Bryston - 20 year warranties - 'nuf said.

I wish this were always true. I’ve repaired LED TVs, powered monitors and amps that have blown caps. I’ve not talking about old stuff - I’m talking about equipment that’s 2-3 years old.

Equipment that’s protected with surge protectors or UPS backups rarely have issues like this, especially when they are left on all the time.

Much of the equipment I repaired died on startup, not while running.

The replacement caps were surprisingly cheap - like $5 for 20 OEM caps. Manufacturers could easily make their equipment more robust for only a small investment in components with higher capacities and built-in surge suppression.

I upgraded slowly but economically safely over the years until I have a beautiful sounding system. My last purchase was a Bryston power amp that’s guaranteed for 20 years and can be sent in for refurbishment when necessary.

I find in my later retired years, I have more time to enjoy my music and my sound system. This is a good time to have reached your pinnacle of enjoyment and to stop chasing rainbows (unless you have the monetary means of course, then all bets are off).

I do try to avoid the old adage, “He who dies with the most toys wins.”

THD isn’t everything - what about resistance to voltage fluctuations, RFI, damping factor and rising SINAD with lower impedance/reactive speakers?

Those things are harder/more expensive to control and might explain some of the differences between good and great even though you may not hear it in most situations.

People running electrostatics and low impedance speakers may push lesser amps into areas where they aren’t so pretty sounding.

Anything noisy with lots of distortion to mask the scratches, pops and rumble.

I found it irritating to try listening to quiet passages in orchestral music with all the associated vinyl record noise. I found that when I made recordings from the vinyl, it worked best to drip distilled water ahead of the needle to quiet down the noise to the lowest possible extent. Also killed the static in the winter months.

For some people, the nostalgia or uniqueness of using analog pressings overcomes any issues with background noise - and for them, I guess, anything is fine.