Any other Sophia Amplifier Experiences???


Sophia Amplifiers
I’ve been having a lot of problems with my Sophia 845 91-05 amplifiers. They are the top of the line units that Sophia makes that retail for 20K USD. I got them used from Jay at audio revelation for a reasonable deal. I had them for about 2 months and they blew an AC transformer. I sent them to a local tech who has a very good reputation who diagnosed them and ended up fixing them. Sophia did not help out with the repair at all, Jay was quite upset when they charged 400USD for a simple transformer. 2 months later and I blow the same transformer. Again the same tech does the diagnosis and Sophia says that I should get 2 transformers as the new ones are slightly different. Richard at Sophia says he will give me half off if I buy 2. I agree and my tech installs 2 of the trannies. Another couple of months go by and another one of them blows. It has been the same tranny every time but alternating between amps, the AC1 tranny which supplies the 5Z3PAT tube filaments at 5 volts/3amps and the plates on the 6au4 half wave rectifiers. This time I am worried that maybe there is something wrong with my supply so I buy a regenerator. I still have one of the old working trannies and I install that one. Everything works fine for a little over a month and now I have blown another one! The last remaining new one just went, not the old one that I just put in. Richard at Sophia has been very difficult to deal with, he won’t even entertain the idea that there is something wrong with the transformers. I’m not a wealthy individual and this has been a huge strain financially and emotionally. I have numerous other amps that I run including a pair of 300B’s that I built and they all work fine, I have never blown another transformer on one of the other amps. The thing is my speakers work the best with these 845 amps and I love the way they sound. I just want them to work. I’m at a bit of a loss of what to do next….thinking about trying another brand of transformer in there. I sent Richard a message about 4 days ago requesting the specs and he has not responded. Apparently he is out of the country at trade shows according to the response from Sue at Sophia. I can’t imagine he isn’t checking his email!!! Has anybody else had problems with Sophia amps? Any ideas on what I should do? Does anyone know what the spec would be to the plate of a 6au4?
analogluvr
I have replaced the output tubes, the last time I had a brand new pair of TJ's in there. That's another story, I've only had 4 tubes go bad on me in my life and they were all sophia/TJ tubes. Again they sound good but absolute crap reliability. But back to the problem at hand, even if the tubes were oscillating wouldn't they take out the output tranny instead of the AC?

And regarding dealings with Richard, it was definitely not a case of misunderstanding, more a case of "there's no way my trannies are bad!!!" They seem very conscious of the bottom line, and if they were to take some responsibility it would cost them.
FWIW, S=phile had qc problems with a pair of 300b monoblocks that they had for review, IIRC.
What are you looking for exactly? Sympathy while you bad mouth Sophia. You'll eventually find some as, Sophia amps aren't perfect or the greatest available. Maybe a new amp will alleviate your frustration.
Hmmmm, maybe Audio Revelation can exchange the amps for something that actually works. Not what deal you got, that many failures is a defective item.
Mt10425. Read the last 3 sentences of my first post, they outline exactly what I am after.

And also I am very unhappy with the way I've been treated by Sophia. I think people should know what kind of service they can expect if they choose to buy sophia.

As far as Jay at audio revelation goes, he has been great. He paid for the first defective sophia tube and paid 100% to have it fixed the first time. I really don't expect more. Also I want to keep the amps, I want a transformer that works!