Just got off the phone with George Meyer AV and there saying the brown caps should not be in this amp. They used all black caps from the factory on the mca 30. They said they would change them to muse caps and its going to be deep on cost.
If you are worried about cost, just send the amp in to ANTHEM.
Last year or maybe the year before (memory lapse today) I started having dropouts in my right channel on my MCA30 after 21 years of hard work. With all the family things I was dealing with, there was no time or patience for that matter for me to even take the time to diagnose the problem causing the issue.
So I called Anthem to discuss repair. I'll just say up front, really great guys to work with. After a long discussion, I decided to have it recapped fully restored, replace anything and everything that could or might need replacing in the near future. With shipping from the midwest to canada (plus insurance) and amp repair, I was all in for about $250 U.S. dollars. From the time I shipped it, to receiving it back, was a total of 2 weeks.
Once i received the amp back and fired it up, i was shocked i was still having those drop-outs. After various trouble shooting and checking with another amp, i was disappointed the MCA30 was still having a problem.
Contacted Anthem, they were very apologetic and somewhat surprised there was still this issue. So, they immediately faxed me a shipping label.
Exactly one week later I received the amp back, along with work sheet showing what was done. I don't recall all that was done, but the problem was with a soldering joint on the board, or cracked board to do with an xlr connector, so they replaced all the connectors and board.
I was shocked when I inspected the amp, it looked like a brand-new amp, just like when I bought it new. The only things that appeared not to be replaced was the heat sinks and power supply. Plugged it in, fired it up and all was good. Next day, they called me to make sure everything was good and apologized again for not being done correctly the first time and because of that, they made sure everything possible was replaced and working properly.
So, I see no reason why this won't last another 20 years.
In short, what I am saying is, unless you paid a lot for the amp already, send it to get it repaired, it's worth in my opinion. I knew, there was no one locally (and I didn't have the time) who could come close to the cost of what Anthem had quoted me. Plus having it done by the actual company itself, helped in giving me piece of mind. Glad I did, it all worked out great in the end. To me, this repaired amp is no different than a brand-new amp.
Since then, the amp is used almost every day, from about 6:00am to 8:00pm. No issues as of yet.
Good luck, and good listening.
