Latest News & Updates

Finally! The flash animation fading frog logo is no longer the boring space holder for a website, now there's actually some content... Tom will be proud. I've finally sat down and worked out a web page with regards to what Charette Pro Audio is all about or at least what it's evolved into over the years. Whether the site is good or not remains to be seen. There is some technical information in here about pro audio gear, repairs, design, thoughts and otherwise. Feel free to browse around and hopefully you'll be through it all quick enough that boredom won't come about followed by fury of having one's time wasted on useless preaching better left unmentioned. ENJOY!

"The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot
possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong
it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair." - Douglas Adams

So... What do we do?

If it's electronic and a customer has a problem that needs fixing, would like an augmentation or customization, or a complete design from the ground up, we'll take a look at just about anything.

Our services include:
- Custom design and engineering of low voltage electronics, analog & digital, embedded software, prototype construction, PC board design & artwork, small quantity manufacturing.
- Component level circuit board repair, including surface mount, through hole, and antique electronics with point to point wiring and vacuum tubes.
- Multi-pair cabling systems used in recording studios, PA system snakes, multi-pin connectors, etc. design, wiring, installation.
- Recording and broadcast patchbays, design, wiring, installation.
- Professional audio equipment repair, refurbishment, custom modifications, maintenance.
- Distributed commercial & industrial PA systems, e.g. retail in-store overhead background music systems, classroom presentation systems, courtroom audio assistance & recording, design, installation, maintenance.

Primarily, the area of interest and work that we do is centered around the electronics and gadgetry in the professional audio arena, i.e. recording studios, concert PA systems, commercial & industrial audio system installations, high-end home audio systems, etc. However, we speak the language of electronics, and have dealt with a large array of different genres of electronics circuitry including things like:

- manufacturing & production machinery logic (PLCs)
- game logic circuits (pinball, video games, amusement & gumball, etc.)
- commercial restaurant equipment controls (espresso machines, timers, thermostats, etc.)

A brief note on our electronic repair philosophy:

Quite a strive has been made by manufacturers of electronics to create modular designs, i.e. equipment that consists of plug-in circuit board modules. In this way it's easy to track a problem and swap out the suspect board. There clearly is a benefit of speed in getting the equipment operational again, should the owner happen to have spare board modules to perform the swap. However, board modules, depending on the size and complexity can be quite costly. We've always approached equipment problems with the idea of finding the real root of the problem down to the component level on the modules themselves. Examining the board and finding the component failures leads to understanding what caused the failure in the first place. And in many cases, a repair can be performed with better quality and more robust specifications that can actually be an improvement on the original design thus preventing possible failures in the future.

Many times, repairs that may seem serious on the surface are in fact simple issues that require a minimal amount of time to assess. Give us a call or e-mail about the problem you're experiencing and we can discuss options and maybe even provide some quick tips that could help you solve the problem yourself without even bringing it into the shop. If you have an intermittent problem with a piece of equipment and you leave it with us and the problem doesn't occur during our assessment on the bench here, there won't be ANY charges. There is no catch here. We'll do our best to provoke the problem to the surface for a proper repair. But, if the problem doesn't occur, don't worry as there will be no charge for the assessment and testing.

When it's necessary to replace faulty, defective or burned electronic circuit components we always use OEM parts or better to perform the repair.