[jamato8]

I mailed the amp to Mike from Quicksilver today. I hope I have a better customer experience than you! I’m a little nervous after hearing how bad you were treated. Sorry you had to go through that. I’ve never done anything to the amp except occasionally roll in different EL84/6BQ5 and 12AX7 tubes.

I got really unlucky with this Tungsram EL84. It sounded great for a week or so and then managed to take out the left channel of the amp when it bit the bullet. I actually had no idea tubes could damage amps when they go bad. After this experience, I tempted to find a nice solid state amp and forget about how good tubes can sound. I don’t know what I would have done if this tube failure had taken out one of the drivers in my Meze Elite!

Yes the image above is a real failure of the cap. I have known Mike for 25 years, though I don't think he remembers me very well. lol. Anyway, never had any issues.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I’ve had a few capacitor failures in my home a/c unit, but I didn’t know they could sometimes explode inside an amp during normal operation. Is this an extremely rare occurrence?

 

[jamato8]

I’ve had a few capacitor failures in my home a/c unit, but I didn’t know they could sometimes explode inside an amp during normal operation. Is this an extremely rare occurrence?

Caps will blow if too high a voltage over the rating is applied or if the cap arcs inside. It isn't common.

 

[luishi5000]

I have been hearing the local radio station when at low volume. It's loud enough that it's both noticeable and distracting, I can recognize the song playing. Unplugging my RCA cables doesn't help.

Sounds like I might need to build a faraday cage to put the amp in? I can't think of any other way to mitigate it.

 

[jamato8]

Power lines also act as an antenna and also the cable to the headphones.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Quick update, I shipped my amp back to Mike and after two days in his possession he has already given me a tracking number for the return shipment. On top of the quick turnaround time, he isn’t even charging me for the repair or return shipping. In my book, that is excellent customer service. It’s certainly not his fault that a 60+ year-old tube shorted out the left channel of the amp when it died, but he still repaired it under warranty.

In no way am I’m disputing the experience @YtseJamer had when his capacitor exploded in his amp. I just wanted to report that I personally had a good experience with Mike.

 

[Pharmaboy]

Quick update, I shipped my amp back to Mike and after two days in his possession he has already given me a tracking number for the return shipment. On top of the quick turnaround time, he isn’t even charging me for the repair or return shipping. In my book, that is excellent customer service. It’s certainly not his fault that a 60+ year-old tube shorted out the left channel of the amp when it died, but he still repaired it under warranty.

In no way am I’m disputing the experience @YtseJamer had when his capacitor exploded in his amp. I just wanted to report that I personally had a good experience with Mike.

I like happy endings!

 

[YtseJamer]

Quick update, I shipped my amp back to Mike and after two days in his possession he has already given me a tracking number for the return shipment. On top of the quick turnaround time, he isn’t even charging me for the repair or return shipping. In my book, that is excellent customer service. It’s certainly not his fault that a 60+ year-old tube shorted out the left channel of the amp when it died, but he still repaired it under warranty.

In no way am I’m disputing the experience @YtseJamer had when his capacitor exploded in his amp. I just wanted to report that I personally had a good experience with Mike.

I'm glad to hear your amp was already repaired. In between you and me, it was not in his best interest to be a jackass with you like he's been with me. Especially after what I said in the thread recently. Trust me, I'm not the type to person who likes to say bad things about vendors publicly, but with Quicksilver I have no remorse at all about what I've said. And I only told you 10% of the whole story, trust me you don't want to see the pictures of the interior of my amp when it came back after the first repair. And you don't want to hear what happened afterward, plus the $500 of shipping fees that I have lost to return the amp many times from Montreal to California.

 

[luishi5000]

Finally a video review of the amp. I agree with it with the stock tubes.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I'm glad to hear your amp was already repaired. In between you and me, it was not in his best interest to be a jackass with you like he's been with me. Especially after what I said in the thread recently. Trust me, I'm not the type to person who likes to say bad things about vendors publicly, but with Quicksilver I have no remorse at all about what I've said. And I only told you 10% of the whole story, trust me you don't want to see the pictures of the interior of my amp when it came back after the first repair. And you don't want to hear what happened afterward, plus the $500 of shipping fees that I have lost to return the amp many times from Montreal to California.

That sounds like an expensive nightmare you went through. I hate that for you! I’ve been spoiled by the level of customer service I’ve experienced with ZMF over the years. I forget that not every company in our hobby treats you as well as Zach and Bevin at ZMF. I hope I don’t ever have to send the Quicksilver out for repairs again. I think I’ll do far less tube rolling moving forward. It’s not worth the risk to keep rolling in 60 year old tubes that may or may not damage the amp when they fail.

I’m going back to my previous favorite EL84s, the 1955 Mullards that I used for 6 months before trying the Tungsrams. If anyone is interested, I’m going to sell the one good Tungsram welded plate foil O getter I have left. I may sell the two Funkwerk Erfurt EL84s I got from @Wes S as well.

 

[dpump]

After seeing the pictures of the rats nest of wiring under the Quicksilver amp I would personally never purchase one.

 

[jamato8]

After seeing the pictures of the rats nest of wiring under the Quicksilver amp I would personally never purchase one.

Seriously? There is no rat nests type of wiring. I have opened up the QS and the wiring is well done, point to point with no PCB used.

 

[jamato8]

Finally a video review of the amp. I agree with it with the stock tubes.

The JJs are ok but nothing special. Actually the stock or the tubes he tried will not show all that the amp can do. The Gold Lion EL84 are better than the JJ.

 

[dpump]

See post#809. Wires not properly dressed. But the worst is all of the resistors and other parts crossing over each other with no insulation on the bare leads. Many of the uninsulated leads are practically touching other uninsulated leads. Any of these touching could cause a short circuit and may very well have been what blew the capacitor. If I had this amp I would remove the bottom plate and check for shorts before first powering it on. Maybe other builds are better than the one pictured but the pictured one is unacceptable in my opinion.

 

[jamato8]

See post#809. Wires not properly dressed. But the worst is all of the resistors and other parts crossing over each other with no insulation on the bare leads. Many of the uninsulated leads are practically touching other uninsulated leads. Any of these touching could cause a short circuit and may very well have been what blew the capacitor. If I had this amp I would remove the bottom plate and check for shorts before first powering it on. Maybe other builds are better than the one pictured but the pictured one is unacceptable in my opinion.

Yes that would be the impression. But the image tends to flatten out the perspective. They are far enough a part to not be an issue. I noticed no insulation on some of the parts when I took off the bottom of mine and changed out the coupling caps. But, they are stiff leads and far enough apart that someone would have to push them out of place for there to be an issue. Best insulation is air, no capacitance or diode effect.