Shorting plugs....

Interesting responses. Given the lengths to which audiophiles routinely go to try to improve their systems, it's odd to hear the epithet "impractical," which suggests an unwillingness even to try it and see how it works. Of course there is no guarantee that it will work in your system, but anecdotally it has worked in a number of systems.

The idea is not to turn anything off, but rather to unplug from the preamp the interconnects running from those source components that are not currently in use. Ie, at any one time, there would be only one source component with an interconnect plugged into the preamp, though the other source components could/would be plugged into the electricity and turned on.

So, if you are playing a cd, the interconnects from your other components would be unplugged from the preamp.

In fact, my preamp has only one source input, making the issue of shorting plugs irrelevant.

It's interesting the lengths you are going to to avoid the question. Your statement was that simply turning off components did not yield the "material" improvements that unplugging them from the preamp does.

Again, what do you mean precisely when you refer to turning off a component?

well . . . I have multiple inputs on my preamp because I routinely switch between CD and Phono (I actually only need 2 inputs, but my pre has 4, so I short the unused 2). I'm just not willing to go to the inconvenience of unplugging my phono when not in use, and will suffer the sonic trade-off I guess. I suspect most folks are in this school.

Jimjocye,
Why do you refer to Impractical as a odd "epithet" when many have closed racks or equipment placed in difficult ares to do this everyday, and for folks like me with disability it is far from an odd epithet. Your late to the discusion addition that you only have one input anyway leads one to believe this theory is born more from a "no other choice" method rather than a confirmed improvement.

Bar81: No avoidance of the question. I misunderstood what you are getting at, thinking that you had misunderstood what I was getting at. "Turning off the equipment" means having the power button on the component in the off position, not pulling its electrical plug from the wall. I think this is the standard meaning of "turning a component off."

Chadnliz: The preamp was designed with only one input precisely to take advantage of this finding (based on experience with preamps that had a normal complement of inputs). Sorry to have misled your belief.