I've been down this road. I had a pair of Levinson No.20 amps (over 20 years old) that both failed due to capacitor issues. I contacted one of the shops that does both warranty service for Levinson and works on older units. The person I talked to was very knowledgeable about the units, and in fact had two pairs of the same model in for recapping. The cost, excluding shipping, was at least $3500. More if other problems were found. So $1300 for a single amp doesn't sound ridiculous. I ended up selling the amps, unrepaired, to an electrical engineer who planned on repairing them himself. I basically got the price I would have asked for the repaired units, minus the repair and shipping cost. I think the buyer looked at it as a fun task with some cool equipment. Everyone was happy, and I learned how expensive it is to fix amps.
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.