Refurbish vs New Amplifier?

not sure if he should bother or not...but if it is a slow decline, while he might not have noticed, he may very well notice if all is made right...different ways to look at it...Odyssey encourages their owners to have their amps checked and it's free for original owner...I have had only good experience with having older amps refurbished

I understand your logic and think it is just as legitimate.

I just had my Sunfire Grand Cinema  amp worked on by Flannery Vintage Audio in Washington state.He specializes in  older Bob Carver equipment as he worked with Mr. Carver when Carver owned Sunfire the company. you could connect with him by googling Flannery Vintage Audio and see if he would repair your amp. Mr. Flannery was excellent! I can not give him enough praise. He was extremely thorough, detailed and in continued communication. If any of you members have older Sunfire products this IS the man to contact.  

Contact Steve at The Service Department in Bridgeport CT. Was 20 years service tech at Krell and knows them inside out and how to get them to sing their best. As well, he is the US authorized servicer for many world class brands. Upgraded the power regulation and refurbished a 25 yo amp of mine and it's better than new - so much so that it bumped my Goldmund to the second rig. Would have had to spend 5 to 10 times more than the cost of the rebuild to touch the performance. Your piece probably needs less.  Good luck. 

Components drift over time. Most new parts have 5% tolerance. Everything has a sweet spot and at some point in time all components drift into (and out) this sweet spot. The first thing we do when we get a "sweet sounding" old amp is measure the components and document the values. If we do a one off build we use the schematic but with the "drift values" of that sweet old amp. You can get new components at a 1% tolerance to "dial it in" but they cost more. Heat and age take a toll on resistors-diodes and caps. I just recapped my Sonic Frontiers SFS-40 that's going up for sale. The dynamic range is back - it has serious punch. While I was in there I replaced the power transistor and now the bias is rock solid. Everything affects everything. If you love the circuit design it might be worth a going through. Capacitor design has come a long way in the last 20 years. A Rubycon 450v 10uf cap is smaller than the old design but most likely more robust. Transistors dry up as well. Room acoustics and one's hearing mechanism is probably more important. It never ends so don't worry :)