Bob Carver and Rita Helm have closed another shop.

I had two of my amps repaired by Rita before the fee rates increased. Rita did a bang up job and quick turn around.

So now there are two repair shops in the Northwest? Bob has his in Oregon and Rita has hers set up in Washington? But from I read Rita was at Bobs shop in Oregon helping out? I am confused to how Rita can be at two repair shops. Am I missing something here? So Rita is on her own now without Bobs backing? Bob has his own repair shop that is not doing well?

Me confused.

I had two of my amps repaired by Rita before the fee rates increased. Rita did a bang up job and quick turn around.

So now there are two repair shops in the Northwest? Bob has his in Oregon and Rita has hers set up in Washington? But from I read Rita was at Bobs shop in Oregon helping out? I am confused to how Rita can be at two repair shops. Am I missing something here? So Rita is on her own now without Bobs backing? Bob has his own repair shop that is not doing well?

Me confused.

No, Rolland has the shop (Hi-Tech Audio, Ltd, interestingly billing himself as "The only authorized Carver service center") in Oregon. Rita's 'shop' is actually Bob's and Rita works for Bob. The venture was initially named Rita's Vintage Audio Repair but after she left and was on a hiatus, was renamed Bob Carver's Audio Service. She has since returned to work for Bob. So you have the choice of sending your product to the "authorized" or the 'founder's' (ala Rita, who has worked for Bob some 30+ years, since Phase Linear days) service location!

Correct me if I’m wrong but my impression from reading the forum was that

Bob Carver's Audio Service would repair/restore your equipment to factory specs (factory parts or equivalent) with a possibility of getting Bob to sign your equipment.

Where as:

Hi-Tech Audio, Ltd would repair/restore your equipment to factory specs (factory parts or equivalent) or for an extra fee upgrade your equipment with better parts and upgraded capacitors.

Does Bob Carver's Audio Service offer the types of equipment upgrades that Hi-Tech Audio, Ltd will? I would really like to know as I want to get some equipment repaired when funding becomes available and while Bob’s signature on my equipment would be cool I think I would prefer and equipment upgrade.

both shops will due a great job. rolland i can tell you first hand will go above and beyond the normal checkup/repair to make sure that it is perfect. there is more confidence in rolland as i have dealt with both him and bill at bob's. this is not to say that tom at vintage hifi is any kind of slouch, as he is a master in the carver brand as well. tom is just closer for us east coast guys.

rolland refurbed, repaired and repainted the case of my tfm55

bill checked out my 400 seven which had a loose ribbon cable

tom has rebuilt a tfm35 that i tried to repair and lost, he won.

all are the best in this game. and yes bob will sign granted he is around,
otherwise a trip to carverfest may be in order.

again, don't count out vintage hifi as they do the same work and are much,much closer.

for anybody that has a problem with me plugging tom, bite me.

that and rolland has a few more parts available for for lightstar amps over his peers.

I don't think there is any argument that Rolland is the Lightstar guy...

What a cool shop to visit in person. Bobs repair center has more stuff tucked away than you can shake a stick at.

You should of seen it when they were still in the old Sunfire building, their new shop would of fit in one of the 6 or 7 rooms there and most were full.

Just got a call from Rita, Bob has decided to shut the doors at the service center for good this time at the end of the month. Needless to say she's a bit upset and kind of confused as to how Rolland keeps a continuous 8 week backlog of work and they've been starved out for quite awhile. My short answer was marketing-- either way this really sucks!!

Just got a call from Rita, Bob has decided to shut the doors at the service center for good this time at the end of the month. Needless to say she's a bit upset and kind of confused as to how Rolland keeps a continuous 8 week backlog of work and they've been starved out for quite awhile. My short answer was marketing-- either way this really sucks!!

Yes it does... I met them all whem I was up that way, and they seemed to have the work. I don't understand how they could not make it work.

yeah, i noticed the web site gone. funny thing is bob spent gloriously on that site yet when you google or bing carver amplifier or sunfire repair, nothing came back with his name. i asked him and he said he did not understand that either as he was the only authorized sunfire repair. no one esle has the manuals for sunfire.

Just got a call from Rita, Bob has decided to shut the doors at the service center for good this time at the end of the month. Needless to say she's a bit upset and kind of confused as to how Rolland keeps a continuous 8 week backlog of work and they've been starved out for quite awhile. My short answer was marketing-- either way this really sucks!!

jjptkd, hopefully Rita and/or Bill will continue doing repair work somewhere, whether it's on their own or some other non-Carver affiliated repair shop.

Maybe you can keep us updated as to their future when you hear where they end up.

I'm the repair guy at Tom's shop (Vintage Hi-Fi0.
Thought you guys might like to know that I fixed 3 Lightstar amps and they are at Carverfest now.
We are good friends with the Bob you know.
I fixed some amps that Bob couldn't fix.

I fix most audio equipment and I'm an audiophile as well.
I own tube equipment and electrostatic speakers.

While I can't sign your equipment with Bob's name I can certainly fix it.

Anders