Author: sam

The Hydra

The Hydra

by sam

Before I started Sound Audio Repair, I called up an older tech to ask for advice. “You know about the rule of three, right?” he said. I did not. He explained.

The rule of three is that you get one of something in the shop there’s two more coming shortly. You get one full auto turntable, two more are on the way. You get one piece with dead filter caps, two more with the same problem are sitting on the shelves waiting for an exam. Now, this is obviously pattern-seeking fallacy, nonetheless in my experience it has born out 100% of the time.

But sometimes the matrix glitches, mercury goes into retrograde, the shop draws the ire of some god or demon, and instead of the the rule of three we are faced with the hydra.

The hydra is when the same thing starts appearing in mass. For every one you fix, two more rise to take it’s place. Flooding the shop. Filling every shelf and bit of wall space.

We’ve got an hydra in the shop right now, and it’s name is Digital Piano. Every day more arrive, we’ve stacked them in every corner. Weekly we get calls from people wanting us to do house calls to slay them in their lairs.

We put a incredibly heavy one on a keyboard stand behind my bench, and now it looks over my shoulder, watching every thing I do.

So anyway if need a keyboard fixed hit us up. We’ve got lots of experience. Not a lot shelf space right now though. – sam

Build-Your-Own Fuzz Face!

Build-Your-Own Fuzz Face!

by sam

Long ago, in the before time, we offered DIY FX pedal building workshops. Then the thing happened and we haven’t done them since. But, I’m happy to say next month they are returning, even more glorious then before.

April 22nd and 23rd, we are partnering with the Lacey Makerspace to put on our classic, beginner-friendly, build a Fuzz Face workshop. Participants will arrive with nothing but the clothes on their back and leave with a fully-functioning, hand-built, fuzz box that would make Jimi Hendrix proud. Cherry red of course.

No experience required. None! Slot’s limited so sign up now!

Capacitor Upgrades, Worth the Scratch?

Capacitor Upgrades, Worth the Scratch?

by sam

Capacitor upgrades are perhaps the most contentious subject in the audio world. At the shop our individual opinions range range from agnostic to conditionally supportive. But one area where we can sometimes get behind it is in speaker crossovers.

Speaker crossovers that are built with bipolar electrolytic capacitors can have big problems over time. Because speakers deal with such low impedances and specific frequency responses, the capacitance drift and rising impedance of a aging electrolytic will eventually start to affect the sound. The relative volumes of the different drivers can get out of whack, and the crossovers frequencies can be thrown off, resulting in dead spots or bumps in the frequency range. Upgrading these to film capacitors will solve those problems and head off future reliability issues.

The most common symptom that lets us know a speaker crossover needs attention is that all the drivers make sound but the two speakers sound different from one and another.

Recapping a crossover can be a fun DIY project. If you want some advice on getting started, you could drop our electronics meetup next Tuesday. Or if you don’t want to tackle it yourself we’re always available to knock it out.

-sam

Wait, Did Tubes Get More expensive

Wait, Did Tubes Get More expensive

by sam



When the shop was on fire last year, we lost our whole stock of tubes. That whole situation was a real bummer. As we prepared to reopen, we started making lists of inventory to purchase, then, just as we were about to order tubes…Russia invades Ukraine. 

Why does this matter? Well EHX, Sovtek, Tung-Sol (Reissue), Mullard (Reissue), Genalex, and Svetlana tubes are all made in Russia. In fact, they are made at the same factory. So all those are just no longer available. JJ tubes are made in the Slovak Republic, but they sold out immediately and the supply chain to restock was disrupted. As for Groove Tubes and Ruby Tubes (and Fender Tubes, and…) those are just rebrands of the Russian or the Slovak tubes.

So for months there were no new stock tubes available at all. Now there’s some available but they are about double the former price. When we reopened, we bought a bunch of NOS tubes from some fellas in Florida, and, as long as prices remain comparable, and they don’t run out,  we’ll probably continue stocking those. 

What’s your favorite tubes?

-sam

Why is Refoam?

Why is Refoam?

by sam

The absolute most common work a vintage speaker might need is refoaming. How do you know if your speaker needs to be refoamed? Well, this problem’s pretty easy to diagnose. It looks like this:  

The foam surround has dried out and is disintegrating. Often if the surround needs replacement there will be chunks missing or the whole surround will simply be gone.  

If the speaker has sat unused for a very long time, the surround might still be completely intact, but poke it with a finger and it will crumble.

Running speakers with damaged or missing surrounds will eventually destroy the voice coil. It will also sound like garbage.

Refoaming is simply the process of removing the remains of the old surround, cleaning the cone and frame, and glueing in a new one. At our shop, we also coat the new surround with latex to prevent the problem from recurring in the future.

Hit us up if your speakers are in need of love! -sam