Lifespan of amps and preamps?

Scott - I have a 20 year old Denon and a friend still has a 30 year old Yamaha I gave here and they are still sounding fine.

I just sold my NAIM amp that had to have the power supply caps replaced after 10 years - apparently it’s "a thing" with NAIM amps - nice of them to design in "future maintenance"

So I replaced it with a Bryston that comes with a 20 years warranty.

If your gear is still working and you are happy with it - stop worrying and enjoy the music - it will let you know when its "had enough"

Regards - Steve

I've encountered many 40 to 50-year-old electrolytic caps that test within spec and perform their intended function. Any half-way decent cap will last 20+ years if the associated circuit and its heat dissipation are competent. 

People like to believe they hear dramatic differences when they swap power cables and it's most likely the same phenomenon that occurs when they have gear recapped, i.e. placebo.

If your gear sounds good, it's good. 

If you decide to go digital, keep your old system.  My 39 year old B&W's and old  Adcom amp sound fine with my television.  My "new" system sounds better, but it has 1980's Audire electronics and 1990'd B&W's. Recently, I auditioned some really expensive integrated amps on current B&W speakers, because I know their qualities.  I did not hear anything digital that I would be at all happy with, but that doe snot keep me from listening to my jazz channel on XM radio. 

I am going to have an interesting experience.  I am super busy right now and don't have a lot of time to devote to a new system.  But I really wanted sound in my office.  So...  I ordered a Peachtree Nova65Se and a pair of Focal 906 speakers for my office.  It will be interesting to compare the sound of this setup with my older equipment. 

Maybe the old stuff will not sound so great after all. 

Scott.

Lots of great stuff in this thread, but for me the best was OP’s original post and how he talked about the components and how it was a big deal to buy all of them as a 20 yr old kid in 1990.
Damn right it was a big deal! I remember looking at all of those pieces in 1990 and wishing there was some way I could replace the Pioneer speakers and Kenwood receiver and CD player that I had with gear of that quality. In fact, had I been able to, I might have gone with those exact components that OP did. Good memories.
When I finally could afford to upgrade in 2000, I did go with B&W and NAD!  The NAD passed on (remote broke and no longer handled current HT formats) but still use the B&W’s as front stage of main home theater setup.