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Originally Posted by FX5K /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I used the CSP2+ pre-amp for my Taboo, but experienced a non tube related hum in both channels for some time. None of my efforts could solve the problem. End of the story, the units transformer went up in smoke last saturday. I
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Whew, that must have been a shock. Humming noise is one thing, but transformers going up in smoke is quite another matter...
Regarding shipping, the cost for sending the amp to the US is 77 CHF($79) for economy shipping, + return shipping ($95) + import fees (they probably won't charge tax again, but there are always "handling fees" or something like that, last time this amounted to about $50). And if you don't have the receipt for the import tax anymore (threw mine away, stupid I know) there will again be import tax of another $80 or so. You end up with quite a sum.
In any case, I'm planning to sell my CSP2+ (at a rather low price obviously). Since Decware requires to send the amp in order to transfer the warranty to a new owner, I'll combine this warranty transfer and the repair - they can ship the repaired amp directly to the new owner. This way I won't lose a fortune. Still, I figure that all in all I've burnt about $500 for the Decware.
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Does Steve ever monitor or participate in the forums? It is alsways helpful when they are monitoring.
He does, I've started a thread in the Decware forums while ago and got a few replies from him. There are many other helpful people over there, too. Nothing much came of it though, all attempts to solve my problems by changing tubes and whatnot didn't produce any results, it seems that a professional repair is the only possible option.
Oh well, it was a nice adventure, but ultimately not worth it for me. I'm done with tube amps in general (this isn't the first time I've had a bad experience with a hand-made, expensive, "audiophile" tube amp). Admittedly I'm quite happy with what other (less exotic) gear I have, and will focus on
wasting spending my money to buy more music instead.
Nevertheless, these problems seem to be relatively few, since I've never heard of any before. I hope all owners of Decware gear enjoy their amps!
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Update:
Jost got a reply from Decware regarding my questions about the possibility of combining the repair and warranty transfer. They will not hold the amp after repair; this means I'll have to wait until I've found a buyer (or rather, the buyer will have to wait). Also, they charge $75 just for transferring the warranty. Great. I would have expected a bit more courtesy from a company like Decware... At least the repair is covered by the warranty.