I have a Tandberg 3001-A FM tuner, which was a state-of-the-art tuner when built in the 1980s(?). A few weeks ago, it stopped being able to tune stations...the slippage of the tuning got so bad that it became impossible. I shipped the unit to AA, after being told that the problem was probably the tuning drum, which has its original configuration in most Tandbergs; there is an internal plastic part which will often split. LARRY also told me that, most likely, other age-related problems were happening as well, because there are problems peculiar to this make of tuner which are virtually guaranteed to happen.
I am one of those who greatly enjoy "DX'ing" for distant stations on FM, and this tuner/model has attributes excellent for that, but I won't discuss that here because it has nothing to do with writing a review of this place of business.
LARRY's communication with me was excellent, letting me know that the receiver was delivered to Connecticut, and letting me know when it would be on the bench. Indeed, exactly and absolutely as promised, the tuner was benched and repaired right on schedule, and delivered back to me on a very timely basis. I don't have the dates handy, but I believe it was less than two weeks that the tuner was in shop, which is a spectacularly good turnaround time.
That far betters repair times on other complex receiving equipment in the past, where five to eight weeks is much more typical. This is my first experience with Approved Audio.
He let me know the date it would be shipped, all repaired, and it indeed came to me even one day EARLY, as he was able to get it shipped on the same date I called him with my credit card number, even though my call was almost instantaneously before the FedEx pickup for the day.
Indeed, the repairs included the various issues which are guaranteed to happen to the Tandberg over a long period of time without maintenance. I didn't even realize I wasn't getting the full signal, as an internal antenna connection had cracked, but the repaired unit has indeed come back with stronger signal meter readings than in the past. The internal antenna connection is one of the prevailing Tandberg issues.
The issue was not the tuning drum; my unit happens to have the rarer "reconfigured" tuning drum which doesn't have that plastic problem. Instead, the tuning cord had frayed. They had a replacement tuning cord for this unit which was last manufactured a generation ago!
His repairs are expensive, but YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, and all of this was very worthwhile. Thank you, Larry and guys, for making this happen so quickly, with so little "advance warning" that I would be sending this complex unit to you.
This is a much more favorable review than the unfavorable one, and it is ALWAYS a good idea to *make sure* that a repair place is actually able to deal with a particular brand/model of equipment before it gets sent there. All told, I give everything a "10" for Approved Audio. read more
