There's a chance that in the heyday of tube electronics (mostly TVs), tubes were being stressed to within an inch of their life for cost reduction. I'm a music

There's a chance that in the heyday of tube electronics (mostly TVs), tubes were being stressed to within an inch of their life for cost reduction. I'm a musician, an an electronics expert, though I don't use a tube amp myself. There's a lot of chatter on web forums about replacing tubes and capacitors, suggesting that it's done much more often than necessary. Someone's amp will get crackly, so the first thing they'll try is new tubes. Then capacitors. Finally the flaky pot or connector that's the actual root cause.