I think its prudent to check electrolytics after 20-30 years. Its easy to visually inspect them for swelling and leaking of the liquid. If there is a leak, definitely replace. The first caps after the rectifier have the most stress, so might need new ones even if other caps are ok. I had a dynakit from the 1950s, and its cap was ok. I looked at voltages, and I looked at the waveform of the B+ at the cap tabs and could see the caps smoothing out the signal. I have a capacitor checker as well. So I don’t think age of a device makes replacement necessary as long as you like how it performs.
Tubed preamps and Power amps- How old is too old???
I am currently using a Conrad Johnson Premiere LS17 preamp. This preamp was well regarded when it came out a bit over 20 years ago and list price was over $4000. It has probably seen 8000-10,000 hours of play time. The tubes are all Amperex that test and work fine.
To my ears, it sounds great. That being said, at what point either due to wear of internal parts and/or improved design, is it worth replacing? There is no doubt that things on the digital side of things have move quickly with respect to innovation and implementation but what about preamps and power amps, especially tube ones?
Any members, replaced aging tubed preamps and power amps and found it worthwhile assuming you stayed at a similar quality level? If you wanted to upgrade from my preamp, what would you consider? Budget of $7500 max. For reference, I use digital sources and an R2R Dac and Quicksilver Mid Mono Power Amps into reasonably efficient speakers. No phono section required or wanted.
- ...
- 23 posts total
- 23 posts total