Unless their outputs are shorted (which almost certainly will kill it) the LK85/140 are pretty reliable... but if the output devices do get blown and burn any PCB traces, they are a pain in the arse to fix and will never be like new, even if they sound fine. Linn’s answer was always to replace the whole board, but I don’t think they stock them anymore.The Rotel looks to have a 100 times more components, but looks repairable, I guess the Linn is scrap if it breaks.
I'd pounce on the Rotel but interested why no SMD parts? A lot of advantages but never had them in HiFi gear.
Ever tried multi layer ceramic capacitors?
That depends on what you’ve cut your teeth on, generally I find SMD easier to work on but I’ve been doing it all my working life and have the tooling for it.A lot of disadvantages as well.... They're in loads of hi fi gear these days, and a PITA to work on!
Multi layer ceramics of any type are about as bad as it gets as a cap in the signal path! Higher the "K" the worse so things like a Z5U dielectric bloody awful!