Try to find technically focused technicians able to provide examples of their good work who solve problems rather than ‘re-cap’ everything.

It’s also worth looking for people with overwhelmingly positive feedback. When seeking a good local technician:

• Find out who’s busy and recommended by others in the know
• Look for the best technicians rather than the lowest rates as the two rarely go hand-in-hand
• Avoid those promising sight-unseen quotes based on guessing what’s wrong with your equipment
• Look at reviews and read the bad ones as well as the good
• Be wary of recappers
• Remember: there are no miracles, only skilled people doing good work

Ask Retailers

The best advice I can offer here is to find the best hi-fi store/s in the largest city near you. Ask who they use to service and repair equipment of the type you own. These stores use technicians they can rely on and should be able to recommend someone who can assist you, or even arrange the repair through their store.

Considerations

Find someone who inspires confidence and who doesn’t try to quote without inspecting and testing equipment. It may seem tempting to go with such a ‘magic quote’, but ask yourself how that technician knows what’s wrong with your equipment or what condition it’s in.

Keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Recapping is a fad that is often unhelpful in solving problems. Also, many or even most faults are not capacitor-related. Replacing many parts might sound like a good idea and many offer this as it seems like they are doing a lot of work, but what if that work isn’t needed and doesn’t solve the problem?

Tracing and resolving electronic faults is hard. Look for someone who understands this and expresses it, and who is interested in finding the cause of a problem and resolving it.