Power amplifier longevity… thoughts?

I have owned and used my Proceed HPA-2 for 6 years.  Mark Levinson designed dual monoaural beast that can go 500w/4 ohms.  My Time Frame 2000s are 8-4 ohms, 92 db sensitivity and rated to 1000w.

When I owned a bigger house I enjoyed turning up the music past local listenability and do things around the house including electric mowing the lawn.  Unleashing the latent dynamism of my system always made me (and it) smile.  My point is I have driven this amp well past normal use for a long time.

As I understand one of the hallmarks of a Levinson design was all discrete components.  I suspect many of the older amps discussed here are of the same design philosophy.  Relatively easy to troubleshoot and repair. As far as I can tell my output transistors are still made.

I suspect most amp candidates here are massively overbuilt for most use.  I know mine is.  Most any machine is killed more by frequent start stop than actual use.  The preamp end of this amp is always powered as indicated by a separate light on the very sparse panel.

These amps are still around for 1200-1500.  I worry WAY more about something giving out on one of my TFs than my amp.

Although I'm not a HT guy the fact that a HPA-3, tri monoaural amp with the same power is available for folks that like all channels powered the same.

It's great to have choices!

I was in a very similar position about 7 years ago, looking for a used amplifier that would easily drive Magnepan 1.7s.  I tried a Bryston B60, Hegel H2O, and a Devialet Expert 200.  They all worked well and sounded very good, and they are all in your price range used. My preference, and what I’ve stuck with, was the Devialet. But that’s me. You’ll have your own personal preference.  Each of these units was about 5 or 6 years old when I bought them, and they all were very dependable. I’m still using the Bryston also. 
 

enjoy!

@cdorval1 at the dealer, I have listened the 1.7i with an EAM integrated (made in Italy) and they sounded ok - it was my first real Magnepan experience - but now, after living with the LRS+ for a month, listening daily, I must say that amp lacked some grip on the speakers, evident in some hardness on the voices on some recordings. Also the room was a bit small for them.

Looks like power and current aren’t necessarily for the Maggies to play loud, but to control the frequencies at both extremes… just what I have concluded so far, am I right?

Surprisingly, on the other hand, I am currently using a Naim Nap 150X (around 75w / 4 Ohms) and it surpasses in control all the >250w / 4 Ohms high current amplifiers in my collection.

@audiofilo123

Yes, it’s interesting that amps that aren’t as powerful can sound better. I think it’s roughly correlated with damping factor.  The Bryston, with 100w into 4 ohms, sounded very good indeed.   Its damping factor into 4 ohms is about 250.  Always best to listen first, of course.  If you can’t hear an amp with the Magnepans, the best bet would probably be amps with very low output impedance/high damping factor.  Enjoy!

@audiofilo123 As a general rule of thumb, the cooler the amp runs the longer it will last. Electrolytic capacitors, which are used in the power supplies of most electronics, don't like heat and so last longer in a cooler environment.

To give you an idea of this, in tube equipment the filter capacitors might go about 20-25 years; in a solid state amp they might go 30-35 years.

Since class D runs the coolest of any amplifiers, it follows that they will also last the longest. Some class D amps easily rival the best of class A amps (whether tube or solid state) as well.