On Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:04:18 -0000, "Arfa Daily"
wrote:

Canton domestic sub. Bit of an oddball fault to do with the auto power-on
circuitry. Probably something simple like a surface mount R around an opamp.
Nothing obvious leapt out at me in a sensible time, so request put in for
some service info.

"Nope. Not available. These units repaired by swap-out of the amplifier
board" came back the reply. So the shop ordered one in - presumably after
clearing the cost with the poor old owner ...

Today, it arrived. When they said a 'replacement board', what they actually
meant was a replacement everything, bar the actual driver and its cabinet !
So that's the black satin plated back panel, every connector, the preamp /
control board, the power supply / power amp board, even the heavy duty
torroidal power transformer. All I had to do was connect the driver (that
actually involved a soldering iron !!) and screw the plate to the cabinet.
Nonsense, or what ?

A couple of weeks back, I had a problem with my central heating boiler, so I
called in an acquaintance who is a heating engineer. Whilst he was working
on my problem, I asked him if he replaced many boiler control boards in the
course of his daily work. I was thinking that modern ones probably suffer a
lot of bad (lead-free) joints from relay hammer and general vibration from
pumps and fans and things, and that there might be some fairly easy money to
be made by us both. He said that he replaces loads, so I asked him what he
did with the bad ones. "Throw 'em away" he replied. Better and better, I
thought, so I asked him if he would be interested in getting them repaired.
This was met with a firm "No". I asked him why not, and he said that it
wouldn't be worth his while, because if he fitted a repaired board to a
customer's boiler, and it went wrong again a couple of weeks later, he would
be left out of pocket on the return call, and with a disgruntled customer
who probably wouldn't use him or recommend him again.

No amount of discussion about quality diagnosis and repair and warranty,
would sway him from his position on the matter.

So there we have it. Despite being forced to accept eco-bollox light bulbs,
and windmills all over the countryside, and everything else that has grown
up around the green movement, a significant proportion of any planet saving
that may result from this, is being chucked away by the repair attitudes of
everyone from manufacturers, right down to one-man-band service
organisations. Until such attitudes are revised, what's the point in
bothering ? Considering the amount of electronic consumer goods that are
scrapped from lack of service info and parts, I'm sure that government could
have a much more significant impact on the electronics recycling situation,
by legislating on making parts and service assistance available. But then,
it's not really about saving the planet, is it ... ?

Arfa


In the states, I just looked at a defective Hsu subwoofer for a
friend. The switched power supply was dead. Electrolytic caps, fets,
and the start resistors were all ok so we requested a schematic. They
wouldn't sell us a schematic or parts. Our choices were to send in
the whole amp assembly for a $160.00 repair or a complete amp assembly
swap for $200.00. Just love today's companies customer service
policies. Thirty years ago even junk brands like Lloyds, Yorx, and
Electrophonic provided parts in a timely manner. Is there anybody out
there making a decent living doing repair on modern consumer audio
equipment?