Listening after your entire system was powered off cold for a week+

Definitely the DAC, mostly. If I fire up the DAC all day long (at least 4-5hrs) before powering on the tube preamp and tube amps, sure makes a difference.

Tube preamp and tube amps do just fine after 1-2hrs warmup, as normal.

Mr. R2R NOS chip ladder DAC likes to be toasty to sound its best.  

My system is discernibly better after a week fully powered, even though the off switch powers down the amp

@stringreen good to know. Perhaps I had developed a conservative pattern of not powering things up as soon as I use to with my all-tube system, including my tube DAC. Over time I guess I slowly fell away from the benefit and realization of what a nice and extra-warm and settled system can do. Duh, bang hand against forehead.

With outside temps cooling off I’ve started to let things run longer before listening. Listening now with 8hrs warmup of the entire system and its really nice. Loving the system all over again. Just kind of re-surprised my forgetful self, again :) 👍

I do notice better sound when system is on as well as when it’s ‘up to temperature’. Though it could also be I warm up into listening too!

My setup is rarely powered off for more than a few days. That is, the DAC/preamp and digital XO is running 24/7, and so normally the sound has that sense of presence and fullness immediately after powering up the amps (3 of them; one class A and two class D-based) and music server, but after an hour so playing music/movies everything coheres and falls into place a bit better.

8-12 hours after being all-powered up (only on certain weekends, and not with the kWh price of electricity these days) a more pronounced sense of liquidity enters the stage, which must due to the class A amp "settling" more effectively, or so I gather. While a lovely extra addition to the sound this a wee bit more free-flowing sensation is not a "must have" for me to truly enjoy the presentation.

Having had the amps and music server turned off for more than a few days - like a week or two - can lend a stiffness, grayness and slight distance to the sound right after power up, and so the warm up change appears more radical and also takes a little longer. A couple of hours usually suffice here.

Interestingly the most radical boon during warm-up comes from playing my setup relatively loud (i.e.: 85-90dB range, slightly more in peaks) for an hour or so. This is most likely to occur during a listening session with one of my fellow audio compadres or watching a movie at ref. volume, and the effect is quite noticeable. When on my own I sometimes leave the listening room for 15-30 minutes and the music playing in mentioned dB-range, and it has close to the same effect. The sound just "pops" more freely and fuller after such a workout (that is, to my speaker setup it's hardly a "workout," but more like a light evening stroll), and so this is something I desire when listening more attentively. I’m guessing the speakers are to "blame" for this positive effect.