correct way to turn off tube preamp

No one has any answers?

Doug.. I've checked each day hoping your questions were answered. I too would like to know. The only thing I could answer is yes to the 1st part of question 1.. Many of the "Sage" audiogoners have forgotten more about audio than I will ever know. I've learned a lot from these forums and greatly appreciate it.. I'm hoping the venerable Sean, Newbee or one of a host of others will explain. :)

From a Manley preamp manual...
"7. Power up the preamplifier FIRST and allow it to settle for a minimum of 30 seconds before powering up your amplifiers. Turn off your preamplifier and source components LAST when powering down a system. This prevents amplification of turn-on transients and other noises when powering up or turning a system off and ultimately protects the speakers"

I'm new to tubes and got away with turning the preamp off first a few times. Then one time I heard this fluttering sound and then a pop. I powered the preamp back on and put on a CD and had no sound in one channel and a faint sound in the other. It turned out ,luckily, that I had blown 2 fuses in one channel of my amplifier and 1 fuse in the other channel.
You can do a Google search if you have a little time. That's how I found the Manley manual. It recommends, in another section, turn on sources first, then preamp...wait 30 secs, then amp and wait another minute or so before playing a source to give everything time to warm up a bit. Power off in opposite order.

Something else I've read is that you should always have a source connected to your tube preamp if the preamp is powered on. Same with a tube amp, that you should always have a load on the amp (speakers connected)if the amp in turned on.

Dragon1952 - Thanks for the information. One question. When you turned off your preamp before your amp, did you turn the volume control on the preamp down all the wasy before turning it off?

The instruction from Manley's manual implies that the harmful noise or transients originate in the preamp or the source. If an amp produced noise that endangers the speakers when the amp is turned on or off, the sequence in which the amp is turned on or off wouldn't matter because the amp feeds directly to the speakers. It's interesting that the component with the most amplification power poses the least danger to the speakers (or amp designers adquately address the problem).

Dragon1952 - In your second post, in explaining why you should have a source connected to a tube preamp, you analogized to the load placed on an amp by the speakers. However, the amp, not the source, is the load on the preamp. I'm not suggesting that both statements you made aren't true, just that the analogy seems off.