LLano Amps.

I want to chime in on this Llano love fest---don't say "you can't go wrong"--------cause I have had a nightmare experience in dealing with Llano, and I have come to find that many others have as well. It's now been 1 year that I've been trying to get my money back on 2 amps that were GREATLY DELAYED in being shipped (if I listed all the reasons you would not believe me and would swear that I was exaggerating). When I did finally get my amps they did not work in one channel. The blame was placed on the shipper but the boxes were fine when I got the amp, the exterior of the amp was fine and the interior was fine--I even had one of the engineers from my office come to my house and check them out---there was however one major flaw the transformer had a nice gash in it---but there were no loose screws, sharp edges that pertruded--etc. I sent the amps back to him and again waited months---nothing returned no word. Trying to get in tough with Randy is a night mare---whether by phone or by e-mail. So that is my unfortunate, and ongoing I might add, experience

All in all, make sure you take into account that this is a one man show, the custmer service (in my 2 years of dealing with him) is shabby, and to boot when I've been able to get in touch with him he says "I don't have the money to pay you"---which leaves me to believe he's either a liar or the company is not in good shape. I really do not like to have to spread such a negative word but these are the facts. And I have come to find there are a lot of "bodies" in the wake of having done business with this company. If you do decide to do business with Llano I hope you have a better experience then I did (I really do)....but IMO you're better off to do business with a "real" company---even if it does cost you a grand more to get a comparitive product (and that's the max you will save if you do your homework and look around). I will not drop names of other products you should try (not here anyway, but if you send me an e-mail I'll be glad to help). I hope this helps you out a bit

Mutah,

You should get a threatening letter from a Lawyer, which is really you and send it certified mail. I am appauled to hear about this and I hope you get your money back.

Mutahman

It sounds to me like the shipper damaged your amps in transit. AND, if that be the case, why would you expect Randy to pay you for them in the first place. I do not know who you delt with as the shipper, but I can tell you two things, first if it was Fed-Ex or UPS you should have sued them, and you would have gotten your money from them quickly. It seems to be the only way to get them to pay now days, I know this becuase I just went through this with UPS on a pair of $5000.00 speakers they totally destroyed. I delt with them almost every day for 7 months, but when I sued them, they paid me in less than 10 days, in full.

Next, I have bought four Llano amps over the years from Mr. White, I have never had a problem getting hold of him, nor have I ever had problems with his products. I have found him to be very honest and very helpful in every aspect of his dealing. He is slow and he takes his time when building a customers amplifier by hand. I personally would not have it any other way. The wait is more than worth it.

What I think happend here is that you are looking for someone to place the blame on damaging you shipment, and you just picked the company that sold you the goods. They did not damage them, your shipper did. I would have wasted no time filing suit on the shipper. If you had loose screws and such, you should have known they had been mistreated. I would have called them the next day, and filed suit the day after that. But the just of your story is that you ordered your amps and you received them, other than that, the shipper owes you for damages, NOT Mr. White.

Coming back to the original topic (assuming Bozo is still reading this after several months): I recently obtained a Trinity 200 amp. (No problems in shipping.) I wanted a more tube-like amp to drive the mids+highs of my actively-biamped Maggie MG3.6 speakers, but without going to a pure-tube design. (I'm using a SS amp for bass.) I've owned or auditioned a large number of amps trying to get the sound I want from the MG3.6's. I'm pleased with the flexibility of the Trinity design; its sound really does change significantly depending on the tube type installed, and the descriptions listed on Llano web site for each tube are quite accurate. The amp generally seems to provide an excellent blend of tube and SS character.

Any down side? Well, it does run hot enough that a rack position will require attention to adequate air space. Also, my T200 has a slight transformer hum that is noticeable several feet away. On the positive side, the tubes are very easy to swap out. And the tubes can be left powered-on while the hot output-transistor section is turned off. Since there are only 2 tubes, replacement costs will be lower (important if you are going with NOS). The unit is heavy but not back-breaking.

I've tried a wide variety of NOS tubes, from low gain 12AU7 to medium gain 6DJ8/6922 to higher gain 12AT7 and 12AX7/5751 types. For my application I like the 12AX7, but felt that the 6DJ8 class might work better overall if you are using one amp to drive a pair of speakers full range. That's because good 6DJ8/6922 give nice mids, sweet highs, and decent bass control, all at once. 12AX7 are a bit sloppy in the bass, IMO (e.g. when I use this amp to drive the Maggie bass panels alone). 12AT7/6201 types are great for bass but sound strained in the mids/highs to me. I'm considering getting another Trinity amp to drive the MG3.6 bass section with 12AT7's. Randy tells me that some Apogee owners have biamped with 2 Trinity amps using a combo of 12AX7 (for mid/hi) and 12AT7 (for low).

As for power, it never hurts to have a little extra, especially at the reasonable Llano prices. So you might want to get the T200 instead of the T100, unless of course your speakers are super efficient. You could give a Trinity a trial run (30-day), but make sure you have enough tubes around to get some idea of their sonic character and gain in your system (they don't have to be NOS for this estimate). It can take up to several months for Randy to build an amp, however. And of course you have to pay him first....

I've heard a White Labs amp like 6 years back powering a pair of Von Schweikerts. That system, using Theta digital and Meridian pre, is one of the best I've heard to date.