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Future classic audio kit

Joe said:
Nothing with surface mount or chips I would imagine.... not repairable in the long run. They make everything a potential doorstop.
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If I can get parts, I can repair SMD boards. It’s a different skill to through hole rework but not necessarily harder.
 
Nothing with a digital display, or CPU, or ASIC's, or remote control, or digital volume control, or class D, or SMD etc.... and generally no digital audio products.

Most of this new technology is a backward step IMHO... it's there to make things cheaper to mass produce, lighter (transport costs) and to appeal to the techno geek in people... apparently some are impressed that their amp has a digital display and says "Welcome" when they switch it on... it makes it irreparable though.

Things reached a high point in the early 80's IMHO. Modern enough to not really have been improved on since (another topic...) but traditional enough in the way it's built and the parts used to be endlessly repairable in many cases.
 
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linnfomaniac83 said:
If I can get parts, I can repair SMD boards. It’s a different skill to through hole rework but not necessarily harder.
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I would say it's hugely more difficult! 10 X more..... and generally not practical or economical outside of specialist facilities ie a manufacturer or specialist repair centre handling 100's of repairs a week ie not hi fi gear. SMD resistors caps, transistors, op amps etc yeah sure no problem easy peasy but BGA's etc nah... the gear needed is too expensive and specialised and there is far too much risk of failure in the process. The dealing with the BGA soldering tech and it's reworking etc becomes the specialist task in itself, not the electronics.
If you are fixing 100 a week of the same thing, have all the hot air and infra red gear, pre heating oven etc etc (£ many thousands for decent gear), have bulk quantities of the components being reworked etc and can laugh at 1-2 in 10 not working after you've gone to all that time and trouble, 'cos you've got loads left to make your profit on, then yeah... but we're talking a big manufacturer or say the Sony/Apple/Samsung South East UK regional repair centre etc...

Oh and nothing anyone has to say about "some bloke fixes mobile phones with BGA's OK" changes any of what I said!)
 
Arkless Electronics said:
I would say it's hugely more difficult! 10 X more..... and generally not practical or economical outside of specialist facilities ie a manufacturer or specialist repair centre handling 100's of repairs a week ie not hi fi gear. SMD resistors caps, transistors, op amps etc yeah sure no problem easy peasy but BGA's etc nah... the gear needed is too expensive and specialised and there is far too much risk of failure in the process. The dealing with the BGA soldering tech and it's reworking etc becomes the specialist task in itself, not the electronics.
If you are fixing 100 a week of the same thing, have all the hot air and infra red gear, pre heating oven etc etc (£ many thousands for decent gear), have bulk quantities of the components being reworked etc and can laugh at 1-2 in 10 not working after you've gone to all that time and trouble, 'cos you've got loads left to make your profit on, then yeah... but we're talking a big manufacturer or say the Sony/Apple/Samsung South East UK regional repair centre etc...

Oh and nothing anyone has to say about "some bloke fixes mobile phones with BGA's OK" changes any of what I said!)
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BGAs are challenging unless you have the right kit, everything else is fairly easy. I’ve a fair amount of experience with SMD though.

For me, the most unwelcome change in manufacturing was moving to lead free solder.
 
linnfomaniac83 said:
BGAs are challenging unless you have the right kit, everything else is fairly easy. I’ve a fair amount of experience with SMD though.

For me, the most unwelcome change in manufacturing was moving to lead free solder.
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Quite a bit here also.... I had to build up SMD prototypes of equipment I'd designed on PCB's I'd designed and also do the solder screen in my last job before self employment!

To me SMD is infinitely worse than lead free solder...
 
Duevel Planets. They have been available for 12 years, I believe, and are now the only affordable speakers of their (omnidirectional) kind. They are easy to accommodate and work really well for orchestral and chamber music in my smallish room. Members of my U3A jazz-listening group like them too.

I've had rather more expensive speakers that were not nearly so satisfying. The sense of scale that the Planets create in a small space is addictive. When you have become accustomed to the presentation of omnis there is no going back!
 
Roksan Nima ticks lots of the boxes. It's a quirky design, and I think will still look good years to come. It'll still work in 30 years, and being a unipivot there aren't any pesky bearings to fix!
 
I was going to say the Parasound JC1 power amps, but it looks like they were discontinued last year. Same with the A21, which I have.
 
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