The cost of owning "vintage" equipment
For a while now I wanted to type up something related to the ownership of vintage audio equipment.
20 years ago, it was a very easy way for someone to get into hi-fi by picking up a couple of speakers and an amplifier from the 80s or so.
Let's do math quickly - A Pioneer SA-508 in the year 2001 would have been 21 years old and still be in a decent working order.
Fast-forward to the year 2022. That same amplifier is now 42 years old. Why am I using this as an example. Because of how parts in the amplifier ages.
There are two major groups of components in solid-state amplifiers that age and will eventually fail - capacitors and mechanical switches.
Now let's take that 42-year-old Pioneer SA-508 and we have it properly re-capped. The cost will be around R1500. The switches get cleaned in the process.
A month later the owner is unhappy because the channels are intermitted and the volume control is scratchy, again... Why? Because of the plating on the switch contacts that's worn off from 42 years of use.
The owner takes it back to the techhie and the switches gets sprayed and cleaned and the amplifier is returned... the problem repeats itself a few months later.
You get the picture.
I am a vintage audio equipment fanatic. I love the beautiful amplifiers from the 60s up to the early 90s (before the mainstream advent of digital amplifiers and such). But in recent years I have been convinced that its most of the time a schlep to own and maintain very old equipment. Amplifiers, turntables, RTR tape machines.... loudspeakers (foam surrounds and old capacitors in the x-over).
With some equipment it is possible to swop out switches and relays and potentiometers but with others that uses proprietary parts it is a nightmare.
The question begs - for how long can we keep the stuff alive and at what cost?
In the past few months, I had dealings with equipment that was "repaired" by techhies around Gauteng - the one high-profile American Class-A amplifier was shoddily "recapped" using a mixed bag of old and crap caps. Screws missing, shoddy wiring. Heatsink profiles damaged.... and then an A77 RTR where the techhie swopped out cards with his stash until he found ones that were "working".
Pondering the above I then ask myself the question - is my services I am offering "over the top"? Is my services outrageously expensive? Is it silly for me to include a 6-month repair warranty? Make one think.
For a while now I wanted to type up something related to the ownership of vintage audio equipment.
20 years ago, it was a very easy way for someone to get into hi-fi by picking up a couple of speakers and an amplifier from the 80s or so.
Let's do math quickly - A Pioneer SA-508 in the year 2001 would have been 21 years old and still be in a decent working order.
Fast-forward to the year 2022. That same amplifier is now 42 years old. Why am I using this as an example. Because of how parts in the amplifier ages.
There are two major groups of components in solid-state amplifiers that age and will eventually fail - capacitors and mechanical switches.
Now let's take that 42-year-old Pioneer SA-508 and we have it properly re-capped. The cost will be around R1500. The switches get cleaned in the process.
A month later the owner is unhappy because the channels are intermitted and the volume control is scratchy, again... Why? Because of the plating on the switch contacts that's worn off from 42 years of use.
The owner takes it back to the techhie and the switches gets sprayed and cleaned and the amplifier is returned... the problem repeats itself a few months later.
You get the picture.
I am a vintage audio equipment fanatic. I love the beautiful amplifiers from the 60s up to the early 90s (before the mainstream advent of digital amplifiers and such). But in recent years I have been convinced that its most of the time a schlep to own and maintain very old equipment. Amplifiers, turntables, RTR tape machines.... loudspeakers (foam surrounds and old capacitors in the x-over).
With some equipment it is possible to swop out switches and relays and potentiometers but with others that uses proprietary parts it is a nightmare.
The question begs - for how long can we keep the stuff alive and at what cost?
In the past few months, I had dealings with equipment that was "repaired" by techhies around Gauteng - the one high-profile American Class-A amplifier was shoddily "recapped" using a mixed bag of old and crap caps. Screws missing, shoddy wiring. Heatsink profiles damaged.... and then an A77 RTR where the techhie swopped out cards with his stash until he found ones that were "working".
Pondering the above I then ask myself the question - is my services I am offering "over the top"? Is my services outrageously expensive? Is it silly for me to include a 6-month repair warranty? Make one think.
