I had some warranty issues with Opera. Rachel went overboard to help me out. The unit which is 5 years young fried the trannies. Opera honored the expired warranty and provide new trannies at a very low cost to me.
Grant Fidelity is the North American distributor for Opera. If you are considering a Chinese product call Rachel. You will be very happy you did.
charles
+1, I bought some 845's from them last year and picked them up from Rachel at RMAF, she gave me a sweet deal and I didn't have to mess with shipping. :thumb:
So does this mean your Cyber's are up and running again?
Quote from: mgalusha on June 28, 2010, 07:23:57 PM
+1, I bought some 845's from them last year and picked them up from Rachel at RMAF, she gave me a sweet deal and I didn't have to mess with shipping. :thumb:
So does this mean your Cyber's are up and running again?
Waiting for the new trannies to be shipped. Opera is a bit slow but honorable. Cannot wait to get it going again. For 2 days when all the mods were broken in I was Godsmacked with the results. A world class sound NO question. The Kiwame and Takman resistors along with International diodes and new power supply caps the difference was just breathtaking.
When we get the trannies in we will be able to ascertain the true reason for the trannies frying. The output tube [ TJ] played in the other amp with NO issues, so we are puzzled as to why the trannies fried. It worked fine for 5 weeks after the work was completed. The little circuit board between the semiconductors blew up. We believe its a heater board, we shall see.
charles
Fingers crossed. :)
*fingers crossed* and keep us posted! Hopefully your babies are back in tip top shape really soon. I'm about to get a pair of these amps, can't wait!
Dave
Well after all it was the the Full Music TJ Meshplate 211 that failed with less than 200 hours on it.
Grant Fidelity claims my 30 day warranty expired. I just never tried it until long after purchase.
I contacted Grant to explain my situation, they REFUSE to honor my failed tube, which to date has cost me including the tubes $1400 in repairs. NOT HAPPY at all.
The reason I was given by Grant is that they cannot honor my request because of their agreement with Sophia. One would hope that because of the damage caused by thetube failure and the time frame at LEAST one new tube should be provided. But no I'm left holding the bag. BUYER BEWARE.
I pull my recco for Grant after this. What would be THEIR cost to replace the tube and make a customer REAL HAPPY, not much.
Stay away from Full Music, Grant and Chinese products in general is my advice. If you are unable to fix or mod them yourself, FORGET it.
Buy American with service available in he USA. NEVER AGAIN .
charles
Quote from: rollo on August 03, 2010, 07:04:27 AM
Well after all it was the the Full Music TJ Meshplate 211 that failed with less than 200 hours on it.
Grant Fidelity claims my 30 day warranty expired. I just never tried it until long after purchase.
I contacted Grant to explain my situation, they REFUSE to honor my failed tube, which to date has cost me including the tubes $1400 in repairs. NOT HAPPY at all.
The reason I was given by Grant is that they cannot honor my request because of their agreement with Full Music. One would hope that because of the damage caused by the tube failure and the time frame at LEAST one new tube should be provided. But no I'm left holding the bag. BUYER BEWARE.
charles
It is Full Music NOT Sophia, my mistake. I thought I bought Sophias but was wrong. I bought full music thinking they were Sophias. Very confusing.The Meshplate designation made me think it was a Sophia, again my error.
So Full music will not honor anything past 30 days no matter what. It is NOT Grant fidelity it is FULL MUSIC.
For quite some time now I had heard there has been problems with Opera, Consonance, April Music.
All the same company different price points I guess. I had a new Consonance 100T CD player new out of the box DOA. It was built like junk and felt like junk. I never got to hear this well reviewed NOS Tube CD player. It looks like Quest for Sound in PA is not carrying much of it anymore. That is where I got the 100T from. Steve promptly gave my $ back.
D
I hear you. I once emailed Grant looking for a better price on those tubes and they said there was little margin made on them but if I joined their club I would be eligible for something.Geeze even Radio Shack used to give you a free battery every month. :rofl:
Reminds me of the car dealer
"you know, I am not making any money on this car" :rofl:
too funny
I have been reading some very bad reports about the Emission Labs tubes, they sound great but only last 500 to 1000 hours. That's alot of money per hour, sort of like watching the taxi meter running.
Quote from: topround on August 05, 2010, 01:51:26 PM
I have been reading some very bad reports about the Emission Labs tubes, they sound great but only last 500 to 1000 hours. That's alot of money per hour, sort of like watching the taxi meter running.
You need to stick with USA-made stuff, even if it's NOS... Western Electric 300B's last for at least 40,000 hrs, yes 40,000!!! Even the WE 437A dual triode lasts 25,000 hours and the the 417A 15,000 hours... yes, proven tubes.
I tried the Sophia Electric 300B & 2A3 mesh plate variants... mushy, colored sound to my ears!
Quote from: bacobits on August 05, 2010, 10:34:14 AM
For quite some time now I had heard there has been problems with Opera, Consonance, April Music.
All the same company different price points I guess. I had a new Consonance 100T CD player new out of the box DOA. It was built like junk and felt like junk. I never got to hear this well reviewed NOS Tube CD player. It looks like Quest for Sound in PA is not carrying much of it anymore. That is where I got the 100T from. Steve promptly gave my $ back.
D
The last TWO distributors have abandoned Opera. Grant Fidelity only carries some of their line. CDPs and TTs I believe. In the end opera and Grant Fidelity did the right thing for me. Well with the amp NOT with the Full Music tubes though. AMEX will deal with that. However I have recently learned that if the 211 again fails it WILL take out the output trannie. So No Full Music 211s anymore. That was the culprit. Poor design safety wise whats a fire in your house, great sound though.. Oh well. I'm installing a CO2 fire suppression system. :rofl: :duh
charles
Opera Consonance fired their last distributor who went crying around the internet bad mouthing Opera after the fact. Grant Fidelity took on Opera's Analog line as we had approached them to build our turntable design and after dicovering they now a lot more about TT design than we thought we knew, we just took on their line instead. The LP 6.1 is basically the result what we were after, an over achieving table and arm for under $1500 that can be set up in an hour or tweaked and played with forever. I would be honoured to carry the entire Opera Line-up, it is amazing gear, the company is almost 20 years young and they compete with the Ferrari's of audio, at Corvette prices. Unfortunately we have over two hundred products in our line-up. With luck I will be able to take them in a year or two unless someone very wise snaps them up first.
When we took on the Analog line we offered to help Opera Consonance with any customers who had been left holding the bag from the previous distribution, who abandoned the people they had sold to. Chinese factories do not provide warranty service for export models, the distributors do, the factory provides parts and technical support. The previous distribution didn't understand this (just like I didn't when for about the first two years of Grant Fidelity, being used to NA methods of manufacturing/warranty), having Rachel as my business partner who is very well educated in both Chinese and Western business is what makes the difference at Grant Fidelity. On my own I would be no different than the previous distributors, up the creek....
2 years ago was when we started offering to help and announced it in all the major forums and it is common knowledge to we assume most owners by now. To Date their has been all of 5 people needing assistance, one to get a remote, one to repair a CDP that fell from a rack to the floor, two SS amps lost a channel and one guy here who didn't even buy his product from NA. People seem to like spreading rumours based on no first hand information or they have their own hidden agenda.
Where are all these Opera Customers with problems? They sure aren't contacting us. The only Cyber 211 amp out of the 1000s sold that has had an issue that we know of is the OP, it is of unknown origin, it has been modified, it has been is service for 5 years. Grant Fidelity and Opera Consonance did the OP a huge favour, the right thing would have been to have you send the amps back to where you purchased it from for evaluation of what caused your problem.
On the tube issue, you have reported problems with your amp, you have reported other tubes failing in your amp, you have reported the tubes worked fine in another amp, you have been asking for someone to test your tubes, I cannot believe your tech does not know how to test a tube for shorts without a tube tester, he would never be certified by Grant Fidelity for work on any of our gear. You cannot remember how many hours are on the tube, now at 200 to 300 hours, you never requested any warranty on the tubes until about a month ago, about nine months after purchase, where the tube come with a 30 day warranty. You have dumped on Grant Fidelity, Opera Consonance and TJ FullMusic in public after making numerous threats to do so. Yet you expect to still get warranty?
Again no one that we know of who has purchased TJ FullMusic tubes from us is having anything abnormal happening. These are wonderful tubes that exceed most favourite NOS tubes in sonic performance, no new production tube will last as long as the great old NOS tubes, various health hazard materials used the production of NOS tubes are no longer allowed to be used (hope you all dispose of your failed NOS properly at a hazardous waste handler)
I was very saddened to have to drop the TJ big bottle tubes due to shipping issues, Rachel runs the money side of the business and has final say on things like this. The owner of TJ is now 76 and what keeps him alive and active is bringing out new amazing sounding tubes, the tubes he has played me in his factory (all in Opera Consonance gear) is stunning, their is a trade-off in 'can it be shipped' to sonics. The tubes I have heard will not make the trip out the front door by hand without failing, every tube desingers knows of this trade-off and there aren't many great tube designers left. This 76 year old man trained his son to continue with the business, unfortunately this talented young man had a suuden heart attack last year and is no longer with us. The TJ legacy will likely only last as long as the 76 year old can keep the tubes coming, he is constantly tweaking his tubes to get the trade-off in shipping for us in NA (a tiny portion of his huge Asian and European market). In China and even in Europe tubes do not go thru our brutal delivery systems. I do bring TJ big bottle tubes to the shows with me now, this is about the only way I can ensure they survive shipping. The problem in shipping is a small piece of internal glass can break off, doesnt effect performance unless it gets wedged in the plate or filament, usually it just rattles around and settles on the bottom.
Again for the OP to dump on TJ is unfounded, he is not sure that the tube has actually failed and if it has what was the cause of the failure? Tubes fail, NOS tubes fail, everything can fail. We also have a saying about the sacrifices to the tube gods, no reason, just needed on occasion.
To the guy saying the build quality was no good on an Opera CDP, shall I list (I won't) all the overpriced pieces of junk CDP players I have seen from various well known companies. I don't know the player you have seen.
One final thing to remind everyone, even I can cannot properly communicate with the our Chinese partners, non of them have anyone who understands English enough to properly communicate, if you need to talk to a Chinese audio factory I strongly suggest you make friends with a Chinese speaking audiophile, there are millions and millions of them out there, and like any audiofool, always willing to help :).
Cheers,
Ian
I'm the guy who commented on the build quality of the Consonance CDP. That was a linear 120T.
Hey, I had a dead Carey CD 108T too, not impressed by that one either.
Go Dry Up!
Actually, there is nothing wrong with Grant Fidelity and I never meant anything.
I would purchase from Grant no problem. I come to my own conclusions on purchases.
My whole system is used. We are just a bit tired of Rollo's saga.
D
I was under the impression that you and Rachel were husband and wife? I don't know where I got that from. She certainly is an excellent business person. I have seen her RMAF videos and bought from her myself. A positive experience overall, and not a cut and dry deal either.
Thanks for the clarification Den.
Quote from: richidoo on August 27, 2010, 07:01:06 AM
I was under the impression that you and Rachel were husband and wife? I don't know where I got that from. She certainly is an excellent business person. I have seen her RMAF videos and bought from her myself. A positive experience overall, and not a cut and dry deal either.
Thanks for the clarification Den.
Good enough Rich? This thread does reference us and has misinformation in it that I have tried to clarify as politely as possible. If the names were of a USA based manufacturer being slandered you would be having a lot more problems as the site owner than just my simple responses :)
Rachel states she won't marry me until I am wealthy again, being married twice before I decided to go into the audio business to ensure I never get wealthy again and can avoid doing the married 'three times and your out' thing. Rachel is my business partner as it stands.
I think we met briefly at one of the shows, do say hi again next time.
Cheers,
Ian
Quote from: iGrant on August 27, 2010, 08:04:37 AM
Good enough Rich? This thread does reference us and has misinformation in it that I have tried to clarify as politely as possible. If the names were of a USA based manufacturer being slandered you would be having a lot more problems as the site owner than just my simple responses :)
Thank you! I will endeavor to prevent a blowup like that from happening again, for the sake of all parties. I have searched the old posts and I think we are all set now.
Quote from: iGrant on August 27, 2010, 08:04:37 AM
Rachel states she won't marry me until I am wealthy again, being married twice before I decided to go into the audio business to ensure I never get wealthy again and can avoid doing the married 'three times and your out' thing. Rachel is my business partner as it stands.
We all need something to work towards. Keeps you young!!
Quote from: iGrant on August 27, 2010, 08:04:37 AM
I think we met briefly at one of the shows, do say hi again next time.
Of course!
Yes Rich thanks for cleaning up the posts. I agree it was getting ugly. The amp is working fine with all new trannies [ thanks Rachel] , caps and resistors. Same circuit. It NEVER was the amp it was the Full music tubes all along. My mistake was not sending them back right away.
My advice do not buy a new production tube with only a 30 day warranty. Any tube worth its weight especially ones that cost over $400 per pair should IMO have a 90 day warranty minimum. Not 30 days from purchase date. Never again.
My Cyber amps are over 5 years old. Opera gained a customer for life with extending a very fair price for all six trannies. Much appreciated. I'm buying a tube tester.
This is my last post on the subect, which I'm sure makes all happy. I hope it does not happen to you. :thumb:
charles
charles
Grant has extended warranties available, up to a year, on some tubes. I will continue to buy Shuguang premium tubes from Grant as long as they sound so good and customers are happy with the service.
The best el34 I have ever heard (GrooveTubes E34Ls) went to crap when the factory got sloppy. Same tube, same materials, same factory, 2 years later. Oh well. Good thing Manley makes amps with other tubes... and stands behind the tubes they sell. :thumb: Most tube sellers will stand behind them, for some reasonable period of time.
I have recinded my 'Buyer Beware" comment. Rachel and I have corresponded and all is well again. Water under the bridge. I will buy from them again.
charles