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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
gdnrbob
4,458 posts
 
@stringreen ,
I have sent a number of pieces of equipment to Ayre.-Some for repair, others for upgrade.
In every case, the price they quoted for repair was very, very reasonable.
One of the caps in my MX-R’s blew. I sent both monoblocks to be checked, and Ayre provided a very low price to have the offending amp repaired as well as checking the other.
The only bad part was shipping them back to CO, as far as cost, but they included shipping with the repair, so I was very happy.  And, I bought all my equipment second hand, so they could have soaked me.
  
So, if they charged you $1250, it must have been something serious or a very expensive part.

Bob
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bigkidz
3,403 posts
 
The price is reasonable if the person doing the work does great work.  A customer of mine took a non CJ amp to Bill Thalmann to see if he could upgrade his amp.  Bill installed 10 diodes and charged him $10 per diode.  They cost about $2.00 each so who knows.

The point being what capacitors are going to be installed.  Nichicon for that price is reasonable, computer grade caps IMO would be over priced for the job.  Grannyring is correct though.  A Counterpoint SA-5000 preamp requires 48 wires to be unsoldered before you can get the circuit board out and then 48 to put back together.  Nor sure how I charge for that time.  What kind of amp can you get for lets say $2000?  Would that amp be a sonic upgrade?

Happy Listening.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
10,312 posts
 
jnehma1 OP

To dismantle (unsolder those transformers and the chokes he used) and anything else, pull the boards out of this, and do all the electrolytic caps on them, as well as the power supply caps.
And then to bench test, measure everything, watch the scope with test signals to make sure it’s stable, then re-bias the whole thing when it’s hot, it looks like a days job to me to do it with care.
https://img.canuckaudiomart.com/uploads/large/503121-d6573fea-musical_fidelity_a_308_cr_dual_mono_pr...

Cheers George
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