) passing either.