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
A 1,000 w/ch amp that does not have protection from DC at the input?  To me, that would be a concern.

As to what happened with the PrimaLuna, it is something that can happen to even the best and most expensive equipment.  Perhaps a bad batch of capacitors got through to the manufacturer.  Sometimes the parts supplier changes the product without telling the buyers with bad results that the manufacturer only becomes aware of after several failures in the field.  I had a Basis turntable power supply that failed very early and was told by Basis that a part was changed by the manufacturer without notice.  Fortunately, they took care of things very promptly and with minimal hassle.

I don't know about how responsible PrimaLuna, or its distributor or retailers, is for the downstream damage caused by their product.  Ideally, someone would step up and do something to make things right.  But, given the circumstances, and the possibility of litigation, I can see why Kevin Deal and anyone else involved with PrimaLuna has stayed out of this conversation.
I've posted this before but here it goes again. I too had the same situation as the OP but with Threshold T2 and T400. Both preamp and the amp sent DC to the speakers. The drivers were damaged in both speakers (Snell Type b's). Threshold paid to replace all the drivers at the time (1995?). I believe the design flaws in the T series were the reason Threshold went under. I was also using Transparent Reference cables throughout the system. These paired with the wrong electronics will wreak havoc too! My current system is Classe pre and power amp. I had a pair of Transparent Reference 5 speaker cables going to a different pair of Snell Type B's. The power amp would go into standby mode once in a while. I figured it was the cables causing the trouble. I replaced all of the Transparent with Big Silver Oval's. NO more problems! Also, the volume didn't have to go as high in order to get the same sound level. That was significant. Combining gear can be a hat trick for sure. Joe
The Bryston is equipped with DC Offset protection. If the preamp made DC, the speakers would not be damaged unless the Bryston's protection circuit failed.
I checked with Bryston.
The Bryston amps, as well as many other high end amps, DO NOT
have DC output protection. ( such circuits degrade sound)

If, the pre amp, puts out DC, the amp will amplify it, and send out to the speakers, which is what happened in this case.