Sony 777es ok to leave on?

I have tried it both ways and with all three of the players (plus one DAC) they all sound much better after being powered up for at least three days. The sound is a bit sluggish and veiled compared to when the equipment is left on all of the time. I always turn off the tube amp when it's not in use and now turn off the SS amp as well (to conserve energy as it idles in Class A), but decided that I had to leave all of the digital stuff on all of the time because of the improvement in sound to be had. When the power situation improves in CA in the future, I will leave the SS amp on 7/24 as well (as I used to in the past). I had everthing off during a rough two week power period and really don't think that the digital stuff draws much current at all as it did not show up on the uitlity bill.

Bmpnyc, How do you like the player? I am not sure what you consider warm, but mine stays warm also. Must be normal for the player. I picked up a used Proceed DAP for cd playback....sounds pretty cool.

NM, short answer , a lot. I am still in the break in process, but out of the box the most impressive thing to me was the CD playback. We can debate the relative differences between the 9000ES to upsampled CD's, and other high end CD players all day long, but my opinion is that it offers enough of what I need from the CD format to keep me from wanting another player. I listen frequently to a friends Forsell transport through DCS gear on Vac amps through Avalon Eidelon's, and I would have no problem substituting the 9000ES and keeping the 15 Grand difference. For me it is a perfect example of the law of diminishing returns. It takes 3-10X the money to get a 2% difference in quality. I do anticipate upgrading to a multi-format version of a similar player when it can be had for the same price, (2-3 years?) For now I am consistently amazed at how close the CD playback is to the SACD playback, considering how good SACD is. Now if there were only 10,000 titles to choose from instead of a few hundred.

Bmpnyc, glad to hear you like the player. What did you think of it compared to the Pioneer player? The Sony offers a lot of bang for the buck and if I had it to do over again I would not think twice. The DAC was used, so you know how quick those prices drop, plus I can use it with the satelite so that helps justify the extra bucks. Let me know when you can convince Sony to release more titles !! Hopefully it will be something that will rock for a change.

What about leaving a player in stand-by mode...ala my (tube output) SFCD1, which still has not sold, thank God!