UPDATE:
As mentioned previously, AEA finally responded and worked with me to make sure that the ST-70 was completed in the time frame I had proposed. It was completed last week and sent out last Saturday. Things had shifted, and I was hopeful that things were finally on the up-and-up!
Well, I got the amp back today...
Long story short: within five minutes of plugging it in and admiring the warm tube-y glow with my 7-year old daughter,
it blew up.
Yep. A Loud
POP!, then thick belching smoke from inside the chassis, near the left front EL-34. I quickly ran to unplug the amp (funny what goes through your mind in these moments—I was actually thinking "hmmmm, I'd like to *not* get electrocuted in front of my daughter...") After a minute of trying to figure out what the hell just happened, I grabbed my camera and filmed a shaky, somewhat panicked video:
It might not be the best filmmaking, but it shows smoke coming from the corners of the chassis (the worst had already dissipated—)
Man, I feel really bummed out—I really wanted this ordeal to finally be over; to be able to at least edit out AEAs name from the title of this post, and write about the great work that AEA had done (in spite of the long series of delays...). Very unfortunately, I can't do that.
I do feel confident that AEA will honor the "Gold-Level" warranty that came with the work, but I really don't feel comfortable sending the amp BACK for repairs; dealing with packing and shipping, and another possible months-long delay.
Any advice?
(And just to be very clear, I'm *not at all* trying disparage the good and important work that vintage audio techs do—this is clearly about one instance with one tech outfit on AK...)
I'm also uploading some pics I took of the amp as I was unpacking it (it was packed well—) to give a sense of the work done. It wasn't as "tidy" as I'd think it should be, but I don't have much experience, so others can comment on the quality...
*Edit for clarification: the old tubes and a ziploc bag of the replaced caps were packed loose within the cage during shipping. I realize that this may have caused some of the "untidiness" of the replaced caps/resistors...