Audio Video Needs

Absolutely outstanding. Mike is a thorough professional, courteous, informative, and responsive. He saved me hours (and dollars) by steering me to excellent equipment in my price range, and saved me hours (and frustration) by not having to hook everything together myself. He spent time explaining how things work, including the remote controls, and said he'd make himself available if I had any questions or needed anything. Great service, great guy, totally knows his stuff.

I wish all service providers were this professional, prompt, and reasonable! I found Mike through a report on Angie's List. He came out a couple of weeks ago to diagnose problems we were having with one of our TV sets. He fixed what he could, and was candid about what we couldn't fix. Given that it was an older TV, we chose to get a new one for the family room. He came out to set up the new components, and moved the existing DVD and cable box to a TV in another room. He was here EXACTLY when he said he would be and got right to work. His price was very reasonable, and much cheaper than the store charged to do less work. This is the first time I've used someone I found through Angie's List - I've posted reports on providers before, but not actually used it as a resource. I am now more sold than ever on the value of Angie's List.

My father-in-law had an old (1994) RCA VCR that no longer had an audio output. Since he's 87 years old, he had no desire to "learn" how to operate a new unit. At a fair amount of cost and a whole lot of hassle, I shipped the unit to the RCA contract repair facility (Venturer Electronics, a/k/a Alco Electronics, in Ontario, Canada). Two weeks later, I received the unit back in the mail unrepaired, with no explanation. It took me another long and irritating hassle with several "customer service" representatives to find out why the unit had not been repaired -- no parts for the VCR any longer, they finally said. Fortunately, a few weeks earlier I had stumbled across Mike Phelps through a reference from Graffiti Audio (in Bethesda, MD), when I asked whether they repaired TVs. I had called Mike -- who makes house calls -- and he seemed quite knowledgeable, but the TV problem ultimately resolved itself. I decided to call Mike again, not expecting that he could repair an electronic "antique" when RCA's own contract facility could not -- but there was no harm in asking. To my surprise and delight, Mike said that he frequently had calls for just this sort of thing -- repair of old unsupported electronics equipment that people didn't want to abandon -- and he expressed complete confidence that he could repair the VCR. I dropped the unit off for his pick-up at Graffiti Audio, and, true to his word, Mike delivered it to me in like-new condition three days later! (I hadn't asked Mike for a cost estimate first, since, given the history of the VCR, price wasn't really an object for me, but I had no problem with Mike's charges.) Mike doesn't advertise, has no store front, and no e-mail (!), so he's not easy to find. If I hadn't inquired of Graffiti, I never would have found him myself. I'm really glad I did, because It's obvious to me that Mike is an "old school," highly skilled electronics technician. He knows how to repair electronics at the component level (the VCR had a blown capacitor), and isn't just a module "easter-egger." (Ironically, I later found that the Washington Post had written about Mike in a January 28, 2007, article entitled "Fix Machines That Time Has Passed By." The reporter, Dan Zak, had almost exactly the same kind of "antique" electronics problem and the same outstanding experience with Mike that I did.) While my experience with Mike was admittedly limited to repair of an old VCR, I have no doubt, after having met and talked with him, that Mike can perform much larger audio-visual repairs and projects; for example, he holds himself out to accomplish home-theater and whole-house audio-video installations. Mike is a very impressive guy whom I will call again for any A-V electronics repair needs!