Parasound JC-1 - How old is too old?

Jaylor, as I said above these amps can not overheat. If someone was silly enough to put them inside a cabinet they would just keep shutting themselves off. I had a pair of Krell KMA 100s which was made with output devices not near as sophisticated as the ones used in the JC 1 and they lasted 23 years before blowing an output stage. I would have no trouble buying a 16 year old pair if the price was right. 

I have a pair of JC 1s which are now driving my subwoofers. I used them on my ESLs for many years and I can tell you that there are very few amps that perform as well and the ones that do cost way more. They may go down as the amplifier value of the century.  No JC 1 is old enough to need new capacitors at this time unless the amp was damaged. As long as the amps are running as advertised and there is no evidence of physical damage you should be good to go. They are built extremely well and use extremely high quality output devices. The thermal cut off is set pretty low so there is no way they can be damaged by heat. They would just shut themselves off and flash a red light at you. I see no reason why a JC 1 should not run reliably for 30-40 years maybe more. 
Sound wise these amps have an airy effortless like a high powered tube amp but the fist of a high powered solid state amp. God knows how John Curl does this. I'd love to hear some of his Constellation designs. Of all the amps I have been able to hear in my system only Pass amps have that airy effortlessness that I find intoxicating. The JC 1 has phenomenal
(better) bass which is why they wound up on the subs and boy do they do a honking job of it. Unless you are use to hearing high powered Pass, CH, Boulder, Soulution, or Moon amps these things will absolutely blow you away. 

Mike

and get to it fast. They will not last long!

Oh and don't forget to tell us what you think of them.

Geoffkait, they run class A to 25 watts into 8 ohms. For some reason this is a magic number for John Curl. After that they run class B. Run on full bias they still can get pretty hot. Hot enough that you would not want to keep your hand on the heat sink. At 1/2 bias they are just warm but most of us think they sound better on full bias even the bass for some reason.
Jaytor, mine are 6 years old. But as Geoffkait implies these amps are built much better than any of the older Krells. Also the circuitry and layout were done by the best in the industry. In this price range it simply does not get any better. Once these amps are proven, have run for a period of time without issue they are good to go for decades unless you throw one out the bathroom window.