Remember: Good, Fast, Cheap pick any two. Here in the USA the cost to repair often exceeds value on unit, of comes very close to it. A new boom box 125$, an hour of service time is typically 35-50$ plus parts (usually a subassembly). If the set is more than x many years old the feature of a new one and the cost to repair... In some places where goods are scarce or expensive that level of waste can't exist.

I've gotten some good equipment for this reason. I also have some old equipment because I could fix it real cheap. My first 11/23 was made from failed FS spares returns that were 'shot to the chip level. That includes the RL02 I got on a bet. It was mine of I could fix it, it had been totally taken appart by several people that couldn't fix it... problem was a bad crimp on a spade lug to the motor start cap. It's still running and I've never used a alignment pack that one of the people that took it apart said it would need despite the heads never being desturbed. Then again I can solder too. Allison