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Bel Canto REF600 m amp reapir costs- exorbitant ?

I have a pair of REF600m, I took them out of my system for a month and when I hooked them back up one is dead. No green light, no music. Oddly there are no fuses or breakers in the amp ! Google shows that there are known problems with the power supplies going bad on these. I sent them both in to get looked at- they emailed me today that yup, one needs a new power supply- for $695- and they suggest doing the other one too as it'll probably go next. $1500 to repair two amps with known issues - and the amps are only worth $2800 if I were to sell them. Looking inside the amp there aint much hardware, $700 a power supply sure seems steep- and I'm really stuck. Don't fix them and they're useless, fix them and have a fortune sunk into a pair that aren't worth much. It's like I'd have to spend $1500 to make them saleable for $2500 just to dump them. I would have expected either a free replacement for a known problem or a low cost flat rate repair. I was expecting perhaps $350 each amp. Am I unreasonable? Ignoring the fact that I don't think they should have failed at all, ever. Signed: Unhappy and not buying anymore Bel Canto. 

speedthrills
dr-hooves's avatar
dr-hooves
27 posts
 

Basically there is no way in the real world it costs that much to repair both amps.

The real problem here is fear of the unknown, all you have to do is find a local company that carries out Audio Video repairs and have them carry out the work.

A transformer is simply a winding made every day anywhere and caps also, it is good to do both for sound quality. It needs an honest man to look at them, not a magician. So go find someone and relax.

corelli
1,167 posts
 

@dr-hooves

I am guessing this unit has a switching power supply, not a linear one so it is much more difficult to repair, especially if it has many surface mount components.  Even so, yes, the cost quoted to the OP is steep and over-priced for what it is.

corelli
1,167 posts
 

@speedthrills 

Erik provided a good link.  If you could find out some of the specs on your faulty power supply I wonder if one of these might be a relatively cheap fix.  Other sites carry similar switching power supplies.  I noted they even had a soft start option on the Hypex site (maybe lack of this feature was part of your problem with the stock power supply?)

Good luck.

glennewdick's avatar
glennewdick
1,969 posts
 

Why fix both if one is working fine? Unless this is an old Cap /component issue I don’t see the point. If there is no know failure issue fix one sell them after or use them.

waynefia
192 posts
 

Sorry to the OP with his problem, hope you can figure something out.

But when I see a post like this, and I see people complaining about buying equipment made in China or elsewhere citing poor or expensive repairs.

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