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Right To Repair

Colonel_Mad said:
Surely Steve Wozniak was influential in directing Apple company policy at the point when they decided to make units of all types defunct well before the end of their useable life as a sales strategy. No?
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Yes, I think his influence is great. Although someone can say that the changes took place without much influence from Steve Wozniak.
 
Burrrrrton said:
Yes, I think his influence is great. Although someone can say that the changes took place without much influence from Steve Wozniak.
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As stated upthread he was gone by then. To my understanding he left (other than being a shareholder) in 1985, i.e. just after the first generation of the Macintosh, which was and remains a very serviceable machine (they can still be fixed today assuming the bias battery hasn’t leaked and corroded too much of the mainboard). He had no part in what came later. His legacy is the Apple I and Apple II, IIe etc.
 
Last week my Mrs brought home an old (early 80s) Dual 505-1 from a mutual lady friend. Occasionally spinning backwards and hum problems. I replaced 4 components on the motor PCB, that cured the motor direction. The phono plugs were on the point of disintegration (one cracked). Two new phono plugs soldered on, all checked & set up. She is one very happy bunny, one bottle of wine proffered, and paid me enough for a modest meal out. A very satisfying venture.
 
I don’t like political threads or comments in the audio room as you know Tony but I have to say I am right behind you on this topic and I’m not sure it’s political per se, although it will take politics/legislation to solve it.

I confess I don’t understand why we can take our cars to an independent service outlet who have a legal right to diagnostics, parts (if made by a third party or the manufacturer) and repairs (warranty implications notwithstanding in some cases) whilst we can’t do that with electronics such as the Arcam example quoted in the most recent pages. Although maybe I’m wrong on the cars.
 
Let’s talk about serviceable items - my daughters just visited me after almost a year in Canada, first opportunity thanks to Covid. That means 2 iPhone 6s‘s to repair, and and iPhone 5s.

- 6s #1 - Easy, full screen from AliExpress delivered for chf25.-, fitted in 20 mins, fully functional again
- 6s #2 - thrown at floor by daughters mother, chassis looks like a banana (we're divorced for a reason ;)), screen in pieces and daughter forced open and ripped battery out because alarm was going off with no way to stop. Same phone also had weak WiFi problems in the past (daughter #2 onto 3rd screen already, bloody kids!). Fitted new battery, screen and WiFi antenna for about chf40.- - took an hour, required complete disassembly of phone (required anyhow to straightenchassis so new screen would fit), one of the 4 WiFi antenna connections was broken, fully functional again
- 5s - broken screen, still working, not sure if it’s even worth replacing (about 20.- from AliExpress)

i think in general companies like ifixit.com keep iPhones alive, and the iPhone 6 is probably the most serviceable of the lot!
 
I was inspired by this thread to try to repair my trusty Squeezebox Boom. Like me it is a lovely old thing, but also like me it is a struggle to get it to work. It had a well-documented fault, on power-up the front panel lights flash and that’s all you get. The problem is... it can’t see the wifi card. It doesn’t matter if it is plugged in via ethernet or not, it still won’t work. Wonderful. I followed again well-documented instructions, gritting my teeth when I thought I might be breaking something (the board was glued in, thanks Logitech) and swearing when the wifi board was stuck in place with double-sided sticky foam (thanks again.) I finally prised it out, plugged into my network, powered up again and - it powers up and works! Hooray! Now to put in the replacement wifi card. Result - front panel lights flash and that’s all you get.

Oh well, another partial success.
 
Re repair to Hi Fi I've recently had some 40 year old Naim kit serviced and recapped. It is possible, it's just whether the cost is worth the effort- Naim yes, my aging Yamaha 2.1 AV amps not so much.
 
bruss said:
Re repair to Hi Fi I've recently had some 40 year old Naim kit serviced and recapped. It is possible, it's just whether the cost is worth the effort- Naim yes, my aging Yamaha 2.1 AV amps not so much.
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I’d argue this was a reason to consider every purchasing decision and view the environmental impact as well as the total cost of ownership. Your Naim kit, like my vintage Leak, Quad, Thorens etc, retains very good resale, pretty much to the point they can be viewed as increasing assets. They should never end up in landfill which is great for the environment.
 
I tend to agree but then I am at a stage in my life where i can afford to make those choices. My younger self wasn't in that position and I guess many people aren't so privileged. We can see that in everything from cheap foods, cheap clothes and to be fair even expensive clothes produced cheaply for fashion and then discarded.
 
My 4 year old work laptop, by Dell, has developed a 5mm gap at the front thanks to a swollen battery which is a known issue, but I have a new battery on the way so repair is in process. The Laptop has consumed a couple of items over the years and could do with a clean, but otherwise soldiers on happily.

I do feel slightly virtuous now...
 
In terms of 'right to repair' legislation, how is 'repairable' determined? My washing machine was 'repairable', but not economically.

Jamie said:
This week the (Bosch) washing machine (about 10 years old) started emitting loud noises on fast spin. Bearings need replacing, thinks I. A bit of googling reveals it is a sealed drum type, so bearings not replaceable, and new drum is about £230 (plus fitting).
New machine then.

More googling to find one that does not have a sealed drum reveals that only Miele do that now (and that excludes the cheapest model).
I've had a Miele before, and though they are built better with ability to repair, the cost of spares and Miele only repair people means if they do need repair, they get expensive.
So I have just resigned myself to the fact that I will need a new one every 10-12 years.
So much for 'right to repair'.

Ordered this from Appliance City:
https://www.bosch-home.co.uk/produc...chines/front-load-washing-machines/WAN28281GB

It will be the 4th machine since 1987, so averaging 11 years or so each (Hoover, Miele, Bosch).
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looking at fridge-freezers the other day, you can spend £1000, on one and all they give you is ONE year warranty, how do they even sell this stuff, how do they stay in business, most have TWO, again would not touch one, there are fridge-freezers costing over £8000, and still giving you a one year guaranty, crazy, i would accept no less than 5 years, i buy bosch, and they do last more than 10 years, before giving up, i still have a bosch washer and its over 20 years old, and still going strong, i think they where made in Germany back then,
 
They stay in business precisely because of the fat margin on a £1k fridge freezer and a short warranty protects that fat margin apart from when buyers think to legally challenge it.
 
well Im fighting with a perfect well working set of Devialet Phantoms. They play'ed wonderful until they recently stopped to service their old app.

Today I have to nice white phantoms, not able to log into the apps who deliver the actual music (Tidal).

Im sure that the electronics inside will last loong time, but since the software engineer isn't updating the app any more, they are now just expensive boat anchor.

Talking about waste of good hardware

(My leak 20 is still playing, but it's not controlled by an app)
 
Reenberg said:
well Im fighting with a perfect well working set of Devialet Phantoms. They play'ed wonderful until they recently stopped to service their old app.
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Sounds odd. Have you updated the firmware/app etc. I know nothing about these speakers, though a quick Google suggests updates for both are very recent (last month or so).
 
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