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Turn off or leave on?

I am curious to know what others are doing with respect to powering on/off their hifi systems. My system like most is a mix of tube and SS components: tube gear (mono amps, preamp, and phono). SS gear consists of (SACD/CD player, DAC, server, and external clock) and I have a conventional DC powered motor for my LP player.  On days when I know I will listen to music, I turn it all on and leave it on until I go to bed at which time I turn it all off. I have read that it is better to leave SS components on (limit the number of temperature swings associated with powering up) and only power down tube gear (extend tube life).  Many of the components have power saving features so they shutdown after an inactive period but that is more of a sleep mode as I understand it and not the same as a true power down.  Not to complicate the question further, all the amps are hybrid so they have in effect both tubes and transistors  My SS gear is a dCS Vivaldi One plus external Vivaldi clock, server is Taiko Extreme, and my amps are all from Tenor Audio. LP player is AMG 12 that uses a typical external DC motor always left on and powered up.

besonic
ticat's avatar
ticat
359 posts
 

My system is tube phono pre-amp, pre-amp and power amp (TT, dac, cd and streamer are SS), definitely, always completely OFF, unless listening. I use a 1 hour warm up prior to a session (average 6 out of 7 days / week).

geof3
1,129 posts
 

My system is SS up front that goes into standby each night. The tubed phono stage gets turned on once a day if I’m listening and turned off at night. The rest of the gizmos stay on.

bpoletti
1,553 posts
 

SS amps stay on 24/7 unless I go on vacation and leave the house.  Other equipment, mostly tubes and hybrid devices stays off until needed.  The amps draw almost no current and run very cool.  It can take over an hour for them to warm up.  

fertguy's avatar
fertguy
303 posts
 

My SS amp rebuilder said leave it on.  Been on 4 yrs now. Tubes, turn it off.  except Carver tube amps. Bob told me his tubes are good for 50 yrs.

clearthinker's avatar
clearthinker
1,582 posts
 

Mad to leave tube amps on 24/7.  However hard your amp is on tubes and whatever their expected life, if you listen 3 hours a day every day you are wasting 87.5% of their lives.  That will be expensive.

I don't believe Bob Carver that any tube retains its initial quality for 50 years nor that any amp will allow it to.

Some people with Class D amps switched them years ago and are still waiting for good sound.

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