Tube pre-amps: turn off when not in use?

No matter what tubes will go faster turned on.. and preamps do draw a bit more than a dac or CD player and have more dangerous levels of heat in most cases.. Mine takes about 20 min tops to warm up and sound pretty much best after turning on.. this took about 100 hours of listening before it sounded that stable on new tubes however.. But short answer, turn it off, cause even if the tubes last for 4 years running 24-7, vs. only on for 2 hours 3 times a week will probably get you 10 to 20 years on the same tubes.

I leave my ARC LS 25 on during the listening months (Oct-May) since I listen pretty much every day. Since this preamp (and yours too) uses the 6H30 tube the 10,000 hour life equates to around a once a year change. Not too bad a trade-off for the always warmed up sound. Of course turning off after every listening session will increase life, but not as much as you would think since the turn-on/warm up process is a little harder on the tube compared to continuous operation.

Thanks for your replies. I do about 4-5 hours of listening a day so maybe switching off with use would be wise (or not?). For those who use tube pre with all-transistor based components (CDP, pwer amp), do you just turn off the tube pre while leaving all else powered up?

I turn all my tube gear off when not in use. Tube gear gets warmed up pretty quickly, as compared to solid state, so there is less of a reason to leave the stuff on all the time.

All of my tube gear uses tube rectification, so the turn on is relatively gentle, and the life of the tubes is not being shortened by the turnon/turnoff cycle as much as would be the case with solid state rectification. I have not looked into use of thermistors to make the ramp up even more gentle, but if I did, there would be no doubt that turning the stuff off would greatly extend the life of the tubes.

Tubes do wear out when left on. The output tubes on an amp may last something on the order of 1,500 to 2,000 hours or so. The smaller tubes used in preamps will last much longer. 5,000 to 10,000 hours and more is probably not unreasonable. (There are just shy of 9,000 hours in a year.) Some specialty tubes can last tens of thousands of hours, but your equipment probably doesn't have tubes of that nature.

So, the question is how often you want to replace tubes and also how much electricity you wish to use. Your personal listening style is also a factor. If you reliably don't listen after you go to bed and until you come home from work the next day, why waste tube life on the three-quarters of the day when you are sure you won't be listening? However, if you are always home and often listen at the spur of the moment at any hour of the day or night, it may well be worth it to you to leave the system on continuously.