When I pulled out the bad cap I googled for a matching replacement based on the same specs printed on the side and the measurements I took using a caliper. There were around 10 brands available and costs varied from $5 to $20 per cap. That's for the eight 10k microfarad filter capacitors. Then there about ten more little baby caps in there which I didn't check but assumed wouldn't be $20 each. |
@atmasphere yes I did see it, thank you for the feedback.
@mahler123 not sure where this 30 minute drive thing came from. The shop is many states away and would probably be a 14 hour drive each direction |
@mrdecibel no need to try to stir the pot... You're talking about yourself yes, but at least the topic is related, so have at it. I was pointing out that people were bringing up completely unrelated things like bathroom remodels or completely esoteric discussions about profit |
Audiogon is a very strange place. I'm simply asking if this price is in the right range and getting some really strange responses that don't answer that question.
@jafant thank you very much for your feedback. That's what I was trying to find out |
@dekay There was nothing difficult about that. There’s a new email address since they were bought by ProJect. Someone in Austria forwarded my email to a person in Canada who works for MF North America and I had a response the next morning. He asked where I live so he could recommend a close repair shop and then replied with a recommendation within 30 minutes of me telling him where I live.
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@charles1dad Some are doing that, and I do appreciate it. Others are talking about bathroom remodels and bad experiences with Musical Fidelity, or ranting about their former career. I already know what the amp is worth to me. So while I appreciate people's "long view" justifications, I already know that. I'm just asking if the repair cost is right.
Imagine if you took a Honda Accord to be repaired. You'd never repaired a car in your life and have no knowledge of repair costs. The mechanic says "you need new brake pads, that'll be $12,000." Well the car is worth let's say $25,000 and replacing it with a new version is going to cost me more than $25,000, and I'll get years of driving enjoyment out of this car after repaired (the long view)... etcetera. None of that has anything to do with the fact that brake pads shouldn't cost $12,000, but that is the logic of most of the responses I have received.
So including you and teo_audio, I now have 2 yes and 2 no responses. |
Thanks, I get the perspective that the amp is intrinsically more valuable to me fixed. I'm not taking a short view. And I'm not worried about the money in and of itself. I've got $1,300 I can spend. My question isn't "should I invest $1,300 to fix this amp?" or "will I get $1,300 of enjoyment out of the amp over time?" In fact, I don't even use this amp and haven't for about 2 years.
My question is quite simply, "is $1,300 a reasonable cost for this particular repair."
I thought that was a fairly simple yes or no question. So far I've gotten one yes and one no and a lot of other people talking about themselves. |
@ptss The tech I spoke to was Corey, not Bill, but yes he was very helpful and patient on the phone. Regardless of the cost questions surrounding my particular situation, it was an interaction that would make me feel good about doing business with them. |
Hi everyone. Thanks to @jafant for the suggestion I reached out to Music Technology in Virginia and spoke to a very helpful tech. He said they charge $120/hr for labor, plus a flat $25 fee for little stuff like diodes, resistors, and disposal cost. When I told him I was guessing $200 for caps he said that was probably a high estimate. I asked, without knowing what's wrong, if you are recapping an old amp how many hours would you spend? He said it depends on many things like point to point wiring, schematics of the amp, etcetera but figure on about average 3 hours, so $360, plus parts and return shipping. When I asked if $600-$800 was a reasonable guess he said that sounded too high... |
@grannyring @atmasphere @teo_audio - thank you for the direct experiential feedback and thanks to everyone else for what turned out to be a FAR more lively discussion than I ever imagined when I posed the question!
At this point my plan is to contact the original repair shop and ask a few more detailed questions about what they are doing. All I got on the phone was "replace all the caps, re-bias the amp, re-solder the board, $1,340." If it sounds somewhat close to reasonable I will proceed. Otherwise I think just based on the great interaction I had with Music Technology, I'd rather get it back and send it to them even if it's not going to save me money given what I've already sunk so far.
Hindsight being 20/20 I should have asked for repair shop recommendations first, but I did some forum searching and found a couple of (old) recommendations for the shop where it is now, then Musical Fidelity themselves recommended them too, so I went with it. I've only ever had one other amp repaired (not for caps) and unfortunately the gentleman who did it (great work and very reasonable) was a one man operation and passed away several years ago. |
@georgehifi @mozartfan both of you referenced the a308 integrated amp. Mine is just an amp, and the internal layout looks completely different
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FWIW to those that brought it up, I called and the shop said they only use Nichicon, Vishay, and ELNA caps |
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I figured I'd update this thread in case anyone was interested.
I went ahead and authorized the repair. I was already out $160 for the diagnostic, $115 for shipping, and would pay another $100ish to have it shipped back. Then if I found a different repair center, another $100ish to ship it to them. So even if I could find someone to do it for $800, I had $475 in sunk costs making it close to a wash and exposing me to extra risk in shipping the amp all over the place.
The repairs appear to be done well - everything inside looks clean and well put together. The large filter caps are now Nichicon, so at least decent quality. I hooked up the amp in my second system and it is working fine. Hard to say if it sounds better since I haven't heard it in two years and my second system is a home theater. I will eventually try it in my main stereo system but literally every component in it has changed since the last time I used this amp so that also won't be an apples to apples comparison.
In the end, I wasn't ready to just "throw it away" so even though it was a lot of money, I was basically backed into the cost corner already and thought it was better to have the amp working perfectly again. I do appreciate the feedback I got in this thread. In the end, I'm sure I overpaid for the repair but based on my sunk costs, that was basically inevitable. Lesson learned and at least the amp should be good for another couple decades. In the long run I'm not going to regret it. |
