2. amps-preamps
  3. 131501-88991

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
willemj
1,036 posts
 
I have just found back a letter from another user who reported that a failed capacitor in his PrimaLuna Dialogue preamplifier destroyed a Harbeth SHL5+ speaker. I knew I had it somewhere but it took me a while to retrieve it.
aberyclark
1,355 posts
 
Just curious..are you a dealer? How did Pl handle the situation then?
willemj
1,036 posts
 
No I am not a dealer but a university professor. PrimaLuna talked this man into buying a PrimaLuna power amp as well. That is all I know. Sigh.
Post removed 
atmasphere's avatar
atmasphere
11,859 posts
 
When TWO pre amps, bought 6 weeks apart, FAIL, IN EXACTLY the same way, this points to a much deeper problem.
I agree, but the question is what is the deeper problem?

This preamp has been around a while without any reason to think there was a reliability problem. Yet two failed in the same installation. From a purely logical viewpoint, this points to something in the installation that is playing a role.

I don't think its wall paper...

The amp is equipped with 68uf input couping caps. This will prevent the amp from conducting any DC applied to its inputs. But the problem is not that the amp failed- the **power supplies** in the speakers failed- and not the matching transformers of the speaker. So we know its not DC that did the damage.

Its my opinion that the extreme power of the amplifier, coupled with a slight low frequency instability in the preamp is actually what caused the damage. When the LF instability showed up, in my theory the AC line voltage sagged, which then exacerbated the problem in the preamp, causing the amp to make the line voltage sag more, until finally the speaker couldn't take it any more.

Change any of the several variables here and its likely that there would have been no problem. For example, the amp draws a bit of power so it probably should be on its own 20Amp circuit. If its on the same circuit as the preamp, I think many preamps could have gotten into this trouble.

If the preamp had AC line conditioning, the additional time constant of the presence of the conditioner might have prevented this as well.

I personally don't think that the preamp had a severe failure. I suspect that in most systems there would have been no adverse effects at all.

IOW we would know if if there were 20 or 30 of the same preamp having the same part fail in a wide number of systems. But we don't see that- the preamp seems to be holding up just fine. We just have this rather weired occurrence in this **one** system! That's a red flag that its something in the system.

So the bottom line here is I don't think Kevin Deal has to do anything further in regards to the other preamps in the field.
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