parts 2 and 3 pages throwing 404 error.
My terrible Customer Journey with the Line Magnetic LM-503PA Mono Vacuum Tube Amps
Spoiler: Would I recommend buying a Line Magnetic product? Not when you are in Germany or Austria.
I don't know how the customer support in the United States is, but my customer journey with the Line Magnetic LM-503PA Mono Vacuum Tube Amps in Vienna is terrible.
In the Summer of 2021, I spent 10k on a pair of Line Magnetic LM-503PA mono vacuum tube amps. This was by far my worst decision in 40 years of buying hi-fi gear.
So far, I have enjoyed listening with the amps for 11 months. But for 5 months, I couldn't enjoy listening with the amps because of defects and ridiculous customer support. As I'm writing this, my Line Magnetic LM-503PA is defective at the distributor for repair for more than four weeks, and Line Magnetic has not even sent the missing spare parts from China to Germany yet. But this is just the tip of the iceberg of my terrible customer experience with a Line Magnetic product.
This is why I wrote a customer report about my journey with the Line Magnetic LM-503PA mono vacuum tube amp. The report is about many customer-unfriendly emails, a dealer who doesn't answers emails at all, the European Line Magnetic distributor holding my amp hostage, and Line Magnetic in China refusing to answer my questions.
34 responses Add your response
Audio is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby. So sorry that you are having problems with this company. Up until now I have heard positive things about LM products. However, that has had to do with their excellent sound quality; not customer service. Thank you for posting about your experience. It will no doubt be helpful to other audio enthusiasts on this forum who might be considering the purchase of a Line Magnetic product. Hopefully the company will see your information and use it as a reference for improving their customer service. Best of luck in resolving this situation.
|
@steven365 Very decent of you. |
Contrast that with my most recent experience with Pass Labs in Auburn, CA. Kent English, mgr. I sent my INT25 to Auburn CA 12/01/22. It was repaired under warranty and returned to me freight paid-in a new box- 3 weeks later. I am not buying any more MIC goods. Plan to unload my only MIC - A REL sub for a Paradigm at the next possible opportunity. Life is too short for the unnecessary stress. |
I am so sorry you have to through this horrible ordeal. When you pay ten grand for a pair of amps, you should expect to be treated well by the dealer, distributor and manufacturer. All three have failed you. I read a lot about goods manufactured in China with poor distribution and service and while the products are very tempting, I always shrug them off. I had been eyeing the LM CD player which I was thinking of using in my office system as the McIntosh player I am currently using is getting long in the tooth. Not anymore though. If little else, I thank you for steering me away from possible headaches. I hope you have a happy ending but from experience, it looks like you are going to have a fight ahead of you. If all else fails, hire an attorney. Best of luck! |
Based on favorable reviews from knowledgeable people, I really wanted to buy LM. But finding a reputable dealer and navigating through retail websites left me feeling concerned about getting into LM stuff. I next went with Don Sachs for my amp but it was delivered damaged due to poor packing and his response was less than satisfactory. All this scared me into buying a Primaluna. I was not happy with the sound of the dialogue series and I was allowed to return it after 30 days to try the Evo series which I liked a lot. Upscale Audio is great to deal with and Primaluna is also on top of their customer service game. It's a 'one-two punch' of customer comes first and ultra reliable equipment. Not the sexiest brand but, man I am a truly satisfied customer. I wish everything was handled like this. Customer Service can make or break a brand.
|
I have had a LM 518IA for 5 or so years, zero issue. And as far as finding a reputable dealer in the US , Tone Imports is the distributor and I was directed by Jonathan Halpern of Tone to Taylor of GoldprintAudio in North Carolina . Both Jonathan and Taylor were easy to deal and communicate with. Service Center in Arizona |
@steven365 Oh wow, thank you so much. Thanks for all your replays. This means a lot to me. Update January 6th: After another email to Line Magnetic in China, some of my questions got answered. (I added them to part 3 of my customer report) However, the majority of questions remain unanswered. They wrote they will ship my spare transformer from China to Europe today. There are still way too many open questions regarding the warranty and repair costs. |
I am sorry to hear this and would never consider a product that self-destructs with a bad tube. I would be concerned about an amp that overheated the way yours did. The heat could cause expansion and damage to components, reducing the life of the product. The manufacturer should send you a new matched pair of amplifiers and an apology, with a protection circuit for the tube issue. |
Tubes can fail. Power tubes can fry transformer when this happens. We do not know if music was playing while it happens, but generally that sort of failure will cause loud noise in speaker, which is hard to miss even if you are not in the same room. Transformer does not burn out instantly - it takes at least few minutes for it to reach critical temperature when power tube is shorted (which is likely happened here). Some amplifiers have advanced protection from fault, but these will be higher tier brands like McIntosh or Audio Research. Generally I would not leave running tube power amplifier unattended. When dealing with China based makers, I would not expect great customer service. In most cases it makes more sense to purchase product directly from China and forgo warranty support other than DOA. If device fails, use local independent repair shop to fix it. Or simply purchase a new one. In case of LM, price difference between ordering from China and EU distributor could allow getting a spare amplifier. |
Decided years ago to avoid China products, but not for all of the mostly faux altruistic reasons most pontificate about. I simply do not like their engineering, mostly, and of course what you are experiencing. Then again, try getting a piece of Sugden repaired in North America. No picnic there either. Hindsight being 20/20, perhaps some Valvet monos would work well or some other European gear that provided real customer support. Best of luck sorting out the whole mess. We've mostly all been there. It's unavoidable if you play the game enough. |
Sad some companies are like this.
So I emailed tech support to verify the tube was OK to use, and pointed out they might want to consider adding a tube map to the manual and website. |
Well the plant in China that makes the LM (Foshun) sells their products through Taobao and other resources and I have their Western Electric 211 circuit Monos which have been extremely reliable. Granted I am a diy guy and I would say that the build quality is very high. The amps were also burned in and tested before shipping. I would say your problem is your local distributor and not the amp brand /origin itself. These amps are also very traditional with old school tech so any competent tech should easily be able to service them. I have heard rumors of European distributors who are more like salesmen wanting sell things vs being dedicated to customer service. Honestly the biggest issue is the tube quality that come from the factory. They put base grade tubes in from the factory unless you get the factory to put better tubes in your build. I bought premium Psvane Acme tubes and Emission Labs tubes right from the start and have has zero issues. |
| Post removed |
+1
I have not had proiblem with LM 508 for more than 4 years.
I agree on the point of upgrading tubes.
One more point is that you had better not leave it on more than 3 hours.
It does not have enough heat sink to get the heat out.
Thus I alway turn off the amp after playing it for 3 hours and have a break of one hour or more.
Thomas |
That's interesting. Jack Elliano of Electraprint fame gave me a list of trade secrets before he retired this year and he has a similar note about not running a tube amp for more than x hours however his recommendation is 6hrs so it is not unheard of and that comes from one of the best tube amp and transformer designers to have lived. His designs are licensed to several high end tube amp manufacturers. Some interesting things in his list and some real golden nuggets in there. The thing is heat kills electrolytic capacitors and is their main enemy. the temperature derating curve vs service life is steep and most amps do not have the higher 105degree C rating caps. |
I also have Silbatone 300b amp which cost more than 50K$ with silver foil transformer.
I need to change capacitors inside it after 5 years.
The serviceman gave me advice to measure the temperature on surface.
if it go above 120 F (about 50 C) , then insdie capacitors will lose life sooner than expected.
I found my Lm 508 reach 120 F after 3 hours of play.
Thomas |
Since you seem to be quite rightly annoyed about your Tesla purchase and your bad experience, I would have thought that you’d have some empathy for a person getting shafted by a HiFi company. It would appear that LM don’t have even the most basic protections on a 10K product. Given the lethal voltages tube amps run at, this is unforgivable. In this case there was a blown tube and transformer close to going critical. Since excess heat was mentioned, I’m guessing critical is catching fire. So, the OP spends 10K on amps that can fail in a way that they could catch fire and burn his house down. Loss of property and potentially life. In that context, I think it’s entirely reasonable for people here to conclude that LM amps are not worth buying and should be avoided. Perhaps you have some LM amps you need to shift so you can afford to replace the Tesla? 😜 |