Well, I brought a Jolida 302A which was repeatedly blowing its left-most tube into Analogique for repair, about a year or so ago now. They told me they required a $75 "diagnostic" fee, and would call me in a week to let me know what repairs the amp required. After about 2 1/2 weeks, I called in to Analogique. Their response was, "oh, we're backed up, please call at the end of the week." I did so and was told that the amp had bad output tubes which would cost almost $150 to repair (the amp is tubed with 4 EL34's). When I explained to him that even I could tell that the tubes were OK, and that something else was to blame, they hemmed and hawed and said that it'd cost $175 to open it up and see what was wrong. Shouldn't the "diagnostic fee" cover that? Good question...
Of course, I took the amp back, and sent it in to Jolida which I should have done in the first place. On hearing the symptoms I described, they immediately diagnosed a faulty transformer (as did a number of Audio Asylum inmates who'd never even SEEN the amp) and fixed it within the week. At Analogique I would have been out $400 at least. Bottom line, I'll never go to Analogique again. Why is hifi in New York such a sketchy business?
