shouldn't matter. Two things kill electronics -- heat, and the heating/cooling process that electronics go thru when powered on and powered off, and of course if you leave it on all the time the potential for power surges. either way, leaving it on all the time, or turning it off and on will cause wear and tear
A much debated topic in some threads. Some write it's a waste of energy to leave it on. Not my thoughts, someone else's. Most of the European's responses I've read on the topic think we are wasteful here in North America.
Other's think what Rick shares about the effect of heat and cold start ups. I have a friend who is an EE and he powers off his computers all the time when leaving his home or work area for a few hours. I asked him why. His response. "He's done it this way for years and never has experienced any problems with longevity in all his equipment."
Personally, if I power electronics up at any time of the day or night, I leave them ON and power them OFF when it's time for sleep. My Microwave is the exception to the rule of course.
Either way, as John writes, get a a good surge protector for that amp.
NO one is wrong either way IMHO. Chocolate or Vanilla? It's a personal choice and they are both pretty good. Let's just hope though that the HTF forum leaves their servers powered on 24/7.
What about dust? I've always thought that electronics attract more dust when on, and based on that I turn mine off when not in use. I know dust is bad for computers, and I'm assuming it's not so good for receivers. Any thoughts on this?
I leave my Outlaw 950 and my Parasound amp on all the time, and shut off the rest of my equipment. First reason is the electronics wear more from heating and cooling than anything else. The second reason is that the equipment sounds different cold. The first half hour or so does not sound as good as when it is warm (same with TV pictures, but TVs use a lot of juice if left on. The Preamp and Amp use very little at idle.)
Yes it is bad, very bad indeed. Receivers rely on convection heat transfer. if the top is covered by a DVD player then the heat transfer coefficient will be greatly reduced, meaning you will not remove as much heat formt eh receiver as might be necesary. also you would need to consider the dvd player as a heat source itself, this means you could actually be adding even more ehat to your receiver.
All that being said it does also depends on the uses you put it through, it could well happen that even with this restriction your receiver may never go beyond its ehat tolerences, or it could fry while watching a movie. in order to really say for sure you would ahve to do all kinds of fun calculations using alot of info that I at least dont know. so i say play it safe.