# longevity in av recievers



## cdunphy (Aug 25, 2012)

I have my reciever hooked up to my mac and I listen to audiobooks constantly plus listen to music probably 10 or more hours a week and watch tv and movies also so my reciever is on 15 to 20 hours a day do you guys think this will hurt my recover or shorten its life?
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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

As long as you give it room to breath meaning nothing on top of it and not inside an A/V rack your fine.


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

My AVR is about 20 years old & is on every day, all day & has never had an issue or any kind. Now we all know quality is harder to maintain with all this new technology when you are trying to keep costs down. Still there are very reliable brands.


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## cdunphy (Aug 25, 2012)

Thanks for the input I have a pioneer elite sc 65 now and Ive not heard any bad things about reliability I just got to thinkin most people (or I assumed most people didnt really sit down to listen to music more than a few hours a week)didnt have a use pattern like mine.
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## rdcollns (Oct 13, 2013)

Frequent use is actually bound to help it. Heat and excess vibration could harm it over time. Keep it clean as well.


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

Typically AVRs don't die they just get replaced. 
Power surge, over driving (wrong impedance loads), over heating, or physical damage are usually the reasons an amp will go.


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## Andre (Feb 15, 2010)

I have a Denon in my basement I have used for various things since 1992


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## rkeeney (Nov 3, 2013)

I've had my Marantz for about 4 years now paired with my Martin Logan's and haven't had any trouble at all. They routinely get about 30-40 hours a week of use between myself and the rest of the family.


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## RBTO (Jan 27, 2010)

I remember a couple of AVRs wearing out but that was in the days when the switches and potentiometers were mechanical and those were the things to go. Nowadays, those have been replaced with digital control, hence no moving parts to wear or get dirty. As mentioned, unless the AVR is subjected to a line transient or damaging input sources, most reputable brands keep on going and going and ......


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## rdcollns (Oct 13, 2013)

Come to think of it, most of the music nuts I know spent a decent amount of money to buy a quality receiver when they were young. Everyone I can think of is still using the same one 10 - 35 years later. Many never upgraded to home theater because their original receivers still sound so good, or they just have a second setup on another floor of their house. 

My brother Mike just replaced all the lights on his 35 year old Yamaha, so now once again you can watch the SPL needles bounce back and forth.

When I upgraded, I sold two of my old stereos, which are still being used by their second owners.

The only one that ever kicked the bucket was a Sony ES receiver that died in a lightning strike (along with ever other electronic device I owned). I really miss that one.


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## nova (Apr 30, 2006)

I think that as long as you are not constantly turning modern electronics on and off they should last quite some time. I'd suspect thermal cycling (or just flat out overheating) would be the cause of many premature electronics failures.


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

nova said:


> I think that as long as you are not constantly turning modern electronics on and off they should last quite some time. I'd suspect thermal cycling (or just flat out overheating) would be the cause of many premature electronics failures.


Heat kills! Sometimes in a pinch I've even added a laptop cooler to an AVR to promote air flow when I couldn't do arch cooling or proper fans. 

Heat is also the only reason I shy away from onkyo.


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## magic (May 23, 2011)

I'm glade others are starting to take notice of this. 

I have had several AVR's and I will say this....they know that the average person doesn't use their unit more than say (4 hrs a day. This is my guess ) so why do you think they would design it to work 14 hrs straight. It's not required. 

The reason the company's now have increased the warranty periods is due to the amount of failures they have been having. I look at the warranty to see how the company stands behind their product. But remember if it is a bad design no warranty can help. 

Sorry but comparing a old avr without hdmi, without video processing, without built in networking, and with less channels of amplification.... That's not a good comparison. Nor is it an accurate one. Those avrs that you had 10 years+ ago had lots of space in them. They don't now. 

The avr is required to stay the same size and do more, year after year. But we're do they put all this stuff? They cram it in the same sized units. Luckily we are able to make the chips and other components smaller and smaller, but they have their own set of problems. When you make chips smaller they are now much more susceptible too voltage and temperature issues. Yea the designer should take this into account..... But guess what? He/she has to look at designing for the next year.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I would think designing a AVR to be on for extended periods of time would be a good thing if it improves reliability. We have our Demon 4520 on for at least 6 hours every day, and sometimes in excess of 12 hours. I turn it off when I am browsing the net unless I want to listen to music or watch a video.


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

My first reciever was a Radio Shack STA-1000 that I bought I believe in 1980. I used it everyday for at least 10 hours for years until I replaced it with a more up to date Sherwood Newcastle in 1992. I still have the 1000 and it still works fine but like mentioned it didn't have to do what recievers do today which I believe shortens the life of them just because they have more that can go wrong with them then the older recievers did.


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