Class A amplifiers


I was watching YouTube reviews on Hifi and one guy said if you like Class A amps you have to accept that every 3 or 4 years you have to send them in to get serviced Becasue the heat inevitably causes issues? Is this true? I have a friend with an older Maek Levinson Class A amp and he was looking to sell,it to me, and am just wondering if Class A amps are like a boat, always costing you more . Anyone?
bear1971

Showing 2 responses by clearthinker

Yes.  Don't believe everything you see on the internet.  Most of it is rubbish.

I bought my 1987 Krell KRS200s in the early 90s.  A capacitor blew in 2007 (after 30 years) and I had them refurbished, mainly all new caps.
Yes they do run very hot and in due course components will suffer.  But they are running fine currently (pun intended), so on this amp refurbs come at possibly 25-30 year intervals, not 4 year.

Of course if the manufacturer puts in cheap or sub-standard components then the period to breakdown could be much shorter.

As I say to the Class D community: you get what you pay for.
And I have had a KSA50 (Krell's first product) since the early 80s.
It is very musical and never serviced, although I haven't used it much these last 25 years.  It doesn't run that hot.