Do you leave your audio gear on 24/7?

I was wondering how many out there leave their audio gear on full time. Recently I had a power failure here and shut down my amp. When the power came back on, I forgot to turn the amp back on. A few days later I had planned some serious listening and realized that the amp was cold. Of course, it had that hard cold sound which it usually does when cold. It wasn't till the next day that things returned to normal.

Quite some time ago I had my amp apart on the bench for some serious modifications. I was monitoring the bias current and noticed that it took up to 24 hours for the current to stabilize. On top of that, if I shut it down for just a short period after stabilizing, it had to go through this whole stabilizing process again.

I'm assuming that this bias current fluctuation is related to the cold sound.

I must confess that I don't listen to this system daily, and at times have gone a week or more without listening. However, I need to keep this system powered up in standby mode just in case I want to listen without a 24 hours notice. Once I hear that cold sound I quickly lose interest in listening.

 

I have a receiver and cd player that is always on, for about 8 years now. My wife thinks I'm wasting power.

 

Always on or standby

 

Always on as well.

 

I don't leave gear on 24/7. It doesn't take that long to warm up, so I just turn it on when I'm going to use it.

 

I turn mine off when I'm done, though it might be worth a test to see if it matters. I'm too paranoid about starting a fire or something to leave them on 24/7

 

My wife is always paranaoid about "power" being left on while we're out. So I ask her if she wants me to unplug the fridge.

 

Thanks Gary,

I'm talking about the Threshold amp.

 

Conrad Johnson Preamps don’t even have power switches.

Bryston Tech told me its best to NEVER turn their preamps or amps off.

My tube amp warms up in about an hour so I turn if off during the week when I'm not home much.

My tube DAC takes a few hours to warm up, I turn it off if I know I;m not listening seriously for a few days - then I use the analog out from the SACD player instead.

My other SS stuff stays on 24/7.

 

I listen every day but I will not leave my gear on while I'm at work. I have in the past left my SS gear on while breaking in speakers but I never leave my tube gear on 24/7. I'm too afraid of a tube going south when I'm at work.

 

Never what? Are you saying that every piece of hifi equipment in your house and your studio is turned off when you are not using it, or do not intend to use it within a reasonable time frame (say 2 hours)?

 

Same here!

 

I took it that Steve turns off his gear when he is done using it.

 

No, It shortens tube life drastically!

 

ss always on; tube off...simple

 

No, I don't leave my gear on 24/7.

I try not to leave it on unattended. But often, I'll run my amp for 8 hours or more a day especially on weekends and holidays.

 

My modified Sony XA777ES is always plugged in - and therefore, it's always on, because Ric Schultz bypassed the power switch as part of his modifications. My opinion is that digital gear should never be turned off.

Unless I'm travelling (I've been doing a lot lately), the BAT preamp is in stand-by mode when I'm not listening.

I typically turn the SET amps off when I'm finished listening, though sometimes I go to bed with a disc playing and leave the amps on because I've fallen asleep.

I'd like to have separate switches on my amps for the heaters and the B+; if I had that I'd leave the heaters on all the time, possibly at a lower voltage. Such is not the case with the Welborne Lab Laurels I own - the circuit is so simple (typical for SETs).

 

Well, I don't have the nice equipment you guys do, but I always turn mine off when it's not in use.

 

For those of you that leave your preamps on, I'm assuming that you turn the volume all the way down instead of shutting it off...is this correct?

 

McIntosh (amp & preamp) is one of the makes that has a standby mode, so that's what I use when not listening. CD players, tape deck, tuners, etc. are off when not being used.

 

Not necessarily in my case. I have been known at times to leave the volume up. Once my housekeeper accidentally pressed play on a remote and the room was filled with music. She had no clue how to turn it off, and I'm thinking it's a good thing she didn't.

 

Yes I turn it down and then throw the stand-by switch. No power off switch on mine.