Can anyone tell me if it is generally better to just totally shut off my Torii amp when not using it, or just shutting off the B+ voltage, but leaving the filaments lit?

My early Torii has the B+ switches.  Does leaving the amp on, but B+ off when not listening have any effect on tube life vs just shutting down the amp?  I notice that from filaments on to great sound only takes a couple of minutes after adding the B+, but from dead cold to great sound might take a half-hour to an hour.

Any thought?

Stone,

Delighted to hear from you again!  Yup, original forum. Those were the days.  Lon was always forum King -- some things never change.  :)

Gosh, I remember actually being one of the first to build a Zen Select kit and also one of the first to praise it to the skies.  Lots of fun tube rolling, cryo treating tubes and cables, etc.  Went through a few pretty pricey transports, too.  Nothing was better than my old Sony 685V taking the signal directly off the DAC chip using russian teflon caps.

Still a classical listener.  But now my youngest is quite the flutist and bassoonist.  He appreciates my fine system.  

Very much hoping all is well with you and yours and hoping to learn and share, per old times.  Yup, I did have alot of posts in the old days.  Maybe a few to add now, as well.

Thanks for welcoming me back!  ~Chas

Good point, James.

And the CDP with tube output likely has the B+ on all the time (even though run very conservatively).

My Torii totally disengages the hot B+ from both input and output tubes, so just the filament voltage alone remains.  I don't see how leaving the filaments lit would be bad for the tubes unless you don't plan on listening for a week or something.  

Keeping the filaments lit may even make tubes last LONGER than full shutdown/start-up each day or week, etc.  as the tubes do not go through thermal shock.  I noticed the input tubes which were 10 years old were still about as good as new even though left with filaments lit for perhaps a total of 3 of those 10 years or more.

The old EL34's were about done perhaps two years ago now but not replaced as not listening much at the time.  

It was plugging in the new EL34s which so rejuvented the amp as to get me back here to sign-up, comment and who knows -- maybe I'll even make my first Decfest and bring my Torii kit to see how it fares against the best of the current generation which looks mighty impressive.

I think I'll just leave the filaments lit all the time unless I know for sure I won't be listening for more than a week.  And that's unlikely now as my son is also keen on listening to the masters of flute to copy every nuance in his own performances.