Hi, new member here. I don’t have an SA30 but the SA20 which I’m assuming works in the same way for my question. I have the front left/right pre outs from my Denon X4700 receiver connected to the CD analog input to the Arcam, it’s been set to processor mode for that input. My question is, when I power up the Denon to watch a movie, will the Arcam automatically power up into processor mode or do I have to turn it on manually?
Thanks.
You have to turn it on manually. Arcam’s do not have any type of signal sensing, so will not switch on automatically on incoming signal.
This only works with HDMI ARC input, but only cause HDMI uses CEC.
Ah okay, thanks for that. Not the answer I was hoping for… Would it be ok to leave the Arcam on all the time, do you think?
I know you were hoping for something else. If you have some home automation system you could try to work around that, but it’s messy and might not be really reliable. For example Arcam integration for Home Assistant causes some issues for me (i.e. amp will not go into standby mode automatically), that’s why i stopped using it.
I don’t think it will do much harm to your amp, but will cause unnecessary power draw and will generate some heat (which might be a good thing in the winter 
).
It will probably affect life time of your SA20, but hard to say to what extent. I wouldn’t say it will be huge impact, that’s why i said “i don’t think it will do MUCH harm” 
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I’d leave the SA20 powered up in standby mode all the time. In my experience it’s the switching on and off that’s more likely to produce component failure (think of it like a starter motor on an internal combustion engine) than any wear on the components caused by leaving them in a steady-state powered-up mode if you’re using the amp on a regular basis. I’d only switch-off if you’re going to leave the amp unused for several days/weeks.