How should you treat your tubes?

Lot of good responses. Seems like it comes down to 2 things. What will make it sound the best and what will make it last the longest. For sound, leave it on 24/7 for a week or even a month, then try cycling it. Decide for yourself if it makes any difference. For longevity it's got to be leaving it on BUT what if the difference was 10 years for on/off or 20 years always on? Do you really think you're going to keep it for 10 or even 20 years? I like Nelson Pass's philosophy: One day it will break and you'll just get it fixed.

For myself, I cycle. Most of us will go thru our whole life without a problem but I do not want to be that one statistic that comes home to see Firetrucks in front of his house. For sure tubes but I've seen evidence of a speaker catching on fire with a very well known SS amp.

Onemug, your concern about fires has application only to tube amps. I have never left my tube amps on when I am not there, even though it typically takes a half hour for them to get up to speed. They are better yet after being on for two hours. I have never turned off any other tube equipment other than when I am out-of-town or lightening threatens.

"For longevity it's got to be leaving it on BUT what if the difference was 10 years for on/off or 20 years always on? Do you really think you're going to keep it for 10 or even 20 years?"

... I respectfully beg to differ from the right honorable contributor and friend Tbg. New-ish hi-fi gear actually breaks all the time and my crusade to get the truth out about this issue is explained mostly by my desire to avoid buying a used product that has been misused through repeatedly being turned on and off, and which is thus much more likely to break in my hands, causing me expense and aggravation.

Don't get me started about other misnomers in this hobby. Ads for gear being sold by the "original owner" that has "only been used thirty hours"??? This means that the seller is either a liar (and, therefore, God knows what he's selling) or an ignoramus (and I'm going to have to run the virgin in question for hundreds of hours with a break-in track before it sounds right). Like I said, don't get me started ... but I WILL say things about:

... People selling preamps and phono stages that their ads display sitting on top of subwoofers.

... "This product is an original Mk. IV, not an upgrade" -- as long as the upgrade has been broken in, totally irrelevant.

... "Reviewed favorably by HP in last month's Absolute Sound" -- every single component or speaker that windbag reviews is the next great step forward in the advancement of reproduced sound (excuse me, I meant the advancement of "continuousness"). For that matter, aside from Cordesman, when was the last time that magazine published a review that contained some real substance and that was not incredibly flattering? The difference between TAS and Stereophile has become striking (Stereophile reviews being much more detailed and, of course, featuring extensive measurements). In my opinion, TAS has become a sham and I've stopped subscribing.

Tbg, I didn't say the SS amp caught fire. It caused a woofer to start burning. I was there, we started smelling something burning. We naturally thought it was the electonics but as we investigated, it was coming from the speaker. The paper woofer had a burn hole in it. I think the explanation was that the amp was leaking DC or something like that. I can't imagine how a SS amp could catch fire. What's to burn? If the woofer had led to the grill cloth ignitig and the speaker was close to curtains, Ba-Da-Bing.

Buying used these days with people modifying, bypassing fuses etc, just be sure you know what you have plugged into your wall. If people want to play golf in a lightning storm, that's their business. I just think you should be aware of the possibilities.