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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
thorloki OP
18 posts
 
Dear Mr. glassandlight,

the only thing that is BS is your post.
If what I am saying is not true, then, I ask you this,
WHERE is Mr. Kevin Deal, to deny my allegations??
For your information, Mr. Deal, HIMSELF, confirmed that his pre amps FAILED and put out DC, which damaged my speakers.

Now, please go back to sleep, the world is safer, when you are not awake.

You try to come across as knowing something, but it is clear,
you know NOTHING.
upscaleaudio's avatar
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upscaleaudio
213 posts
 

Of course we are sorry that George had a problem with his preamps. PrimaLuna is well-known to have amongst the best build quality in the industry, regardless of price. This has been stated over and over by the most technically adept reviewers in the industry, and anybody who is pragmatic can study our quality in pictures and videos, and see for themselves. If you can point to a better built preamp for twice the price I would like to hear about it so I can applaud it.  

I did not call George once. I called him several times. And I was never arrogant. I was as nice and as apologetic as I could be. When I first heard about the problem I was on vacation in Europe and stopped everything to contact him as well as the dealer, and we jumped on this with engineers and technicians working both in the U.S. and in Holland. My wife Laura understood it was important, and I thank her for that.  I kept him updated, and because George had said more than once how much he loves the DiaLogue Premium I thought he wanted them back. So I didn’t just offer him a pair of tubes, but some expensive, vintage Mullards, Brimars, or Ciftes. He said it didn’t need it and liked it as-is.

We sell a lot of these, and if there were many problems everybody would hear about it. But we have not. Now we have a customer with two nearly identical systems, in the same home, with the exact same failure. Exact same. It was a small cap in the right channel, NOT the Mundorf coupling caps. We suspect an oscillation as my service tech here works for another brand that was faced with the same problem. But we will never know for sure. It’s unfortunate that any amp is able to pass DC as others have mentioned. Tube amps don’t. Most solid state amps don’t. But Bryston’s decisions are not my business.

In the meantime we are going to replace the caps in question in all the preamps we have in stock just in case there was a bad batch, and also made a small modification to the preamp. It was covered in-depth, and we considered any and every strange occurrence that could happen. 

FWIW George did not buy the power supply as he states. He told me Martin Logan warranted it. I will contact the factory about that, but I suspect they are fine with us.   Martin Logan has borrowed PrimaLuna from us to demonstrate their speaker’s at large national shows, and we’ve been very helpful to each other.   Last Tuesday a Martin Logan Executive bought a PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium for his own system.  

By the way I’d like to thank Ralph Karsten from Atma-Sphere for his kind words. We live in times where people are very aggressive, and forum posts look like certain tweets I wish we didn't see today. 

When I speak to customers about quality, I tell them nobody builds a product like PrimaLuna …. except Atma-Sphere.   Look inside whatever product you are considering purchasing.


inna
5,245 posts
 
" nobody builds a product like PrimaLuna...except Atma-Sphere"
It's been a while since I heard a better joke.
fsonicsmith's avatar
fsonicsmith
334 posts
 
Well George, what do you have to say now? Let me guess; you will continue to insist that it was all PL's fault and not Bryston's. I must admit not understanding why-as mentioned by Kevin, ML would handle this under warranty-how is this a failure on their part? I find it interesting that you are quick to be jingo-istic if not downright xenophobic about China and you are Canadian and just where is Bryston made again? Funny too that Bryston eschews DC protection in some of their amps "for the sake of sound quality" when let's face reality, Bryston builds nice gear with great warranties but has never been known for great sounding amplifiers. They are on the dry side which is likely why you went to the PL preamp in the first place, either consciously or subconsciously. The reality seems to be that as I have said earlier, you suffered from a series of compounded failures, part of which is attributable to PL, part to Bryston, and part to your strange allocation of resources. I bet you are not the original owner of those ML's and paid a mere fraction of the $30K you kept spouting about. 
upscaleaudio's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
upscaleaudio
213 posts
 
" nobody builds a product like PrimaLuna...except Atma-Sphere"
It's been a while since I heard a better joke.

Below is a quote from the review of our $2199 ProLogue Premium preamp.  Herb Reichert is both technically adept, and very experienced.  

"When I removed the ProLogue Premium’s bottom plate, I was instantly impressed by the quality of parts and labor I saw. I’ve serviced countless tube amps, including some of the world’s most expensive, and have never seen better crafted point-to-point wiring or more intelligent layout."

Herb Reichert, Stereophile June 2017

If on the other hand you think I'm joking about Atma-Sphere, just look at their products.  The handwork is beautiful.  And they sound great.  I have no problem giving complements where they are due. 



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