I will relate a recent experience in trying to get a dolby surround sound multi channel output receiver fixed. This receiver has left, right, center and rear outputs. First attempt was by a fellow in Puerto Plata near Bournigal Clinic. What he ended up doing was connecting the left and right speaker connections together so there was only a monaural signal coming out and charging $1,500 pesos. It makes you think you have the system working, but all he did was add a piece of wire. It took him two attempts to get that far and fail. He has a thriving shop for audio/TV repair and parts in Puerto Plata, but I wonder how many things he actually repairs.
Next, a fellow in Jarabacoa got the receiver to work in stereo, but left the center channel power transistors unsoldered while charging 1,200 pesos. He probably swapped out a bad pair of transistors and moved the failed pair to the center channel. From all of this I learned that the issue appeared to be a problem only with the output transistors, and they are fairly easy to replace, I decided to order some from the US and replaced the bad center channel devices to get it to work properly again. Another example of it you cannot get it done right, you have to do it yourself that is quite common here.
Please keep in mind that I have a background designing digital electronics with a some experience in designing analog circuits/power supplies. Soldering parts is not a problem for me. The hard part for anyone is usually determining which parts are bad and here getting the replacement parts can be an issue. These people both clearly new the transistors were bad, but didn't correctly fix the problems.
I encourage any of you to post good experiences with having electronics repaired ( especially on the north coast) so others will have some options.
Next, a fellow in Jarabacoa got the receiver to work in stereo, but left the center channel power transistors unsoldered while charging 1,200 pesos. He probably swapped out a bad pair of transistors and moved the failed pair to the center channel. From all of this I learned that the issue appeared to be a problem only with the output transistors, and they are fairly easy to replace, I decided to order some from the US and replaced the bad center channel devices to get it to work properly again. Another example of it you cannot get it done right, you have to do it yourself that is quite common here.
Please keep in mind that I have a background designing digital electronics with a some experience in designing analog circuits/power supplies. Soldering parts is not a problem for me. The hard part for anyone is usually determining which parts are bad and here getting the replacement parts can be an issue. These people both clearly new the transistors were bad, but didn't correctly fix the problems.
I encourage any of you to post good experiences with having electronics repaired ( especially on the north coast) so others will have some options.