Leaving your amp/preamp on 24/7?

[laurie]

I have had my amp combination for years. I almost always leave my Linn Kolektor preamp on 24/7 but turn off the Rotel RB850 power amp whenever I don't use it and turn it off every night. Recently I find I turn off the Kolektor overnight about twice a week at least. I only find a real difference in sound if the Kolektor / Rotel is turned off for long periods example if I've being away, it takes a day or two for the sound to blossom again.

[Krunchy]

Leave everything on. This guy will dig all the coal required. When he drops dead someone else will take his place.

Nice! sad but true,

Tube amps when not in use for reasons mentioned earlier. SS, if I know I'll be listening to music for extended periods of time (like during the weekend) I keep the Pre & Crossover (ashly) on or I'll turn it (and everything else) on a few hours before I play music, I usually never leave the amps on.

[SEAWOLF97]

Unless you have a power sensing outlet strip....

I don't care what Crown or Sherbourn/Emotiva says, my amps are plugged into auto-sensing outlet strips and are FULLY powered down when I'm done playing them.

Currently my Crown XLS-2500, Sherbourn 5-200, and Sherbourn 12-45 are all completely dead to the world.

in my main system all major components* are wired into a Furman line conditioner so they are "dead to the world" at power off

*my FM tuner seems to lose the presets if left off too long so yesterday I moved it to wall power.

I have a Panamax conditioner waiting for install in the HT on a poor weather day when I can't go out. They will also be DttW, if not needing current to keep settings.

[Maxwelhse]

in my main system all major components* are wired into a Furman line conditioner so they are "dead to the world" at power off

*my FM tuner seems to lose the presets if left off too long so yesterday I moved it to wall power.

I have a Panamax conditioner waiting for install in the HT on a poor weather day when I can't go out. They will also be DttW, if not needing current to keep settings.

That's a much nicer solution than my $16 Cyberpower strips ( http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-705...berpower+strip ), but the same principal applies. If I don't want to play it, I see no point in keeping the caps charged. Those little cheap Cyberpower strips are very handy for other applications as well. I have one powering an absolutely huge laptop cooler that my 1st generation Playstation 3 is sitting on... When I hit the "PS" button on my wireless controller, the PS3 and the giant cooler both fire up without a need to leave the Lay-Z-Boy... I also have one on my Crown XLS-2500 since it lacks a 12v trigger, but has a permanent toggle switch power button. Works like a charm!

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I'm not yet able to reach the world of tube amps (and possibly never will, though I do enjoy the sound when I've had the rare chance) so I can't comment on the proper care of such equipment. However... based on "beige" collar income equipment, I'm very happy with my solution and would recommend it to anyone in my budget category (my "good" budget HT is under $1200 with all installation accessories, and 46" HDTV, included)... My amps sound the same from the first 1 minute of power-up to the last 30 hours of playing (yep... I've played them for 30 straight hours... I'm a gamer and sometimes you get reeled in... I played Red Dead Redemption for 40 hours once... but, that was before I bought separates)

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In summary, if you want to save some green by not paying for huge capacitors and transformers to retain charge when you're not playing your amps, but don't have NASA budget equipment that requires NASA level treatment, turn 'em off... The $16 Cyberpower strips make it very easy.

edit: And, of course, you can plug the $16 strips into a $10,000 independent protector if you want... That's what I've done with mine (minus $9966.88... I'm rolling with Belkin... http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-BV11223...surge+ethernet ).