What happens after 5 years to your gear?

[John Holmes]

In a conversation a few weeks ago, a fellow A/V enthusiast and I were discussing when one should look at replacing gear. He believes between 3-5 years, if you are not going to replace it, you should at least have it serviced to be brought back into specs.

How do you guys feel about this timeline?

[jim1961]

I think it depends on what gear were talking about. DAC technology has been moving along pretty swiftly, so a 5 year old DAC might be good to replace to take advantage of better technology. But in the case of a power amp, only relays and caps would need replacing and not in the span of 3-5 years.

[Ovation]

My living room AVR is now 10 years old and still works fine (was in the HT until Jan 2012, when it was replaced by my current one--updated primarily to have HDMI switching). I have two disc players from 2004 that still work fine. Two from 2005, still fine. My speakers in the main HT are all 10 years old and they still sound fantastic (that includes the subwoofer).

I do have gear that is less than 5 years old, but they are add-ons, not replacements. I typically keep speakers 15-20 years, disc players until they stop working (so far, only happened once and it was almost 20 years old), displays until they no longer function sufficiently well (so I've got SD CRTs still on the go in the house that date back to 2003 and will be around until they stop working, or a I win the lotto). The only servicing I've done is replace a bulb in my projector. Will keep that going until the bulb goes again (the PJ is 7 years old and still looks great, if not perfect, to me--and pretty perfect to anyone else who comes over to watch something on it as I am, by FAR, the pickiest person I know about video display quality, and I'm no more than average when it comes to pickiness expressed in online fora).

I've added stuff as new formats have emerged (HD DVD, Blu-ray, SACD, DVD-A...) but rarely, if ever, retire something unless it stops functioning. Hell, I've still got a S-VHS machine hooked up to a small SD CRT as I have a few things that are still only available on VHS.

[JonMarsh]

Like others mention, this is very dependent on the type of equipment and quality of original manufacture.

I have an Ayre preamp about 10 years old that is in pristine operating condition. Works just fine where I'm using it...
I have Aragon amps of similar age- same comment applies.
I have disk players that are over 10 years old, such as high end Sony SACD player- it doesn't get much usage these days, due to the performance of outboard DAC's.

OTOH, I have some DAC's that are now 4-5 years old, and still better than a large majority of what's out there, especially if you run a digital re-clocker in front of them (Berekely Alpha DAC, Metric Halo ULN-8). Those aren't going away from their current roles (bedroom system with iPad and reclocker for the Berkeley, multi-channel A/D and D/A for music learning and recording for the ULN8).

OTOH, there's stuff that like low end PC's is not built to reliability standards to run much more than 3 years, if that.... YMMV.

[bigburner]

OTOH, there's stuff that like low end PC's is not built to reliability standards to run much more than 3 years, if that.... YMMV.

I agree Jon. The only component I'm worried about is the laptop that plays my ripped music.

I have a 14 year old LFD DAC3 that utilises a custom made Ultra Analog 20 bit converter. I only use it with 16 bit music but it still sounds wonderful to my ears.

Nigel.

[John Holmes]

In our conversation, the point my associate tried to make his strongest stand, was with the capacitors and such. Items that (to his point) slowly fall out of tolerance. And that of over the course of 3-5 years of listening, you don't realize such degradation has taking place.

I tend to use my gear as long as it still works. Though, HDMI did force my hand to change my Pre/Pro sooner than I would have liked. I also have a PC that just died about a month ago, it was 8 years old. I don't require the latest and greatest in that arena.

[Kevin P]

Most of my gear is 9 years old now. It still works fine, and I'm happy with it. It just lacks HDMI. It's not worth the money (which I lack anyway) for the minor improvement in pic/sound quality.

The only thing I upgraded "recently" was replacing my DVD player with a BD player, 3.5 years ago now.

[JonMarsh]

In our conversation, the point my associate tried to make his strongest stand, was with the capacitors and such. Items that (to his point) slowly fall out of tolerance. And that of over the course of 3-5 years of listening, you don't realize such degradation has taking place.

I tend to use my gear as long as it still works. Though, HDMI did force my hand to change my Pre/Pro sooner than I would have liked. I also have a PC that just died about a month ago, it was 8 years old. I don't require the latest and greatest in that arena.

This is very dependent on the type and quality of the original components and how they're used relative to their ratings. For example, in the PC business, one of the most stressed parts are the caps used in the VRD regulators for the CPU (we sell MOSFETs, controllers, and integrated power switches and drivers for that application.). Literally, there are electrolytic caps for that application which have ratings such as 500 hours at 85C, 1000 hours at 85C, 1000 hours at 100C, and 3000 hours at 100C. now, when you look at how PC's are actually built, the consumer grade stuff from the traditional PC vendors is usually built with the lower end stuff in temp rating and duration. They come with 1 year warranties. Enterprise grade PCs'/laptops are built with better parts, to varying degrees, and usually come with 3 year warranties. I used to buy enterprise grade laptops only when I was buying IBM PC compatibles. Then, they're the parts used in Macs and the qualifications they have to complete. Even if you like PC's and windows, the most reliable PC you can probably buy is a Mac with Windows installed.

Hi Fi gear is similar- the caps are USUALLY just in the power supply, but actually cheaper gear often does use caps for DAC decoupling- for example, DC blocking on the output, and I've seen plenty of CD players with electrolytic caps in the signal path. The current is low, so the wear factor is low, but they can dry out and change value.

A well designed piece of hifi gear is often DC coupled input to output, or only uses high grade metal film caps, which are very stable.

I may not actually be an EE, but I play one on television and at my employer... :W (official work title is Senior Principal Engineer Power Systems).

[Alaric]

What happens after 5 years to your gear?

In my case , it gets packed up and stored in a friend's basement for two or three years while I move to the Land God Forgot. Then , said friend generously offers to ship it at his expense , via UPS. (Unbelievably Poor Service) Then I sit around till Tuesday in an elevated state of anxiety waiting to see what the cretins will do to my gear. :cry: I hope he insured it.
And that is what happened to my gear after 5 years. Provided it all survives , the only things I'd consider replacing are the phono cartridge and the tube in the phono pre , but they would be for upgrades , not "service" as such.

[John Holmes]

I may not actually be an EE, but I play one on television and at my employer... :W (official work title is Senior Principal Engineer Power Systems).

Fair enough! 8)

[aud19]

Brand new TV (replaced a 10+ year old set), ~ 1 year old media player (replaced all sources besides TV), and still functioning fine 10+ year old pre/pro, amp and speakers.

The pre/pro may have to be replaced at some point in the next couple years for things like HDMI, auto room calibration, night listening mode etc but otherwise I'm quite happy with where I'm at so far.