Amp repair cost — is this right?


I recently sent my Musical Fidelity a308cr power amp off to be recapped. This amp is somewhere around 16-18 years old and one of the power caps failed. I contacted Musical Fidelity and sent it to a repair shop they recommended. Today I received an estimate to replace 18 caps, 8 of which are large power caps, resolder the boards, and re-bias the transistors. Basically a full overhaul. The quote I received, including return shipping (prob around $100) Is over $1,300 which possibly exceeds the value of the amp. That doesn’t include the $115 it cost me to ship it out. Having never had an overhaul done on a power amp like this, I’m wondering if anyone with experience can tell me if this sounds right. I guess I was expecting something more like $600-$800 but I don’t know why since I really don’t have a frame of reference. Perhaps it was the assumption it might be 4 hours labor (say $400) plus max $200 for caps. Is $1,300+ on track? Either way I’m going to be out the shipping cost plus a $160 fee paid for the estimate.
jnehma1

Showing 1 response by drbarney1

The cost of repair is why I build my own amplifiers. I have the good fortune of liking SET amplifiers, which are very simple to design. They are easy to repair if anything goes wrong. I notice your describing a problem with power supply capacitors, which too often go bad after a few years. This problem is with high Voltage electrolytic capacitors which have a limited shelf life. Building my own I am free to use polypropylene power supply capacitors instead which have an unlimited shelf life and do not wear out. For the 1kV power supply to my final stage of SET amplification I use polypropylene capacitors rated at 2400 Volts. It costs little to use overrated components which will not go bad in the future.
I build my own electronics where I can. One exception is I do not have the manual dexterity it would take to hand wind coils in a moving coil phonograph cartridge.