How long daes it take your gear to warm up?

Approx 3 Seconds for solid state. My parent's tube table radio used to take about a minute to even start playing. But that was 60 years ago!

I had a Plinius M16 preamp, the manual said 72 hrs.

Mapman, Your SP-16 is not warmed up in a matter of seconds. It has merey stabilized enough to be used.

What is happening during all this 'warm up' time? This stuff travels at approx light speed, so it should not take very long to traverse the inards of your amp. The only thing that warms up is your imagination.

Rok2id yes it does travel at approx light speed, but it does not mean that the equipment is performing at its best! Like I said in regard of my Rotels Ra-1090 without a couple of hours of warm up time the highs are ear piercing and the bass notes lack punch, slam and definition. I believe what is happening during this warm up time is that all the components inside the amps are dissapating heat (and they continue to do so) until they stabilized to what is called "steady state." Thank you all for your comments!