[Wait033]

My question is mainly addressed towards audiophiles with years of experience on the hobby. As the title suggests I'm curious concerning average life span of audio electronics, attributed mainly to examples of speaker amps from the 90s or earlier

 

[chesebert]

It depends. YMMV. Buyer beware. Buy from reputable dealer.

 

[loki993]

There are still amps and speakers from the 70s out there that still work fine. I wouldn't be too concerned.

 

[LobalWarming]

Or the 60s... my Dyna ST-35 still works as good as new. With new caps every decade. Old tube gear can run forever. Such simple and wonderful technology.

 

[A Jedi]

Generally, the capacitors inside equipment will be the first thing to go. That starts to happen around 20 years of regular usage. That's if you buy from manufacturers known for quality. Otherwise, anything can happen at any time.

 

[ThanatosVI]

If you buy quality, then decades.

 

[Wait033]

Do you turn off your equipment while you're not using it or does it not make any substantial difference? If I'm not mistaken class-A amps keep outputting power even if you're not playing any audio, so at least in this case turning it off is for the best.

 

[chesebert]

On 24-7 unless tube.

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Caps have a shelf life used or not even knew sitting in boxes
Class Amps cook not just by usage but also by heat. many never change caps and then say it’s not as good as todays stuff. issue is rebuild it completely all caps then adjust then make claims
Krell is a good example
im not saying all Have to do this but given all the money ur saving it’s a good idea too
If one cap shorts the amp can cook speakers after it blows an output transistor and most older amps you can’t get replacement outputs much less habe them match in specs
I have a few old flagships sound great even before I rebuilt them. Some do fair better on rebuilding more then others.