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.
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Mine is just an amp, and the internal layout looks completely different Just as bad as all the output transistors are attached to the side heatsinks, and all are bolted https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/0iU9BZNQ1_1LRwvGt1SJX9PgT8TkYLok8IVLMgxv_hljNxkEH3a2giXOW6tJ... Cheers George |
OP If the amp lasted 16 years it doesn’t owe you much at this point. You could put a lot of money into it and then something else that is currently working and therefore not going to be fixed at this point might go bad soon. I would make the 30 minute drive, pick it up, and sell it on eBay for parts, hope to recoup some of what you already spent, and then use the rest of the projected repair cost on a newer piece. IMO, there hasn’t been that much development (except for the rise of Class D Amps) in amplification technology over the last few decades, and (this is personal, ymmv) MF amps were more known for grunt rather than finesse). Change can be good |
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