The
power consumption in the standby state of a
signal recording / reproducing apparatus is improved without injuring the convenienceness for users. When a user issues an instruction to stop the operation of a power source, the operation of a
switching power source circuit is stopped and the necessary units are supplied with the
electric power by a battery, and also whenever a
fixed time period has elapsed or it has become a
fixed time, the
switching power source is activated to charge the battery with the electric charges in order to make unnecessary the work of exchanging the battery. In addition, a
time zone in which a user does not really use the apparatus, a
time zone in which there is the possibility that a user uses the apparatus, and a
time zone in which a user uses the apparatus are clearly or automatically detected in a
system controller so that the generation and supply of the
electric power signals which are optimal for the respective states are carried out. As a result, the
power consumption and the convenienceness in the two standby states, i.e., the time zone in which a user does not really use the apparatus, and the time zone in which there is the possibility that a user uses the apparatus are made compatible with each other.