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
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Cheers,
Ian
