Your Worst Audio Breakdown

I'm not sure if it was the flames that came out of both sides of my Marantz amp in 1970, or the time I burned up a Plinius amp that subsequently blew all the drivers in my Dunlavy III speakers, or is it now when my Aesthetix Callisto pre-amp flashed popped and died. It is one vacation in California while I stay in the cold, with an unknown price to be paid.

I once attached a subwooker to a pass labs x350 power amp incorrectly. i did not understand the manuals instructions to be honest. pass really should include diagrams and warnings which are clear, not commentary type instructions. the amp died and was given in part exchange for a new amp. a single diagram in the manual as to how to instal a powered subwoofer would have prevented this! the sub woofer also died. the sub was sent back to the manufacturer, mj acoustics. i was quoted for repair and declined, asking them to send back the sub. they became rather unfriendly all of a sudden for reasons i did not understand, threatening legal action, suggesting i will attempt to sell the item on an auction site and there was a safelty issue! this is of course nonsense as hundreds of items are listed as faulty/ repairs required. one call to them from my friend who is a solicitor, resulted in the damaged sub at my door early next morning, and shortly after at the local dumping skip. the experience upset me so much, i did not even want to recover some money. yes, things can go wrong, we are all human, but manufacturers dont always help. like i mentioned earlier, one diagram in the pass instruction manual would have prevented this whole unpleasant experience. however pass want to stay above the crowd with hi end arrogance and think it too low for them to provide a diagram in their manuals. surely, thats only for the likes of budget kit! they are wrong. i really like their kit though, but am very cautious when hooking it up.

I have had a few over the years but my most recent was with an ayon Spirit 2. I bought it used from the original owner who only had it for 3 months. About 3 weeks after I got it there was a flash in a tube and a dead channel. I contacted ayon in Arizona. They wouldn't even consider covering a repair under warranty because I wasn't the orignial purchaser. This is now a 4 month old amp and using their tubes! I shipped it to them and they said it was a catastrophic falure of a kt88 tube. Failed so fast the fuse didn't blow before the amp was damaged. Cost me about 500.00 to have it fixed. They would not budge on anything with the cost of repair even though it would have been covered if I was the original purchaser. Not a fan of Ayon, sold it as soon as I got it back.

Yes, ive had a similar experiences. But the main thing is to learn from them. in a previous post i mentioned an experience with a pass amp and a mj acoustics subwoofer. i still use a pass amp because my failing to understand the instructions was not their fault. however, producing manuals which are vague is not heplful. i certainly would never ever go near a mj acoutics sub again. a company that threatens legal action because an owner declines politly to have a product repaired is nonsense and unnaceptable. owners are entitled to have estimates and meet shipping costs both ways to establish repair bills. their excists some arrogance in high end audio which is very distasteful. in the end its all about the music. theses days im very cautious as to what i buy. its only when things go wrong is the true personality of the company revealed. one company ,in my experience, that really shines is Zingali speakers. perhaps thats because they really have a passion about their products? not really sure about alot of the others.

The answer to avoiding failures appears to be, go Lo-Fi.