Peter L
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Hi, Steve and all. I purchased my Zen Triode Integrated (S/N #59) back in 2003, and enjoyed it happily for many years between London, Tokyo and now I'm in Hong Kong.
Unfortunately when it arrived in Hong Kong. I forgot that, even though the amp says 120v/240v at the power input, the switch to set the amp to accept the appropriate voltage is manual and is tucked away inside the machine. The fuse went. I replaced the fuse, set the voltage switch appropriately and tried again with no luck. Left channel is completely dead. I had it sat on the shelf for a few years meaning to get round to fixing it. I took it to a local place yesterday. There's a thriving community of audiophiles, used gear shops and repair shops in Hong Kong.
They told me the big transformer on the left channel was blown. And that I should replace both of them to match the sound (seems fair), but the cost would be around $400 for parts, and probably another $600-700 in labour, bringing it to a total of over us$1000 to fix. Again, assuming there weren't other components that needed replacing. They had a bunch of used mass-market tube amps lying around that they were selling for less than that, so their advice was just to get another amp.
Now firstly, I don't want to compare a mass-market PCB tube amp with the glory that is a hand-made zen triode amp... but also the cost seemed a bit steep, to me.
Can you advise what options I have? I'd consider shipping the thing back to you if repair were an option at a reasonable cost. Am I chasing a lost cause?
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