Am I wrong?

Pops,

I too have been in this hobby for a long time; over three decades. I've been fortunate because I've only had two equipment failures in that time, probably because I have mid-fi equipment based on the majority of systems represented here at Audiogon.

Keep this in perspective. The Beemer analogy isn't fair unless you are getting that same service in Arco, Idaho. The closest BMW dealer would be in Salt Lake City, Boise or Billings. Consequently, BMW couldn't possibly give you the service you are accustomed to where you live.

Audiophiles are a real minority in the overall scope of things. There are way more high end audio manufacturers than there are car manufacturers and they have a smaller number of customers to jusify their existence on. It's not realistic for them to have repair facilities located near everyone.

If you bought this item from a local retailer then he should be supplying you with a loaner and handling the shipping for you. At least that's the way the upper end dealers used to work.

Had an Anthem AVM die recently. Sonic Frontiers had it for six weeks and when I got it back it was in worse shape (scratched!) and still doesn't work. Next time I'm buying american. I've also been in this hobby for a long time and recently customer service has gone in the toilet. You get better service at best buy these days.

Yup, this is supposed to be a tweaky painful hobby.
Just read mag reviews: I mean read them, Such and such broke the day after I got it ----manufacturer says it was a one time even I had the replacement that afternoon.

RE-READ this piece of crapola broke, but because I'm a reviewer and could basically ruin thier life. They took exquisite care of me. As for you, SUCKA beware.

When you buy tweaky, think Ferrari not BMW, it's super performance until it breaks which is quite often. The BMW's cost about 1.5 times the price of domestic. But deliver a bit more performance, maybe. They don't out brake, out accelerate or out corner a vette, and they do usually out price one. Makes one think about performance doesn't it. BTW BMW is one of my customers. So hold the diatribes trust me I know them better than you.

What do you get with BMW, a developed proven auto, same with vette, one is a much harsher product who achieves the performance with brute strength, the other does achieve such lofty goals but is a much more refined piece. Both hold together very well.

BMW sells hundreds of thousands of thier cars. YOUR AUDIO MAKER-THE TWEAK BRANDS----maybe sell a few thousand. They don't test them much, they only listen for a certain sound quality, they find it, and market it.

If you want durability ---go for a Sony, which by the way makes some nice CD players.

So there you have it. If you sell a few thousand what evers in a year, and you support speed in customer service you will end up like so many hi-end companies, defunct.

Where is Threshold, oh yeah trying to come back under a new ownere,
Where is CAL-DEAD
Where is Cello-DEAD
Where is Dunlavy, Hales, JSE, stick in your own name.

Bottom line: You buy tweak you may get higher performance and you may get a boat anchor. Let your wallet be your guide.

Sorting throught the names: There are those that are always on top and always have been, hence stability:

MUSE, CJ (now I am hearing questionable liquidity-I hope not), Audio Research, Linn, Krell, Levinson, Thiel, etc.

Bigger names may not get you the A+ marks but with a durable A to A- you will probably buy a reasonable investment, as it will hold at least half it's price in the first 5 years so when the upgrade bug gets ya, you have trade value.

Choose wisely HopGrasser.

jeff

I agree that your piece should go to the front of the line, behind, of course others in the same situation. Being without the piece of gear can be very frustrating. I sent a TT in to SOTA to be upgraded. They got it done pretty fast, but it still seemed like forever.

I wish I could help you out, as I truly empathize.

buy bryston products and you won't have this problem.

Its really sad you get better service at Home Depot then you do from hi end audio. There are of course exceptions, classe and bryston come to mind. If in fact there are so few audiophiles out there- I agree with that statement- then they should do what ever it takes to keep them happy with a product that broke; i.e. pay shipping, over night or next day the item back, get it done quickly!

Pops,
I don’t blame you for how you feel. I guess I’ve been lucky, I’ve only had (from what I can remember) four pieces of different equipment go bad on me in 30 years, 20 of those years was hi-end. In all such cases I had my gear back with-in a week to nine days from the other coast of the USA. My point being some manufactures really bend over backwards to assist. For that I’m grateful! I wish you a speedy return of your equipment.

As Tabu mentioned Bryston and many people know that i am a critic of some of their products, i have to be honest. I sent in a unit for repair to them quite a while back. After they had it for about two weeks, i called to see what was going on with it. The "tech" there told me that he had been putting it off as it looked like a real handful but that he would look at it later that day. He called me back two hours later, gave me the rundown and shipped the unit out the next day. Given that there was a LOT of hand labor involved in what he had to do, i was charged $120 for a "B stock" chassis, all the labor involved in transferring the "guts" from the old box to the new one, benching and adjusting the unit to verify proper operation. This also covered the return shipping for what is a pretty heavy item. While the initial time prior to service was not exactly what i would have liked to have seen, the total experience was FAR better than i could have hoped for and VERY reasonably priced. Quite honestly, i could not have done the work myself and covered parts and shipping for that kind of money.

Another time worth commenting on was when i sent something into Sunfire. Their service was SO fast it was incredible. From the time that they received the unit, performed the upgrades / modifications and shipped it out was less than 24 hours. This was done at NO charge AND they covered return shipping on a 60 lb item.

I know that both Adcom and B&K are also excellent to work with. Both offer very reasonable rates and turn-around times and they stand behind their products. "Mid-fi" or not, they are good companies to deal with as far as i'm concerned.

As to how all the others do business, i don't know. I can see a tech taking longer than planned trying to track down what is an intermittent problem, but other than that, the factory trained and equipped "techs" should be able to whip most things in and out on a pretty timely basis. The fact that most of these facilities are only working on one or a very limited quantity of brands / products should help them develop quite a bit of "expertise" in terms of tracking things down and repairing them. After all, it is not like they have to know how 1000 different products from 1000 different manufacturers work and are designed.

I guess that most manufacturers just don't get it. What sets "hi end" products apart from those that are "more reasonably priced" is slightly better performance and CUSTOMER SUPPORT. If the company doesn't offer the customer support / service that one would expect, is the difference in performance really worth the difference in price ? Sean
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You should ask your dealer for some type of loaner when your new unit is down for repair.

If you run a search in the archives, you will find a number of threads on good customer service. To those noted above, I can second Classe' and add BAT. 24 hour turn around on both brands. SMcAudio sometimes a tad slow, but VERY personal service, great communications. SOTA the same; not always the quickest but they make you feel like a long-time customer and when you call you speak to the owners. Lots of helpful consultation/advice on used products. I strongly agree that if you are paying top $, you deserve top service.