"Off" vs. "Standby" and tube life


Hi everyone. I currently have a tubed cd player and a solid state integrated. I want to turn my cd player off when I am not using it to prolong tube life but my integrated sounds much better when left on 24/7. Here's my question - my integrated has a standby switch. When I am powering off my system, can I put the amp into standby and then turn my CD player off. I know I am supposed to power down the amp before powering down the source but does putting it into standby qualify?

I realize that there are differing opinions on whether leaving a tubed piece on all the time is better than turning it off and on but that aside I'm interested in learning more about "standby" vs. "off"

Thanks in advance.
tooter

Showing 1 response by matrix

Not sure of absolute life span, but tubes in general I would only run preamps for 24 hours before the weekend you will listen and shut off after that on a weekly basis, this will of course probably take 1 year off a tube that would maybe last 10 always shutting it off, but for running the system on a friday night and then again saturday afternoon etc... I would not keep shutting it on and off... Basically all a Standby switch does is Mute the output just like a mute button cutting the signal from feeding the amps if they are left on 24/7(solid state of course), so many manufactures use the Mute and explains to use it for not listening between listening sessions in 24 hour periods without shutting down and re-powering the unit several times. This in my opinion would be okay with use of Tube CD and preamps, power amps you would definatly kill off the power tubes and pull a lot of power sitting at idle faster and this would be pretty wastefull and of course more dangerous, so for an all tube intergrated I would probably suggest against it, but I'm no pro, this is how I see most hi-enders do it, and also how most the tube suppliers and manufactures have explained it to me as it will be fine for small signal tubes only.