Can You Leave Audio Equipment On All The Time?

We put our home theater gear through the wringer, and usually without thinking much about it. Our AV receivers drive speakers, handle all audio processing, and route video signals to our TV or projector, and that's just covering the basics. All you have to do is turn everything on and enjoy the show or serenade. To that end, you may be wondering if you even need to bother powering everything down when you're done watching a movie or playing a video game. Well, generally speaking, it's never a great idea to leave audio equipment on all the time.

AV receivers and dedicated amplifiers eat up a lot of energy, which can lead to high utility bills. There's also the fact that a constantly powered AV receiver or standalone amp could potentially burn through (and wear out) its power supply, transistors, and other internals far faster. Heat is no friend to electronics, and if your home theater hub is tucked inside a cramped cabinet with poor ventilation, you're only adding more thermal strain to the equation.

Fortunately, most newer AV receivers include some type of standby mode, which keeps a minimal amount of power flowing to your speaker channels and AV connections when you turn off the system. Many standby modes are even customizable: The Yamaha RX-V675 offers multiple standby tiers, for example.

There's an argument to be made for "warming up" audio equipment, a practice that even extends to gear like tube-driven guitar amps. Over on the r/audiophile subreddit, one user provided an excerpt from their Hegel amp's manual that calls out the need to turn off all electrical components when you're not using them, or at least put them in standby. But, while citing the damage excessive heat and constant power can deliver, Hegel also provided a practical tip.

Specifically, the excerpt ends by telling the user that Hegel products sound their best after a warm-up period of about 15 minutes, keeping the volume at a moderate level during that time. There's a huge difference between letting your AV equipment warm up for a couple of minutes before using it and leaving it fully powered all the time. The former allows your hardware's internal components to naturally reach thermal equilibrium, which can have a subtle impact on overall sound quality. 

You may be hard-pressed to hear a difference in performance when you give your AV receiver warm-up time, but turning your equipment on for a few minutes before you start watching a movie or listening to music gives your amp's internals time to stabilize before indulging in your night of entertainment. It also beats taking years off the life of your equipment by leaving it turned on all the time.