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!
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.
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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.
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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. |
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