Repair costs & quotations......

Fixed Price quotations will not be given for equipment with a market sale value
of less than $300.

I can give written estimates for repairs which may be needed for insurance claims.

Payment in full must be made when the item is collected.

This is the case regardless of whether the item is or is not the subject of an
insurance claim.

If the repair bill might exceed $100, and if I think you might be reluctant to pay
a bill, I will telephone or email you about it.

It is not always possible to provide a fixed price quote before repair work is
undertaken because unforeseeable problems have a habit of appearing only
while work on equipment is under way.

Intermittent problems may take days to appear, and sometimes rarely ever,
except at an owner's house, so "sound dropping out" sometimes or noises
"sometimes occuring" may not be easy to pinpoint.

There maybe much variation in the prices or availability of spare parts or for a
service manual if available.
Searching for parts and service manual information can take time, and any
costs are included in the repair bill.

I am sometimes asked to analyse or modifiy or repair partially dismantled or
modified electronics. I can only offer to work for a minimum of $50 with an
hourly rate following. I cannot offer any warranty where the item is to be
re-assembled back into a system by some one else. I cannot be responsible
for errors which are not related to my work. All repaired items which appear
not to function because of my work must be returned to me for fair assessment
to establish whether I can effect a better repair under warranty for no extra
cost, or refund the repair cost less the minimum fee if I think that is fair.

In otherwords, common sense will prevail, and I don't like working for nothing any
more than you do.

I will pursue a repair if it is possible, but I may give you a refund and abandon the
repair if I find it is impossible to achieve properly.
Any refund may depend on costs I have incurred.

Typical most common repair bills can be......

Amplifiers, with one silent channel. Problem is fused or burnt parts in an average
15 yr old solid state amp or receiver.
Cost is typically $150 to repair.
Other problems like noisy controls, intermittent or damaged switches can cost $100.

One very common problem is "one channel will not work" and yet when I test the
unit here and in my own sound system with my CD player or FM tuner or TT it
all works fine for hours on end. This is the case with 20% of all amplifiers and many
other things brought to me for repair.

If only one channel appears to work, try the following...

(1) Make sure both speaker leads are correctly connected at the amp and at the speakers.
If you have 2 speakers, there are 8 possible connections which could be faulty.

(2) Inspect speaker leads for any breaks in wires, or dislodged insulations.

(3) Make sure you have connected wires to speaker and amplifier terminals correctly
with red or marked speaker wires to red terminals, and black or unmarked wires
to black terminals.
(4) Look for where any bare copper wire or strands of wire could touch each other.
If any speaker wire makes a direct stray connection with any other wire or part of a
metal amp chassis the amplifier may become faulty.

(5) Most amplifiers do not have fuses or adequate protection circuits to prevent failure
with faulty speaker wiring.

(6) After such examination, and if only one channel works, TURN OFF the amp and
try disconnecting the speaker leads to the silent speaker at the rear of the amp.
TURN ON the amp and the remaining speaker should continue to work.

(7) TURN OFF the amp and move the speaker leads from the amp connection from
the working channel output terminals to the to terminals of the channel which appears
to be dead.

(8) TURN ON the amp. If the speaker gives good sound, the suspected fault in the
amp does not exist.
Therefore both channels of the amp are working.
And therefore one speaker or its cable or connections are faulty.

(9) If the speaker still does not work, re-check the connections, and if the known good
speaker still does not work, then amp is faulty.

(10) Repeat the test using some alternative external stereo signal source, to
find out if there is a fault in one channel of source
such as a CD player, TV set, or other preamp.

Even though I have described the simple logic involved with such basic testing,
many people still manage to believe something is wrong when there is nothing
wrong at all except for their inability to connect wiring correctly.
I quite understand there severe limitions of most people to deal with technical
troubles in their audio-visual equipment or cars or anything else.

I can do all the testing for you and connect up your system at your home if need be.

Most TTs have rubber drive belts which degrade over time. To find the exact right
sized new belt and replace, $50.

if TT turns on and platter turns OK, but record won't play properly...
The Stylus at end of arm is supposed to rest lightly in grooves, usually with force
between 0.5 grams and 4 grams, and this is adjustable.
So Stylus down force must not be too little or too much, but just right.
Stylus may not track grooves, or slides across record at start, or gives noisy low
distorted output with little treble content......
The stylus down force is wrong, or stylus diamond tip has been broken off or stylus
"cantilever", ie, the very delicate "needle" rubber mounted in the stylus has
been bent or rubber sleeve holding cantilever has warped out of shape over
many years.
The "stylus" is the replaceable part of a "cartridge" or little box at the end of the
arm where the stylus rests on the record.
I normally have to order the correct stylus for the cartridge brand and number
on the cartridge.
The cartridge is the little box on the end of the arm which holds the
slide-in, slide-out replaceable stylus.

New stylus replacements are available for many
TT at http://www.soundring.com.au

Email your TT brand and Cartridge brand and number and any
stylus number to Nerida, sales@soundring.com.au

Ph +61 (02) 4328 1108

Mob 04 888 0801

Fax +61 (02) 4329 5383

104 Carrington St, Narara, NSW 2250.

Nerida is excellent to deal with via mail order and the minimum stylus cost is
about $50, with a maximum far higher.

Sometimes there is no available stylus and a new suitable cartridge with its special
stylus must be fitted.
I can assist, and a cartridge and stylus replacement can cost $150 if I supply
and fit it to your TT.

If arms do not respond correctly when start stop levers
or buttons are pressed
or arm does not lift or lower to record with provided lever there may be faults with
mechanical items "under the chassis."  The kind of faults are too numerous for me
to describe here and if the arm won't "go through its motions" properly the unit will
need a repair or service. Costs for this are usually below $50.

Total cost of repairs and cartridge replacements usually cost under $200.

Some TT have a complex electronics board and special motor to spin the
turn table may not be repairable.

Loudspeakers.
A common problem with old loudspeakers is the disintegration of foam surrounds
around the outside of bass or midrange speaker cones which are unusually the large
"round things" at the front panel of a speaker when the fabric cover is removed.
But now I rarely ever get any equiries to repair broken speaker surrounds.

The local availability of suitable butyl rubber speaker surrounds from Jaycar has
become intermittent. But they do work well when available. Size diameters are
200mm, 250mm, 300mm, and will suit most speakers above 200mm dia.

Pairs of stereo speaker surrounds always degrade together and if only one appears
to have disintegrated, the other will be close to disintergrating.
Many generic and cheap speakers purchased over 20 years ago may not be worth
repairing as the enclosure box has developed un-sightly faults usually caused by
swelling of particle board used to make enclosures. The flexible thin plastic sheeting
used to cover boxes may be peeling off. However, some of the better brands of
top quality hi-fi speakers from the past may be worth repairing.

A typical example is where a customer brought me a pair of large floor standing
Cerwin Vega speakers made in about 1980 which were his father's. The boxes
had signs of swollen and moisture affected particle board, perished bass speaker
surrounds, and with midrange and treble unit cones damaged by children pushing
in the central dome dust covers. The customer is a practical young man and he
was able to make an online purchase of genuine spare part bass speaker surrounds
still available from Cerwin Vega.
He brought them to me to fit and to align properly. He understands the box
problem, but he has the carpentry skills to make new plywood boxes and
change all electronics over once I have got all his speaker drive units functionable.
((The boxes would end up far better quality with less resonances and sound
degradation than anything Cerwin Vega was willing to provide. Unfortunately,
the young man will probably never find time like I once did to build his own
speaker cabinets. Too many demands from bosses, girlfriend, parents, and
his own relaxation and beer drinking schedule, and he planned to buy Cerwin
Vega's latest monster surround sound speaker system with 15" bass drivers.
His impending marriage and a mortgage might ruin that dream though.))

I found the work took longer than expected. AFTER replacing the surrounds,
the sound was still very poor with a buzz to all sound because hairline
cracks had developed between the voice coils and speaker cone connection,
so the existing dust covers needed removal and the cracks exposed and re-glued
with araldite. The dust covers were glued back and the speakers began to
sound OK, but I'd suggest they'd already had a very hard rock and roll life,
and "cardboard" cone material had begun to go "soggy", and lose strength,
and really were not worth fixing. I'd normally never try to repair such
speakers in such bad condition but the young fellow insisted, and he paid
the extra. I doubted they'd last longer than a month because inevitably the
'rap-moozic' ie, glorified noise levels will exceed levels such speakers could
ever sustain even when new.

So, dad's old speakers might live again for the next generation, but the desire
for "awesome" sound levels sometime soon may demolish them quite easily,
and wreck my work permanently.

Another example...
During 2010, a customer's 30 yr old son managed to completely wreck a set of
what were good Magnat speakers made in Germany in about 1975.
Too much "Hopitty Bopitty Krapitty" volume was used for too long and the
internal filter crossovers and drive units were all overheated which destroyed
voice coils on all drivers and melts plastic formers of filter coils. No spare parts
were available, and had they been available their cost would have exceeded my
repair bill and what Magnat designed 35 years ago had umpteen shortcomings
in engineering and sound quality.

In this case I re-used the back, sides, top and bottom of existing boxes after
sawing off the front baffle after removing all drivers to the re-cycle bin. 
A new front baffle of 33MDF was fitted and painted to match the old baffle.
A full set of bass, midrange and treble units made by Peerless in Denmark
was fitted, and completely new crossover filters with much more rugged parts
were fitted and carefully calculated and tweaked to give a flat response
far better than most commercial mass made speakers.

The set of 6 made-in-Denmark Peerless drive units, bass, midrange and treble
from wescompoments.com.au
 
The speakers became virtually brand new, but equal the best you could buy at
Duratone Hi-Fi or Miranda Hi-Fi but for a far lower cost.
The owner was happy with the price although still probably higher than some
speakers made in China.
My efforts were far better sounding and more rugged than the original Magnat.

I've never heard of anyone busting a speaker if they've been playing a Mozart
tune.

Radios.
I get about 4 AM tube radios per year to fix.

Often they need a considerable amount of work to prevent failures in future.
Unfortunately, a typical labour time for a silent AM radio with 10 faults will be
about 2 days full time to fix properly and will usually include some modifications
to the circuit  to make it work because some parts or tube types are no longer
available.

If an old 1930 to 1965 tubed AM radio is repaired to its original condition after
searching for new old stock parts the sound quality will never be up to modern
expectations.

However, if ppl don't mind the lousy sound, then the cost of an average repair
can be as low as $75, not including any repairs to the timber, bakelite or plastic
case.

For old large floor standing radios or radio-grams with pleasing woodwork
much more work is needed to give better sound free of noise and to allow
use of a better TT or use of CD player, i-pod, or other source.

I suggest those wishing me to fully re-build an old
radio in a large cabinet should go to my new page
on Radio-re-engineering

I have not spotted ant digital radios coming to me for repair. Sound is supposed
to be good, and better than old fashioned FM. The circuitry inside a digital radio
is so complex it is beyond my skills to understand it. I would suggest that complete
circuit board modules may need replacement if there is a fault; one does not bother
to analyse a fault in the circuit somewhere.

Warranty.
All repairs are warranted for 3 months, but subject to how the item may have
been used. I don't mind fixing any mistake I make but I won't fix problems
not of my making.

Suppose I'd just repaired dad's favorite 1980 amplifier and speakers.
Suppose dad allows an end of school year party where the fine young people
present have 2 drinks and become pissed, and then try to find out how just
how loud dad's old hi-fi system can go with full bass boost.
After 20 minutes some smoke pours out of the speakers and amplifier, and
there's a nasty smell, and the sound of crackles, then dead silence.
And suppose I'd repaired the amp 2 weeks previously.
I would not fix the system a second time for free!

And if I repair something which does not last 3months and the cause was not
due to owner mis-use, and the item cannot be fixed, ie, the item seems unable
to be repaired, then I will refund the repair cost less the minimum fee for initial
inspection.
Unfortunately, a very small number of items fall into the category of having a
fault whose cause cannot be traced economically.

Time for repairs.

Most solid state repairs can be done within 10 working days, ie, a fortnight, but
often the time can stretch out to a month or more because a workshop manual
has to be obtained, and perhaps several orders for parts placed as faults are
discovered and fixed.
And some parts suppliers are very slow to deal with and very slow to answer
inquiries on parts availability.

I employ a sub-contractor to perform solid state gear repairs.

Tube amp repairs can take longer.

I'm the only person I know willing and able to work on gear containing
vacuum tubes.

For the last 18 months I have reduced my work hours due to health issues.
At present, September 2011, I have enough projects and jobs to keep me
occupied until about November 2012, when I will be over 65 and officially
retired.

During the forseeable future, I will accept some occasional repair work on
guitar amps and other amps where the repair time may be less than 2 hours.
But all other re-engineering work may have to wait because I have so many
other long term projects for which I have never found the time to complete.

I have no time to devote to handcrafting new amplifiers until all projects
are completed.

It is not unusual for someone to have to wait 2 months for a repair or
modification to any item with vacuum tubes.

Old ancient old amplifiers sometimes arrive here in extremely poor condition.
But sometimes they are "collectors' items" which are supposed to have
some kind of special value. One recent case is where a guy brings me a pair of
Quad-II amps and its control unit and a tube AM tuner and FM tuner all made
in about 1955, so four separate components and the tubes are all smashed,
missing, or worn out and all need replacing. All the internal small parts such as
resistors and capacitors have reached their end-of-life so replacement of all may
be is required. Modifications are needed to make the items perform well for the
next 50 years.
But something like this may take me 3 weeks to finally get right and cost $2,000.
The original purchase cost in 1955 may have been so high that only doctors,
lawyers or rich graziers could have afforded it when their wives were not present.
Most people struggled to buy something really awful from Pye, AWA, Kreisler etc.
But when I have finished re-engineering an old Quad system, it will be able to be
used with any normal modern speakers and give better sound than available in
1955.
The terminals will suit modern standard RCA plugs and sockets and cabling from
modern sources such as CD players and safety and reliability is much improved.
I fit active protection circuits which react to tube faults and thus prevent
collateral damage from failing tubes.

Hence some ancient Leak, Quad, or Dynaco amps etc are able to be fully stripped
down and rebuilt to a new circuit using all modern minor parts such as resistors,
capacitors, diodes, potentiometers, switches, wiring, contacts, sockets and cables
and replacing all the vacuum tubes if needed.

Generally, if the basic items like output transformers and power transformers are in
good condition then these can all be retained or mounted on new chassis, and a
unique amp is thus created.

For those technically minded interested in images and schematics of work
I have done on old amps, see the pages on re-engineering.