To turn off or not to turn off

High powered solid state amps pull lots of power even idling, so I turn my amps off. Tube gear takes a long time to warm up. I have a CJ PV12 preamp and it takes about 2 days for the tubes to truly warm up sonically. I used to leave it on all the time, but the tubes burned out quickly. I used to have to replace them every 4 months. I've moved to solid state, and most of those preamps have a standby mode to keep the transistors up. I think even my CD player keeps the electronics warm in its standby mode. Leaving everything on all the time, yes, I feel that your electric bill will show it. Some Class A amps might work as good space-heaters during the winter, but I feel that extended use of a product will shorten its lifespan.

I have a Forte 1a (fifty watts a side class A) and I have never been able to really tell that much difference between cold and hot running. It did sound lousy when I first bought it until it broke in, however.

Good posts ... interesting subject. I leave my equipment (amp, CD, DAC) on all of the time. The DAC has no power switch, the amp's switch is hidden around the back (hint hint) and the CD player has such low idle power consumption I don't worry. I think it sounds better, and I think that the lack of thermal cycling will help extend its life. I have also heard that electrolytic caps like to be left powered.

During an electrical storm I not only switch off I also unplug the equipment from the outlets, since a little on-off switch may not protect against the sort of surge a lightning strike can deliver. If any storms are in the forecast then I leave the equipment this way and revert to the portable CD player. If you have an FM tuner and an outdoor antenna I would also unplug the antenna during a storm ... even if it's not struck it can still reach high voltages and damage the tuner due to the electrical potential differences in the atmosphere. Paranoid ? Perhaps, but I have lost a TV to lightning, and I'm a lot more attached to my hifi than my TV.

My electricity bills had just increased by very vast amount since I've started to live my VTL Deluxe 100 always on along with the rest of my equipment. I'm thinking about just living them on for the weekend since this is the only listening time I have.

This is a good qustion,I have a NAD C-370 and turn it off everytime i am done listening, this may be on and off again 3-4 times a day. is it true that turning it on and off will shorted the lifespan?. it does have standby mode, But nad says in the manual to completely turn it off when not going to be used for more than 2 days. Also i am not home most of the day. What do you guys think i should do??

Thanks