Reliability - what’s your experience been?

My worst experience many years ago, Ohm B speakers, blew a tweeter, they literally "lost" my speakers! Thiel CS3.5's for 32 years, superb and no issues. ARC SP 9 awesome for 34 years. ARC Classic 60, a tube went and a resistor was taken out (had it recapped after 32 years (no complaints). VPI HW-19 MK III after 34 yrs no problem. 

Amp died in powered speaker.  AVR on/off switch went bad.  Speakers needed to be refoamed but were so old and inexpensive I didn’t bother.  That’s it over the years.  Haven’t been able to find anyone that will repair the speaker amp.  I won’t buy another high-end powered speaker.  I like separate components so if something goes wrong or if I want to upgrade it’s just one piece of equipment.  

musicfan2349 I was just thinking the same thing, no jinxing anything for me!

(1) Before I upgraded to separate components in my discrete stand-alone 7.2 HT system, I had the brand new very top model CAMBRIDGE AVR. Its HDMI board died suddenly and catastrophically after 19 months from new, OK…. Fine .,,, it was an PITA inconvenience but it was replaced under warranty .
Then, it suddenly died AGAIN in like form 8 months later after very minimal use. The Canadian distributor falsely claimed that I had somehow damaged the HDMI ports . They now refused to cover the costs even though it was still covered by its full 3 year warranty .The unit was now an unreliable turd, With few options in frustration , I had it fixed under my dime and I promptly dumped it immediately afterwards in the one-owned marketplace.

(2) The stablemate CAMBRIDGE Blu-Ray player also strangely died a similar sudden and catastrophic demise a month after its 2 year warranty expired. They told me to deliver it to their specifically named local CAMBRIDGE authorized repair dealer for assessment . I did ,… and got the run around for a month before that local repair facility / dealer went bankrupt, and I lost the unit.

TAKEAWAY:

- CAMBRIDGE is a must to avoid ….full stop.

- I next went initially to ARCAM with their 5-year warranties with no issues,

- The ARCAM rig had a final full system upgrade to individual YBA separate power amps (2-3-2) and a discrete NUFORCE digital 7.1 preamp/ AV processor…. with NO issues at all . 

LESSON LEARNED : Build quality matters .., full stop.

The equipment I love the most- ARC is also the most problematic and finicky.  I discovered that preventative maintenance stops the fireworks. W Zane Johnson had the notion that his customers were all techies. Read the owners manual from his ownership era and it tells you how to bias your amp with a multimeter, etc. Yeh right. I have no business poking around with a metal probe in an amp with literally lethal voltage in the power caps. Plus I don't own an oscilloscope or tube tester. 

DBX equalizers seem to be pretty problematic as well. 

Japanese stuff is pretty much bulletproof but time and current ruin capacitors no matter who makes them.