Basis Audio - Exhorbitant servicing evaluation cost


I have lusted after a Basis Debut turntable for years, and recently was close to purchasing one used. That is until I explored Basis Audio's service policy. Service is not even a link on their website... I had to find the turntable policy, which explains they are a "victim of their own success" since they have such great sales success and excellent service, they can only provide very limited information about their older products. Then they say to know more you must send a table in for evaluation. The fees for evaluation are alarming to me (see below). $3400 just to evaluate a Debut vacuum table? I planned on spending just a little more than that to buy the table in the first place. I emailed Basis weeks ago to ask if I was understanding the policy correctly and whether the fee was applied to eventual repairs. No answer. 

Since this evaluation cost, and the general vibe I get from reading their website is "We don't want to service our tables so we will price ourselves out of most of the trouble," is preventing me from wanting to buy a Basis table, I thought I would ask experienced Basis owners here what they think. I've heard nothing but great things about their products over the years, but if I can't have it serviced if I need to, it just scares me away.

From the Basis website:

4. Basis turntables are extremely precise and technical tests and measurements are labor intensive. Pricing for the evaluation, based on model, is as follows:

1400: $500

2001, 2200: $1,200

2500: $1,600

2800: $1,800

Debut: $3,200

Debut Vac: $3,400

Inspiration: $3,500

Inspiration with Vacuum: $3,700

Vector Tonearm: $1,200

SuperArm: $1,600

montaldo

Showing 1 response by viridian

How about some first hand experience from a Basis owner who had extensive interaction with the company last year?

I purchased a modest Basis 2000 turntable and it had an arm board cutout that did not seem to be dimensionally correct for most of the tonearms that I was familiar with. I emailed the company, asking for guidance. This was at 8PM on a Sunday Pacific time, which is 11PM at Basis HQ in New Hampshire. I was hoping to have response from one of their folks the next day, Monday.

At 8:30PM that same evening, I had a return email from the owner of the company, Jolanta Conti. She said she was not familiar with the cutout but that their Chief Engineer, Alex Bourque, would contact me the next day.

And sure enough, on Monday morning the gentleman was in touch explaining that the cutout was a Graham special cut. He also offered to have a new arm board fabricated for a different cut out. As it turned out I have a relationship with a local plastics company and specced the arm board and had it fabricated myself.

Follow up calls to Ms. Conti, and Mr. Bourque were always promptly, and completely, answered. Ms. Conti also sent me a new gasket for my Basis clamp gratis. A small gesture, perhaps, but one that was completely appreciated.

Value in high end audio is certainly a moving target. And the prices charged by many specialist audio manufacturers are eye watering. But I have been thoroughly impressed by the service I have received from Basis, and to me this plays into the value equation. I will be a Basis customer for life. YMMV.