Roseofsa, it's true that turn on is hard on tubes, however, many new tube components have soft start that ramps up the voltage/current so as to minimize the impact. From the perspective of leaving components always on, yes they will sound better, but in a year you will have 8,760 hours on those tubes. Consider that power tubes last 1000 - 4000 hours (rough estimate) and small signal tubes last around 10,000 hours (again, rough estimate) you will be replacing tubes much more frequently. Now if you listen from morning to evening then it may not make much of a difference. Personally, I switched from a tube amp to a hybrid amp (with 2 small signal tubes) since I have the amp on pretty much all day. One other thing, tubes are much more likely to fail catastrophically, so I don't like leaving the house with them on all the time.
Tube amp powered up?
I'm in the habit of leaving all my SS components powered up all the time, as advised by the first dealer I knew, back in the 80s. Now, I have a tube integrated (jolida 302b,and a vintage tube receiver. Some say leave the tubes on all the time, because what hurts them is the surge when they're turned on. Makes sense to me, but all the dealers, gurus, soothsayers and technicians advise bringing the tubes down when not listening. Anybody have an opinion?
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