Leave preamp on all day, off at night

I have several preamps.A later ARC with expensive tubes requiring replacement at 2000 hours/4000 hours, leaving it on all day is only 16 months to 4000 hurs. 8 hr day. a 12 hr day would be one year!A more typical 12 AX7 AU7 setup the 24/7 on tubes will last about 4 years to 5 years. Since 12's are cheap tubes.. less of an issue.

I suggest using a second preamp, Solid state for 24/7. saving your better preamp for 'critical' listening. Get one with a HT bypass, so it can be easily toggles out of the system when you use the tube preamp.

I do that with CDs/SACDs I listen to a $40 changer to my $$$ DAC all the time. Saving the $$$ spinner.

You did say what preamp and I missed it.  Sorry.

Tubes should warm up in an hour or so.
So, I would turn everything off when done for the day.
B

i would really like to preserve the life of the ref3, and not waste it on background music and TV etc.
My other pre amp is a quad 99, but it doesn't have any HT bypass.
In regards to using a HT bypass, im assuming the connections would be:
source > DAC > HT bybass Pre amp > RCA out to power amp (ARC ds450) and also XLR to ref3 then out to power amp. does this mean i will have two inputs connected into power amp, one from each pre?
 

I would really like to preserve the life of the ref3, and not waste it on background music and TV etc.

My suggestion is use the quad 99 with another power amp or use a AVR/integrated amp, connect to a speaker switcher like the Niles SPK-1.
For background music and TV, you can turn off both ARC ref3 and gs450.
For critical listening, turn on the ARCs, the ref3 12v trigger will switchthe speakers from quad 99 system or AVR/integrated amp to gs450.
One thing to bear in mind, you need to get an amp or AVR has enough power to feed your speakers.