Audio Equipment Reliability - Tell Us Your Horror Stories

MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum

Help Support MartinLogan Audio Owners Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

User211

Well-known member
Joined
May 13, 2006
Messages
4,580
Reaction score
4
Location
Bristol, England
Just thought it would be interesting to hear from people about bad experiences with audio equipment and it's reliability - or lack thereof. Or just any unfortunate encounters like dropping coffee over your $10,000 tube amp etc etc... you get the idea.

I have a few. Here they are:

1) Cleaning the tip of my Ortoton MC5000 to only to see the diamond come clean off:eek:!
2) Going through 3 pairs of ML Aerius replacement stators before I found a decent pair.
3) MF Tri-Vista SACD transport breaking - only to find they are irreplaceable!
4) Buying 16 Golden Dragon EL84s, to replace some Russian ones, only to find that the heaters went on about 8 of them with about 6 weeks!
5) Mission Cyrus on/off switch breaks. Output in one channel goes. Volume pot gets noisey. Selector switch fails to select input cleanly.
6) Thinking my Air Tight ATM2 was broken, when in fact the step-up transformer had a fuse that had blow that I didn't even realise was in there. That had me pretty wound up for a day or two:D

So c'mon - don't be shy or embarassed - and spill the beans... I am sure that some with be more amusing/catastrophic than mine:)
 
Last edited:
Two and a half years ago I decided I was going to be an early adopter of the Anthem Statement D2. My first unit had HDMI handshake issues that I believe were hardware based but Anthem blamed of Toshiba and Samsung so Anthem support decided to use me as an involuntary beta tester of firmware. After about 9 or 10 iterations they finally decided tha my unit was defective and sent me another that sustained shipping damage.... Some how the order for the replacement for that one wound up lost in Anthem's dealer/distributor system for about 8 weeks.

I finally got a working version of the D2 after about a total 5 months of struggle. I promptly turned around and sold it..... Enough of Anthem for me!!!!!
 
Last edited:
Years ago I bought a really good example of a Decca London cartridge. [These were notoriously variable, once you found a good one you kept it.] I enjoyed it for 2-3 years before the stylus required replacement. I went back to my dealer, who contacted his distributor. A long story short, the Decca went back to the U.K. twice before being returned to me. When I re-installed it, it was horrible. Very edgy and not at all what it sounded like before. Another trip to the dealer, the distributor said that this was the best that Decca could do. Settled with my dealer for partial credit toward another cartridge. I should have kept it with the worn stylus, it was still better than with the replacement stylus. :eek:

Another story from long ago involved a brand new HK/Rabco ST? linear tracking turntable (forgot the model number, actually worked hard to forget it). These TTs looked elegant, but were cheaply made. Unfortunately, they needed to be made with great precision in order for the design to work properly for the long term. Basically, it tracked poorly and could not maintain linear tracking. I could hear tracking errors virtually all of the time and "rumbling" from the arm mechanism through my speakers(!). Exchanged no less than 6 units with my dealer before receiving one that appeared to be working. It worked properly for less than six months. After being worked on by HK's service department twice and still having the same tracking problems afterwards, I sold it. When it worked, it was capable of excellent sound, but it was an example of poor production execution. :(


Rick
 
Most of my gear has been pretty trouble free, I can't think of any horror stories. Guess I've been lucky.
 
With the amount of equipment that goes through your hands, Jeff, I am doubly surprised. Sooner or later, though, something WILL happen:D:devil:

Prophet of doom...:)

BTW: send any busted carts/MCs that need re-tipping to the Expert Stylus Co. here in the UK. Apparently, they come back better than the were in the first place. No web link for them, but Google and you'll find a phone number.
 
Hmm. This is harder than I thought it would be. I've never really had many problems with equipment in the last 40 years. Here're all I could think of:

One of my Aerius' speakers went South. Replaced the power supply. Cost nothing, Martin Logan called it "Wacky Monday" and didn't charge me. :p

One EL-34 tube didn't seem to hold its bias voltage after about a year, so United Home Audio (Jolida Inc.) sent me a free replacement.

Our maid ruined a Clearaudio cartridge stylus. The cleaning service paid for replacement.

I don't remember any other issues with things breaking. Oh wait...many years ago our dog ****ed on a small Radio Shack speaker and the results were that one of the spring binding posts sticks. But hey, that speaker still plays fine some thirty years later, driven by an even older Realistic integrated amp!
 
someone from Pass labs told me that cats like to sit on there warm amps
and you know what happens then tinkle tinkle right into all the fancy electronics !!! if a cat had 9 lives that would spend them all in my book:eek:
 
While this is not equipment reliability, it is an example of stupidity. The other week my wife and I hung several acoustic panels in our two channel room which used to house the home theater. We removed all of the home theater equipment except for the klipsch rears that were mounted on the wall. After setting up the Logans' and the rest of the two channel system we were finally done. Two nights later we were sleeping when all of a sudden we heard a loud thud. I jumped up and ran downstairs only to find to my dismay this broken mess on the floor. Next time I decide to hang acoustic panels on a wall I'll make sure to check that everthing is still properly secured before I leave the room.:eek:
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2757email.jpg
    IMG_2757email.jpg
    95.7 KB
  • IMG_2753email.jpg
    IMG_2753email.jpg
    89.6 KB
I guess I should count myself pretty lucky, but here goes:

My first CD player, a Philips, had the bearings in the drive go south. Contacted mfr. Rep on the line gave me a reference to a local repair agent for warranty work. They kept it for two weeks. 65 mile round trip. Called them, said they don't work on them, that mfr. just ships out a new unit upon complaint. Called mfr., different rep that time, confirmed what repair agent said, took my info, shipped out a replacement unit. Arrived with a gaping hole in the box. Unit actually worked, but front panel dead thanks to the Samsonite Gorillas who brought it to me. Called mfr. who shipped out another unit. Didn't ask for the tracking number for the first one to file a claim. Second replacement arrived in perfect shape; still have it, but I don't use it.

My first rebuild on my Citation II. Bought a set of Tesla KT88s that everybody was raving about at the time. Two months into play, one of them "brewed up" in spectacular fashion; took out most of the bias supply, two coupling caps, a few resistors, and added a bunch of gray hairs to my scalp. No chance of recourse there. Rebuilt once again, installed a set of GE 6550s a friend gave me. They lasted 10 years until just recently.

And by far the worst: In '99 I bought a McIntosh MX-401 CD/tuner/preamp at a local car audio shop. CD started skipping & cutting out almost immediately. Took it back to the dealer, who bowed and scraped before me and assured me they'd take care of me. Three weeks go by, and I called them. The fellow who made the promises told me that mfr had the unit and were waiting for backordered parts from Japan. Another three or four weeks go by. Called him again. He told me the warranty work was suspended because mfr was "selling its car audio line to Clarion". Two weeks go by and was assured that everything had been worked out and I'd see it soon. Stopped by a week later and got the same straight-faced assurance, only to my face that time. I lost it at that point. The promising one turned white as a sheet but wouldn't back down from what he said. On a hunch I called McIntosh, identified myself and the serial #, and they told me they'd shipped it back three days after the dealer shipped it. On another hunch, I called the dealer's main store and asked them about it. They found it immediately and wondered aloud why the SLO store hadn't picked it up, since they called them about it and GUESS WHO lived in Santa Maria and he picked up all the small stuff for the SLO store. I called the promising one, and mentioned what I've just related, and he picked it up, and I went and got it back. Put the unit back in my car, and the problem was still there. This time I dealt with the mfr directly, and told the tech to leave it running on the bench for awhile and the problem would show up. He called me personally the next day and said "Wow! You were right! Sorry about that!" Got it back two days later, and it was fine. I also made a formal complaint to McIntosh about what happened with the dealer, and to the owner of the dealer. Dealer did nothing at all about it. I pointed out to the promising one that the unit was sitting in their shipping dept the whole time I got told the fancy stories. He broke out in a sweat and turned beet red. In my complaint about them to the mfr, I mentioned I'd been told that they were selling their car audio line to Clarion, as one of the dealer's lies about not getting it back. The McIntosh rep became very upset and used language that I won't repeat here!
 
Musical Fidelity! for sure........years ago I had an A2 amplifier that just kept breaking.

What's worse was the response from the importer here in Australia, when I challenged them at the time that I should not have to have this amplifier in for service for the 5th time in two years - "It runs in Class-A which generates a lot of heat - you pay the price in the form of reliability" - or words to that effect. Bull-effin-5hit, when I pay thousands for an amplifier. What's even more stupid is that I purchased another MF product, my current X-DAC-v3. Luckily, no issues and great sound!
 
Denon 2930 DVD/SACD decided to only output 480i and nothing else. Under guidance from Denon support I mailed the thing to a repair shop a few hours away. Got it back two weeks later with a note that I need to open a case and ship the thing to New Jersey! Glad I had to wait 2 weeks and pay shipping for something that would have taken two minutes from somebody who knew what they where talking about. All is well now though.
 
I've been one of the lucky ones as well I guess.

I have a transport drawer on a Sony SACD 9000 ES that occasionally is slow to open. I have a Denon/Mission desktop system I use at the office that $hit the bed a few years ago, took it to the dealer (Listen Up in Boulder) and got it back the next week with a charge in the neighborhood of $15.00 and it's been fine ever since.

I do have a problem with my Dodson Audio DAC right now, but in e-mails to Mr. Dodson he simply said send it to him and he'll repair it for free. I just haven't had the time to box it up and get it done.

I've repleaced a tube here or there over the years.

Not really a component reliability issue as much as ignorance on my part. When I first got my turntable I was running a Sumiko Blue Point Special ( a "naked" cartridge). It didn't have a stylus guard, and I often noticed that my stepdaughter Shea was infatuated with it. One evening when I went down to listen to some music I was horrified to discover that the cantilever had been bent horizontally at a 90 degree angle. Apparently Shea's curiosity got the better of her. I got a new cartridge out of it and made a dustcover for the turntable that proctected the whole thing.

I wish my automobiles over the years were as trouble free!
 
Last edited:
Last year, shortly after upgrading to a Modwright pre and Belles 350A Ref amp, the latter blew. Even though it wasn't clear what happened, David Belles sent me a new one under warranty. After a few other audiophiles with that same combo suffered a similar fate, both David Belles and Dan Wright investigated further. They traced the problem back to the lack of a "crowbar protection circuit" in the earliest version of the Modwright Pre, coupled with Belles' minimal use of protection circuitry. Dan even posted on A'gon explaining the issue...
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?aamps&1202697301&openfrom&1&4#1

Both David Belles and Dan Wright stood fully behind their products, providing stellar customer service in the same vein that ML does. That's why I remain a devoted customer!
 
Most of my gear has been pretty trouble free, I can't think of any horror stories. Guess I've been lucky.

The only thing I have had recently is a burned out LED in my DAC. Shipped to the manufacturer, repaired, new grounding scheme added and returned within one week. I think it is a symptom of cutting edge equipment that some of it fails.

The early Jadis amps for example broke if you looked at them wrong but they were run hard, hard, hard and sounded good, when working. For some this hobby borders on masochism.
 
I started this hobby early. If anyone remembers Radio Shack used to make amp kits, I built one of their tube amps ran fine for about 4 years, then kaput... tossed it. I then built a Dyna 60 MkIII mono amp, still have it somewhere, but not sure where. Then built Dyna PAT4 and Dyna 120, Volume, bass treble and balance controls all got dust in them or just corrosion after about 3 years, then Dyna 120 blew up. (had SpeakerLab 4 speakers at this time, they still work and gave them to a friend)
From there moved to Phase Linear 400 amps and Phase Preamp no problem with preamp but lost one channel on the phase amp after 6-7 years had it fixed.
Moved on to Carver 4000 holographic preamp and a new version of Phase 400, they still work except power switch no longer works on the preamp (gave them to a friend he is using it to power his ML Aerius)
Then purchased Magenpans IIa ( I think) lost the treble section of the panel and had to send back to Magneplanar after about 6 years. Sold those and got my 1st pair of ML Quests, switched to ADCOM 565 Preamp and Adcom 300 watt mono block amps, my brother has this gear now and it still works.
Purchased a Nakamichi 581 Cassette deck, it started eating tapes after 3 months. Gave it away after 4 years and got a Nak Dragon, still have it and it works fine.
Purchased a Sony DAT recorder/player, faulty after 1 month, it ate tapes, switched to the high end SONY DAT ES player still works fine.
Moved on to Krell KSA-250, KBL and KPA and just sold those 2 weeks ago no problems with the Krell gear for over 10 years. Had the panels replaced in the Quests about a year ago and purchased the CLS. Now have McIntosh MC275 and C2200 so far so good....sorry for the long post. Moral of the story buy high end gear it rarely breaks, at least for me.
 
We finally had to put him down after fifteen years. That p-ssing incident was about the only "accident" he ever had.

The only incident I've had with my Charlie was the first week we had him. He was about 10 weeks old and we were keeping him confined to the laundry while we were out. One day he broke out and chewed my speaker cables! Luckily on the very ends so it was only a matter of re-terminating them!

But I still shudder about it - just think the outcome if it had been the other cable that we all have going to our 'Logans! So anyone with a puppy or thinking about in the future, remember this - and keep your power off when you're out!

Now he's a bigger audiophile than me - we love our "listen time".......
 
Last edited:
This is related to a lo-fi item: my wife had a JVC cassette deck that was not working, so she asked me to look at it. Fortunately I had the schematics. Tracing through I found that there was no power to the logic section. The reason for it was that the 5v Zener that was providing power to the logic section was tied to the incoming voltage rail via the front panel lamp. When the lamp burnt out it went open, and power to the logic collapsed. I put in a resistor where the lamp was and everything worked again.
 
Back
Top