2. amps-preamps
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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 gs5556

gs5556
1,243 posts
 
Pyramid Audio will quote you a price of $1300 to replace just the power supply filter caps in a Levinson 33x series amplifier, so, yes, the quote you got is not unreasonable.

FWIW it took me the better part of a weekend to replace the damaged filter caps in my AR 100.2. The 8 caps cost less than $75... but there were parts in the way that had to be removed (and replaced) and some disassembly to get to the caps. There is no way I would have charged less than $1,000 parts and labor to do that job as it took a total of 6 hours start to finish, which does not include the time spent to plan the repair and catalog and order the parts. 

It is more work than it appears.
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