I live in Saint Paul--it's not a mansion, but it's large enough and my neighbors are long used (27 years) to loud music emanating from my house--especially when the Imperial 9's are being used in tri amp mode.
 
Hello,

I'm new to the forum and was curious if anyone would have any recommendations for local shops that would work on tube amps/stereo?

I have this Grundig console I'm looking to make operational again. I believe I would need to pull the guts out and drop off at a shop as this console is rather large. Thanks in advance for any input. For what it's worth, I'm in Prior Lake.

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recommendations for local shops that would work on tube amps

you could try calling Dave Olsen at HIFi Sound in minneapolis. he restored all my tube gear including my model 9's and is quite good. he only works a day or two a week now and is kinda of picky about what he works on now but its worth a shot. he usually is there on tuesdays
 
I've used Dave in the past as well. There are a few others out there--or so I've been told. I don't know for sure though.
 
For what it's worth... I didn't have a good experience with Dave at HiFi Sound. I wouldn't go back to him, based on my experience. He was 'snooty', and kind of looked down on my turntable. But, he agreed to work on it to fix a speed fluctuation problem. It's a vintage JVC VL8 in mint condition. He ended up charging me $200 for the work, and didn't fix it. I took it to Elite Service in Eau Claire instead. They actually took time to troubleshoot the issue, and replaced caps and transistors in the power supply control board. Cost me $80 and it's still working fine three years later. That's my experience... YMMV.

And, by the way, as I said he looked down on it and made me feel it's worthless. Now that it's back in working condition, I will put it up against any turntable under $4k. It sounds fantastic, was originally part of JVC's "studio" line, and certainly does not deserve his disdain.
 
For what it's worth... I didn't have a good experience with Dave at HiFi Sound. I wouldn't go back to him, based on my experience. He was 'snooty', and kind of looked down on my turntable. But, he agreed to work on it to fix a speed fluctuation problem. It's a vintage JVC VL8 in mint condition. He ended up charging me $200 for the work, and didn't fix it. I took it to Elite Service in Eau Claire instead. They actually took time to troubleshoot the issue, and replaced caps and transistors in the power supply control board. Cost me $80 and it's still working fine three years later. That's my experience... YMMV.

And, by the way, as I said he looked down on it and made me feel it's worthless. Now that it's back in working condition, I will put it up against any turntable under $4k. It sounds fantastic, was originally part of JVC's "studio" line, and certainly does not deserve his disdain.

Apparently you 2 just didn't hit it off for whatever reason and it happens. I've met Dave on several occasions, albeit not very talkative I never got attitude from him. As for being charged for repairs that didn't fix the problem is a valid complaint. However, when you initially encountered "tude" you could of simply gathered your items and gone out the front door. After all it's your money that allows businesses to keep doing business.
Thanks for the service review anyway but after 3 years things have changed there. HiFi Sound farms the majority of their repairs out to other qualified repair people in the Metro area as Dave has pretty much retired to one day a week and only services previous customer's items. I got that info from one of the repair places HiFi Sound sends their stuff to and have seen the repair tickets attached to the items on his bench. I would take my ARC equipment to this guy even though ARC is located 20 minutes from me and in your back yard.
With that being said I can think of many other places around here I wouldn't trust to repair a toaster....:no:
 
Apparently you 2 just didn't hit it off for whatever reason and it happens. I've met Dave on several occasions, albeit not very talkative I never got attitude from him. As for being charged for repairs that didn't fix the problem is a valid complaint. However, when you initially encountered "tude" you could of simply gathered your items and gone out the front door. After all it's your money that allows businesses to keep doing business.
Thanks for the service review anyway but after 3 years things have changed there. HiFi Sound farms the majority of their repairs out to other qualified repair people in the Metro area as Dave has pretty much retired to one day a week and only services previous customer's items. I got that info from one of the repair places HiFi Sound sends their stuff to and have seen the repair tickets attached to the items on his bench. I would take my ARC equipment to this guy even though ARC is located 20 minutes from me and in your back yard.
With that being said I can think of many other places around here I wouldn't trust to repair a toaster....:no:

So, who do you take it to?
 
Rob, I've heard good things about Absolute Sound in Savage. I haven't taken any gear there but the owner seems nice. I've chatted with him on Steve Hoffman's hardware forum. So far I haven't found something I couldn't fix myself.
 
Rob, I've heard good things about Absolute Sound in Savage. I haven't taken any gear there but the owner seems nice. I've chatted with him on Steve Hoffman's hardware forum. So far I haven't found something I couldn't fix myself.

Thanks Rickl-
I'd like to rebuild a Marantz 240 and 140 myself, if I had help--(hint hint). I may also need to do some cap replacement on my teac X1000R
 
i'm rebuilding a dead 250 right now and it is similar to your 240. these are kind of tricky and some say unstable from the factory. the guys over on the marantz manufacturer's sub forum are great and can offer help if you want to do it yourself.
 
i'm rebuilding a dead 250 right now and it is similar to your 240. these are kind of tricky and some say unstable from the factory. the guys over on the marantz manufacturer's sub forum are great and can offer help if you want to do it yourself.
I was thinking that. I can tell you as the owner of two 250's and two 240's they are actually very stable--once recapped and any resistors replaced that need to be. I have been running three of them in an actively tri-amped set up for years now--simply beautiful to listen to.
 
hey rob, I was able to get my 250 rebuilt and working. If you are curious, i have a thread on the marantz forum.
 
Just got my Pioneer back from Dave at HiFi -
super happy with his work - Dave did what needed to be done and was very reasonable -
Very thankful to have a tech like Dave.
 
Glad it worked out for you! Sorry I didn’t reply sooner... for some reason I don’t always get notifications from this site. I had my TT serviced at Elite Audio in Eau Claire. Nice people, great work, and still running great three years later. Next time, I will check out absolute in savage. Thanks for the tip!
 
Which Pioneer did he fix for you? Did he recap it and change out the known troublesome transistors or just repair what was broken?
 
Hey @Nixxuz , I am in Fargo and have a random question for you. Do you know anyone in the area who does repair work? I have a Pioneer SA-8500ii that needs to be serviced and I’m hoping to find someone local...
 
Hey @Nixxuz , I am in Fargo and have a random question for you. Do you know anyone in the area who does repair work? I have a Pioneer SA-8500ii that needs to be serviced and I’m hoping to find someone local...
Vinyl Giant has "a guy" they supposedly get vintage stuff repaired by. I'm also getting to the point where I can service at least some stuff, but am still somewhat an amateur.
 
there is a few of us on AK that can fix the pioneer. most are pretty busy right now. Seems everyone is pulling out the busted gear now. I have 3 in the queue. With Covid, it is even harder.
 
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