If the bass was lacking, or if there was any cracking from the woofers, that would be a sign that the foam is shot. It could be splitting, however. I have had woofers in here for rebuild that were only just beginning to show signs of cracking, where others were so bad that the foam had hunks missing out of it.
Amplifiers can go bad with age also--the capacitors tend to dry out. In many cases the amplifier just drifts out of spec and doesn't sound all that good (which could be anything from a dull lifeless sound, to hum, to a weakened sound). If caps go completely bad, though, they can short out or drift so far off value that they damage the amplifier. I've only had one amplifier self destruct on me due to old caps, and I ended up selling it as-is to some local guy who was going to fix it for himself. With vintage equipment that is 40 or more years old (primarily tube amps, but it could apply to transistor amps as well) , we would use a rheostat to slowly bring the voltage up to 120V. That gives the caps time to settle in rather than shock them with a full load right up front.
It's gone both ways for me. The aforementioned amp quit on me, but I've had other equipment that still works despite being decades old. I totally recapped a preamp of mine that I built in 1982--easy job, long overdue, and parts did not cost much (even going with a higher-end capacitor).
Amplifiers can go bad with age also--the capacitors tend to dry out. In many cases the amplifier just drifts out of spec and doesn't sound all that good (which could be anything from a dull lifeless sound, to hum, to a weakened sound). If caps go completely bad, though, they can short out or drift so far off value that they damage the amplifier. I've only had one amplifier self destruct on me due to old caps, and I ended up selling it as-is to some local guy who was going to fix it for himself. With vintage equipment that is 40 or more years old (primarily tube amps, but it could apply to transistor amps as well) , we would use a rheostat to slowly bring the voltage up to 120V. That gives the caps time to settle in rather than shock them with a full load right up front.
It's gone both ways for me. The aforementioned amp quit on me, but I've had other equipment that still works despite being decades old. I totally recapped a preamp of mine that I built in 1982--easy job, long overdue, and parts did not cost much (even going with a higher-end capacitor).