Does anyone do electronics work anymore?

Ok, so I have a bit of an odd hobby.  Collecting and preserving quadraphonic recordings.  This hobby requires me to work with vintage stereo equipment.  I can only imagine the horrors yet to come when 20 years from now someone has to find a working SACD and DVD-A player to deal with what will at that time be vintage technologies that are long gone, since these digital players are simply not built to last.  But, time will tell on that one.  In the meantime, I've had much luck with stereo equipment from the 70s holding up and continuing to work.  But, I am always looking to get the most I can out of these old tapes and records.

And that brings us to the cd-4 quadraphonic record, also known as quadradisc in the US.  It was arguably the best of the vinyl quadraphonic formats.  It made the use of a high frequency carrier signal to carry 4 channels of information on a vinyl stereo format, by having a sum of the front and back on the record, and a difference signal in the carrier signal.  So, to play it back properly, one uses a magic box which is a cd-4 quadraphonic disc demodulator, which takes the high frequency carrier signal, derives the difference signal from it, and uses that to separate out the front and back information to get a nice quadraphonic playback.

Simple enouigh.

Ok, maybe not, but still, one doesn't need to understand all of that in order to change out a few parts on a circuit board, but more on that later.

So, I have a nice cd-4 demodulator, the marantz cd-400.  Not to be confused with the marantz cd-400B.  Don't let the name fool you, B doesn't mean it's better since it is newer.  It is simpler in a way, it has one less calibration knob for the end user to have to adjust to get it to work.  But, due to that, it just doesn't work as well.  So, stay away from the B, and go for the cd-400, when shopping for a demodulator.

Now, the marantz cd-400 isn't as nice as something like the JVC cd4-50, but it's much more affordable.  Also, if one opens up the cd-400, one will find it is basically a JVC 4dd-5, housed in a different case.  So, since JVC 4dd-5s are so common and affordable, a nice guy in merry old England by the name of Malcolm decided to tweak around inside of one, and find a way to improve it's performance.  On it's own, it does work quite nicely, but Malcolm knew there was potential to improve.  So, with a few tweaks, he found one could change out 5 capacitors to improve the power supply, and change 2 resistors for 2 trimpots to fine tune the settings a bit in order to maximize the separation.  When I heard about this, I knew I had to do this.  Because, due to the nature of the format, when there is bleedthrough from front to back, it is a bit distorted, which is a major annoyance for me.  So, cutting down on bleedthrough = cutting down on distortion.

So, one day a while back, I went to the local fryes, and went looking for capacitors.  I couldn't find the right ones.  FUCK!!!!  I was pissed....does no one carry a wide enough selection of capacitors?  Ok, ok well....the capacitors on the power supply in the marantz actually looked pretty nice, they've held up.  I think the marantz was built a bit nicer from the JVC, the JVC model actually eliminated one of these capacitors, which Malcolm recommended adding back in, the marantz actually had all 5, so....ok, ok, lets just focus on the resistors for trimpots.  So, I couldn't find the exact trimpots I needed.  FUCK!!!!!  But, I bought something I thought would work.

Anyways, I get home and I realize....what the fuck are you doing?  You idiot, you're going to ruin this hard to replace piece of equipment.  Bring it to a professional.

So that brings us to this week.

So, I call this place nearby that advertises that they do TV and Stereo repair.  And I ask them, if I brought you a piece of audio equipment, could you change out 5 capacitors and 2 resistors?  They ask me what's wrong with it.  I explain, nothing is wrong with it, I just want it to be modified to perform better.  They ask, what is it?  I explain it's a simple quadraphonic cd-4 disc demodulator.  They ask again what is it.  I explain it's a piece of audio equipment.  They said, bring it in for a free estimate.

So, I brought it in today.

Well, there was a bit of a language barrier.  I go up to the counter, this old guy comes up, looks at me as if he's going to understand what I say.  After a few minutes of explaining, an old lady comes over and cuts me off, and asks "what's wrong with it"

I explain again, there's nothing wrong with it.  Here, I have this document, complete with schematics and pictures.  I just want you to make these modifications to this box.

No, we cannot do this.

But anyone that does stereo repair should be able to handle this.  It's just changing a few parts.

No, my technician, he will not be able to do this. 

But if your technician repairs stereos, he can handle this.

I'm not sure you could afford this, it would take him all day.

It will take him a full day to change 2 resistors and 5 capacitors?

pause......

2 resistors?

And 5 capacitors.

No, he cannot do it.


Ok, I have to ask, if you cannot handle changing out 5 capacitors and 2 resisitors, WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING RUNNING AN ELECTRONICS REPAIR SHOP???!!!??!!??!?!??!?!?!???!?!!!!?!?!??

SERIOUSLY???!??!??!?!!!?!!?!!???!?!!?!??!!???

If someone walked in with a dvd player that wasn't turning on, you could take the time to troubleshoot that and see if you could make it work again.  Which means finding the bad parts, and then changing the bad parts.

But when someone comes in and says, no looking, no diagnosing, just change these 7 things, and here's a diagram, that's more than you can handle?

I handed them a gimmie on a silver platter.  They turned it away.

WHAT

THE

FUCK!!?!???!!!?!???!?!??!?!?!????!?!?!

I mean, who the hell even takes a tv or stereo or player into a repair shop anymore?  With players being so cheap, and us being a throw away society, I question how a repair shop stays in business, when they turn away simple jobs like that. 

But really, I question the abilities of a technician that can't change 2 resistors and 5 capacitors.



TLDR version:
Gators is an audio nut.
He cannot handle doing simple audio work.
So, he is going to bitch about the old guy that also can't do it.