|
Wednesday,
November 8, 2000 -
We received a Zen
Triode Amp (SE84C) back on trade towards our Signature gear. As you can
see the original shipping container was not used. In fact this is a wonderful
example of how not to pack an amplifier for shipment.
External Damage
Report:
* Volume shaft sheared
off.
* Input jacks took multiple impacts denting the chassis.
* Power transformer almost ripped off from the G-Force.
* Multiple dents on all 6 sides of chassis. We counted 26 impacts.
* Bottom cover screws had vibrated out and some were missing completely.
* Aluminum tube socket shields were severely bent and deformed.
After some discussion
we concluded that this amplifier had the equivalent abuse of being dropped
on concrete from a height of 11 feet, over 40 times. It was almost like
someone put it into a cannon and shot it into a brick wall.
Later that afternoon,
we were contacted by UPS and informed that the package was in a train
wreck when a UPS carrier train derailed on a cross country run. This
would explain the excess damage.
Before removing the
bottom cover and inspecting the inside for damage we all decided to tube
it up and plug it in for a test run. Naturally it would make all of us
feel pretty good if it still worked.
We already had no
doubt that anything with a circuit board, regardless of price or quality
would have never made it. In fact we weren't sure if our little amp did
either.
After bending the
tube shields back to a semi-round shape and installing new tubes, we turned
on the power switch and it came to life without a single spit or sputter.
After about 5 minutes
of big smiles, we removed the bottom cover to inspect the parts inside
while it played.
|
