WTD: EAR Yoshino 868PL

[Sophistry]

My recent enthusiasm to finally upgrade my system has taken quite a bit of a dent as I have sadly just been scammed out of a sizeable chunk of cash trying to purchase an EAR Yoshino 868PL from a seller in Italy (my fault for making a bank transfer to someone - I had got comfortable having been provided with a lot of personal information which checked out, including the person's national identity card and a photo of him with it, all of which, it turns out, had been stolen in a case of identity fraud which the Italian police are apparently already aware of...).

But I can't let that ruin my quest to sort my system out! I know its a huge long shot, but I therefore wondered whether anyone had an EAR 868PL - the one with the in-built phono stage - (or knew of someone that did) that they might be interested in parting with for a reasonable price!

Thanks in advance!

[ovlov854]

Oh wow thats a real bummer!! Condolences
These preamps so rarely come up for sale I gave up looking for one
GLWYS

[Sophistry]

Thanks, Martin - yes, a huge bummer. I am trying to keep my chin up, but I don't think I am going to get any of my money back...

I figure it is a huge long shot, but worth asking!

[twotone]

Thanks, Martin - yes, a huge bummer. I am trying to keep my chin up, but I don't think I am going to get any of my money back...

I figure it is a huge long shot, but worth asking!

I'd speak to your bank Charlie, I think they'll refund you plus they can get the money back from the account it was sent to.

[Sophistry]

Thanks, Tony - I have asked, and they have put the order in to get the money back, but they told me that they expect the account it was sent to has probably been cleaned out. I don't think they will be giving me anything on top of what they reclaim as it is sort of buyer beware on bank transfers... But we shall see. I have my fingers crossed!

Either way, I am pre-amp less!

[twotone]

Thanks, Tony - I have asked, and they have put the order in to get the money back, but they told me that they expect the account it was sent to has probably been cleaned out. I don't think they will be giving me anything on top of what they reclaim as it is sort of buyer beware on bank transfers... But we shall see. I have my fingers crossed!

Either way, I am pre-amp less!

Think if you can prove fraud Charlie then your bank will refund you regardless of wether they can get the money back or not, keep at them mate.

[Dubster68]

Thats terrible news. Like said keep pushing the bank as its fraudulent transaction. More difficult with it been a transaction outside the UK.

[Sophistry]

Thanks, guys - it is a fraudulent transaction, but I don't think it is the type that the bank have any duty to refund. After all, I actioned the transfer - it is only fraudulent because the recipient was in fact pretending to be someone else (and, in fact, never sent me the product). The bank would have been under a duty to refund it if someone had pretended to be me and logged in to my account and transferred money out, but that is not the situation. Anyway, i will keep pushing.

If anyone has any ideas about where I could find one of these pre-amps second hand and at a reasonable price, I would be most grateful! Obviously, I would love to have the 912, but it is a bit too pricey!

[Sophistry]

If it makes any difference to the chances of me finding them, I would be willing to have separate EAR pre-amp and phono stage - e.g. 834P/88P and 834L/868L (as I suspect this wouldn't make a difference to the sound provided I get decent interconnects)!

[montesquieu]

If it makes any difference to the chances of me finding them, I would be willing to have separate EAR pre-amp and phono stage - e.g. 834P/88P and 834L/868L (as I suspect this wouldn't make a difference to the sound provided I get decent interconnects)!

There is a huge difference between the standard RC valve phono stage in the 834P - EAR's entry level - and the higher end LCR phono stage designs in the 88P (hybrid valve/FET) and 912 (all valve). The one in the 868PL uses the hybrid design in the 88P. If I were you I'd stick out for your original choice.

I bought an expensive amp one time from Slovenia. I checked the guy out on every possible platform, phoned him multiple times, asked for references, but at the end of the day I was still very nervous about sending the cash. Luckily that one worked out, but for my next big foreign purchase, my EAR 912, I drove to Belgium to pick it up as I didn't want to push my luck. Italy's a bit far for that though.

[Sophistry]

There is a huge difference between the standard RC valve phono stage in the 834P - EAR's entry level - and the higher end LCR phono stage designs in the 88P (hybrid valve/FET) and 912 (all valve). The one in the 868PL uses the hybrid design in the 88P. If I were you I'd stick out for your original choice.

Thanks, Tom - I will hold out on that basis... Of course, I could go for the 88P and the 868L, but I doubt that is going to be a particularly efficient way to do it when thinking about my now rather frayed purse strings...


I bought an expensive amp one time from Slovenia. I checked the guy out on every possible platform, phoned him multiple times, asked for references, but at the end of the day I was still very nervous about sending the cash. Luckily that one worked out, but for my next big foreign purchase, my EAR 912, I drove to Belgium to pick it up as I didn't want to push my luck. Italy's a bit far for that though.

I was also very nervous, but really did a lot to check the guy out. I genuinely thought about getting on a plane... Anyway, lesson learnt. I hope.

[Sophistry]

Bumping to find an 868PL! Thanks!

(I am also keeping on at the bank who have now passed everything on to their "fraud team")

[martinswimmer]

I bought an expensive amp one time from Slovenia. I checked the guy out on every possible platform, phoned him multiple times, asked for references, but at the end of the day I was still very nervous about sending the cash. Luckily that one worked out, but for my next big foreign purchase, my EAR 912, I drove to Belgium to pick it up as I didn't want to push my luck. Italy's a bit far for that though.

We found Slovenians to be people of high integrity (and the country beautiful) - we even bought a holiday home there ;-). Still, I feel very nervous every time I need to wire money, but did in the past to Belgium, France and Italy and everything went fine.

[Mostec]

Hi, I'm from Ljubljana, Slovenia. And I just order EAR868PL from my seller. I have two monoblosks Audio Innovations 1000 Mk3, speakers are Tannoy Edinburhg HE and Tannoy Autograph Mini. I hope EAR868PL will make my system sing nice.
BTW, Slovenia is the only country with word "LOVE" in its name.

[User211]

Sorry to hear about the scam.

I owned an EAR 868PL. I can't recommend one unless you are looking to calm your system down a bit. I think they are quite lifeless things. I didn't rate the phono stage much either, preferring a solid state Trichord by quite a margin.I ran it with both Teslas and Telefunkens with no long term satisfaction and sold it.

Initially I quite liked the presentation but it didn't last long. It also uses RS components which is not reasonable given the price level.

IMHO you can do a lot better for less.

[jostber]

This is a quite popular item in the used market. This is one of the better offers I found:

https://www.audio-markt.de/market/ear-yoshino-ear-868-phono-vorverstaerker-mit-13-mt-restgarantie-3478259475

AlternativeAudio also have EAR products sometimes for sale. You might contact them to get some advice/offer:

http://alternativeaudio.co.uk/