Anyone recommend an AV repair place?
03-05-2008, 11:05 AM
#1
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Anyone recommend an AV repair place?
I have a Carver power amp that needs some help. I looked around but only found a couple places, and have not heard back from them. Can anyone recommend an electronics repair place?
Thanks!!
Thanks!!
03-05-2008, 11:13 AM
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irving street electronics or l & m electronics. i have never dealt with either, so i can't tell you my experience. check out yelp for them. i might be going to l&m soon to upgrade some caps in my amp.
03-17-2008, 09:28 AM
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So my Carver is at L&M and I just got another NHT SA-3 that is also broken (pretty much done buying crap off eBay now haha) that will be heading there too. I will report back on how they are.
04-03-2008, 12:10 PM
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They have my SA-3 too, but I am picking it up this Saturday regardless since it's an eBay purchase and they have it due to another UPS claim - don't want to go past the time limit.
04-03-2008, 12:27 PM
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Well... They quoted a week to keep the Carver but ended up having it for 3 weeks. Anyway, they basically charged me $50 to tell me that they cannot fix it. Apparently it needs some parts that are only available from "Hitek Audio" in Oregon and they will not sell the parts - only do repairs onsite. Ah well.
They have my SA-3 too, but I am picking it up this Saturday regardless since it's an eBay purchase and they have it due to another UPS claim - don't want to go past the time limit.
They have my SA-3 too, but I am picking it up this Saturday regardless since it's an eBay purchase and they have it due to another UPS claim - don't want to go past the time limit.
04-03-2008, 01:50 PM
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I talked to the guy last week saying I would be there Sat morning to pick it up, and when I got there - it was a different guy that had no idea what I was talking about. He spent a very long time looking for my amp, coming out 3 times to ask for me to describe it again (black, 5 LEDs, says CARVER PREMEIRE). Again not that big of a deal, but I expected to pick it up, pay my bill and get out - was in a real hurry.
Ultimately they said they couldn't fix it because they couldn't get the parts from the supplier, however after calling back to get the info from the guy who actually worked on it, everything was just solder work and such - the part they couldn't get was for a cosmetic issue - on the back on my power amp in an area that, once mounted, I would never see... I understand, but options would have been cool there!
We'll see how the NHT amp comes back. Again, last week I asked how long he needed and was told no more than a week. He told me to call back (to get the above info from the other guy) on Monday, which I did - at which time he told me there was no way they would have it done within the week. By done, I just need to know what's wrong - they can take 6 months to fix it for all I care... So I will be picking it up this weekend regardless.
For something like having some work done that they do regularly, and it wasn't a time sensitive issue - it would probably be fine. Since they haven't really done any repairs for me, I cannot really comment on their work...
04-06-2008, 10:29 AM
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So yeah... I give these guys an official thumbs-down as of yesterday. I dropped off my NHT SA-3 sub amp I got off eBay on the 29th of March - at this time the guy I was talking to said it wouldn't be a problem to look at it by the next Saturday, and I needed to call Monday to hear about my other amp. I called Monday and a different guy said no way could they have it looked at by Saturday, but call Friday to make sure. I called Friday morning and they said they hadn't looked at it. I mentioned I was going to be there Saturday to grab it either way, and then less than 2 hours later one of the guys called me saying he checked it out, and it was fine. So I emailed the seller and told him 'case closed' since the shop I chose didn't find a problem with the amp. I bring it home, plug it in, this time using car subs instead of my towers and yeah - same problem, receiver starts acting all weird, hearing buzzing/snapping noises then a loud CLICK and it just says "power off immediately" on the screen. This is the same as the sub amp I have been using for the last 6 years, just thought I would get another one and have 1 per sub.. When I use mine, everything is fine. Swap out mine for this one, everything gets all weird and my Receiver goes into safety shutdown. Ah crap....
04-06-2008, 10:51 AM
#10
Call them up. My cousin owns this shop so I'll vouch for their work.
04-06-2008, 12:58 PM
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So yeah... I give these guys an official thumbs-down as of yesterday. I dropped off my NHT SA-3 sub amp I got off eBay on the 29th of March - at this time the guy I was talking to said it wouldn't be a problem to look at it by the next Saturday, and I needed to call Monday to hear about my other amp. I called Monday and a different guy said no way could they have it looked at by Saturday, but call Friday to make sure. I called Friday morning and they said they hadn't looked at it. I mentioned I was going to be there Saturday to grab it either way, and then less than 2 hours later one of the guys called me saying he checked it out, and it was fine. So I emailed the seller and told him 'case closed' since the shop I chose didn't find a problem with the amp. I bring it home, plug it in, this time using car subs instead of my towers and yeah - same problem, receiver starts acting all weird, hearing buzzing/snapping noises then a loud CLICK and it just says "power off immediately" on the screen. This is the same as the sub amp I have been using for the last 6 years, just thought I would get another one and have 1 per sub.. When I use mine, everything is fine. Swap out mine for this one, everything gets all weird and my Receiver goes into safety shutdown. Ah crap....
04-07-2008, 12:35 PM
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Last night I messed with this amp a little more using my MD Player for input and a portable stereo w/ input for the highs and let the amp split off the sub frequencies (cut off around 60hz) to the dual Infinity KP 10.1's and it definitely has an issue, the crossover circuit doesn't work and I still hear the snapping/popping even when using the portable stereo. Not sure what they did to "test" it.....
04-07-2008, 03:55 PM
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a reputable shop would test it in front of you to make sure everything worked fine before you brought it home. i used to go to telestar in oakland but i am pretty sure its not around anymore.
06-26-2008, 01:17 PM
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So, it's confirmed. L&M Electronics sucks ***. I have taken 2 amps to them and they couldn't fix either of them as mentioned above. The Carver AV-705x has been repaired by the eBay seller, and it has been working AWESOME since then - for about a month now. The NHT SA-3 - I sent to NHT. They just sent it back and even though L&M said it was FINE which made me have to pay the seller, it was not. Here is the work they did on it:
Replaced 4 filter caps
Replaced 4 high voltage transistors
Replaced 1 output relay
Replaced 2 100uf/25volt caps.
Cleaned pots and switches
Burn-in 12min @ 40watts OK 06-25-08
Note: NHT sub'd this out to a place called "ADK Hifi" in Benicia. They are the ones who fixed it. I spoke with the guy for a while about the history of the amp and it's issues, and he sounded like he knew his stuff. He chuckled when I mentioned that the shop who put the sticker on the back (L&M) said the amp was fine. He said any person with something to connect it to and knowledge of what it is supposed to do should have been able to tell it was having issues at the least.
So now I have to figure out what to do about my receiver that took the brunt of the power jolt from the faulty SA-3... I really didn't want to have to get a new receiver! GRR AARGH.
Replaced 4 filter caps
Replaced 4 high voltage transistors
Replaced 1 output relay
Replaced 2 100uf/25volt caps.
Cleaned pots and switches
Burn-in 12min @ 40watts OK 06-25-08
Note: NHT sub'd this out to a place called "ADK Hifi" in Benicia. They are the ones who fixed it. I spoke with the guy for a while about the history of the amp and it's issues, and he sounded like he knew his stuff. He chuckled when I mentioned that the shop who put the sticker on the back (L&M) said the amp was fine. He said any person with something to connect it to and knowledge of what it is supposed to do should have been able to tell it was having issues at the least.
So now I have to figure out what to do about my receiver that took the brunt of the power jolt from the faulty SA-3... I really didn't want to have to get a new receiver! GRR AARGH.