HighPercentile wrote:

Greetings all—I wanted to share some correspondence from Chet regarding blown Triton 2 amplifiers—hope it helps.


From Me to Chet—"Swapped the amps last night and all seems to be well…..I’m only saddened that either this speaker has blown an amp twice now or that each speaker has now blown an amp. Has this been a common issue? (Original Triton 2’s). Also just fyi there was no middle detent to be felt on the new volume knob, dunno if that’s intentional or manufacturing.”

Part of Chet’s reply to me—"Thanks for the update. Our newer volume controls (or potentiometers) do not have a center position detent . There’s really no performance advantage one way or another. It’s just a design change.
The original Triton Two amplifiers failed more than they should have….When our amplifier technician (Curt Hief) reconditions our replacement Triton Two amplifiers, they’re actually improved to be more reliable than the original production units."

Hold on...

So the amps they send for replacement after the originals go bad are not new - they are used and reconditioned ones...?

That seems to be the case. In fact, it was obvious to me when I replaced the side “HL module” as the outer part of the plastic (covered by the sock when finished) was a bit scuffed and abused. I’m not an electrical engineer and don’t know circuit boards but both replacement modules (HL & LL) appear identical to the old ones in general. Also FWIW did a sniff test on the blown components but unable to smell anything burned or weird. Smells like copper and electronics.

@new24k

That would be rather surprising as far as I'm concerned.

First of all, let's start with what everybody already knows, which is that GoldenEar is top of the line as far as customer service is concerned.

Secondly, speaking from personal experience, after having received passive radiators for both Triton one and Triton reference, as well as tweeters for the TRefs, and a base for the TRef, I can state that without a doubt every part I've ever received has been brand new.

And it's beyond me to think that GE would treat different customers differently.

Having stated the aforementioned, of course it's possible that whatever part you receive has been reconditioned. But playing devil's advocate for just a moment, it's also theoretically possible a reconditioned part is advantageous, especially if it's known that the equivalent newly manufactured part can in some way be defective. A properly reconditioned part (in any facet of life) implies "human intervention" was involved, and at a "personal" level.

Best.

Hal

Agreed. And since Chet specifically mentioned that their technician is reconditioning the amps to be “better than the original“ that makes sense to me. I don’t have a problem personally with a reconditioned amp that has been modified by hand by the company. And I also wouldn’t be surprised that they do use new parts in some cases, such as the speaker cones themselves.

Again, the HL module that I just received was banged up and scuffed enough on the exterior that had it been showing I would have sent it back, but it is hidden away under the sock. The LL module, which is where the potentiometer and speaker inputs are was pristine on the other hand.