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

WhiteSE said:
I might do that..save in labor and put in fancy parts!
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I would only change "fancy" to "good quality".
These amps sound good with the parst they were made with.
Usually 10% Rs and Cs. A 1N4007 replaced the silenium rect.
I chose 5% carbon film Rs and polypropolene Cs for mine,
and new electrolytics in the bias and power supplies. No regrets.

PS: I got mine from a Hewlett -Packard engineer who built it from a kit
and he had upgraded the coupling caps to better quality mylar caps.
He did not touch the Rs
 
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Just a few observations without trying to throw too many rocks.

The caps underneath do not appear to be secured to much of anything. Any of these moving around could be cause for a smoke leak.

Recycling the selenium rectifier as a tie point for the new bias rectifier is a bit amateur, the flying splice off the end is worse. It works in a pinch but a much cleaner solution is to install a terminal strip in place of the old rectifier and mount the new one. No extra holes, and everything is fixed in place.

Looks like the smoke may have come out of the bias pots. Not real impressed with the general layout of all that, it looks like the add-in pots could easily move and short. Hopefully its that and not the trafo. Pots are cheap. My 2 cents would probably be to restore the bias adjustment setup to stock and just run matched pairs of tubes. Less hassle that way.

I'd probably also return the power supply to basically a stock config with a new can cap mounted topside. Its not the cheapest option but its clean and easy. Failing that, I'd probably use one of the cap boards that mounts underneath, though depending on what values those use it can kill the rectifier tube. Those do not want to see a lot of extra capacitor right off the tube.

Just my 2 cents.
 
gadget73 said:
Just a few observations without trying to throw too many rocks.

The caps underneath do not appear to be secured to much of anything. Any of these moving around could be cause for a smoke leak.

Recycling the selenium rectifier as a tie point for the new bias rectifier is a bit amateur, the flying splice off the end is worse. It works in a pinch but a much cleaner solution is to install a terminal strip in place of the old rectifier and mount the new one. No extra holes, and everything is fixed in place.

Looks like the smoke may have come out of the bias pots. Not real impressed with the general layout of all that, it looks like the add-in pots could easily move and short. Hopefully its that and not the trafo. Pots are cheap. My 2 cents would probably be to restore the bias adjustment setup to stock and just run matched pairs of tubes. Less hassle that way.

I'd probably also return the power supply to basically a stock config with a new can cap mounted topside. Its not the cheapest option but its clean and easy. Failing that, I'd probably use one of the cap boards that mounts underneath, though depending on what values those use it can kill the rectifier tube. Those do not want to see a lot of extra capacitor right off the tube.

Just my 2 cents.
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Yeah i think most of us who have been under the hood of one of these or something similar come up with that^^:thumbsup:
 
I'm not ready to go there.
Something unusual went down here. I've seen pieces up for sale (from AEA) that looked brand new. What does that mean? I'm not sure. I can speculate (as can everybody else). OP sent piece out to what he felt was a reputable tech (never having ever used them but seeing some of their work i could only guess someone there had some talent). It was promised in a time period. That didn't happen. Communication broke down. After some persistent attempts piece was worked on ( now knowing someone there has experience i'm guessing they're preoccupied) they farmed it out at the last minute to save face (its the only thing that makes sense) . I think we can all agree this was an easy one. Open access, easy parts availability. As much as i feel for the OP and his situation, I can't help but feel that something went terribly wrong on the other end. I'd like to see the OP made whole. I'd like to see AEA do a me culpa and do an extensive apology. I can't see that they'd be in business as long as they were operating like this.
Perhaps if AEA agreed to repair amp cover both ways shipping and refund the original payment maybe we can put it all to bed.
Without going into specifics i know of an AKer who did a lot of repairs (well) for the community. He got ill , the last of his work was sub par and he died with people's gear. As i understand it the family got the gear back to the rightful owners. I'm hoping its nothing like that:idea:
 
UPDATE:

As of Tuesday, AEA/Analog Engineering Associates has processed a full refund of my payments.

However, I've decided to send *back* the 7199 and GZ34 tubes they installed. I'm not trying to take advantage of anyone, and I don't want there to be any implication of that...

I think I've tried to be as transparent as possible with my questions and postings on this thread, and—to reiterate—my intention is certainly not to cause damage to AEA or its founders. Posting images of their work and relaying communications was an honest attempt to understand what was going on and how best to respond.

I wish them the best of luck, and I look forward to moving on from this episode.

By the way, does anyone know of any good Dynaco techs in the NY area? :rflmao:
 
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BassKulcha said:
UPDATE:

As of Tuesday, AEA has processed a full refund of my payments.

However, I've decided to send *back* the 7199 and GZ34 tubes they installed. I'm not trying to take advantage of anyone, and I don't want there to be any implication of that...

I think I've tried to be as transparent as possible with my questions and postings on this thread, and—to reiterate—my intention is certainly not to cause damage to AEA or its founders. Posting images of their work and relaying communications was an honest attempt to understand what was going on and how best to respond.

I wish them the best of luck, and I look forward to moving on from this episode.

By the way, does anyone know of any good Dynaco techs in the NY area? :rflmao:
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Sending the tubes back seems like a fair & ethical thing to do on your part, not really required, but it shows what kind of guy you are. I would hope that they appreciate that. As far as posting the pics you did, I think we all realize it wasn't to slam the guys who did the work, but as you said, just looking for honest opinions. Nothing wrong with that in my book.

If you come up empty on someone in NY for your needs, contact me via PM. Maybe I can help. (I'm in NH, so not that far from NY.)
 
Just found this thread, sorry about your experience with AEA. If you're still looking for someone in NY to work on your ST70, this guy is supposed to be fantastic, a legend in the tube amp world.

 
Bklynbass said:
Just found this thread, sorry about your experience with AEA. If you're still looking for someone in NY to work on your ST70, this guy is supposed to be fantastic, a legend in the tube amp world.

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I'm looking for a repair of a Fisher amp...i saw the Blackie Pagano video & i looks like he might be very expensive, just by his famous customer base...& 2 location LES & HIP part of Brooklyn...do you know his ballpark cost?
 
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