Krell KSA-150 Repair and Restoration - avoid Trevor Lees Audio...

This is the story of my Krell KSA-150 restoration project and an unethical hifi dealer in Melbourne, Australia called Trevor Lees. In an ideal world, everyone would do business with integrity, but as I discovered after purchasing this KSA-150 from Trevor Lees Audio/ChristophersAudiophileStore, some don't. Proprietor Trevor Lees misrepresented the condition and background of this amplifier on eBay, facts which I discovered after purchase.

Trevor's pre-purchase friendliness evaporated after I discovered problems inside the amp and a horrendously bad repair job. I had been assured that no previous work had ever been carried out and that it was perfect in every way. I was also told that I would be looked after if anything went wrong - all of this turned out to be lies.

I documented everything including an engineer's estimate to restore the amplifier to the advertised condition. PayPal and ePay were no help because Lees is a big dealer and earns them lots of money. They even told me they had received other similar complaints about this seller and still did nothing about it.

With no help forthcoming, I decided to document my restoration of this amplifier. It is now better than new in terms of parts and performance. I highly recommend class A amplifiers like this be restored by a competent technician. As you will see, most techs don't have the experience, skills, parts or equipment to repair this type of gear properly. I perform this kind of work for people who want the best performance from their premium audio and test and measurement gear.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Krell
• KSA-50
• KSA-100
• KSA-150
• KSA-200s
• KSA-250
• KSA-300s
• Mark Levinson
• Trevor Lees
• audio
• capacitor
• repair
• bad
• dealer
• amplifier
• re-capping
• restoration
• power-amplifier
• hifi
• sound
• system
• KRC
• KAV
• FBP
• KRS
• High Fidelity
• ChristophersAudiophileStore
• Subwoofer
• Loud
• Speakers
• lies
• rip-off
• shonky
• suspicious

[Sirflatch]

WoW U do such an AWESOME JOB !!!! PLEASE FIX MY KSA 250 Signature Series Beast !!!

[mikefitzman]

@Sirflatch Thanks, would be happy to fix yours, I am in Perth, Western Australia.

[overkillaudioinc]

How did you repair the damaged circuit board areas where the PCB substrate was charred?

[mikefitzman]

@overkillaudioinc Hi, yes this was something a took a bit of time with. As these are very low impedance areas of the circuit, I removed as much carbon as possible with a toothbrush and solvents, and then measured the resistance in the burned areas. After cleaning, the damaged areas had essentially the same resistance per mm as undamaged board, and so were good to go. I then installed new parts on both damaged and undamaged boards and she has been perfect ever since.

[overkillaudioinc]

@mikefitzman I have repaired many crest amplifiers that burn holes through the board when the PSU caps fail. I grind away all charred areas of the PCB with a dremel tool, then grind up some old PCB and mix with epoxy and fill in the hole or charred area and grind down flat once fully cured. this works well but I was curious if you had other techniques or methods. always looking to improve.

[mikefitzman]

@overkillaudioinc This is a good method and if I had not been able to remove the carbon, or if the burns had been deeper, I would have needed to do this myself. Luckily I was able to remove what the previous 'tech' had left behind and there was enough good board remaining.

[mikefitzman]

@fireplace911 Yes, a 50kg amp worth $3000 + double boxed packaging does cost nearly $1000 to send twice across Australia, a distance of 3500 km x 2, using a reputable shipping service!

[fireplace911]

It costs nearly $1000 to send an amp to your house and back?

Where do you live the south pole?

[mikefitzman]

@fireplace911 Speculation is always dangerous. What occurred is exactly as I described it. Paypal did not and would not offer any partial refund for repairs. I took it to the highest level of review in Paypal and had full documentation. Even with the seller's fraudulent listing, all they would offer was a refund of purchase price minus two-way shipping, potentially leaving me nearly a grand out of pocket for trusting a seller - way worse than keeping the amp and restoring it. Sad, but true.