What would you do with this vintage?

[pyonc]

Depends on the tech. Would you trust them to Billy Bob's Backyard BBQ and Electronics Repair? Finding a guy who knows his stuff and won't screw them up would be a priority. I would probably just continue to use the one that sounds good and use the other as a guinea pig (that is if I didn't just sell the one I didn't like and buy something that didn't need work). That way, if the tech screws up, at least you still have a working unit in the mean time.

Yea, you're right. I think I have to keep it as a back-up just like now, for fear a tech screws up....ri
Anyway, I'm going to bring this older unit to a tech shop in my area (ProTech in Silver Spring, MD).
It's very hard to find vintage technicians in my area.

[pyonc]

As we used to say at Intel "if it ain't broke ... fix it ..'till it is"

Really?

[SEAWOLF97]

Really?

you don't get out much

sell the suspect one to that Jazz club genius in Tokyo. ?

The hi-fi-buying public has a proven fascination with "heritage" products, from direct-heated triodes and spherically tipped cartridges to antique microphones and field-coil drivers. The current fascination with direct-drive turntables is echoed in a parallel cult worshipping the original Technics SP-15 studio decks, not as affordable alternatives but as genuinely unassailable references, against which all modern alternatives are weak and feeble pretenders. Likewise the obsession with NOS tubes and original pressings of LPs. The dual mantras of "old is good and older is better" and "the original and still the best" are chanted with almost hymnal solemnity, but there’s a world of difference between a reconditioned antique field-coil driver and the EM units being produced by Focal, an old Quad 22 or Dynaco and a modern tube preamp. Just because something is old it doesn’t make it good, and the secret is to learn from and improve on those older technologies

http://www.theaudiobeat.com/equipmen...ox_elysian.htm

[audiomagnate]

He was the original service manager for Audionics, got snapped up when Fosgate bought Audionics, and again when Harman bought Fosgate. Now he has a service and design business here in Colorado's Grand Junkyard. He started out making runs to Aspen to fix rich people's flatscreens on the go, but evidently that gets old. Now he's doing more and more vintage audio, as well as Synthesis gear that current Harman employees can't fix. Let me know if you want to give him a try. He's not fast, but I truly believe he's the best in the biz right now, plus he's cheap and honest to boot! NPFs (No Problem Found) go back at no charge, and I'm sure he under bills his hours, especially if it's a piece he finds interesting. Let me know if you want to contact him and I'll PM you his number. He's way too busy as it is, so don't expect a lightning turnaround.