Leaving Amps on

I have some original adcom equipment GFA-1A amp and a GFP-1 preamp. I have had some cold solder joints repaired several times and noticed that when the amp warmed up my left channel would come back. Call it foolish but I have had the amp and preamp on constantly for about 5 years. No problems.

All eletrical gear, audio or otherwise, was designed to be used, ie: ON. All specifications are produced using samples that have been on for many hours in the lab, connected as they are to be used in the "real world". I have been at this for over 30 years, and have always left everything I own on all the time, and I have never had a problem. The only thing that could possibly happen is that there could be a "brown out" (ie: voltage drops below the norm momentarily), a spike (voltage increases above the norm momentarily) or it shuts down altogether. You will know from experience if you have lived in a particular place for a long time how reliable the electrical service is. The electrical utility which provides you with your "volts" also has over and under voltage limiters in place for this reason. They are not interested in frying Mrs. Jones as she irons her clothes, or blowing up every pizza oven in town just before the big game, the resulting lawsuits would be staggering, For really sensitive appliances like computers, you can buy surge suppresors (questionable) or UPC units (better bet). Most of the products I have seen over the years produced to deal with this "problem" over the years don't work, and most of the rheteric I have heard and read was designed just to scare you. Leave your gear on, you will be fine.

An idling, but "ON" power amp will not heat your voice coils. It has no output. Music signals WILL heat your voice coils and heat WILL cause them to expand. If you don't want your voice coils to expand, don't use them! However, since they're designed to operate with heat (up to a point) heat won't damage them at all. Leaving your amps on will not help or hurt your speakers. Electrical devices are all somewhat like light bulbs; leaving them on all the time results in the max. total operational hours (everything has a limit). Flipping them on and off rapidly results in early failure from heat cycling. Turning them on for use and off when not needed gives the greatest calender life. You choose what is most important.

I saw no harm when I left my amps on, but the brown-out is always a fear and may damage your speakers too. If you are using tubes, or class-A transistors the heat and the component wear is also something to consider. As a rule, I leave digital components and preamps on, but switch off the power amps.