Life of a class A amplifier

[Michele]

When I was 15 years old, Fortè Audio and Threshold were a dream. 2 years ago I bought a Forte Audio 1a (and another one will be soon in my listening room).....the question is: those amplifiers warm a lot. After 10 years are still good? Is the life of a class A amplifier shorter than an AB class?

[dhaen]

Two otherwise identical amplifiers, one class AB and the other class A will have different Mean Time Between Failure - and ultimately, useful service life. And it's all down to temperature.
Whether the difference is sigificant will depend on the "thermal management" of the design.
Over to Forte users....

[Holger Barske]

The following is a quote from teh Pass Labs Aleph 0 service manual and may answer your question:

The amplifier does not require any maintenance. While the design is conservative, this is a
hard running amplifier, as single ended Class A operation is the least efficient operating
mode. In fifteen years the electrolytic power supply capacitors will get old. Depending on
usage, you will begin to have semiconductor and other failures between 10 and 50 years after
date of manufacture. Later, the sun will cool to a white dwarf, and after that the universe will
experience heat death.

Typically Nelson

[Nelson Pass]

After 15 years, that still seems about right. At the moment it
appears that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, so
it still looks like heat death.

[jacco vermeulen]

The worst fate: frying along with the Universe before the warranty is over.