My big 125 watt tube amps have a 45 second warm up. Once on, they take about 20 minutes to reach maximum set bias. Although they run cool enough to put your hand on the transformers (Class A/B), the tubes only last 2500 hours. So, I do not want to run them full time or pay for the excess power used (I do have solar covering most of the year except the summer when a 9000KV system just isn't enough in inland SoCal). I leave on my Bryston BIT20 isolation transformer all the time as it uses nominal power when no load is asking for power. I used to leave my EAR 324 phono stage (solid state) on all the time as well but have switched to a tube phono stage.
Does anyone leave their amp and preamp on all the time?
I listen most nights after work. I find that the system takes a while to warm up and sounds it's best if it has been shut off. So I leave it on. I always have and this is vintage stuff. The amp is a 25/25 Bedini class A. It stays warm but never hot. It has never caused an issue but recently I've been speaking with others that were stunned that I would do this. So let me know if I'm the only one that lets it run. Do you shut off the equipment after each session?
- ...
- 104 posts total
- 104 posts total