Lifespan of a quality solid state amplifier?

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You will get opinions from electrolytics last forever to they need to be replaced every 10 years. The truth is they do wear out but the the variables are too great to make an accurate prediction of when. The 10 year people may be overly cautious, the 40+ year people are ignoring the facts, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

"Any" gear last longer if used? It may last much longer if used occasionally, especially if it gets hot or has moving parts or has tubes.

Bif,

Electrolytics form a thin layer of oxide on the aluminum and this layer gets thinner the longer they sit around with no voltage. If they sit too long and this layer gets too thin they can breakdown and be destroyed if you suddenly apply full voltage. That is why it is recommended to bring the voltage up slowly with a variac if you are turning something on that has been sitting around for a long time. This is called reforming the cap.

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Too many variables,.... room size, listening level, speaker efficency, speaker efficency, etc. Bryston is at least 20 yrs. Otbers vary. Pass is very good, bullet proof in fact, but with all ss equipment, one transistor failure, replacement is not cheap, sometimes more than used price of the piece. A friend had the krell mda 300 fail...try 2800.00 on for size. That is why I go for tubes, tubes are cheap. Sometimes though, only ss can do the job. Pick your poison....jallen

McIntosh for example seem to last forever. Most people feel an amp that are 10 years old are getting ready to retire but ss McIntosh amps from the 1960's like the MC-2100 still show up on this site regularly. That's always been a curiosity to me, is the McIntosh infinitely better than my Krell KST 100. I've recapped it once but are the transistors and other components that much better that they can survive decades longer? Is it the autoformer that makes them last. I would like an amp that lasts and I'm willing to trade off sound quality to achieve that. Some people are critical of the McIntosh sound but no one says they don't last forever.

what are the sonic indications of caps gone bad? I have a yamaha M60 power amp from around 1978, I might dust it off and put it back in service. It would be my most powerful amp.

Background noise like a hum is the biggest sign caps might need replacing. If the amp hasn't been used in awhile you should bring the voltage up gradually with a Variac. If you just plug it in after a long time it can cause a failure of the capacitors.