What is the average life expectancy of a DAC?

just as a sidebar note...

among my little collection of dacs i have a 1997 vintage van alstine fet topp dac, employing the lovely philips tda1541a r2r nos dac chips and with tele 12ax7s... the old crystal semi input chip won’t read anything but a redbook input, but this thing sounds every bit as good as several well regarded current dacs i have tried in the $750-2000 price range, and a good bit better than numerous others i have tried...

Any electronic device will last as long as its worst quality or hottest running electrolytic capacitor.

If the design is proper, ie no other overloaded resistors exist, the first components which go are the electrolytic capacitors.

So, your DAC will also last as long as its worst electrolytic capacitor.

Good quality electrolytics will work up to about 15 - 20,000 hours at 85 or 105 degrees C.  Cheaper ones will give in earlier.  Your mileage may vary.

@afisher  - you made me laugh

In the USA, DAC life expectancy has dropped from 6.2 years to 5.5 years because of Covid. Japan hasn't seen any decrease. Brazil and Mexico, though are down almost 25%.  The vaccine should normalize the trends again. 

DACs are of course the bane of digital audio.
The residual distortion and dither they cause may be reduced to close to nil, but never to nil.

For sensible people, their expected life must be inversely proportional to the cost price.
Perhaps a table can be derived:

$100          6 months
$500          1 year
$2,000        3 years
$5,000        10 years
$20,000      30 years
$50,000      100 years

The diminishing returns can be seen.  In any case, no sensible person will spend $20,000 on a DAC as it will be superseded in a few years.

This causes me to wonder.  Are DACS the fastest depreciating hi-fi component?  Will they depreciate more slowly as their technology becomes more mature?

Are DACS the fastest depreciating hi-fi component?

No, IMO they lost that title to digital tweaks, followed closely by Class D amplifiers.

Will they depreciate more slowly as their technology becomes more mature?

I sure hope so, starting next week when I get my new DAC!