Using Power Conditioner to power on/off bad idea?

It is not a bad idea, but I don't think it is a good idea either. The reason many equipment manufacturers do not have power switches is to avoid the power surge with the "turn-on." I haven't had a pre-amp with a power switch for a long time. Many people who have good equipment leave it running all the time except during extended absence from home. I never turn anything off unless I'm going to be gone for a while (except my CD player while I'm listening to vinyl.
Happy listening!

By using one switch to power up the whole system at one time greatly increases what is called in-rush current. This might be especially hard on the power switch of the PLC but would be no different for the components than if you used their switches to cycle the units off and on. In-rush current can be as high as 5 to 10 times higher than what the unit uses at idle though, so the initial surge can be a VERY big load all of a sudden. Especially if your PLC has one main power switch.

As far as that goes, you should be okay so long as the PLC that you bought uses a very high quality high current power switch. I will not "preach" about the merits of turning gear off or leaving it on as there are plenty of other threads that you and others can find in the archives. Sean
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I use an adcom 515. In the instructions, it says that it is fine to use the power switch for the whole system. Many good quality line conditioners will have delays built in to soften the current spikes and "thumps" to your speakers.

They wouldn't put in a master switch unless it was designed to handle the units max current capabilities (I hope). Hey, try it and if you blow a fuse, you won't do it again. I doubt you will unless you have a MASSIVE system.

On a related topic ... what about a situation where you've got the cd and preamp plugged into a strip and the strip plugged into a conditioner that has no power on/off switch. Will it do any harm to just unplug the plug from the strip to the conditioner without touching the power buttons on the components?