How is your power bill?

Out of sheer necessity, I used to be archi-conservative (please note lower case in 'c' of conservative) in the use of my system. . . my Rowland 7Ms and the ARC Ref 3 were all gas guzzlers. . . my wife noticed with horror, whenever my stereo was active more than a few hours per week, that our power bill quickly grew into undesirable regions. . . One year ago my Ref 3 has been switched to a JRDG capri, which draws only 6W, and the 7Ms have been replaced by a class D JRDG 312 which runs as cool as a cuke. My stereo is now on 24/7 making music sounding better than ever. . . and my wife has not made a peep about power bills ever since.

Thank you for this thread. My power bill averages $30.00 a month. I occasionally consider adding tube electronics, mostly because I like to fiddle around with things. I had never thought about power usage and cost before. I hate paying monthly bills and paying $300 a month for power is shocking and wasteful. Anyway I love the sound of my Naim Nait 5i-2. That Audio Research VSi60 I have been fantasizing about is hereby off the wish-list.

I wonder if any of the rest of us has gone on to purchase a different audio product because of power consumption concerns like guidocorona. My hat is off to him/her. It's a smart choice, all things considered - I think that for most of us, it is like giving up that big luxury car! I struggle with that! Nice going guidocorona.

Thank you Puerto. I did not choose the JRDG 312 merely because of its efficiency. Rather, its sonic signature enchanted me, and its power efficiency convinced me. Similarly with the Capri, I prefer its sound over that of the ARC Ref 3. . . its mere 6W of power draw is welcome icing on the cake. . . In other words, I am not suffering of any audiophilically painful withdrawl symptoms from the musical Heaven of power guzzlers. . . for me going 'green' has been purely a win/win experience. G.

PS. All Guidos I have known are. . . boys. (grins!)

I live in New England so utilities are expensive. We have managed to save with a highly insulated home with active and passive solar. I'm working on a biodiesel cogeneration system that will get us well off the grid.