old studio amp died...

[Rimbo 27085]

... repair, replace, reduce, or upgrade?

Back when I had delusions of audio glory, I invested in a pair of Tannoy SBMs powered by a Samson Servo 170 amp. Said amp is now dead on the right side.

The local amp repair tech doesn't buy the line provided by Google searches that it's just a quick relay replacement. (His argument: There's only one relay for both channels, but it's bad on only one side. Mine: but don't both channels go through a 6-pin relay?)

So here's my options.

1. Fix it myself. Get dirty, spend a few hours and a few dollars, solder a new relay in myself. Upside: Cheapest way to keep the same great sounds. Downside: Longest time without an amp, and it's possible replacing the relay doesn't with either due to my own clumsy attempt or the wrong diagnosis or the wrong kind of relay.

2. Get a replacement on ebay (~$100 after shipping). Ups: Same great sound, relatively cheap. Downs: But what if it breaks in three weeks?

3. Get a cheap pair of powered near-field monitors, ditch the whole old setup. Ups: less desk space, about the same price as a used one, can get them as soon as tomorrow. Downs: Most certainly won't sound as good; likely useless for real music mixing if I ever do it again.

4. Buy new. Get a Servo 120a. Ups: Probably sounds better, smaller footprint. Downs: After taxes, looking at $250. That's a lot of beer money to give up.

Amateur home musicians and not-amateurs, what's my best choice here?

[jimmyjazz 47284]

I'd never pay to have a cheap amp repaired.  Just sell it for $25 and either buy a new amp or buy powered monitors.

How old are the Tannoys?  I don't recall any great hoopla about them.  I owned pre-Reveal Tannoys and they were listenable.  It's mostly a name, not the real high-end Tannoy product.

Personally, I'd drop $300 or so on a pair of M-Audio BX5 monitors (I have their big brother BX8 and find them incredibly useful), sell the dead amp for a bit, and move on.

[Bigpoppapump 535]

I’m guessing it wouldn’t be too difficult to fix yourself. I’ve basically spent the couple dollars a couple times to repair computer monitors amongst other things, and depending on how long they last from the fixes, I have time to figure out the future replacement. I’m assuming the board has nice big solder points as well.

[Rimbo 27085]

Stumbled across this while looking for a thread to discuss my Peavey and... whoa, I didn't come back here, but this became a long story.

Repairing it was not gonna happen. Found out that this was a pretty common issue, but the part itself was half the cost of a new amp.

I first tried a pair of KRK Classic 8 studio monitors as replacements. Immediately felt they were a considerable downgrade vs. the SBMs, so I went back to looking for amps.

The only thing I could find to replace the Servo 170 adequately was... the Servo 120a.

The 120a sounded just as good... for two months. Then, distortion and crackling noises began coming through the left channel. I worked with the seller (who did fabulous, by the way; top marks to MusicStoreLive!) to exchange it for a replacement, which arrived quickly.

Two months in, THAT one developed a hissing noise, this time in the right channel.

This time, the manufacturer took OVER A MONTH to get me an RMA and send me a new unit.

Except the unit was NOT new. THEY SENT ME BACK THE EXACT SAME UNIT I'D RETURNED BROKEN IN THE FIRST PLACE. I still had a record of the serial number from when I'd originally purchased it and checked. They hadn't even cleaned off the dust pattern left on it. And yes, the same awful distortion and crackling noises in the left channel were still there, just as they had been before.

By this time, MusicStoreLive had graciously granted me a refund, but now I was contacting Samson directly to try to get a functional unit. This time, new RMA in hand, I sent back the unit. Four days later, I called back to get a tracking number, and no replacement had shipped.

If Samson had sent me a box full of rabid cocaine-addled weasels instead of my old, still-broken amp back to me, I'd have a slightly higher opinion of them, because while they would still have expressed the same aggressive level of apathy and customer hatred, at least there is a kind of honesty to it. And after humanely putting them to sleep (and getting my shots) I could make a coat or leg-warmers out of their skins or something, and at least get something USEFUL for my time.

I did, eventually get one. And it's worked ever since. And I just upgraded my audio interface to the new FocusRite 4i4 4th gen (which has the same DACs/ADCs as their rack-mounted studio stuff) and everything sounds amazing now.