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To Power Down, or Not to Power Down

My pre-amp (Rogue Audio 99) and amp (Cary CAD-120S MkII) are both tubed. There are days when I will have a listening session for about an hour followed by a two or three hour break followed by another listening session (or two). If the next session will be within an hour or so I leave the system up, but I'm not sure what to do when the interval between sessions is longer. My questions are...Is it better for the equipment if the system is powered down between sessions that are more than 2 hours apart, or should the system be left up? Is there a detrimental effect on tube life by cycling power up/downs in this short a time period? I would prefer to power down for simple green reasons, but the cost of eight KT88's failing prematurely would be far greater than the increase in my electric bill. I would like to know what others in a similar situation do?
Jerry
jerroot

Showing 1 response by jerroot

jerroot OP
104 posts
 
Polk432-
My unit was manufactured as a MKII, not an upgrade, but in the end I don't think there should be any differences between the two. I would think that Cary would do everything to make them indistinguishable from one another, but a call to them can get you an answer to that question. From all I've read, the upgrade seems to be well worth the investment. Here is a link to Anthony Cordesman's Dec. 2010 review in TAS which makes some comparisons to the MKi and MKii.

http://www.avguide.com/review/cary-slp-03-preamp-cad-120s-ii-power-amplifier-tas-208

Thanks for the input, all.
Jerry
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