Sonic Frontiers preamp in standby mode

I have spent a little time the last couple of days reading the archives over on AA. As others have posted here, many do leave their preamps in standby. I have on occasion over the weekends, but do not through the week. Hopefully more members will post and give their experiences.

For those of you that have posted, are you running NOS tubes from the late 50s, early 60s? Are you using current stock tubes?

http://db.audioasylum.com/cgi/search.mpl?forum=tubes&searchtext=+Sonic+Frontiers+L1+Standby+%2C+shorten+tube+life%3F+
Jim

My Line 3 is always left in stand-by... it's been 5+ years. In fact, on the rare occassion I do turn it completely off (change a tube or mess with something) I'm always hesitant to hit that button... my mind thinks of power surges and all kinds of stuff... but it's always been fine.

I once owned this preamp for 4 years. Bought it new. I remember phoning Len at Sonic Frontiers when they were still in business, one of the head tech guys.Nice fella. Asked him this very same question.

His answer was quite clear ''leave it in stanby,the tubes will still last years and are not expensive to replace''.

My unit was thus left on for 4 years, sounded excellent still after this period.

I suspect the standby mode preserves tube life, keeps the unit thermally stable and prevents the unwanted side effects of turn on. Unless you are expecting a lightening storm or flooding I think you'll enjoy more consistant good sound, longer, using the standby function. This realy is a nice design feature. Most pre's use minimal electricity. Many pre's don't even offer an on/off function for the above mentioned reasons.

I leave my Line 3SE in standby when not in use and have for over 5 years without problems. I seem to recall that the owners manual indicates that if you aren't going to use it for 3-4 days then you may want to power down.

Leaving the heaters powered is not the primary wear mechanisim for tubes. The main cause of tube wear comes from the stripping of electrons off the cathode and depositing them on the plate. This happens when high voltage is applied during normal operation. Small signal tubes can last on the order of 10K hours because the currents during operation are low compared to power tubes in amps.

The real advantage to leaving the unit in standby is the elimniation of thermal shock at turn-on. As you have found, the unit takes a few hours to reach thermal equalibrium which does affect the sound, and it's just easier on the equipment.

As for not leaving the house with the electroics powered, that's a personal decision. But remember, there's typically a lot of equipment that stays powered when you're gone such as clocks, refrigerators, timers, alarms, etc. I'd be guessing, but your MF A5 CD might not really be fully powered down when "off" but in standby. The pre is fused so if there's a problem you should be covered.

A different POV but you decide.

In standby the 6.3 filament voltage is still applied to the 6922 tubes. Only the plate voltage is removed. Bottom line the tubes are are not going to last very long burning 24/7, 365 days a year. If you are lucky and get 10k hours out of the tubes you will still be replacing them in a little over a year. If you are running NOS tubes from the 60s It's going to be mighty expensive. I turn my Line One off after use.
Jim