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PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium Preamplifier. DESTROYS SPEAKERS!!


A few months ago, bought TWO of the above mentioned preamps. ( I have 2 stereo systems)
Within 6 weeks of the purchase, the power supply of my speakers burns out!
I purchase and replace the power supply.
Three days later, the second newly replaced power supply is burnt out!
After much investigative work and heartache, I discover that the Pre amp is the problem.
It is defective and puts out DC. which burns out speakers.
After, testing the second unit, I find that it is defective as well, EXACTLY the same problem.
I return the units to my dealer, who returns them to Prima Lune.

I received a phone call from a Mr. Kevin Deal, big cheese at PrimaLuna.
Told me that the capacitors, on BOTH units had failed and the units were putting out DC.
He even THANKED me, for being a guinea pig, and discovering the flaw in his units.

He offered me a pair of tubes, as "compensation" for my troubles!! What a joker!!

WOW, a pair of tubes for blowing my $30,000. speakers!!

The height of arrogance and total disregard for the consumer of his product.
To all audiophiles, do yourself a favour, STAY AWAY for this brand, unless you want your speakers cooked.

TOTAL lack of quality control, MADE IN CHINA junk, what more needs to be said.


Mr. Deal, WAKE UP, and STOP selling defective products!!


If, you are using PrimaLuna, and your speakers fail, check the amp or pre amp.

George


Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
thorloki
dgarretson
2,622 posts
 
Whenever a driver blows, it is well worth checking for DC at the preamp and amp outputs prior to powering up the repaired speaker.  I lost a driver in a Merlin VSM after an op amp failed to 10 Vdc signal output in the Merlin BBAM line-level bass equalizer. That DC was multiplied to the speakers by Pass Labs monoblocks that don't use blocking capacitors. It's not a common occurrence, but c'est la vie. 
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2psyop's avatar
2psyop
1,869 posts
 
This is an interesting issue. The reason I had empathy for the OP was because I had three pieces of audio equipment from a popular brand which were all defective with cheap transformers many years ago. The manufacturer would not believe the products were bad, even though he fixed them???The fan base did not believe it either, and they had not seen or touched the equipment! Were they indeed bad, or did aliens make the intermittent spurious noise, hum and sounds coming from the transformers?
Yes they were bad and yes the manufacturer had not found or fixed the problem correctly.
Are these kind of problems coming from a product made in China impossible to happen? I think there are some companies who make shortcuts by getting cheap stockpiles of parts, or even more likely, parts are switched at factories without proper QC. I hope, unlike many here who have outright called the OP a liar????, he gets the situation resolved. In my case, I did not, and lost a great deal of money. Don’t always believe the hype from any brand. I hope some audiophiles out there don’t buy from the company I bought from, (they are made in the USA from parts of unknown origin). Perhaps we all are too smart to make that mistake???
larryi
4,344 posts
 
A 1,000 w/ch amp that does not have protection from DC at the input?  To me, that would be a concern.

As to what happened with the PrimaLuna, it is something that can happen to even the best and most expensive equipment.  Perhaps a bad batch of capacitors got through to the manufacturer.  Sometimes the parts supplier changes the product without telling the buyers with bad results that the manufacturer only becomes aware of after several failures in the field.  I had a Basis turntable power supply that failed very early and was told by Basis that a part was changed by the manufacturer without notice.  Fortunately, they took care of things very promptly and with minimal hassle.

I don't know about how responsible PrimaLuna, or its distributor or retailers, is for the downstream damage caused by their product.  Ideally, someone would step up and do something to make things right.  But, given the circumstances, and the possibility of litigation, I can see why Kevin Deal and anyone else involved with PrimaLuna has stayed out of this conversation.
jnovak's avatar
jnovak
457 posts
 
I've posted this before but here it goes again. I too had the same situation as the OP but with Threshold T2 and T400. Both preamp and the amp sent DC to the speakers. The drivers were damaged in both speakers (Snell Type b's). Threshold paid to replace all the drivers at the time (1995?). I believe the design flaws in the T series were the reason Threshold went under. I was also using Transparent Reference cables throughout the system. These paired with the wrong electronics will wreak havoc too! My current system is Classe pre and power amp. I had a pair of Transparent Reference 5 speaker cables going to a different pair of Snell Type B's. The power amp would go into standby mode once in a while. I figured it was the cables causing the trouble. I replaced all of the Transparent with Big Silver Oval's. NO more problems! Also, the volume didn't have to go as high in order to get the same sound level. That was significant. Combining gear can be a hat trick for sure. Joe
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
12,171 posts
 
The Bryston is equipped with DC Offset protection. If the preamp made DC, the speakers would not be damaged unless the Bryston's protection circuit failed.
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