leave power on?

This subject has been hashed out several times.

The bottom line seems to be:
Turning it off and on all the time is as bad as the heat damage from leaving it on 24/7.
A tossup.

With tube equipment it simply has to do with the cost of retubing. Better to turn off tube equipment and warm it up for a short while prior to listening, unless you will be doing a lot of listening during the course of two or three days, such as weekends, where the thermal issues associated with turning off and on are probably harder on the tubes than leaving the unit on for such a period. This last recommendation comes from one of the people at ARC who provides information over the phone.

Tubes: turn them off
Solid state: leave it on

SIMPLE

What Jax2 said X 4!

I've heard that one should never leave tube amps on 24/7 because its a fire hazard, almost like leaving an iron on. My tube amps definitely sound better after at least 30 minutes of warm up though.

I agree with Jax2. Tubes dont take long to warm up and sound good after an hour or so. There is no need to leave tube stuff on when not in use.

Solidstate gear is a little different and in my experience sounds better after quite a long period of being left on. The latest gear after being burnt in doesnt suffer as much as some of the older stuff though.

Save energy where you can. As the flood water washes your house away followed by the desert sands covering the plot where it stood, try explaining you used to leave your hifi on 24/7 because you got sweeter highs and slightly more separation!

Actually, I have heard and read the opposite, which is that tube gear is fine to turn off and on (assuming you provide a bit of warm up time before listening sessions), but that solid state gear needs a couple of hours, at least, to sound its best, which why some people leave their solid state gear on 24/7.

However, to be honest, I tend to turn off my equipment between listening sessions, mostly because I rarely listen from day to day, and it seems to be a waste of energy (hence money) to leave it on 24/7.

That being said, my solid state preamp, an Ayre K-1xe, is always on, as there is no on/off switch actually, (it is in stand-by mode), and basically, I do is unmute it to turn it on. But preamps tend to draw very little current, so there is no real problem with leaving them on.

My hybrid amps, Lamm M2.1 monoblocks, (which draw a lot of current), I leave off until I need them. Then I turn them on, and let them warm up for 20-30 minutes before I start listening. The sound is very good after half an hour of warmup, but does get slightly better after another half an hour or so. After 45 minutes to an hour, the sound does not seem to change much.

My two cents worth anyway.

Spectron amps advise one in their manual to leave their amp on 24/7. It only draws 40 watts at idle.

Ditto Jax2.

Most of the SS gear I've owned sounded better when left on 24/7. Most tube gear sounds best after a warmup of between 30min and 3 hours. Otherwise leaving tube gear on always is a waste of tube life IMHO.

If your equipment is well designed then turning off and on is absolutely no problem.

Save energy.

As I've said so many times before, this leaving stuff on all the time is simply unsubstantiated lore and in fact caps benefit from being charge cycled.

In almost 40 years of audio as a hobby, I have never had a piece go down or degrade due to turn on turn off cycling.

I turn off my Int amp if im gone from the room more than 30-45 min. Having had 2 tubes arc i do not want to leave it one and leave the house.

I have a Tube Box Se and i leave it on all day if i'm listening vinyl off and on but turn it off for any long absence.