Its habit to turning down my receiver completely(-70? I dont even look any more) before shutting it down. I thought maybe just maybe it would help with longevity of both the receiver and amp.
Anyone care to comment on the general premise?

I think that is a very good habit to have. My CD player has an automatic play on start up and I don't want to get suprised by a blast of sound I'm not expecting. The good thing is I can set my pre/ pro to any level I want on power up. It also helps that my main front amp has a soft start feature. Two main transformers and a third for start up. As far as longevity is concerned it probably isn't going to hurt.

Think about the wear and tear your remote and receiver is experiencing every time you play with the gain.

Must be for JBrad?
No gain control on my ADA.
I also have a set volume at start up. For the longest time I didnt switch inputs and never touched the volume. Pretty handy feature.

It was meant for you. You said it's a habit to turn down your receiver to -70 before shutting it down because you believe it might increase longevity.

I turn myself down every night and it has greatly contributed to my longevity!

It won't hurt, brw .., but I doubt that it would have any influence on longevity. The long-term culprit of longevity in solid-state and tube electronics is heat, and that remains constant except when playing at very high levels and driving the amplifier(s) hard.

Alan

I had heard as much and even of people leaving their amps turned on.
The thinking was less power in the unit at power down but in retrospect nothing else is powered down "gently", we just hit the switch.

The "theory" of leaving amps turned on is to ensure they are warm when needed to lessen any impact on sound quality during the early stages of a listening session.

Whether you believe this is up to you - hence my quotes on theory.

I think the amps-left-on thing is partly a holdover from vacuum-tube days of early studio work (before the invention of the transistor), when it made sense to leave them on because it takes tube electronics a while to heat up and stabilize.

Now, it only makes sense in professional studio applications where the solid-state gear will be used more or less constantly all day (and night), to reduce all those turn-on transients that would otherwise occur.

Alan

Agreed on the tube and pro comments, but I think the "Ultra High Fidelity" folks believe it also impacts sound quality in solid state gear - see what I did there incorporating a magazine that falls into that group?!?!