solid state gear- leave on?

The gear that runs the hottest is the gear that benefits the most from leaving it powered up. Less temperature swing equals greater circuit stability with improved sonics being the result. Sean
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Elinor: I work on electronics for a living. The gear that gets cycled off and on the most and / or isn't used for extended periods of time is the gear that comes in for the most repairs. Both of those problems are related to in-rush current, higher than average current consumption and massive thermal swing. This is what damages componentry the most. That is, unless the product runs phenomenally hot and isn't built to dissipate that much consistent heat. It is easiest to avoid these problems by not powering the device down. The device maintains a more consistent operating temperature, there's no in-rush current involved and current is only drawn as needed.

Gear that doesn't take very long to thermally stabilize and makes use of "soft-start" circuitry is fine to cycle up and down. Obviously, tubes and lasers have finite lifespans, so one should take care of how they use these. This is not to say that turning off a laser based audio device is beneficial ( it typically isn't in terms of sonics and thermal stability ), but that the lifespan of the laser may be reduced if it isn't. Replacing a laser on most of these devices is not hard though and should be done after a period of time anyhow, as output levels and calibration fall off due to use one way or the other. Sean
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The only time i've ever seen or heard of gear catching fire was with tubed gear. The higher voltages found in this gear can tend to arc, igniting other components in the path of the arc. SS gear tends to pull higher levels of continuous current when something goes haywire, which tends to blow the fuses.

If i was going out of town for more than a few days, i would shut down my systems. Same goes for leaving the house with very violent electrical storms on the way. Otherwise, i've got 12 SS amplifiers on at all times, along with the systems that they are connected to. Two amps are very efficient and idle cool as a cucumber. Two other amps are also quite efficient, but idle slightly warmer. The other eight are all high bias designs and idle at high temperature. Two of them are Class A up to 50 wpc, two are Class A up to 30 wpc and the other four are Class A up to appr 10 wpc.

The only system that used to get powered up and shut down regularly was my vintage tubed system. This system is currently "down for the count" as i sold my Marantz 8 a while back and am still contemplating which way i want to go with this system. I think i'm going to end up building my own tube amp, but that will have to wait a bit. Sean
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El: Obviously, "well designed" has different meanings to different designers / engineers / end users. There are those that feel that the addition of ANY unnecessary parts / circuitry is a poor design. Then again, there are those that think that a unit without every form of circuit protection known to mankind is a poor design. Personally, i prefer that the units be built like tanks with only the bare essentials in terms of circuit protection. To each their own... Sean
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