Emotiva Amps and International Warranty Service
Hi, sorry to take so long to get back to you there.
First, just to clarify one thing about the turn-on sequence for our amps...
The individual amp modules do NOT turn on in sequence, nor are they subjected to a power-up test one at a time. As the power supply comes up to full voltage, all of the modules "wake up" together; the protection processor does a turn-on sequence and self test (which is when you see the LEDs light in order), and then proceeds to monitor s all the channels continuously. Because our amp modules are directly coupled to the speakers, in normal operation they DO often make a slight "whoosh" or thump as they power up. This is normal, but varies from amp to amp and module to module. It is also quite harmless. If there were a problem, the protection circuitry would immediately go into protect mode and shut down the amp. Assuming that your amp didn't go into protect mode on power-up, then the protection circuitry was "satisfied" that nothing dangerous was going on. (If the module was putting out anything that was wrong - or dangerous - the amp would have gone into protection immediately.)
It was almost certainly just a coincidence that the noise you heard (whether a normal start-up noise or excess noise being produced by a faulty module) occurred at the same point in TIME that the fourth channel's corresponding LED happened to flash in its start-up sequence test.
I am not specifically involved in your support request, so I don't know the actual details there. I can tell you that it is EXTREMELY unlikely that the amplifier put out anything that could actually damage a midrange driver. (Even if the amplifier module was faulty, and the protection circuitry somehow failed to react to the fault, the crossover in the speaker would prevent the resulting DC from reaching the midrange.) A start-up thump, no matter how severe, is just not the sort of fault that will generally damage a midrange.
As for our warranty.... We are always willing to have an amp shipped back to us for service (or a return under our 30 day return policy). If you return the amp under the thirty day return policy, you will have to pay the return shipping (this is true for both domestic and international customers). The only difference is that international customers who want a warranty REPAIR are responsible to pay shipping BOTH WAYS. Because this can end up being very expensive (especially with heavy amps in Europe or Asia), we offer the OPTION of having us send you a part which you can then install yourself (not a good idea for amplifier modules because they can be a bit tricky) or have installed by a local repair shop.
[I will apologize if whoever you talked to wasn't as clear on this as they could have been. Because of the high international shipping costs, most of our international customers select this option, so we get used to it's being the preferred choice.]
i sent a msg to kieth on here over the weekend, no reply yet. To be honest, yes it should have been sent back. But thats not really what im 100% mad about, its the fact that they are not going to cover my bill to have someone do it. Now i asked the local paradigm dealer where my speaker is getting delt with, that they would do it for $15 which is fair, but again not the point. I looked through pages and pages on emo's forum and again found tones of ppl with good things to say about their customer service, so i think i need to talk to someone higher up there, then the lady who answers the phone.
Also not sure if i stated this or not, but the day after i added the amp into my setup, my right side main was on ch 4 (the faulty ch) and the mid range driver is now distorting all the time. Now i dont think i can prove that the amp did it, but that just add's to the whole mix as i have to dish out $139 + tax for a new driver.
On the other hand thankfully my mini-x amp is working great and i want to order the xda-2 but im nervous because of this whole issue.
