Amp — Leave on or turn off


I always turned my Benchmark AHB2 amp off after use every night. After all, why is there an on off switch on the front panel if not to do that? Last night I accidentally left it on. This morning, when I played my first record, I couldn’t believe my ears. The same record I played last night sounded infinitely better. I tried a second record and that, too, was much better.
I know there’s a debate on the question of leaving an amp on all the time.
I now know where I stand!

128x128rvpiano

Showing 1 response by whart

Tube stuff gets shut down when I'm not near the room or ready to go back; some solid state stuff needs to be plugged in for a long while before it comes on song. 

I used to have a Lamm L2- two chassis line stage with a solid state audio path and tube rectification. Vlad said to keep it on all the time, which I mostly did (in NY) except during fierce electrical storms. It took days to come back on song from a cold start.

There's a piece by Sear of Sear Sound about shutting off recherché gear. You should be able to find it on the open web.