Hi Fi Repairer

[sq225917]

I'd take it round a mate's first, just to sanity check.

 

[baitrunner]

Now got back from Whest with a note saying DO NOT USE real ability to damage any cartridge, needs servicing on both channels .IMG_0809 by lewis vallance, on Flickr

 

[mansr]

That photo is taken tomorrow. You obviously have some kind of temporal anomaly going on, and that could easily cause any number of weird effects. Maybe the incident that broke it hasn't even happened yet.

 

[mansr]

Jokes aside, nothing looks obviously broken. Near as I can tell from the photo, the channels are completely independent, even with their own power supply. It's thus odd that both channels should have suffered damage at the same time. Are you certain the fault isn't elsewhere in your system?

 

[sq225917]

That's almost telling where the fault is...almost

 

[paulfromcamden]

I hope someone from Whest is following this thread. It's a terrible advertisement for their customer service.

When my (second hand!) Croft amp developed a fault Glen fixed it free of charge and even covered the return shipping.

That's obviously exceptional but Whest don't seem to be falling over themselves to help here. It would certainly make me think twice about investing in their kit if I was in the market.

 

[baitrunner]

No potted components to worry about . As previously mentioned same problem with 2 turntables and cartridges, have ruled out ground loops , cabling etc. Could my Akiva have been damaged by this phono stage as is being implied by the note from Whest . As previously stated no problem through naim 32.5 with mc boards with either turntable or cartridge . Will look into all alternative repairers that have been forwarded to me after this bank holiday. Now put date right on camera.

 

[sq225917]

If the naim cards, 32 works, the chance remains its earthing. Also naim mc cards have a 68n on the input, that'll kill a lot of rfi.

Whests comment that it could damage your cart is either FUD, or an indication that its the input stage.

Looking at the input stage, any tech could rebuild that easily, once theyve identified the opamps, which ate debadged.

 

[mansr]

the opamps, which ate debadged.

That's always a sign you're dealing with a dodgy company.

 

[sq225917]

They've probably just picked a nice bipolar input opamp with low offset and input noise and want to keep that choice a secret. Whatever it is a 1612 or similar will beat it.