This is such a good question, and one I’m asked more often than almost any other.

Keep in mind that I don’t keep a list of repairers in your area, good or bad, and it’s unlikely that anyone else does. That said, I alert the public about the very worst repairers I know of, and logically, it’s worth seeking out technicians not featured in the Hall of Shame. Above all, try to find technically focused professionals who provide evidence of their work, who solve problems and who have positive feedback. Avoid anyone who rants at customers in review responses, for example. You’ll never find me ranting at a customer, no matter what I think of them.

Try to:

• Find out who’s busy and recommended by reliable sources, like good retailers
• Look for the best technicians rather than the lowest rates – you get what you pay for
• Avoid sight-unseen quotes; nobody can know what your equipment needs without seeing it
• Look at reviews, good and bad, and the responses to them
• Avoid recappers, recapping cannot fix the vast majority of faults, problem-solving is key
• Remember, there are no miracles, no ‘gurus‘, only skilled individuals doing good, technically sound work

Ask Retailers

One useful piece of advice I can offer is to find the best hi-fi store/s in the largest city near you. Ask an experienced staff member who they use/recommend to service and repair the type of equipment you own. Good retailers use technicians they can rely on. Experienced staff should be able to recommend someone who can assist you or perhaps even arrange the repair through their store. Shonky retailers recommend shonky repairers, and vice versa.

Keep in mind that retailers add a charge for dealing with and arranging such work. This is quite reasonable, given that it takes a real person time to book in and arrange a repair job, and this will be an addition to the raw repair cost charged by the technician.

Other Considerations

Good technicians inspire confidence and won’t try to quote on a job before inspecting and testing the equipment. It may be tempting to go with a ‘magic blind quote,’ but first ask yourself how a technician can know which of the many possible problems your equipment has without inspecting, testing and determining its condition and service history, before parting with your money.

Recapping is a fad typically carried out by unskilled repairers, hoping that shotgun parts replacement will solve a problem. The problem is, many or even most faults are not capacitor-related. Yeah, ouch. Replacing lots of old parts might sound like a good idea, but it is best done after figuring out what is wrong with a piece of equipment, for hopefully obvious reasons.

It’s a bit like this: Say your engine makes a noise, a mechanic looks at it, you pick it up later, and find out he’s rebuilt the entire engine when it was just a noisy pulley. Sensible? Smart? Logical? No. It’s an expensive waste of time, and if the work has been poorly done, as is common with this type of repairer, it devalues the car/equipment.

Tracing and resolving electronic faults is challenging; that’s why few are really good at it. Look for someone who understands this and expresses it, and who is interested in finding the real cause of a problem and resolving it.