does your system "warm up" and then sound better?

I leave ss components on 24/7 (in low power "sleep" mode if available). Tubes I fire up at least 30 minutes before I start listening. I do think things sound better after listening an hour or so. Theo's observation about cartridge performance is interesting. I'll have to try and see if I hear a consistent improvement listening to the 2nd side of the first LP played in a given evening.

So do you recommend that leave my pre amp and cd player on too? Also, do speakers "warm up"? What about cables? If so, how long does it take? Thanks for the info everyone! :-)

I think Mechans meant its not a good idea to leave tube gear on 24/7. I have to agree. Tube gear, just like solid state, usually benefits from some warm up time before listening.

To the OP; leave everything on that you can. If you leave your CD player and preamp on all the time, you should notice a nice difference. I have a CD player that takes several days to sound right after its been powered off.

I leave my CDP on all the time. It draws little and never heats up. Same for my DVD player. My integrated gets too warm for my tastes if I leave it on for a day or so, so I only turn it on and try not to listen for about 30 minutes as I can really tell the difference as it warms up from a cold start.

A small sacrifice to pay to the audio gods and my patience.

All the best,
Nonoise