Amp repair cost — is this right?

I just recapped an old Krell 400xi integrated amp for a friend. I replaced almost every single electrolytic cap for him.  This included about 20 surface mounts and perhaps another 50 caps including the larger power supply filtering caps.  I used common parts and the amp sounded much better after the work. Ralph at Atmasphere is spot on regarding the life of these capacitors and the sound improvement that can be realized.  

I think many of us forget, not Ralph, how long it takes to just disassemble the amp to get at the underside of the boards etc... With this Krell it was not easy or fast. Just disassembly and desoldering/cleaning took 3-4 hours.  Some units are ridiculously hard to work on due to the time and hassle of disassembly and re-assembly. Goodness many companies make it so hard. 

In addition, it takes time to properly desolder all the old parts plus clean the boards for the replacement parts.  This can be more time consuming when space is tight and you do a clean and professional job. 

Replacing  electrolytic caps can be an hour job with an amp that is simple to disassemble with just a handful of large caps being attended to. However,  with other amps this can take many hours....up to 6-8.  

 Not sure about this amp as I never worked on one, but just giving some realities for us to consider. 

Are you all referring to the ’same’ capacitors? Such a vast cost spectrum being cited. Ralph you build and repair audio electronics and would know. Just curious as to the wide variance of price.

Apparently not! Snap caps are a *lot* less expensive! They are a little harder to remove but not so much that the labor is significantly affected. So this really does suggest that $1300 or so is too high. I would expect to pay at a retail price about $15-24.00 each for those snap caps (assuming a service department that has enough fair markup to actually stay in business; Digi-Key prices are wholesale); that puts the overall repair price realistically more in the $400-$600 range.

As above, good to read that Bill and Corey are alive and well doing Audio business.  I have only spoken to Bill via phone.  He is highly regarded in this community.
Happy Listening!

Music Technology does terrific work and they are fair when it comes to pricing.  That is not to say that the shop that did the original appraisal is overpriced or otherwise not a wise choice.  At this juncture, that shop is the only one that really knows the scope of the work involved, so any other appraisal offered here is closer to a guess than anything else.

If you go with Music Technology, the one sort of downside is that they are pretty busy and may not be the quickest alternative out there.  They are good, but, that is no secret, which is why they are busy.

It would seem fair to me....I sent out my working Ayre amp to Ayre...  was checked....new this and that (don’t remember the parts)....1250.00