where (vaugely) do you live? where do you take your equipment for repair? how much did you pay? ... and what did you have done? just curioous... thanks!

many years ago, i took a MC303 to the local shop that works on synths.. I said "it wont turn on and the power suppy is OK and the power connection to the board is OK, can you help me?" they said.. "sure, we can take a look at it" when i went back, they brought it out and said "it wont turn on but the power suppy is OK and the power connection to the board is OK too, so we cannot help you, you will have to send it back to Roland???" this expert opinion cost me $60 20 years ago.

I would love to hear about any podcasts / audio books / lectures regarding electronic music / synthesis / audio you may like/ know of.

I found this one recently, art+music+technology podcast... various guests from far and wide corners of electronic music and synthesizer circles from present back to the beginning.
https://artmusictech.libsyn.com/ sadly the host passed away lat year, but the archive remains.