Uber expensive repair at United Radio

I recently had an amplifier valued at ~2500.00 that needed repair. Bill Thalmann quoted me a repair price of 1500.00. I weighed the options and decided to sell the amp back to the manufacturer for a loss. It was a tough pill to swallow but the amp was 25+ years old and it seemed like the best course. I didn't find fault with Bill's assessment, it seemed fair to me. 

I also had a pair of Canary Audio monoblocks a few years ago and one blew an output transformer. I was quoted a price to fix the one amplifier that approached the resale value of both amps.  Not to mention a round trip from the east to the west coast. I went the same route that time too. Just part of the cost of being in this hobby. Win some, lose some.

Oz

Opening your wallet for service is never pleasant. Especially audio gear repair.

Suck it up, and listen to your stereo.

Who would've thunk, electronics repair would now be a highly specialized thing?

Next time try Lyft. They are usually cheaper.

Unlike some of the "deep pockets" around here, I’m sympathetic though I’m not so surprised about the hourly rate as by the time required. An explanation about why the repairs required 14 hours might make the final bill easier to accept. Fourteen hours seems a lot. Inserting (plug-in?) chipsets seems like it should have taken maybe 5 minutes, but that’s 7 hours per amp...so a full day on each. Did you supply the replacement chipsets or did they? AND were they the ones to diagnose bad chipsets as the problem?? Diagnosing would certainly add to the time required. I’m no EE and haven’t a clue how deeply buried inside the amps the chipsets were. Maybe there was a good deal of careful parts removal to get to their location? Afterwards reassembly and warm up followed by some (re-biasing or other "tuning"?) with bench testing on a ’scope?? Maybe even actually playing some music to confirm successful repair! Might help to ask for details about what the job entailed.

PS - not to add fuel to your fire but $1971/14 = $140.79 per hour.  Given the quoted $120 per hour, maybe that does include cost of the chipsets.

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