Hey guys,
Just wanted to vent.
I had a guy out to my house last Saturday to calibrate my Samsung plasma. As part of his service he also does an audio calibration. No big deal since I've already calibrated my system manually myself, but I figure why not? So he does the audio first. He uses his own RTA and calibration mic and a test disc that has both Dolby Digital and DTS test tones. He calibrates them separately because he says he often finds discrepancies between the 2 codecs. So he begins with Dolby, gets everything set up and then goes on to DTS. Lo and behold he finds that the rears are 3 to 5 db lower than they were on Dolby. So he decides to use my UMC-1's internal test tones to try and diagnose the problem.
Now for some reason he needed to have the UMC set at 60 to get 75db on his equipment. I have never listened to my system at anything over 40. It's pretty loud in the room but nothing too scary. The test tones on the UMC are volume dependent so he starts to use the UMC's tones and they are
INCREDIBLY loud! So loud that I had to leave the room. I go upstairs and about 5 minutes later the guy calls me downstairs because my XPA-5 has shut off and will not turn back on. Sure enough I try turning it on and it just goes back into shut down. I tell him to just forget the audio and finish calibrating my TV.
He finishes with the TV calibration and then collects his full payment before leaving. I'm thinking, "Really? You just blew up my amp and you still want me to pay you?" After he leaves, I check my speakers and I've got a blown tweeter in both my left VR2 and my VR12 center!!!
Now I'm really pissed off! Not only do I have to pay to ship my 80lb amp back to Emotiva to get fixed now I've got to find replacement tweeters for speakers that Boston doesn't even make anymore. I call they guy up and tell him what's going on and he refuses to take the blame. He says that the test tones in the UMC-1 are too loud. Of course they were too loud, you had the thing on 60!!! I tell him that I'm stopping payment on the check and he and I will have to work out an agreement for partial compensation but no way am I paying him full price after all the work I'm going to have to do to get my system back in working order.
I call Boston today and I can get a replacement tweeter for my VR 2 but they don't make tweeters for the VR 12 anymore!!! Luckily Emotiva will fix my amp under warranty but I'm SOL in regards to the VR 12. I just happen to have a VR 920 lying around and I guess I'll have to use that as my center from now on.
I'm just royally pissed. I'm pissed at the guy for blowing up my amp and speakers. I'm pissed at myself for going upstairs instead of telling the guy to stop what he was doing. But I figured the guy should know what he's doing, he's supposed to be a professional. Common sense should have told him that the volume he was calibrating at was
WAY too loud. Lame.
