2. digital
  3. 1097329838

First time for this, opinions please.

Greetings,
I have been buying and selling on A'Gon fo almost 4 years, over 160 transactions. Not a hitch until a local transaction yesterday. I sold a CD player (Rega Jupiter) to a member who lives in my city, so no shipping involved. He came over to my house, listened to player, liked it, bought it and took it home. Later that afternoon he called and said CD player would not power up. Strange as it worked for him for awhile until he changed powercords. After some discussion of checking this or that, it was determined that powercord was changed while on/off switch was still on. At this point I said there's the problem, switching powercords with power still on likely blew a fuse or some other trip device. He did not totally agree, but said it must be an explanation. At this point I must add, said member does not hold me responsible in any way. He was just seeking my advice as to whether I have ever had any trouble of this sort.
My question is twofold:
1. Do you think changing powercords while player is powered up could cause this (I do).
2. Do you think I have any obligation to help at this point? Once again, buyer is not holding me responsible, but I have been worried about this all night. I really feel bad , as this is not a small purchase for him.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
Ag insider logo xs@2xmuzikat

Showing 2 responses by shasta

shasta
155 posts
 
If you provided the instruction manual, and the buyer read it, hopefully there was a warning in there that pulling the plug *may be a Bad Thing. I'd be really surprised if it actually caused damage. IME, this is more likely w/ equipment that has, as mentioned, microprocessors. Typically, even when switched "off", there is still a sleeper circuit that stays on to maintain memory functions, settings, presets, and for VCR's a space heater to keep the interior warm and dry. Looking at schematics for amps and preamps, they may be a little more tolerant of hard shutdowns, but even then, they may have a warmup delay to prevent DC thumps through the system.

The McCormack UDP-1 has a front standby switch, and they warn against pulling the plug before going to the standby position. The Parasound T3 tuner, doesn't have a standby switch, but even after powering down, can be very cranky about swapping cords; losing it's display and memory.

RTFM, dummy, is still as valid as ever...
shasta
155 posts
 
Well, I managed to bump out the PC on the McCormack UDP-1 whilst powered (due to the crap, two prong IEC receptacle w/ next to zero grip) and nothing untoward resulted.
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