2. amps-preamps
  3. 1038611651

DC Leakage and dealer issues

I was auditioning an amp from a well known Canadian designer. The amp played for 30 seconds and then blew. The designer told me that my preamp must have DC leakage and that the amp has DC protection circiuts. The Spectron Digital amp I also auditioned also kept turning off but did not blow. The other amps I auditioned Pass X-250, Rowland M-112, Plinius 102 and Sonogy Black Knight II, etc., did not have any issues with my BAT preamp. I took my BAT VK-30SE preamp to a dealer who told me he could not find the DC leakage. I wrote to BAT and they told me to measure the output with a volt meter and when I did, I did not get a reading. I returned the amp and received a second amp to audition. BTW, the manufacturer also wanted me to become a NY area dealer if I wanted to accept their offer. The second amp keeps turning off after 5-10 minutes of play, again they are telling me DC leakage. I have advised them that I do not want the amp and that I am sending it back for a full refund. The manufacturer now wants me to pay $400 repair costs for the first amp that blew up plus their customs fees. That would mean that it will cost me $830 (including my shipping and customs fees) to audition a $2200 amp. Boy am I pissed off.

What do you think I should do? I still have to ship the second amp back.

All comments welcome.

Peter
bigkidz

Showing 2 responses by zaikesman

zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Without stating my thought as to who this designer/company probably is, the main thing I note from your post is this incongruity: The amp supposedly has DC 'protection circuitry', yet you go on to suggest that the manufacturer characterizes it as having 'blown up' and needing $400 worth of repair. Does that strike you as being as contradictory and foul-smelling as it does me? Even if his diagnoses is correct (despite your other evidence and experiences with the other amps), shouldn't his first amp have performed the same way as the second and shut down unharmed? The only thing you should pay for is whatever you both agreed to from the start, and anything else is on the manufacturer for offering to operate in home-audition, direct-sell mode due to their lack of a local dealer. The possibility that the first amp might not have been damaged if used with a different preamp doesn't mean that it wasn't faulty, just that the fact might not have been revealed otherwise. (Can't help but wonder what he'd be saying now if you had agreed to become a dealer...)
zaikesman
3,017 posts
 
Peter, why not refer the manufacturer to this thread, and then see if they want to continue in their present vein? In the retail businesses I've been in, we have a saying: An unsatisfied customer will tell a hundred times more people about their experience than will a satisfied customer. If you sell somebody a great widget that works as expected or even better, they might tell one person; if you sell them a bad widget, and particularly if you then give them a run-around about it, they will tell a hundred. In the case of the internet, raise that to a thousand. If the manufacturer wishes to remain anonymous in this case, let them make you a satisfied customer as they should.
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