Should I leave my equipment on ?

Avguygeorge put it well. Experiment and let your ears tell you the answer to your question.

From my own personal experience, solid state sounds better if left on all the time. I unplug my Rega Planet (which is typically always on) when I'm out of town for more than a week or when there's a thunderstorm. It always takes it at least 48 hours to start sounding good again. A while back, I ran a full Adcom rig - 555 pre, 545 amp, 575 cdp. It too sounded better when always on.

As far as power consumption is concerned, your equipment doesn't draw much wattage at idle. Your whole rig, when at idle, probably consumes less wattage than a table lamp.

I'll only add that some gear, such as high bias AB or Class A amps will pull considerable power all the time, even at idle. This means that they have to be able to dissipate heat. Since they do tend to run hot, these devices tend to show the most marked difference between "cold" and "fully warmed up". This probably has to do with the fact that they have the greatest temperature swing from not being powered up to normal operating temp. Switching or digital amps tend to show little difference in my experience since their temperature variations are not very much at all.

As far as digital goes, how it sounds cold and "hot" will vary depending on the stability of the circuitry used. Most "decent" digital gear will obtain excellent stability within 4 hours of being powered up. Some designs, being slightly more stable than those mentioned above, will come up to operating temperature faster than that.

As a side note, my $18K Military Spec signal generator is not worth "mud" until it has been on for about 2 hours. According to the manufacturer, it should achieve total stability within 15 - 20 minutes of turn on. On the other hand, the sig gen that my business partner uses ( same model but lacking higher grade Mil Spec parts and cost about $3K less ) seems to be just fine after about 15 - 20 minutes. Both units easily meet spec and were recently calibrated, but it just goes to show that there is obviously a difference due to parts tolerance.

The bottom line is that you have to try them and see what works best for you. Personally, if i was going to conduct such a test, i would leave the system powered up for at least 48 hours and preferably 72 hours and then give it a listen. If you notice a difference that seems to be worthwhile, leave it powered up. If it does make a difference but you are "frugal", try experimenting with what sounds best left on and what doesn't seem to make much of a difference. You can then power up / shut down as needed. Sean
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I have found in my system that when I leave all equipment on it sounds better. If for some reason I have to turn my system off to install a new peice or what ever I find my amps take the longest out of all my equipment to warm up, about 24 hours to get them to there best but after 2 hours I find them about 75% sounding good. With the digital I find only about one hour is needed. So I leave my equipment on 24/7!
I have done this for the past ten years, also you'll find most Co. telling you to leave on 24/7, for tubes it's another story, as I think you want to power up one hour befor listening, but after 4-5 hours of being powered up tube stuff seems to sound good. have a Sonic Frontiers sdf-2 D/A and it has a stand-by swith so I can fire up the tube output before I give a listen, the SDF-2 is alway on internaly except for the tube section. Sonic Frontiers says to turn on 30 minutes before to warm up and most tube Co. will say the same. Hope this helps and good Listening!

My amp has the power switch on the back encouraging me to leave it on.