Usage is what causes issues. Time and heat. Since we have been repairing and upgrading components for a very long time, the main issue is heat and chassis design. Many chassis look so beautiful but when you open them up, the parts are squeezed in side trapping heat. Boards get brittle and solder traces can go bad. Capacitors eventually also go bad. If you like what you have, find a good repair tech and upgrade the parts and then don't look back. A new unit will not contain better parts so upgrade and enjoy.
Question regarding older phono preamp
My phono preamp is by far the oldest piece of gear in my system. It's a 1998 Tokyo Sound PE100 I got off the Gon here about 5 years ago used. My question is do the internals of a solid state phono preamp degrade over time? Everything sounds good to me so no issues. I'm considering "upgrading" to a new unit possibly tube.
Thanks!