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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
twoch
429 posts
 
call another repair shop Dog ,  Why horse around with all this   make a decision  why play around in here and get 202 answers  
sj00884's avatar
sj00884
80 posts
 
Seems a little pricey, but not crazy esp. if you truly  received the “goodwill” of years of experience and high quality parts, which you will not be able to confirm for years.  
I’ve had amps worked on and was thrilled, and had a CD player worked on by the same chap and was much less thrilled when the unit failed for the exact same reason <1 year later. 
You original question is a moot point if you didn’t pursue estimates beyond this one.
14point1
41 posts
 
The price is reasonable if high quality parts are used, the work is performed correctly and to a high standard. Another observation about some of the contributors is whatever they do for a living has monetary value and a tech working on audio equipment does not. Apparently some people do not deserve to earn a profit, contribute to society through taxes, or have food, shelter and clothing.
Also paying $12 per hour for this kind of work is ridiculous.
mirolab
208 posts
 
I had my 1990 Nakamichi PA-7A-II recapped by Jon Soderberg (a threshold stasis expert) and it cost me $1400 +ship!  The amp is worth only about $1k used, but I'm the original owner of this mint condition amp.  The amp came back absolutely transformed... possibly better than new with all new caps... plus he upgraded some bias trim pots. So I had to ask myself, what other amp could I have gotten for $1500 to beat this Nakamichi?  There's nothing new for under 3k that could come close.   Plus the amp LOOKS cool.  That's worth something to me. 
By contrast, Bryston recapped my 4B-ST for $600 about 5 years ago.  Far more affordable, and very much worth it.   
drbarney1's avatar
drbarney1
177 posts
 
The cost of repair is why I build my own amplifiers. I have the good fortune of liking SET amplifiers, which are very simple to design. They are easy to repair if anything goes wrong. I notice your describing a problem with power supply capacitors, which too often go bad after a few years. This problem is with high Voltage electrolytic capacitors which have a limited shelf life. Building my own I am free to use polypropylene power supply capacitors instead which have an unlimited shelf life and do not wear out. For the 1kV power supply to my final stage of SET amplification I use polypropylene capacitors rated at 2400 Volts. It costs little to use overrated components which will not go bad in the future.
I build my own electronics where I can. One exception is I do not have the manual dexterity it would take to hand wind coils in a moving coil phonograph cartridge.
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