McIntosh Flunking the Course in Washington State...What Do You Think?

This is a bigger issue of the lack of qualified service techs in the industry as a whole. Not a Mcintosh directly related issue. If there is no one who is qualified in the area how is that Mac’s fault?  I’ve seen this coming for a decade, very few younger people are getting into this type of work and the older people who have been doing it in the past are retiring fast now. Also, the older guys are not taking the time to train the younger Techs.

 My local audio shop doesn’t have a tech anymore and there really isn’t anyone left in the area. This is a sign of the times get used to it. If you really want to help start recommended to young people to take electronics technician courses in school. There is an opening market for this work.

There is an opening market for this work.

That’s for sure!

Wonder how long until there’s a service that lets you mail your broken gear to China and they fix it and return it back to you in less time and for less money tthan it takes the local guy to just diagnose it.

@glennewdick Its not just the electronic tech industry either. It's many skilled blue collar jobs. Our country has lost their way with people pushing kids to college convincing all of them they need a high paying desk job. I remember when I was in middle and high school I had MANY different type of shop jobs available to take including electronics, plastic/rubber shop, small engine repair, woodworking class and the list goes on and on. Many Public schools no longer offer these options. BTW I am a retired bench tech that did surface mount repairs for many years.

I don’t disagree with the last several posts about the problems with industry-wide decline in knowledge, etc.  But. Let’s face it, vacuum tube tech is not ubiquitous anymore by a long shot.  It’s unique to audio which is a very niche industry, and has survived there only.  It would be like expecting wide ranging expertise in wagon wheel repair.  What % of electronics produced these days have vacuum tubes, 1% of 1% ?  Now, if we’re talking SS, that should be different hopefully.  But even then, we live in a throw away culture.  How many TV repair shops out there anymore?  It’s cheaper to just buy a new one.  So as was said, electronics repair in general is probably antiquated itself.  The only non throw away electronic equipment these days is probably avionics, medical, and audio!  Everything else is cheap to make.  The irony is audio should be cheap to make too but we just like to pay a lot for fancy boxes, or realistically, lack of economy of scale for so many of these small companies.  

The irony is audio should be cheap to make too but we just like to pay a lot for fancy boxes, or realistically, lack of economy of scale for so many of these small companies.

Well, audio is pretty cheap to make. It just isn't cheap to buy 😃