Life of Home A/V (electronic) Equipment:
In 1989/09, I bought 2 Pioneer stereo receivers (for Quad), both work fine as of today.
In 1989-03, I bought a Sony TV, it died 2018-12.
The majority of the Quad decoding hardware (receivers, standalone decoders) are
~40 years old and some are ~50 years old.
What's your experience with more than ~30 year old Home electronics in terms of
reliability?
Kirk Bayne
Your question has turned out to be a lot more thought provoking then on first read. For us who love our music & movies it all depends on the technology of hardware & longevity is certainly part of that. In conversations like this my knee jerk reaction is always to point out that no one regrets buying the best quality they can afford. Whether today or 20 years ago if all someone does is shop the Sunday newspaper BB ads for bargains, they will be making repeat trips because something blew up, or they bought last gen close out & now they need something new to play something new. I admit I have an exception to that.
Anyway my Fosgate Tate 101A was purchased in '83 & my Sansui QSD-1000 in 85>86. Both are kaput. The Tate worked just fine except front panel pots got very noisy & didn't respond to cleaning. The Sansui exhibited directional anomalies so weird I could not figure out what was going wrong by ear. I got an estimated 20 years of good listening from both. They crapped out about the time DPL II came in and I got lazy & remote addicted.
As a side note I purchased a NOS Proton SD-1000 circa mid 80's on E bay about 1.5 years ago. Being new in an un-opened box it works perfect today. $1200 original retail price, $150 for me.
After the Fosgate/Sansui acted up I bought a Tag McLaren AV32R for about $4k in I think '97. I wanted DPL II & I did not want a receiver so the Tag was about the only stand alone unit that did that. The most expensive piece of gear I'v ever owned & one that lasted the shortest. After about only 7>8 years use , like the Sansui, it contracted some sort of Alzheimer & just stated acting weired & undependable. By then the company had gone of business & being digital I could not repair it. Ha Ha! Jokes on me!
I replaced the Tag with an Anthem AVM 30. It's been in service for about 15 years & has worked rock solid & perfect not a single glitch. Cost about half of the Tag. One of the things I like about this unit is its primarily an audio product with some video thrown in. Composite, S-Video, component no HDMI. My Oppo 105 plugs straight into my projector as does my AV work station PC so not a problem. It only has one set of 5.1 analog inputs but a Zektor switch box is the perfect fix for that.
My Pioneer LD player DVL-700 bought in '97 works perfect like brand new.
In 1988 I purchased an Adcom 555 preamp, two 555 power amps, Infinity Kappa 8's for front chs & Kappa 7 for rears. The power amps only needed the power switch replaced once, otherwise perfect operation. The Kappa's have had their woofers re-foamed once. Otherwise plays like new. In regards to the speakers, when HK bought Infinity they cheapened down the product line to pure trash in most respects . I always feel obligated to explain mine are the
good Kappa speakers:
Infinity Kappa 8
The 8 is a 4 way system & the 7 is a 3 way, the only difference being no mid bass driver.
So it seems like it's a mixed bag when it comes to longevity. Maybe more related to the individual component than age itself. Even with the really old quad stuff since it's analog it has a greater chance of of repair than digital gear.