Shorting plugs....

It's interesting the lengths you are going to to avoid the question. Your statement was that simply turning off components did not yield the "material" improvements that unplugging them from the preamp does.

Again, what do you mean precisely when you refer to turning off a component?

well . . . I have multiple inputs on my preamp because I routinely switch between CD and Phono (I actually only need 2 inputs, but my pre has 4, so I short the unused 2). I'm just not willing to go to the inconvenience of unplugging my phono when not in use, and will suffer the sonic trade-off I guess. I suspect most folks are in this school.

Jimjocye,
Why do you refer to Impractical as a odd "epithet" when many have closed racks or equipment placed in difficult ares to do this everyday, and for folks like me with disability it is far from an odd epithet. Your late to the discusion addition that you only have one input anyway leads one to believe this theory is born more from a "no other choice" method rather than a confirmed improvement.

Bar81: No avoidance of the question. I misunderstood what you are getting at, thinking that you had misunderstood what I was getting at. "Turning off the equipment" means having the power button on the component in the off position, not pulling its electrical plug from the wall. I think this is the standard meaning of "turning a component off."

Chadnliz: The preamp was designed with only one input precisely to take advantage of this finding (based on experience with preamps that had a normal complement of inputs). Sorry to have misled your belief.

I would also note that the point of removing all other inputs from the preamp is to reduce/eliminate rf in the system as a source of distortion. Ie, there is some theory underlying the practice.

Other elements in my system include (i) power cables designed to eliminate rf, (ii) rechargeable dc battery power supplies to the preamp, phono stage and the analog side of the cd player that are unplugged from the wall during operation, and (iii) additional design elements in the cd player to reduce/eliminate rf.

Merely unplugging all other source inputs from the preamp resulted in a clearly noticeable improvement in my system. Adding the other rf-reducers multiplied this effect.