Leave solid state amps on? Or turn off everytime?

09-18-08: Chadnliz
Its only wasteful if you cant afford it.

That's the kind of greedy, selfish attitude that caused the present
mortgage/housing crisis, and will be the cause of further problems in the
area of energy cost and availability.

Folks, consider a larger viewpoint beyond yourselves.

09-18-08: Mrmikesmail
FWIW my Pass Labs x2.5 pre-amp does not have a power
switch.

Considering it uses only 35 watts, it's not a power hog, nor is it comparable with
leaving a Class A power amp powered up 24/7. By comparison, Pass Lab's
smallest Class A power amp, the XA-30.5, uses 225 watts power...nearly 10
times as much as the 2.5 preamp.

Give me a break Grant and spare me the lecture, I have always liked you and respect you but to equate a desire to leave an amp on for best sound with the mortgage meltdown fuled by irresponsible purchasers and lenders and a lack of proper requlation is way off base and I know for a fact you are smarter than that so please dont pretend not to be.

As far as I know the only perishable component inside is electrolytic cap. The most influential factor on the life of electrolytic cap is temperature. Every 10deg Celsius increase in temperature means cutting life of capacitor by half. 10 degrees Celsius is about luke warm temperature inside of your cool running Icepower (capacitor also heats up from the ripple current thru its ESR)

I have similar amp and turn it off at night and back on when I am back from work. That way for the time I'm sleeping or are not at home amp is cooler and protected from spikes in power line.

For class a SS or tube gear turn off heats up fast no need to leave on. But some gears designed to be left on. I find turning these off requires a day or so to come back up. But if your kit heats up fast why leave it on?

My Pass Labs XA100.5 manual states "when not actually intending to play music the amplifier should be left in standby mode, where it draws only a few watts of bias on the output stage." I turn my amps on (via front switch)about an hour before I plan to listen to music.