Can you leave audio equipment on all the time?

We put our home theater equipment through its paces, and usually without much thought. Our AV receivers drive the speakers, handle all the audio processing, and route the video signals to our TV or projector, and that just covers 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 turn everything off when you’re done watching a movie or playing a video game. Well, generally speaking, it’s never a good idea to leave audio equipment on all the time.

AV receivers and dedicated amplifiers use a lot of power, which can lead to high utility bills. There’s also the fact that a constantly powered AV receiver or standalone amplifier could potentially burn out (and wear out) its power supply, transistors, and other internal components much more quickly. Heat is no friend of electronics, and if your home theater hub is nestled in a cramped cabinet with poor ventilation, you’re just adding even more thermal stress to the equation.

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

There’s an argument to be made for “warming up” audio equipment, a practice that extends even to equipment like tube guitar amps. On the r/audiophile subreddit, a user provided an excerpt from his Hegel amp’s manual that highlights the need to turn off all electrical components when not in use, or at least put them on standby. But, while citing the damage that excessive heat and constant power can cause, Hegel also provided practical advice.

Specifically, the excerpt ends by telling the user that Hegel products sound optimal after a warm-up period of approximately 15 minutes, keeping the volume at a moderate level during this time. There’s a huge difference between letting your AV equipment warm up for a few minutes before using it and leaving it fully powered all the time. The former allows your hardware’s internal components to naturally reach thermal balance, 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 some warm-up time, but turning on your equipment for a few minutes before you start watching a movie or listening to music gives your amp’s internal components time to stabilize before you indulge in your evening of entertainment. It’s also best to reduce the lifespan of your equipment by several years by leaving it on all the time.