Do you leave your components on 24/7?

No... My system only takes about 15 minutes to fully "warm up" and sound right. And, even during those first 15 minutes, the music is still quite "listenable."

I leave my primary systems on 24/7 (3 of them in rooms I use each day), except for the tube components (preamps). I have several "auxiliary" systems in rooms that don't get much use, and those systems are off except when I'm in the room.

03-01-11: Elizabeth
Leaving a SS item on 24/7 is better for wear and tear.

they often do power cycle cycle (on/off) testing as part of reliability testing of integrated circuit components, but the number of cycles is probably orders of magnitude greater than people would actually perform in the real world. so i don't think that this is a very good reason to leave components on 24/7.

i think that, in general, leaving components on 24/7 is a massive waste of energy resources. as many have stated, 15 minutes should be more than enough to allow a component to reach fairly stable operation, especially under drive conditions. electron temperatures are measured relative to absolute zero (-273 degrees celsius), so after about 15 minutes temperature differences (relative to absolute zero) are going to be relatively small in percentage terms. it seems hard to justify wasting energy under such circumstances.

for my own part, i turn off my amplifier and preamplifier but i don't turn off the phono preamplifier. the reason being that the on/off is not located at the front on the phono preamplifier but since the power dissipation is comparable to that of a night light i don't really make such a big deal over it.

03-01-11: Mitch2
The manufacturers of my SS disc player and SS preamps say to leave them on all the time (one of the preamps doesn't even have an on/off switch).

i used to have a krell cd player, and while it had an on/off switch, it was really an on/standby switch. what i did not like was that krell components tend to consume a fair amount of power while in standby. when the cd player was in standby it was warm. i currently have a wadia cd player and while it has an on/off switch it is located in the rear of the unit because the intention is that the unit should be left on all the time. the wadia cd player is fairly cool, which suggests to me that it is not consuming much power; if it were warm, i would definitely reach in the back to turn it off when i wasn't using it.

my attitude about it is that if the power dissipation is like that of a night light, i won't make such a big deal over leaving it on; after all, displays on microwaves and ovens consume energy; but when the energy consumption is enough to light a room, then that's a bit too much to leave such a component on 24/7.

one of my criticisms of the audiophile biz is that it seems to often promote profligate waste for little (or effectively no) benefit...

I have a Wadia 861 thats been on 24/7 for well over 5 years.Not one problem.

Wadia recommends that it stay powered up for several reasons.As they put it..."The unit will remain thermally stable for less stress and wear on internal circuitry and for best sound quality as well."

Who am I to urgue with them.