Having guarantee issues with KR Audio?


One of my KR Baloon tubes decided to permanently sleep in this morning, so I spoke with Israel Blume of Coincident, and it seems that not only is KR Audio not going to be supplying tubes for amps other than their own any longer; but getting them to honor their 6 month guarantee is also a problem. He cited a case where they said that the tube being returned was "not used properly". Not used properly in a Coincident amp??
The tubes I got through Coincident were purchased in December. DECEMBER! I checked the KR website, and clearly they claim to have a 6 month guarantee.
The best he could do is to offer me a replacement tube he has in stock for $300.00. I'm going to buy it, but man am I steaming.
I just wondered if there are any other KR tube users who wanted to rant.
azaud

Showing 1 response by einsteindisguised

I am a longterm (>10years) happy owner of Audion 845 monoblocks and, after about a year of searching for optimal floor standing speakers for my listening room and amps, I ended up with Coincident Super Eclipses - with which I also have been extremely happy.
Some years ago I experimented (with some ignorance) with some KR845s and had early problems with tube flashover and blown components before I had the amps modified - took a couple of goes - to optimise them for the KR tubes, which were a superb improvement over the Billington audio ones they were supplied with - particularly in the bass. I have lived with the same tubes all this time and am still delighted with the sound of the system (BAT VK40SE preamp used not exactly as intended - into SET power amps) but now face a dilemma since I don't have a spare pair of KR845s. Do I try and source new (or NOS) KR845s, with all the bad stories about tube failure and guarantees not being honoured, or should I have the amps returned to original spec and replace the tubes with something like the PSVANE option?
Interested to hear from anyone on this but particularly 213Cobra and Beanie