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Total cost of ownership - how to reduce it

Audiogon members love their music - but I am not alone, I think, in finding that the requirements in terms of cost and time for keeping the system running at optimal, can become too steep. Can we help each other out?

Today I have spent two hours trying to find a failed tube in my system. Two months ago I had a bad episode with a repair service that did not repair and did not return my stuff. Some weeks ago, I blew a speaker driver, I am still waiting for the replacement. Thinking, I need a tube tester, since my system has a lot of tubes - I got the tester, but it blew tubes, not "dead on arrival" but "over-excited" - and has to be repaired. I am perhaps especially unlucky. But I ask myself, how much is enough? When such experiences accumulate, I can understand people plugging into Mp3, it is simple and it works.

I have thought about my situation and diagnosed two main types of problems - maybe, relevant for other Audiogon members also.

The first is where you buy a thing used and then get it upgraded by the manufacturer. You pay quite a lot for this, and you would expect the whole thing is checked - but it is not. In two cases now, I have experienced that even if the upgrade works fine, the box as a whole is not checked, and develops problems a year or two after the upgrade.

The second case is where you pay for an upgrade that is more like a new build (e g of a speaker) or rebuild (of a cartridge). Now, there is no lagging wear and tear problem, but it turns out that the upgrade parameters were not fully developed, things have to be changed or checked afterwards (speaker drivers dont work optimal, needle not quite in place, etc).

I would be the first to recognize that some of these costs (time, mainly, but money also) should be accepted. I have paid local repair costs without complaining, and have used many hours of my own time. As an advanced user, I accept some extra costs.

It is just that, sometimes it gets too much.

I would like other Audiogon users' thoughts on this dilemma, and especially, what can we do to reduce the total ownership costs.

Your thoughts and experiences welcome.
o_holter

Showing 3 responses by viridian

viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Heat is the enemy of electronic circuits so, all things being equal - and they never are - class AB solid state amps should be less trouble prone than valve or class A solid state amps. And it would seem to follow that class D amps would be more reliable yet.

I would also agree to skip the upgrades. If it worked and you liked it, then it sounded good. If you have extra cash, sell it and buy something newer. Resetting the clock, so to speak.

Very few companies actually rebuild cartridges. I believe that Koetsu does and you can have several Ortofons factory rebuilt, but the rest give you trade in value. Soundsmith does not do rebuilds, they just graft on a new cantilever.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
LOL, I have tube gear and it doesn’t have to be unreliable to increase the cost of ownership. It is eating up the output devices and small signal tubes whenever it is on. Tubes are consumables, and output tubes generally have limited life spans, So IMHO, all things being equal - and they never are - they will increase the cost of ownership.

Tube replacement is maintenance, not necessarily repair.
That doesn’t even address the gravitational pull of wanting to see what other brands of tubes will sound like, as that will further increase the cost of owning tube gear. Not being able to easily change the output devices in solid state gear is a blessing, and may well be a curse as well.

The OP is not asking what sounds better, and my answer would be a gross generalization anyway, so I’m glad he did not ask.
viridian's avatar
viridian
4,184 posts
 
Modern power pentodes are fine, but IMHO new production small signal triodes are inferior to vintage, and the same holds true of rectifiers, and that’s where the cash register really starts ringing.

Most pure tube push pull amp and preamp combos take at least a dozen tubes. My integrateds take 11, 11 and 9 tubes respectively. So the cost of tubes can mount up pretty quickly.
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