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 5 responses by teo_audio

Lets get this straight.

Those large power caps are about $15 each, MAX. OK? MAX. 

that's $120 raw cost then double that price as included in the repair. So we're at $240, plus and hour at $100 to put them in. Let's be generous and call it $150.

$390. $100 cost to return, max, as they get a discounted rate as they use the shipping service  (UPS/ Fed-EX) often. 

I'm having a tough time finding the other $810US in there.... 

It's impossible, in fact.

I have to stop myself from saying nasty things, here. I'm offended to the core.
Ralph uses  far more expensive capacitors in his gear. Inescapably so.

Much higher voltages, much lower manufacturing levels of those capacitors, thus per unit costs are much higher for a plethora of reasons., so his costs are a totally different beast.

And I'll get no deeper into it than that - not my purview.
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


IMO and IME, the price is too high.

techs only WISH they could get paid that well. If I could get that rate, I’d love to do that sort of repair or rebuild, all day long. Lots of good vacations and so on. Put my kids through college on your dime, etc..

In the modern audio tech repair world, the pay rate is MUCH lower, overall.

That as a recap, in most cases, and with most techs I’ve witnessed or seen, should not cost over $600, max.

The reason we see rates like that, is the given tech has enough business so that they can pick and choose their jobs, like a plumber, or electrician.

Or in the modern covid world, a building/house/upgrade contractor. So busy right now, that they get the opportunity to pick and chose their jobs. Pay them enough, or they pick another job.

Akin to how cross breed mutt puppies have gone from give aways (pre-covid) to being $2000 dogs (post covid) in your local for sale Craiglist or craiglist equivalent.

The sad part for these dogs and cats, is when things go back to normal, and these idiots who should not have pets abandon them, after being so poorly treated when the idiots raised them. the moment a vaccine seems to be working good and goes universal, then these dogs and cats will end up at shelters and some will end up in landfills.


anyway, back to the repair. As for heavymehc, he got lucky in time and place and relatively speaking, hit a jackpot. So his special situation cannot be equated to the norm for an audio oriented technician.

The audio tech is expected to know more, and be more capable than a specialist and has to deal with audio addicts, who are ALWAYS looking to get more music and audio drugs, for as low a cost or price as possible.

to add, they come to the audio techican in a state of unhappiness, as they are just trying to score when their fix and dope went bad on them, so the money, as a cost ...is not liked nor planned for, in many cases.

Car mechanics have it unbelievably easy in most cases, comparatively. they get to pick and choose. Cars are everywhere and always coming in the door. An endless supply. Especially when times get hard.

Of all the competent technicians of all varieties in the world, the audio technical specialist probably has the hardest poorest paying job there is.

the resource or the customer base and the quality of gear is drying up, less and less is in the world. Modern manufacturers are doing their best to make gear that is irreparable so as to create new purchases, and landfill and reclaim centers are being filled with electronics that should not be failing so fast.

Major electronics corporations are being allowed to eat the world and fill it with toxic crap, all for a profit motive.. and few people are wise to this ’UN-repariability’ tactic they have all moved into.

Eg, a 4k tv three years old and it breaks. They say the board is $300 and $200 to install, so they force the decision on the customer to buy a new TV. Meanwhile it is a 50 cent capacitor that has failed, and it is a common failure on all the boards. Happens every day. all day long. the perfectly good TV goes to the reclaim center and the reclaim centers have jiggered a deal with the governments to prevent anyone else from getting those TV’s...to make the population pay for their high profits of being the reclaim centers. (through government mandates and control of the given reclaim industry. It’s about money.)

Meanwhile, if the TV with the $500 repair cost...was put back in the field by fixing the 50 cent capacitor..., the damage to the environment would be be ten to 100 times times less than having a new TV manufactured to replace the one that could have been repaired.

Yet they’ve got you running down the emotional turmoil road of environmental saving, save the whales, save the fish, save the birds and the bees, etc, recycle that TV. Right. What a load of lies....

added to the mix, is that the general population does not know what is in the black box called electronics, so they price shop on the basic commodity of a cell phone, DVD player, etc. so they buy junk instead of quality as it is priced lower. This whole market accelerates the damage to all via the electronics load, of constant runs of junk gear. one can go to their local used goods store and see 50-100 DVD/cd/bluray players at the junk quality level, all sitting there, waiting their turn to be sent off to the recycle centers.

’Death to the audio technician’, is what all of this says.

Lets be clear, $400 is way too low, and $1300 is off the charts - too high a number.

Somewhere in the middle, maybe.

If it was me, for $1300 us, if I was the tech, it would come back as a wholly different sounding amplifier, and be notably superior. 

Where I would have second guessed all of the orignal designer's work and upgraded the quality of the unit to far beyond the orignal spec. 

changing parts out for new originals, or a basic repair being involved... is in no way shape or form worth $1300US. 

the only people who can charge that kind of money are the ones who have  a ridiculous outsized opinion of themselves, or others have built up the same sort of opinion of them.. simply due to the idea that if they (as customers) pay more, they get more. When really... that's not even remotely true.. 

Or they have too much work on their hands and are only doing the work that pays the highest...all tied to the outsized reputation ...tied a customer base that thinks of things being in a position and reality ---which it can't possibly be. 

Which happens often, far too often in the world of high end audio. It happens in other technical  spheres as well, and it is great work when you can get it... but most audio technicians are in some world of underpaid hurt.
they are snap mount medium sized garden variety 63-80v capacitors. 15kuf-20kuf each. 8 of them. About $15US each at digikey.

something like this:https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/united-chemi-con/ESMH800VRT223MB80T/4002961

They are not high grade Nichicon non magnetic specialized ’found only at Parts connexion or Micheal Percy’ (or other specialty high end audio suppliers) ’super audio grade’ $50-60 each capacitors.

The given shop should attach a cost, maybe 25-30% extra for the parts (some go as high as 50%), than the total cost of procuring the ’common’ parts. Money out, all of it - needs to be compensated for. But things should stay in some form/shape of reason...
this concerns a repair shop, cars, electronics, etc.
manufacturing is a different beast altogether. One that requires much greater ratios, in order to survive the long lists of costs and financial extensions that take place - when attempting to manufacture in such a crazy world as high end audio. Overhead is insane.