Do repairs make sense any more?

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sawdust123

sawdust123

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Nov 10, 2006
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At what point do replace rather than repair?

Today I fixed an 8 year old rarely used 55" TV. Last Friday, I had turned it on for the first time in years. Within a few minutes the TV turned off and emitted a wisp of smoke. Before trashing it, I figured I would disassemble it to see what let out the smoke. After a few minutes of looking, I found a quarter inch ceramic capacitor had completely fried. It was so badly burnt, I couldn't read the part value. I eventually found that info in a Reddit thread. I was able to buy 20 of those capacitors on Amazon for $6 and they arrived today. It took all of 5 minutes to do the replacement and get the TV working again.

My wife asked me if anyone still repairs TVs. Sure enough, I found three repair businesses within 15 minutes that do. However, the minimum fee is ~$100 just to examine it and tell you if it is repairable. That may seem reasonable until you consider that the repair cost could rise and an upgraded replacement model of the same size would cost under $300. What would you have done? Spend for the repair or upgrade/replace? What if it were a piece of your gear (speaker, controller, etc) that needed to be fixed? At what point would you definitely repair or definitely replace?
 
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sawdust123 said:
At what point do replace rather than repair?

Today I fixed an 8 year old rarely used 55" TV. Last Friday, I had turned it on for the first time in years. Within a few minutes the TV turned off and emitted a wisp of smoke. Before trashing it, I figured I would disassemble it to see what let out the smoke. After a few minutes of looking, I found a quarter inch ceramic capacitor had completely fried. It was so badly burnt, I couldn't read the part value. I eventually found that info in a Reddit thread. I was able to buy 20 of those capacitors on Amazon for $6 and they arrived today. It took all of 5 minutes to do the replacement and get the TV working again.

My wife asked me if anyone still repairs TVs. Sure enough, I found three repair businesses within 15 minutes that do. However, the minimum fee is ~$100 just to examine it and tell you if it is repairable. That may seem reasonable until you consider that the repair cost could rise and an upgraded replacement model of the same size would cost under $300. What would you have done? Spend for the repair or upgrade/replace? What if it were a piece of your gear (speaker, controller, etc) that needed to be fixed? At what point would you definitely repair or definitely replace?
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Depends. My moving head lights which are about $2000 each to replace with something new, I’ll gladly spend $300-$500 to repair. Same thing with my main speakers. Some things I can repair myself too keeping costs low. But say an uplights battery goes bad or the unit breaks… instantly buy a new one. Or if my everse goes bad… just buy a new one. Guess it’s simply circumstantial.

for an example not DJ related, my pool motor failed (older single speed model), I could’ve paid $500 to get it repaired due to the labor and parts cost… or just replace the motor itself (not the housing) with a new aftermarket one for $400.
 
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I say it depends on what the item is and how much would it cost to get a new model or better one? I saw in Shop Rite they had a 50 inch Vizio TV on sale for $180. It's really up to you if you think it's worth getting an item fixed or replaced. Recently we had a Denon DN MC 6000 repaired. The cost I remember was less than $150 if I'm correct.
 
I recently had one side of one of one of my dual CD players fail.

I thought about just going with three available CD decks, but I started thinking that if I was ever going to get another dual deck I had better buy one now as I don't believe they are even made anymore.

And was I ever right...there are very few brand new models still out there for sale, so I scooped one up.

Lots of used ones, but most of them have something wrong with them (ie.- good for parts).
 
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Most modern consumer and even many professional products are simply not manufactured with repairs as an expectation. The first hurdle is obsolescence. The tech is just advancing so fast that upgrades are often more beneficial than repairs.

Then there's the manufacturing processes that have made modern electronics so cheap to produce, but simultaneously make the too costly or difficult to repair. There simply is no replacement part - or no way to remove the failed part without causing more damage.
 
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Proformance said:
Then there's the manufacturing processes that have made modern electronics so cheap to produce, but simultaneously make the too costly or difficult to repair. There simply is no replacement part - or no way to remove the failed part without causing more damage.
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This is normally quite true. It really surprised me as to how easy it was to repair this TV. There were about 10 Phillips head screws to pull the back off. The entire TV is on 4 circuit boards. Two of these are about 8"x10" and the other two were much smaller (just larger and just smaller than a business card). Everything is attached via ribbon cables. The power supply board had mostly through-hole components which made replacing the parts really simple. The other boards were mostly surface mount components.

I typically like to diagnose a problem myself and then determine if a repair is warranted. However, I enjoy the challenge of a repair so I sometimes repair things that have no need for. I am currently repairing a stereo I bought in 1986. It has a great FM stage which is currently intermittent and a great phono stage. It has no remote or A/V switching features. In fully working condition, this stereo can still fetch nearly what I paid for it. It almost seems to have a minor cult following. I may add a BT receiver to it and hook it to some speakers in my bar shed. Actually, I could do that without fixing the FM section but that wouldn't be any fun.
 
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One of my Alto TS312 speakers just started having an issue after 7+ years of use. I wasn't getting any sound out of one of them during my sound tests on Saturday night. I thought it might be the xlr card. Changed that out. Nope. Anyway, the Altos on the dial have "Line" input on the left side of 12 o clock, and "Mic" on the right side of 12 o clock. I was getting NOTHING on the line side. I happened to turn it all the way over and I was getting sound out on the MIC side, but I did notice the volume was only about 75% as much as my other Alto Speaker.

I am wondering if the AMP is going in the unit, or if it is something to do with the circuit board inside. Anyway, It's a $349 speaker brand new. I got 7 years out of it. I'm not going to spend money on getting it repaired. I have a set of Yamaha Speakers I can start using more often, or keep using my Harbinger MLS1000s. I have other options. I also have an older Alto TSW212 speaker which looks the same, just less power but works fine that I can use in it's place.

My Days of using the Altos at most of my events are probably coming to an end soon any way.
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
One of my Alto TS312 speakers just started having an issue after 7+ years of use. I wasn't getting any sound out of one of them during my sound tests on Saturday night. I thought it might be the xlr card. Changed that out. Nope. Anyway, the Altos on the dial have "Line" input on the left side of 12 o clock, and "Mic" on the right side of 12 o clock. I was getting NOTHING on the line side. I happened to turn it all the way over and I was getting sound out on the MIC side, but I did notice the volume was only about 75% as much as my other Alto Speaker.
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My first guess here would be a problem with the input potentiometer (what the knob turns). This part is under stress every time you turn it. A solder joint could have a hairline crack in it. My first fix would be to reflow the solder joints for the part. The problem could also be the pot itself. These can corrode but usually turning them a few times can break the corrosion. If nothing else, turning would produce scratchy performance.

Another test would be to hook up a known working speaker to the mix output of the bad speaker. Feed a signal into the bad speaker and see if there is signal going to the working speaker. If so, it means the input section of the bad speaker is working and the problem is in the amplifier section.
 
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sawdust123 said:
My first guess here would be a problem with the input potentiometer (what the knob turns). This part is under stress every time you turn it.
Another test would be to hook up a known working speaker to the mix output of the bad speaker. Feed a signal into the bad speaker and see if there is signal going to the working speaker. If so, it means the input section of the bad speaker is working and the problem is in the amplifier section.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the input and test suggestion. When I have some time I will try this, or maybe at my next gig during set up (if I choose to use the Altos for it). I will say that I tried both input 1 and 2 on that speaker, and it did the same thing on both input sides, so I don't know what the odds are of both potentiometers going bad on both sides? I rarely ever used input 2 on that speaker as well.
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
Thank you for the input and test suggestion. When I have some time I will try this, or maybe at my next gig during set up (if I choose to use the Altos for it). I will say that I tried both input 1 and 2 on that speaker, and it did the same thing on both input sides, so I don't know what the odds are of both potentiometers going bad on both sides? I rarely ever used input 2 on that speaker as well.
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I’m gonna ask a dumb question or maybe I missed it did your try switching the cable
 
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DJ Ricky B said:
Thank you for the input and test suggestion. When I have some time I will try this, or maybe at my next gig during set up (if I choose to use the Altos for it). I will say that I tried both input 1 and 2 on that speaker, and it did the same thing on both input sides, so I don't know what the odds are of both potentiometers going bad on both sides? I rarely ever used input 2 on that speaker as well.
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OK, that makes the pots a less likely problem source. There could be a connection problem between the mixer and amp sections (it is via ribbon cable). The output test will help determine that. However, I found this video that shows a quick and dirty repair to a possible problem. It seems a bit sketchy though. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zLpgP0HLVE I would have to see the schematic to analyze what those inductors and zeners were being used for.
 
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sawdust123 said:
OK, that makes the pots a less likely problem source. There could be a connection problem between the mixer and amp sections (it is via ribbon cable). The output test will help determine that. However, I found this video that shows a quick and dirty repair to a possible problem. It seems a bit sketchy though. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zLpgP0HLVE I would have to see the schematic to analyze what those inductors and zeners were being used for.
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If there are any ribbon cables inside the speaker start by (carefully) physically removing each one completely and then reseat them again. These cables oxidize over time and the connections can become weaker or interrupted. It's one of the first signs of aging in modern gear, and where the equipment moves in and out of various levels of humidity the issue is exacerbated.
 
musicdoctordj said:
I recently had one side of one of one of my dual CD players fail.

I thought about just going with three available CD decks, but I started thinking that if I was ever going to get another dual deck I had better buy one now as I don't believe they are even made anymore.

And was I ever right...there are very few brand new models still out there for sale, so I scooped one up.

Lots of used ones, but most of them have something wrong with them (ie.- good for parts).
Click to expand...
Even if you're DJing very rarely or as a hobby - putting the money into a controller (and there are some very modest ones that will do everything your CD players do) would probably make DJing even more enjoyable than collecting/replacing legacy gear. The compact nature alone would give you faster and easier access to getting straight to the part of the DJ endeavor you love most.

The nice thing now, is you don't even have to rip your CDs to have the digital music files. The software will play them for you from online pools.
 
sawdust123 said:
OK, that makes the pots a less likely problem source. There could be a connection problem between the mixer and amp sections (it is via ribbon cable). The output test will help determine that. However, I found this video that shows a quick and dirty repair to a possible problem. It seems a bit sketchy though. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zLpgP0HLVE I would have to see the schematic to analyze what those inductors and zeners were being used for.
Click to expand...
OK. I evaluated the schematic. It is just an input voltage limiter. You can short out the inductor and remove all the diodes and your signal will be OK. You just won't have over-voltage protection which means you could potentially cause woofer over-excursion. It would take a signal greater than most controllers provide.
 
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