Champlifier Audio Services — Attraction in Alameda

This really is interesting to see all these 5 star reviews on this business.. Because my experience was quite different .. While the work was good (its not a terribly difficult job) the cost of repair , without question in my mind , is exorbitant to put it nicely. I thought I would give this business a chance. About 8 mos ago there was a bit of a red flag regarding the owner not responding to an inquiry I had. I did not heed that gut feeling to go somewhere else. Due to a number of shops that had recommended I thought I would bring a tuner in that simply had 2 bulbs burnt out and indicated to replace only the 2 bulbs. And this person took it upon them self to replace a third which did not need replacing. Normally I would do this myself and in fact had replaced a couple of bulbs in this tuner previously. Mind you this is not rocket science. The meter bulbs are accessible with the simple removal of 6 screws on the bottom cover plate. Remove that cover and the bulbs are right there. not hidden, not buried. right there . So ok. How long does it take to solder a couple of wires to a bulb and put the little assembly back into the slot? I'm not a stranger to this type of work. As I noted, I've had this tuner apart including removal of the front face plate to replace dial bulbs. A tech is literally looking at 20 minutes .. Ok. so lets give an hour. It's not difficult at all to get an idea of how long a simple job like this should take when I have done the same thing myself and when one is familiar with working on cars, electronics ,,etc.. I was charged $212 .. That my friends is ,, by even bay area standards is way above what constitutes a fair price. At least the job was done right-- at least so far. But that can not justify how much it cost to replace a couple of bulbs and a piece of wire 6 inches long maybe---(that was 10 bucks) bulbs were $8 each x 3 = $24 for 3 sm meter bulbs! 3 bulbs and a piece of wire . Let me give an analogy and see if this resonates in terms of getting ones moneys worth. Just so its clear that I dont have a problem spending the money. I had a McIntosh vintage tuner completely gone through and restored by a Mac authorized tech who has been in the business for more than 30 years. This was a complete restoration including any updates that the factory noted needed to be done. that job was 500 and change. A friend was quoted $180 for a complete alignment including tuning pot replacement from Magnum Dynalab. ( a very involved technical service requiring electronic test instruments and the skill to match) In comparison this shop would of charged me upwards of $1k to restore my Mac if he is going to charge $212 to replace 3 bulbs. Do yourself a favor. Try L&M electronics, Daly City, Genes Audio (house calls) , even Handy TV repair on University in Berkeley.. He mostly works on tv's but does some audio as well. And I see there appear to be a couple more places. Erik in Alameda, Bruce in Berkeley. Whatever you do don't go here. People need to know . I am respecting Google though for keeping my review in the que. Yelp kicked my review to the not recommended reviews page along with 1 or 2 others. The reason ---because I am not an active part of the Yelp community is what I am able to discern...

Champlifier is really the best audio technician service in the Bay Area. Sheldon, the owner, personally oversees or works on your equipment. Whether you have a boutique English solid state amplifier or a classic Marantz receiver, Sheldon will go above and beyond to acquire the schematics, parts, or accessories, whether from the manufacturer, third party parts dealers or even Ebay.

I brought Sheldon a number of items through the years, including two NAD receivers, a pair of Rogers LS6 (BBC spec) speakers, and QSC amplifiers. I tried taking the Rogers LS6 to a competing audio technician in North Oakland. Boy was that a mistake. That technician had no idea what a Rogers BBC spec speaker was all about. In fact, he tried to replace my woofer and cone with a Sony replacement. WTF?! So of course, I was fuming mad and disillusioned with technicians acting like they know their audio history and technology.

When I brought it to Sheldon, he knew right away what was wrong. He pointed out the dust cap, which was becoming unglued and causing a rattle sound. No cone or driver replacement necessary! Not only did he save me money, but gave me tips as to how to replace it myself with over the counter glue from Michael's.

My last item that I brought to Sheldon, a NAD 7100 amplifier, was just as exceptional. It had some issues with the logic board that I didn't know about. It kept cutting out on one channel, and the tuner was spotty. The tuner wouldn't turn on somedays. I finally got tired of the solid state amp and brought it in. Sheldon couldn't find the issue, as the amp decided to work when it was in Sheldon's possession for a week. He charged me the $35 inspection fee, and I brought it home. Lo and behold, the NAD 7100's tuner stopped working completely. Anyone who knows the NAD amp series knows the tuner is precise and crystal clear. So, I had to bring the NAD amp back to Sheldon. He set aside the $35 inspection fee and told me he would have it fixed in three weeks.

Three weeks later, Sheldon gave me a perfectly working NAD 7100 amplifier. He had hunted a broken NAD 7100 on Ebay. Taken out the broken logic board piece. Put in the logic board from the Ebay NAD 7100 and completely restored my NAD amplifier with 100% original parts. The final bill was less than $45. In one word, exceptional.

I trust Sheldon as an honest professional that will give you the best technical skills and personal service. I have been blown away by his work. (again my issues were mostly with solid state amps, which is hard to get fixed at typical musician repair shops) And I cannot recommend Sheldon enough to...

After giving Champlifier half of a year to make a repair and no work was completed, Champlifier was unfortunately a huge letdown.

When I found Champlifier to fix the cracked mesh on my speaker grills, I was excited by their good reviews and work portfolio. When I initially contacted owner Sheldon, he seemed confident and professional.

However, after I dropped off the speaker grills, things became strange. First, when I asked Sheldon to provide a quote for the repair, he was extremely reluctant to provide it, saying that it would take him a lot of time and that he would need to charge me for it. After some time and multiple conversations, and me promising him that I understood that prices in quotes fluctuate, he finally wrote one. It was a simple quote with two items and a total estimated price - nothing special. It's baffling that he would expect customers to agree to pay for a repair without a written price estimate and then generally insist on charging a customer for a basic one.

Fast forward six months later, Sheldon had not done any work on the repair and never even proactively provided me with an update. After sending him emails and calling him, and him dodging me and providing excuses, I decided to pick up the speaker grills. That day, Sheldon told me that he needed more time. It does NOT take over six months to source mesh material and glue it on speaker grills. I used to do model making, have worked on cars, sanded a car to bare metal and consider myself pretty handy overall. I wanted to save myself some time and support a local business, especially during the pandemic, which has been a challenging time for businesses.

The worst part is that when I finally picked up the speaker grills, he refused to return my deposit despite the fact that he had not done any of the repair in the entire six months he had my grills. This forced me to contact my credit card company, after which I was informed by a representative that he had told them that the repair was ready to be completed the day I picked up the speakers. Sheldon lied in order to keep his deposit.

I am very sensitive to the fact we’re in a pandemic and businesses are experiencing many challenges. At minimum, Sheldon should have provided me with updates without me having to chase after him and been honest about his inability to do the job when he realized he couldn't or wouldn't do it.

Stay away from Champlifier and save yourself the time,...