With most electronica, if it works in the first 3 months, then it is generally good for its "lifetime" - how long that lifetime is.... that is a seperate issue.
The current Onkyo/Integra generation run very cool - which resolves a long standing heat issue which led to reduced lives for some of the previous generation AVR's they had (which I know well from sad experience!)
The Onkyo's seem to run substantially cooler than most of their competitors - which bodes well for a long service life.
My previous Onkyo/Integra's were models from their flagship range - and they failed within 5 years (out of warranty) - with failures which were due to manufacturing faults exacerbated by heat... without the heat, the manufacturing faults would not have manifested...
Hence my comment about heat and long services life - even with a known flawed DSP from TI, the old AVR would have been OK if it kept the DSP below 50C.... but it didn't - in theory the DSP should have been fine running at 70c ... in practice, due to a manufacturing fault, at that temperature (which was within its factory specs from TI) - the DSP would twist, breaking the BGA solder joints on the underside - and bricking the AVR.
But had there been a heatsink on the DSP, the operating temperature would have dropped by most probably 10C, and the manufacturing fault would never have been triggered!!.
Which is why I recommend to people that if their AVR runs very hot, open it up and fit heatsinks to the hot chips.... it is likely to result in increased service life!
