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William Low's avatar

Possibly the most important component to always leave on is the DAC or CD player. They are the most sensitive to the need for dielectric (insulation, circuit board, etc.) to remain as "formed" as possible -- and they are the most sensitive to thermal stability. I only turn off a DAC or a CD player if it has tubes, and even then not necessarily every day.

To my mind, only products with tubes or pure Class A power amps (almost all source components are Class A, but current draw and heat are trivial) should be turned off daily.

Because (other than power supply tubes) source component and preamp circuit tubes last many thousands of hours, it is also not wrong to leave them on when the next listening session is less than 24 hours away -- personal preference. Tubes don't have a dielectric, but the higher voltages around tubes can make the "forming" of passive parts more sensitive towards achieving optimum performance.

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Fred Morris's avatar

Thanks, much appreciated!

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William Low's avatar

Ah ... I should have mentioned that "standby" means different things for different competes and manufacturers. On PS Audio gear, and some other suppliers, standby only mutes the output without turning anything off, except for the input tubes in the amps with tube input stages.

For those following the EU's extremely strict requirements, leaving even a source's active circuit desirably active might not be allowed, so leaving them on yields better performance.

The Octave (German) amplifiers have a wonderful "Eco" feature that turns off the tubes but keeps the electronics otherwise ready and waiting, reducing draw from hundreds of watts to 20 watts. When I used Octave, I never turned the pieces off when in-residence, just letting the Eco feature turn the tubes on and off as necessary.

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Fred Morris's avatar

Thanks for the elaboration. My CD player/DAC is a Marantz Ruby. The owners manual is quite vague about what happens in standby mode.

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Fred Morris's avatar

Would greatly appreciate your advice on powering components on and off. I leave my non-source components - solid state integrated amp and its outboard power supply, streamer, phono stage, and powered subwoofer - on 24/7 except when I am traveling. I turn on my CD player (which also serves as system DAC) for first use of the day, then put in standby at night. Should I make any adjustments to this routine?

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