Leave amps on or off?

Hi Kevin; According to McCormack Audio's owners manual(s), a solid state amp will sound good within 20 minutes of being turned on. Many, many audiophiles disagree with this, and in fact mine does sound "good" within 20-30 minutes, but not "great". SF recommends turning their tube amps off if they are not going to be used within a couple hours or so. Turn it off overnight. Standby does reduce tube life. I leave my Sonic Frontiers Line 2 pre-amp in standby at all times it's not playing, and I have to replace tubes about once a year. I listen, on average, 4 hours a night. As the tubes gradually "wear", music gradually becomes brighter, harder, and more fatiguing. I've gone through this twice now, and have just decided to replace pre-amp tubes once a year. Standby also decreases tube life in amps, and you just have to decide on a procedure that works for you regarding tube life versus music quality. Happy Listening. Craig.

Solid state amps seem to perform better if left on - everything seems to stabilize - hopefully the amps does not draw too much juice... I think my Bryston amp while sitting idle uses the equivalent electricity to a 100 watt light bulb. As for tubes leaving them on will no doubt reduce the life span so shut the amp down when not in use and a half hour warm up should be sufficient to realize nice sonics...

.......as to life span of the amp, a case can be made for either leaving amps on, eg fewer hot/cold cycles, or turning them off when not in use, eg less total "on" time on individual components in the amp. It seems to me that standby is a good compromise, and many amps now have that feature (but I turn my 300 wpc amp off at night, and on 3-4 hours before use) . Craig.

I was writing while Rgd was posting. I think we are essentially in agreement. Craig

For my solid state amp I switch it on al least 1 hour before listening, my experience with 3-4 hours before is better sonic quality as Garfish's is . Also consider that you might have spikes and brown outs that have to be added to the equation and don't take out storms and lightning possibilities. Shure you should have some protection but remember that some filters, etc do compromise dynamics as in many areas in this hobby you take your considerations and go with the best compromises that you choose.

I have recently started leaving my SS ARC 100.2 amp on all the time, and I can tell you that the sound is MUCH BETTER! I have a tube preamp which I leave in standby mode when no being used. Of course once the preamp warms up the sound is even better, but by leaving the amp on all the time I am amazed at the improvement.

I have always left my solid-state amps (Adcom, Bryston, and others) turned on at all times (except during electrical storms, or when away on vacation). Over a 13 year period, I have only one problem that required repair (a power transistor burned out). I think solid-state amps sound better when fully warm, and the warm up/cool down cycle is harder on the amp than being left on all the time.

What is the life span of the green diode indicator for standby/left on position. Has anyone had to replace them due to their units being on all the time? Thanks

I always leave my sold state gear fully powered up. It takes at least a full day or so to peak from a cold startup. Thermal cycling reduces equipment life, which is another consideration beside the higher electric bill. The energy isn't really wasted (about 9 months of the year it contributes to household heating) & power is cheaper in the midwest nowadays than natural gas anyway.
To "7671" your LED's can actually last longer than you will.

I think that this topic has been covered in depth many times over. Anybody that has done comparisons will tell you that SS amps sound best after being on for at least 24+ hours. They also last longer being left on all the time (all things being equal ). While LED's can last a long time, i wouldn't count on them running anywhere near "forever". I would worry more about capacitors than i would LED's though, especially if you are turning your amp on and off. Sean
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