CitationRestoration

I am Don Sachs, and in the past few years I have become Jim McShane' s authorized tech/installer. Over the past several years I have restored close to 50 Citation II amplifiers, about 30 Citation I preamps, 4 Citation V amplifiers, 2 Citation IV preamps, and an Award Series receiver. I have also restored numerous tube integrated amps and receivers by Fisher, Scott, Sherwood, Eico, and others. Too many to count. All restorations of Citation gear are done exclusively with Jim's parts and kits. You may read about all the McShane upgrades to the Citation gear on his website. Below are some of the services I offer and the associated costs. These are guidelines. Every piece is different and the price can vary a bit depending on the level of restoration or additional options or customer preferences. You might want to read some thoughts on value (or why is a Citation II so expensive).

Prices and services:

A final comment about my general philosophy when restoring vintage gear. I have now worked on a number of pieces which were sold and/or previously worked on by people who had a very good reputation, including one very famous audio designer. These pieces had missing screws, many original power supply parts, questionable solder joints, poor parts choices, etc...In short, I would never have let them off my bench until these things were corrected. I just want to emphasize that I only use very good quality parts, almost exclusively sourced from Jim McShane. I/we always use parts that are very conservatively rated for the task. I do not "bandaid" amps, changing one power supply cap and leaving all the other old caps or big carbon resistors or old top hat diodes. I rebuild them so that they will sound great and be reliable for years to come. That is more expensive. I am not talking about boutique $40 capacitors. Just high quality, good sounding parts. I have seen numerous amps that were rebuilt with $2 coupling caps when $3 - $4 would have bought a cap that sounded far better. We are usually talking about an extra $10 - $20 to use much better parts in an amp. So if you are looking for the cheap repair I am probably not your best choice. That said, if you want your amp to last for years and are willing to make a reasonable investment I will be happy to quote a price for you. I understand the value of certain pieces. I do not drill the chassis or "hack up" gear that is in good cosmetic condition. I certainly wouldn't drill holes in a vintage Marantz 8B or Mac tube amp! I try to balance sonics, reliability, cost effectiveness, appearance, and certainly original tone. All of these are factors in parts choices and deciding what should be replaced and which original components should be left in place if they are within specifications. I will present you with your options and you decide. It is your amp! I treat every piece as if it were my own amplifier and I don't send it to you until I am happy with how it measures, and more importantly, how it sounds.

If you have read the above and have a piece of gear you would like me to work on and require an estimate or have any other questions please contact me.