Thanks for calling the article to our attention, Howard. Regarding your questions, IMO all that can be said is the not particularly helpful common sense notion that in general the risk is very small (perhaps less than the risk of driving a car), but it is not zero. And I would expect that leaving a component in standby mode reduces the risk greatly, compared to operating mode, but again not to zero.
Personally the only component I’ve ever owned that I left on 24/7 was a vintage Mark Levinson ML-1 preamplifier, from the late 1970s, which had no power switch, was designed to be used that way, and had a fully enclosed metal case without even any ventilation slots. And was not located near anything particularly flammable. Between me and the prior owner it ran essentially 24/7/365 for more than 30 years, before developing some functional (as opposed to safety-related) problems.
FWIW, with that exception my own policy has been to play it safe, and just allow time for my components to reach a stable operating temperature before doing any critical listening. That means no more than an hour with any component I have owned, and less than that in most cases.
Best regards,
-- Al
Personally the only component I’ve ever owned that I left on 24/7 was a vintage Mark Levinson ML-1 preamplifier, from the late 1970s, which had no power switch, was designed to be used that way, and had a fully enclosed metal case without even any ventilation slots. And was not located near anything particularly flammable. Between me and the prior owner it ran essentially 24/7/365 for more than 30 years, before developing some functional (as opposed to safety-related) problems.
FWIW, with that exception my own policy has been to play it safe, and just allow time for my components to reach a stable operating temperature before doing any critical listening. That means no more than an hour with any component I have owned, and less than that in most cases.
Best regards,
-- Al