How reliable are EAR amps

Life is too short to hang around with ugly women and ugly audio manufacturers/dealers.

Tpreaves, are you calling Elizabeth ugly???? (I'm tying to start trouble...)

Absolutely not.I'm sure Liz is as beautiful as, her post is entertaining.Vandy,take your toys and go home.You have been a bad boy!!!!

I too have an EAR 859 and I love it.
I agree with the poster who shouted about the trannies - very big OPTs and very low operating points on the tubes.

I gather from a number of posts that the US distributor or dealer network is perhaps not the best friend to the manufacturer (saying about "who needs enemies" comes to mind). In Japan (where I am), EAR has a great reputation and their products see lots of bidders when they come up for auction. The 859 (or its decedent, the 869) was a StereoSound component of the year at one point if I am not mistaken. The 861s show up from time to time, as do the V20, and a couple of the other amps. I'd love a set of 509s but they are tough to find. The phono stages have a decent reputation as well.

Along the same lines as Blindjim... I like to send emails , from the manufacturer's own website , asking questions about their product of which I have an interest .

Sometimes I get an answer within minutes or hours . I consider them a good company that I would do buisness with . Some of these will even suggest that you call them and discuss what it is that you are seeking to acomplish and offer advice that will help , whether it would be their product or not . I am refering to those at Quicksilver , Upscale Audio , Granite Audio and Merlin .

Sometimes I have to send a second or third email before getting a response . A bit ify but a possiblity depending on the follow up correspondence .

And sometimes , after 3 email attempts , I don't get a response . I figure that they are busy with their current customers and don't need new ones !

I can't appreciate the good ones without experiencing the bad ones !

Good luck .