Solid state power amps.; on or off?

Oh well. Different designs and different philosophies. That's why there are different companies and different types of consumers. Either way, you have to wonder why so many "dedicated regulars" that frequent this place tell you one thing and a "respected manufacturer" tells you something different. Maybe it's a case of someone building a product and then someone else using it and knowing how to ring the best performance out of it in the "real world". After all, we don't "listen" to test bench specs and data..... Trust your ears. I've had amps on for YEARS... Sean
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I bought my 1977 Marantz 140 power amp (75wpc) new; about 10 years ago the right channel started cutting out in scratchy fashion about 30 minutes after power-up, mostly noticeable only when listening at low volume, for maybe another 30 minutes or so. For the past year or so I've just left it powered on all the time and the problem has disappeared--it works great now. Duh, I should have thought of that a lot sooner. Only problem is that the 8V fuse-type meter lamps burn out after a few months. I've stopped bothering to replace them.

I feel a bit guilty in the camp of leaving SS amps ON ON ON ON ON ON ON - all the time.

Usually, it strikes me as a tweaky audiophile indulgence, but I can also say that I never ever had one single problem with an Aragon power amp that I left on 24/7 for about 8 years.

Not to digress, but another hobby of mine is motorbikes where there is a school of thought that says the cautious "breaking in period" for an engine is 100% BS cooked up by lawyers who want people to proceed cautiously on their new machines, or by greedy manufacturers who actually want your engine to fail as soon as possible - at least after the warrantee expires.

The counterintuitive idea - like leaving amps on 24/7 - is that you should rev a new engine as hard and as much as you can!!! and worry only about changing the oil several times....

In another thread, someone suggested that certain audio components dry out (?) or die out (?) if the amp is not left ON ON ON all the time.

(Obviously the green crowd and the I want to save 5 bucks a month types will think this is all insane.)

So here is another question for this topic: for amps or receivers in my collection that I never use, would it be better to plug them in and also leave them on, too?

Or is this debate only whether it is better to leave them on vs. the idea of switching them on and off periodically as they are used?

Thank you for your latest thoughts on this timeless, controversial debate.

Worldcup86, the response you received from the factory sounds about right. I also own Classé components and do my own service and mods. It takes between 1/2 to 1 hour of warmup to reach best sonics. I have had no reliability problems turning my equipment on and off in more than 12 years.