• The move to the new server is done. There are some software and database maintenance updates in process. This has us passing the hat around to help out. We appreciate any donations. Seriously, even a dollar helps. The payment page may be found here - https://www.audiokarma.org/support.html

Is five months a normal time to wait for tube amp restoration? (Analog Engineering Associates)

sheltie dave said:
Stereoguy, the house the AEA principal lives at is being sold, and is under contract.

The office he leased is now being leased by a law firm.

AEA also has a banner ad here on AK, and a scroll ad in the sub forum.

With the principal of the company still living, and not having filed for a Chapter 11 or 13 bankruptcy in Orange County, and not having informed the AK staff that he is declaring bankruptcy, I would be most careful tossing that rumor around.

I also would not let any moss grow on that ST70.
Click to expand...

I call it like I see it. Those are the addresses listed on their website. No NEW info has been posted or updated, other than the g-mail address and the 800# goes to an answering service. What would you think?? Everything points to this company being in trouble and is probably in the process of going under. Anyone with a brain would surmise this. If the owner of the company is still alive and he has updated info to post here with info as to what's going on, then I think they should share that with the members here. Their customers deserve an answer and I think they have the right to know if there is any truth to that.
 
Just a little more info from the internet.

AEA is a California corporation. The 2015 incorporation record gives the Orange Ct. address, and it lists the agent of record as a young attorney with the last name of Leonard. The Orange Ct. address appears to be owned by a person named Leonard who appears to be the attorney's father. The Norfolk St. address which is listed as the "office" for AEA is actually a co-working space.

edit: links deleted, PM me if needed
 
Last edited:
UPDATE: I finally reached the *founder* of AEA, Ken Leonard, on the phone. Here are are his responses to the main points of my questions:

1. They are not in bankruptcy, @sheltie dave and @audiotemp are absolutely correct. The office is a shared space for various businesses; his home address isn't zoned for a repair business, so they use another location for legal purposes.

2. He said he was unaware that the communication has been lacking, and was very professional and honestly apologetic.

3. Being retirement age, Ken is sizing down, so yes he did just sell his house.

4. Lloyd, his son, is a lawyer.

5. When I reached him, he had already run the diagnostic and removed the transformers for the ultrasonic cleaning that AEA offers. He said that he was planning on doing that this evening.

6. *If* I wanted to continue using AEA for the restoration, he committed to having all the work done by the end of this week, and would update me before the end of the week as to the progress.

7. He offered $100 discount for the misunderstanding.

8. He gave me his personal email address and said that he would be working with me directly moving forward

Honestly, this does seem to be a case of miscommunication and dropping the ball because of a major life transition. I'm inclined to move forward with the work. I like this guy...
 
Last edited:
BassKulcha said:
UPDATE: I finally reached the *owner* of AEA, Ken Leonard, on the phone. Here are are his responses to the main points of my questions:

1. They are not in bankruptcy, @sheltie dave and @audiotemp are absolutely correct. The office is a shared space for various businesses; his home address isn't zoned for a repair business, so they use another location for legal purposes.

2. He said he was unaware that the communication has been lacking, and was very professional and honestly apologetic.

3. Being retirement age, Ken is sizing down, so yes he did just sell his house.

4. Lloyd, his son, is a lawyer.

5. When I reached him, he had already run the diagnostic and removed the transformers for the ultrasonic cleaning that AEA offers. He said that he was planning on doing that this evening.

6. *If* I wanted to continue using AEA for the restoration, he committed to having all the work done by the end of this week, and would update me before the end of the week as to the progress.

7. He offered $100 discount for the misunderstanding.

8. He gave me his personal email address and said that he would be working with me directly moving forward

Honestly, this does seem to be a case of miscommunication and dropping the ball because of a major life transition. I'm inclined to move forward with the work. I like this guy...
Click to expand...


Well that sounds great and sounds like he realized he messed up by not following through sooner. Yes, life does get in the way sometimes, but updating ALL of your customers should have been a priority to him, rather than letting it slide. It is supposed to be a business after all, no matter how small it is. People who sent in work and were committed to a time frame should have been told that it would take longer. All he had to do was state in the initial contact that timelines may change because he was selling his house, which is where he does his work out of as it turned out. A simple update on the business's webpage for the general public would have sufficed as well.

As far as the son being a bankruptcy lawyer, and using his son's business address to circumvent issues with zoning, that explains a lot. (not entirely ethical or legal, but it explains things) But............you can see where anyone would jump to the conclusions that I myself did. The home was sold, which was where the gear was to be sent, the "headquarters" was a bankruptcy lawyer's office.......any normal person would think what I thought, not having known this guy from a hole in the wall.

So, I'm offering a public apology to AEA for jumping to conclusions, but think about it from a stranger from the east coast's point of view. Your website needs updating dude!

Glad things sound like they are going to work out. I'll still stick with doing my own work though...... ;)
 
I think it's cool you're restoring an old dynaco instead of going the easy way and buying some new Chinese amp. Hopefully there's some light at the end of the tunnel now.

I think vintage amps have an intangible cool factor you can't get with new gear, I hope you really like it when it comes home!
 
Sounds like everything is moving in the right direction. The wait sucks, but as long as they do a good job and with the discount compensating a bit, I hope this will just be a distant memory in the future as you're enjoying listening to your restored ST-70.
 
More than anything I'm glad its working out for you and a 100$ bump is a decent apology.
For the sake of everyone who has followed so far. Please let us know when you receive the amp and if you're happy. :thumbsup:
Oh one other thing
AEA may in fact be an excellent repair facility with fine techs but they did handle this situation poorly IMO
 
sberger said:
I've only dealt with a handful of techs and yes they are all pretty flaky, and yes, they all take time. A lot of time.
Click to expand...

Is that so?

Well,now that you have lumped us all into a nice neat little category,and offended every single tech on this forum (myself included) who happens to read this idiotic statement,you'd better hope you never require assistance or advice.

My experience,after a long career in the industry,is that the vast majority of ''technical types'' are honest,hardworking and extremely diligent.I could probably have advanced my own que of waiting repairs if I hadn't taken the time to address your thoughtless commentary.
 
Arts, you and your ilk are the reason we even have a hobby. Kudos to all of your kind who willingly put up with our grief.

As far as the principal being unethical because he mainly works out of his home, just remember that we too can pay over $100 per hour for a tech to rent a commercial space to be "ethical."
The amount of back room stereo repair shops run as part of a brick and mortar stereo shop are vanishingly small these days. I know of two in the area. I know seven shops run in the home, usually in the basement or a spare bedroom. I am somewhat at a mystery how anyone would complain, when the majority of us think nothing of cleaning, spritzing, and poking about an amp or receiver to try and suss out what might be wrong. The only tube amp I built took about fifteen hours on the bench. Am I unethical because I didn't pay taxes for my work, or disclose that I needed to get a business permit because I do bad work on defenseless gear?

All the techs I know declare and pay taxes, and most all are real great people to be around. They aren't nearly as aggravating as some here, and they would much rather listen to music than get into fights about cables.
 
arts said:
Is that so?

Well,now that you have lumped us all into a nice neat little category,and offended every single tech on this forum (myself included) who happens to read this idiotic statement,you'd better hope you never require assistance or advice.


My experience,after a long career in the industry,is that the vast majority of ''technical types'' are honest,hardworking and extremely diligent.I could probably have advanced my own que of waiting repairs if I hadn't taken the time to address your thoughtless commentary.
Click to expand...

Wow, sensitive?

Per what I wrote, I was referring to the "handful" that "I" have dealt with. Nowhere in my statement did I lump the whole population of techs. The one's that I have dealt with have taken months to fix things, have had trouble returning calls or addressing emails, and in a couple of instances, did not repair the items well. I'm currently waiting on a reputable local tech to provide me with an estimate to fix some stuff. I've been waiting over a month. When I called them a few days ago they said they would get back to in a day. That never happened. I haven't heard from them since. The repair is for a pair of Dynaco MK III"s, btw.

I'm sure there are techs out there that don't operate like this, but I (and obviously at least a few others) have yet to find them.
 
Last edited:
sberger said:
Wow, sensitive?

Per what I wrote, I was referring to the "handful" that "I" have dealt with. Nowhere in my statement did I lump the whole population of techs. The one's that I have dealt with have taken months to fix things, have had trouble returning calls or addressing emails, and in a couple of instances, did not repair the items well. I'm currently waiting on a reputable local tech to provide me with an estimate to fix some stuff. I've been waiting over a month. When I called them a few days ago they said they would get back to in a day. That never happened. I haven't heard from them since. The repair is for a pair of Dynaco MK III"s, btw.

I'm sure there are techs out there that don't operate like this, but I (and obviously at least a few others) have yet to find them.
Click to expand...
A good tech is worth the wait and thus will likely be a pretty busy guy. My tech has a 4-5 week wait at the moment to diagnose, because he has that much work to do..I have seen it.
 
vonclod said:
A good tech is worth the wait and thus will likely be a pretty busy guy. My tech has a 4-5 week wait at the moment to diagnose, because he has that much work to do..I have seen it.
Click to expand...

I completely get that, which is what I was trying to convey in my original message. There simply aren't many of them around, and in large urban areas like the Bay Area there is a lot of demand for their expertise. The one's that I have dealt with do good work most of the time, although I do think sometimes they get so swamped that they get overwhelmed, which, at least in what I've experienced the work wasn't done as well as it could've been. Also, these guys tend to be older and maybe not used to, and not wanting to get used to, modern ways of conducting business. The ones that I've dealt with still write out invoices and are not big proponents of things like email. I get the feeling that while they enjoy working with vintage gear, this is not their livelihood. They have had their careers, and this is a way to get out of the house and do something. Which is fine. But if one is not used to that and is impatient, or had expectations set by the tech that stuff would get done faster, that could be a problem.
 
I'm surprised there's so much demand, sounds like a fun opportunity to make some extra money and see the inside of all sorts of cool equipment I'd never buy.
 
maxhifi said:
I'm surprised there's so much demand, sounds like a fun opportunity to make some extra money and see the inside of all sorts of cool equipment I'd never buy.
Click to expand...

The root of the issue as I see it, is that there are very few additions to the labor pool. Nobody is training techs, and there aren't many old techs choosing repair vs new production.

If I could find someone local willing to apprentice me, I'd do it. Even with the skill cap I have, I can do most of the work and a fair amount of the diagnosis. But I've yet to find the tech who is willing.

The window is closing, far too soon we'll have lost the folks that wrote the books... Can't overstate my appreciation for the techs who share their knowledge. Be assured, there's many of us reading and digesting as much as we can, trying to get ready to carry the torches, or probes.
 
Same thing in the machine shop field. Very few kids coming into the trade anymore and if they do they mostly learn CNC programming. Ask one of them to single point a thread on a manual lathe and they will be amazed that it can be done. Manual machinist are quickly going the way of tube techs.
An entire subset of skills that were hard earned going away because of lack of students and no desire on the education system to teach it.
Hardly a day goes by when one of my customers ask me if I know of a manual machinist looking for a job. All of the old guys are retiring out.

BillWojo
 
BillWojo said:
Same thing in the machine shop field. Very few kids coming into the trade anymore and if they do they mostly learn CNC programming. Ask one of them to single point a thread on a manual lathe and they will be amazed that it can be done. Manual machinist are quickly going the way of tube techs.
An entire subset of skills that were hard earned going away because of lack of students and no desire on the education system to teach it.
Hardly a day goes by when one of my customers ask me if I know of a manual machinist looking for a job. All of the old guys are retiring out.

BillWojo
Click to expand...

Funny, you can't throw a stick without hitting 3 machinists up here...

I've had 5 assistant carpenters over the last 3 years. ONE of the had the full set of skills for a scenic carpenter. You think repair techs are a rare breed, try finding a real scenic.
 
4-2-7 said:
GET YOUR AMP BACK

And tell them not to touch it..​

This guys excuse are the same from the time they received it till today, two weeks from now he'll have the same story. What a f-ing flake this guy is.
Click to expand...


When Terry Dewick goes away to the warmth of the south he notifies he is not accepting equipment. Many, if not most, shop also stop accepting work when the backlog becomes untenable. Rather than risk losing pieces of business they have now risked losing much more, like customers and their reputation. Sad really......

As I said way earlier in this thread when it happened to me I took all steps necessary to get my Holman Apt back and I never had a single other word with them. Case closed. Lucky for me I ended having Blaine do the H/Apt instead and that worked out very well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom