solid state gear- leave on?

My experience leads me to believe that leaving my SS gear on all the time is crucial for best performance. Anecdotal evidence: coming back from a 4 day weekend w/ my gear powered off, it took at least 4 days to sound good again. That convinced me to leave them on 24/7.

However, in the February "Stereophile" review of my amp, the reviewer stated that the amp sounded good after 20 - 30 minutes and didn't improve after that. Oh well.

Also, longevity doesn't seem to be an issue for SS gear w/ literally thousands of on/off cycles. My old Hafler and NAD SS gear were always turned on and off. They're both still going strong at 25 years and counting.

Leave your equipment burning if you want to replace it. Your local retailer will love you. I have spoken to at least ten manufacturers and not one of them advocates keeping your equipment powered up if not in use. I repeat, NOT ONE! If you are sitting down for an extended listening session with other audiophiles, power your equipment up about 1 hour in advance and you will have all of the sound you are going to have.

Elinor: I work on electronics for a living. The gear that gets cycled off and on the most and / or isn't used for extended periods of time is the gear that comes in for the most repairs. Both of those problems are related to in-rush current, higher than average current consumption and massive thermal swing. This is what damages componentry the most. That is, unless the product runs phenomenally hot and isn't built to dissipate that much consistent heat. It is easiest to avoid these problems by not powering the device down. The device maintains a more consistent operating temperature, there's no in-rush current involved and current is only drawn as needed.

Gear that doesn't take very long to thermally stabilize and makes use of "soft-start" circuitry is fine to cycle up and down. Obviously, tubes and lasers have finite lifespans, so one should take care of how they use these. This is not to say that turning off a laser based audio device is beneficial ( it typically isn't in terms of sonics and thermal stability ), but that the lifespan of the laser may be reduced if it isn't. Replacing a laser on most of these devices is not hard though and should be done after a period of time anyhow, as output levels and calibration fall off due to use one way or the other. Sean
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Wonderful......I just love a consensus on issues like this :^

Samuell,

Having been in the electronics field for a number of years. Sean is on the money. The on/off switch is harder on the equipment than years of leaving the equipment on.

Remember to take the system as a whole.