Amano

I have an offer to buy a Yamaha RX-V496 for $150. It's 7 years old, and I'm wondering, is this going to last much longer? My dad has a Denon AV receiver (don't know the model) that's lasted >15 years, but AFAIK, Denon is the cream of the crop of AV receivers. Are Yamaha AV Receivers known for durability/reliability (or lack thereof?) It seems like this particular model may be mid-end (a review says that in 2001, it was the cheapest Yamaha model to offer DTS and Dolby Digital)

Any comments or suggestions?

Halx

Lack of moving parts allows receivers to last an astonishingly long amount of time. Also, the environment that you store your equipment in and the amount of usage it gets goes a long way toward its longevity. My dad's got a Pioneer that has lasted forever, and I've got a new Denon that I don't expect to die any time soon.

(Moving to electronics)

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MexicanOnABike

the last one we had here was bought when my dad was in college. when I started college, it started to die slowly. so a good 25years. and with maintenance, it would have lasted much longer. (kids...)

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ratbastid

When my grandparents moved into a retirement home ten years ago or so, I inherited my Grandfather's late-60s Panasonic receiver. I worked perfectly. I finally retired it for lack of connection options, but it was ready to chug on another 40 years, I'm sure.

Willravel

Ask them if they had it in a piece of furniture or out in the open. I've noticed that heat can damage recievers. I had a nice Kenwood stereo system that died in a few years because it was not properly ventelated. My new Samsung home theater system is well ventelated and I suspect will last longer.

Daniel_

My Dad's old Rotel receiver is still working fine - he bought it in about 1970.

As the previous posters have said, the lifetime of a receiver is related to storage and environment.

I had a Hitachi amp that was bought second hand (at least 8 years old) in 1985, and lasted until 1997 when it still worked fine, but was no longer "the right colour" (according to my ex-wife) so was given away.

I no longer work with the guy I gave it to, but I have no reason to believe it failed.

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Amano

So *inside* one of those glass or wooden stereo cabinets is bad news? Out in the open would then mean sitting *on top* of a cabinet or shelf.

Can any other unit (eg. DVD player, etc) sit on top of the AV receiver, assuming that the "circular rubber feet" of the other unit lift it to allow for ventillation. Or does another unit on top of it, regardless, decrease the ventillation enough to cause problems with the AV receiver?

I'm asking so as to know to ask the seller, as well as for how to store it myself.

Redjake

It's all about ventilation. Keep it will ventilated, and it could last 20+ years.

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flat5

Not exactly "all about ventilation".

Quality of parts (componants), engineering tolerances (safety factor), type of construction, play a part too.

Electrolytic capacitors have improved alot over the early days.
They used to be a problem 40 years ago. Back then they had to deal with much higher voltages which intensified the problem. Well, same with all capacitors. Plate-grid coupling leakage is mostly a thing of the past.
yada-yada... :-)