Should manufacturers provide circuit schematics & parts list?


Consumers often use home audio gear for a long time—often longer than the lifespan of the company who made the gear. A lot of threads on the Forum are devoted to trying to repair audio gear and requests for circuit schematics. A lot of these requests are futile and go unfulfilled because the original audio gear manufacturer is no longer in business. 

Should manufacturers adopt the practice of providing circuit schematics and parts list as part of their products’ owner’s manuals? How about upon request from the original owner?

Obviously, some manufacturers might balk at this suggestion if their designs are patented or protected by some trade secret. But I suspect those who do would be a small number and is moot in any event for a defunct company.
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I recently paid $15 for an original paper service manual/schematic for my 1980's Toshiba receiver just to find out voltage for the lights that had burned out. I could not find a PDF on line.

So yes, I wish all components came with service manuals/schematics.

They are fairly easy to find for cars and I have them for my vehicles.

The one for my tractor was over $100.


Some companies will not publish service manuals or schematics.

A infamous one, in audio, is Melos. It's a problem for Melos owners, as melos went as far to scrape the model numbers off some of the parts.

In the HT pro and consumer video projector world, no one publishes service manuals.
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It is not only the issue of protecting their design, but also of protecting their reputation.  Poorly done unqualified repairs will make percentage of the gear sound worse or fail again, making bad name for the company.