25 year warranty – thoughts invited

11-12-13: Onhwy61
Jmcgrogan2, I think you're being naive to think that the money not spent on long-term warranty service is instead spent on better parts.

Possibly.....or perhaps you are naïve as to the cost of prolonged warranties. There is no free lunch Onhwy61. Sure, the manufacturer could choose to simply pocket the extra money, but those that wish to survive in this business for 25 years will build a better boat with the extra money. ;)

11-12-13: Bigaitch
Hmm. Curiously un-positive responses so far. The warranty being offered cost the end-user nothing.

Obviously, this is not true. You must have no accounting/business background. There is no free lunch in the real world. The warranty does have a cost, and it is passed on to the consumer. All manufacturing costs are passed on to the consumer, and that includes repair costs. So it's like you paid an extra surcharge on the unit's purchase price for insurance purposes. Look at this warranty as a communist proposition. You are paying the costs for repair work being performed on others gear, so that in the event that someday your unit needs serviced, it will be done for no charge.

Maybe the fact that my 18 windows lifetime warranty had no value, since the company that I purchased the windows from went out of business has something to do with my faith in long term warranties. I just had to replace 10 new windows, since 10 of the 18 went bad, and the warranty no longer has any value. FWIW, my 10 new windows also have lifetime warranties. That's the kiss of death for that company. LOL!! ;)

You tend to get what you pay for in this world. If paying for a long warranty is your "thing", by all means go for it. For me, this hobby is more about sound, which means that I've never owned Bryston gear despite their wonderful warranty program. The reason being that their gear never sounded good to me, it always left me with a cold, sterile feeling.

So I would prefer that the company I invest in spend their budget on better sounding parts than on a better warranty program (yes, warranty programs are an expense), but if a great warranty makes you happy, and allows you to sleep better at night, than I would say go for it. Whatever floats your boat!

Bigaitch, you pursue this ideal so passionately that I thought for sure that you must have some skin in the game. Clicking on your moniker reveals that you do have an affiliation with LFD via your Stereo Now business. It is proper on these forums to disclose any such affiliations during the original post, so that the potential for bias may be noted by the readers.

Just to set the record straight again, once again in your post on 11-13-13 you mention in point 5 about "zero-cost extended warranties". Once again I must point out that realistically these do not exist, much like the tooth fairy and pots of gold at the end of a rainbow. You are welcome to believe whatever you want to believe, but we try to keep it real here. In the real world, all business related costs are passed on to the consumer, whether these costs are itemized out or hidden is up to each individual businessperson's marketing strategy.
Perhaps we can ask Audiogon to open up a Fantasy Forum for threads such as this. ;)