Vintage HiFi is like the human body or a classic car. It’s had some years, done some mileage, maybe hasn’t been looked after in a text book fashion. Or maybe it’s just feeling its age. But you love it and you want it to keep going for as long as possible.
40 year VS 20 years
40 years vs 20 years. When it’s not working quite right, you take your 40 year old body to the doctor and your 40 year old car to the mechanic. You describe a symptom. The symptom may be brand new, or something you’ve been ignoring until you can’t ignore it any more. If your body was 20, the doctor would just treat the symptom and send you on your way. But, because you’re 40, it’s much more complex. The symptom can be more difficult to diagnose, more difficult to treat and there may be more than one underlying problem to find causing the symptom you’re experiencing.
Vintage HiFi is exactly the same. Our head technician was working on this HiFi equipment when it was 20. It was so much easier to fault find and repair then. Now, there are often multiple faults leading to the one symptom. Just like a vintage body, there will be other small faults that occur in the future. No technician can successfully predict what the next symptom will be, or when. They can only treat what they can see or hear now, taking your description of the symptom into account and using experience and expertise to figure out the puzzle.
The most common statement. The most common statement from vintage HiFi owners when dropping their equipment in for repair is “It was working perfectly until…” The rest of that sentence is, of course, “until it wasn’t”. When discussing the symptom, we often find that there have been symptoms over time that have been ignored or are not serious enough to seek help for. There is an expectation that because it has been working (fine) in the past, that there is something simple causing the lack of working (fine) now. If you’re lucky that could be case. Often, the case is much more complex and small faults have been building up to create what you now experience.
AI is not a solution
Before you go to the doctor, you may Google the symptom. Google seems to always give you the worst case scenario or completely down play the symptoms. Nothing in between. That’s because human health is not an exact science and neither is HiFi forensic repairing.
You may attempt to cure it yourself based on the “expertise” of the great Google. This may work, work temporarily, not work at all or make things worse. This is the same for the human body as it is for vintage HiFi. In fact, it’s the same for HiFi of any age.
Symptoms are important
Symptoms. One important factor is the description of the symptom. Describing to the doctor a cough when it’s a whine or a rattle when it’s a hum is going to send them off in the wrong direction. They may spend time trying to diagnose the cause of a symptom that isn’t there, or isn’t the main problem. Being accurate and thorough when describing your symptoms will more likely end in a successful diagnosis.
Repairing the fault, not the machine.
If you love it, repair it. We love your vintage HiFi equipment as much as you do. The aesthetics, the high quality designs and mechanisms, and the sound profiles are all what makes them special. Often these pieces of history cannot be replaced with something new – like for like. If you love it, then have it repaired where possible.
Repairing the fault not the machine. When our technician works on your HiFi equipment, he is repairing the faults causing the symptom you describe. He is not working on the entire machine, using a crystal ball to predict the future or bringing the machine back to new. Sure, there may be some standard servicing done at the same time – faults that may be contributing to your symptom or historically occur in your brand/type of equipment. He is not testing every single component of your equipment for potential failure. A full refurb or “back to new” is a whole other category. If that’s what you want then you need to make that very clear and have expectations of cost that align with the amount of time required.
Your technician will always test the component extensively. He will always test before returning it to you, and it may all be great at the time of testing. He will use records or CDs he knows. He will use components in our test system he knows are working perfectly. He will also use cables that he knows are perfect. How do YOU think a technician knows the component is now working well otherwise? Don’t be surprised if you query whether the technician listened to the component before returning it to you, and the response is just a little bit annoyed.
Your guarantee guarantees your repair. It is rare, but sometimes you will take the equipment home and a couple of weeks later it is doing the same thing again or exhibiting some new symptom. This is particularly true of vintage. We understand that it is always the last person who touched the component who is blamed. But remember, the components are extensively tested before leaving the repair area. So there is every chance this is a new fault. Sometimes, it is actually something else in your system causing the symptom ie your speakers, cabling or physical set up.
Of course, it does happen that a recurrence of a symptom will happen because even super-technicians are human. You are offered a guarantee to cover this human factor.
Creating a healthy relationship with your HiFi Doctor
Your technician, with all of his experience and knowledge is your resource to help identify the issues. This is not an excuse or an attempt to wriggle out of honouring a guarantee. These are the facts with vintage HiFi and an understanding of these facts will go a long way towards creating a healthy relationship between yourself, your equipment and your HiFi doctor.
