Many amplifiers (Audio Research comes to mind) have a stand-by switch that cuts plate voltage when you're not listening but don't want to actually shut down the system. They also recommend you don't leave the amp in stand-by indefinately ;-) but it's a good way to keep the amp warmed up and ready to go all day without unnecessarily using a lot of AC (and a lot of A/C ;-)
If the amp doesn't have the stand-by option, I feel a happy compromise is to restrict on/off to AM/PM as some already mentioned, and maybe once during the day if one has to leave for an hour or more (never NEVER leave tube gear going in an empty house!) If you would have to shut down and warm up your system more often than that during the day, you probably won't have time for quality listening anyway. Why put mileage on the power tubes and burn up electricity for background music? -- isn't that why SS integrateds were invented?
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If the amp doesn't have the stand-by option, I feel a happy compromise is to restrict on/off to AM/PM as some already mentioned, and maybe once during the day if one has to leave for an hour or more (never NEVER leave tube gear going in an empty house!) If you would have to shut down and warm up your system more often than that during the day, you probably won't have time for quality listening anyway. Why put mileage on the power tubes and burn up electricity for background music? -- isn't that why SS integrateds were invented?
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