Repair vs Restore

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Most or rather all “similar” Websites suggest that RESTORATION is what you really want done, as opposed to a mere REPAIR. The answer is that it depends….   If the piece of electronic gear was built with “modern” capacitors, you do not want to have your precious heirloom RESTORED.

If it was built with paper (dielectric material) capacitors, then you certainly do want all of those ripped out of the set, unless your only motive is a quick resale and you don’t really expect to see that particular customer again.  The failure rate of those capacitors, with aging, is very high.

There is a tradeoff: money versus time.  A lot of pricing I have seen is actually in reverse! It often takes a lot more work –and electronics knowhow– to REPAIR a set than to RESTORE a set.

Once a radio has aged, so many of the paper capacitors are “shot” (shorted to various degrees) that it is actually much faster to replace all of the capacitors than to perform a methodical, troubleshooting process.

It can prove difficult, over the telephone, to decide the best course of action. Also many guys say they replace any resistor found to be out of the typical +/-10% tolerance range. That course of action is downright silly!  A grid resistor just does not care until that resistor is much more out of tolerance than +/-10%, no matter what the manufacturer specified in the Rider Manual.

I combine knowledge, experience, and fundamental know how that is difficult to match in this area of endeavor.  I may sometimes charge more than some of the other service people out there, but you will have longer lasting listening enjoyment!



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