Leave it on?

My mcintosh cd 12000 and pre amp shut off in about 20 min. Follow the manufactures recs on power. Surge protection is vital in my area to to power outages a few times a wk. When gone on vacation I do unplug it from wall. Happy listening.music calms the savage beast.

I contacted Legacy Audio about leaving my Focus XD’s internal amps on or off, Ed said to leave them on all the time. Aurender recommends leaving the streamer on, so I do. Denafrips recommends just leaving my DAC and DDC on. (Neither has an on off button, the DAC does have standby though.) My Legacy Wavelet is on all the time. My Coda s5.5 amp  has standby so I put it in standby when done, however when I plan to listen I try to turn it on at least 30 minutes before hand. Of course when we leave for FL in the winter everything is off and covered for 5 months. 

In our home theater most everything is on all the time except for the Television, it’s on standby. (Sony) The Yamaha HT receiver turns itself off through HDMI e/Arc when the TV goes off.

There is no issue with tube amps--they should be turned off when not in use because all tube filaments have a limited life and tube amps warm up fairly quickly.  With solid state, the answer is a bit more complicated because life of transistors are not as significantly shortened by being in a quiet on condition as compared to tubes, and solid state gear does take longer to warm p and sound its best.  But considering power consumption and safety, one may still prefer turning it off when not in use.  Another thing to consider is electrical storms or other times when power is acting up--if you are not home to shut off gear, you will be exposing it to dangerous conditions that may damage electronics that remains on and even the speakers from resulting excessively loud pops. 

The only thing I leave on all the time is my streamer because that is what the manufacturer recommends (they say it take a very long time for capacitors to fully charge and reform if the gear is shut off).  The rest of my gear is tube based and there is no question that it is better to shut off completely.

I leave my Innous streamer, Technics TT, and PS Audio phono pre, DAC, and power amp ON all of the time (except during thunderstorms). When not in use, I turn off my LTA preamp, and 40-year-old Teac R2R and dbx noise reduction unit OFF.

@maprik From the PS Audio BHK250 user manual, “We recommend leaving the rear panel power switch active at all times but placing the unit in its standby mode when listening has been finished. Standby can be activated by pressing the front panel PS Audio logo button, located on the upper left-hand corner of the BHK Signature front panel. When the logo standby button is not lit, the amplifier is in standby mode, and the vacuum tubes are turned off. Standby mode keeps the solid-state circuitry of the amplifier in a reduced power mode, maintaining excellent performance benefits while consuming little power.”

@spenav + 1

There is no one size fits all answer. Some equipments turn themselves off after being inactive for a certain period of time (Marantz AV-10), others are just impractical (Class A amplifiers). On the other hand some can stay on and ready without causing any damage to themselves or the environment (Class D amplifiers, DACs etc). Some manufacturers recommend it. Just make sure the equipment is in dark mode (display off), otherwise you might cause display burn in where the characters stick to the display like a watermark even without power (not good for resale value). 

You don't want to leave a class A amp on.  heat kills.  

Many amps now have a standby feature that keeps the circuit warmed up to the point that the designer thinks is appropriate and ready to go,

Jerry

There are no absolutes. What someone else does with a different brand of equipment from yours should should have no bearing on what you do. Check with the manufacturer of your equipment and follow their advice.

I have a class A SS-Hybrid Pathos Inpol amp 

no way I am leaving vintage tubes on 24-7 and in Class A extra $$ for sure if left on 24-7 ,just turn it on when using within 15-20 minutes it sounds great !!

Leaving equipment on continuously does not turn me on. A broader outlook, and just saying.

How long will you keep your new gear?
How do you feel about global warming?
How confident are you leaving other appliances on all day and night?
How would you feel if your house burnt down?

Do you just don’t bother thinking about any of the above?

Ignorance is bliss but plain stupid.

Keeping new gear on all the time is low risk. The “so far so good” syndrome like a guy falling off a skyscraper overheard as he was falling saying “so far so good” The older it gets, incrementally it becomes a higher risk of becoming a fire hazard.

All our electrical items on standby or left on 24/7 add to the greenhouse effect for you and more importantly, your offspring in the future. Maybe considered a selfish act for your short term gain, poo pooing it a finger up to society….”It doesn’t bother me much”

Would you not turn other products you own completely off such as a computer, TV or washing machine for example if you are not going to use them for some time?

Ask your local fire officer how he views leaving multiple electrical items on for years on end and how safe they remain as they get older. Even more important is how would your insurers view this in a fire related claim if you are 100% honest…. “Oh shucks l never turned that (seat of the fire) amplifier off even when l was not at home” or as stated by one poster on here. “I did this with my amp lasted 30 years!”

l just can’t get my head around people unconcerned or ignorant, sticking their heads in the sand for the sake of a weeny bit more sound quality. If you “leave on” ask yourself… do l turn it off when l go on vacation for two weeks? If you do turn it off, why? What is the difference? Why do you do that?  
 

l warmed up to the fact long ago that leaving unnecessary gear on is dangerously short sighted or stupid, so for me it is just plain illogical.
 

I have posted this in the past and got like a 50/50 response, half say on, half say off. My main HT system, I only use Friday-Sunday. I used to leave everything on even though I wasn’t using it for 4 days. I have since switched my thinking and now I shut everything off (subs, amp, processor, streamer) using the power switch when I go to bed on Sunday night. Then, on Thursday night, I switch everything back on but don’t play anything until Friday AM. Then I let the system run on low volume throughout the day on Friday while I’m at work. That way it’s super warmed up and ready to go. Seems to work great.

I just figured leaving everything on for 4 days while not in use just doesn’t make sense. My amp is an Earthquake Cinenove Grande 5 channel…

If this is what Paul says about PS Audio I would heed his advice if you own PS Audio equipment. All others are only second guessing in regards to PS Audio.

Hardly makes him an ignorant man. Context is key.

Interesting. I emailed Hegel about my H200 and they said that it is designed to be turned on and off. It is interesting that when I push the power button on the front it takes a second for it to make an audible clicking noise when it powers up. Maybe some kind of soft start? 

McCormack recommends leaving it on all the time.  I did this and my amp lasted 30 years, and it’s always warmed up and ready to listen to immediately.  Think about it — light bulbs mostly blow out when you turn them on.  Capacitors and other components constantly going from cold to warm just can’t be good. Unless you’ve got a tube or class A amp I’d just leave it on. 

I put my integrated amp into standby when done listening. 
My DAC doesn’t have a standby mode, it’s either on or off using the switch on the back panel. It runs cool so I just turn off display and leave the unit on. I unplug everything when we’re going away on a trip. 

If your electronics have a standby mode I encourage you to use it. 

I do not subscribe to that philosophy.    Many devices today have a standby or remote IR sensor so they are "on" sort of.   And if they have a mechanical switch I use it.

My main set up is all tube and that is only on when I'm listening and have time to listen for a few hours 

My second system is Solid State and has a full function remote.  Plus it has Auto Off so I let it do that when there's no signal for 20 min .  Either way it's " off" when not in use 

If it's got an I.R. window its always on .   

Turn them off.  Heat and cost matter.  

The exception to this is some Class D, like ICEpower which absolutely sound bad until they have warmed up for 2-4 days.  Can't explain this in any logical way.