Amplifier Longevity Question


When I got started with quality two-channel equipment, after my first pair of decent speakers (B&W CDM-7NTs), I bought a Magnum Dynalab MD208 receiver.  This was in approx. 2001; a leap of faith, based mostly on a Stereophile review.  About a year later, after upgrading speakers, I bought a McIntosh MC402 power amp, and used the Magnum Dynalab only as a preamp and tuner.

Although I've since changed sources, speakers, and cabling, the MD208 and MC402 are still in use today.  (For about 7 years, they weren't used much; before and since they've been played daily, or close to daily.)  I have no complaints about sound quality.  I have noticed zero SQ degradation, despite two household moves, and placement in living rooms for the entire period.  My system (with Sonus Faber speakers) sounds good to me, and to my wife, a retired classical musician.  I wish the MC402 didn't weigh about 115 lbs, and would rather that our last movers hadn't lost the MD208's remote, and somehow caused the volume knob to decrease its immediate responsiveness (a very minor issue), but otherwise, I have nothing to complain about.

But nothing last forever. And at this point, a decent audiophile system is important to us. I'm not itching to make a change, but I am curious to get some sense from my fellow A'goners about the remaining useful life of these two components, which have served me well.  What should I reasonably expect?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

gg107

Generally electronics should last a good 20-30 years of moderate to regular use before its capacitors and other electronic components do not perform as well as they should. Given that you haven’t used them that heavily, you should probably expect them to work well for another 5-10 years. 

Because of their age, it might be a good idea for a tech to look them over to make sure they are running to spec. Amplifiers tend to need bias adjustments over time, and sometimes this can make the unit sound better on top of lasting longer. 

Assuming one maintains amps with periodic replacement of parts and keeping in spec they may have great life expectancy, especially those with point to point wiring.

 

@blisshifi You mention 20-30 years plus the extra 5-10 years with proper maintenance. What would be cause of failure past this time? Are you thinking of things like circuit boards, transformers?

The two big components that are at risk of ending a piece of gear are output transistors or tubes and capacitors.

Power supply / bypass capacitors may leak over time and need to be replaced.  I put the longevity of newer caps around 30-40 years.  Sometimes those fail catastrophically and take out mulitple parts at once making it financially difficult to fix.

The other part to this is whether the output components are available if they fail.  Many a great receiver and amp have died from using parts that were no longer manufactured.