I've thought about doing this over the years, but never seemed to get around to it. But I'd like to list the audio dealers and companies I've dealt with over the years that have offered consistently good products and customer service way beyond the average.
Two companies come immediately to mind: Cary Audio in NC and Reference 3A in Canada. Cary offers superb equipment, like the SLP05 pre-amp. And they have delivered excellent customer service throughout the years, and it's always been a pleasure to deal with them. The same goes for Reference 3A speakers. I owned the MM Decappos- great speakers, esp. for midrange, and you cant find a more attentive, professional person than Tash to deal with.
I would add Tidal Audio to this list of great companies.
Doug White at The Voice that Is represents Tidal's excellent line of loudspeakers and electronics in the US. Doug knows his products well, provides excellent service and is always available to answer your questions.
Emotiva located in Franklin, TN. They give you a 5 year warranty and are happy to discuss any issues you think you may have. Joe Laliberte (repairs) is the best. As an aside, I have their XPA-1L monoblocks (discontinued) driving KEF LS/50s and they are giant killers. With the money I saved, I bought a car.
SVS subwoofers, outside of Chicago (?). I had an issue with one of their products and Ed Mullen came up with a fair solution. I now have two of their new 4000 series subs. Tight and musical subs.
In the past few years I've dealt with Galen Carol Audio and Upscale Audio, both remotely, and been very pleased. Knowledgable dealers with excellent service and fair pricing.
David Weinhart is a great guy i have had great experiences with him since my go to dealer AUDIO IMAGES Allentown pa went out of bushiness was shopping there with my dad since i was a kid
- 1 on Rogue Audio. My experience is the exact opposite of lradder. They were not very helpful and their Stereo 100 is an overpriced boat anchor. Their dealer Wolfsong audio is a poor excuse for an audio dealer, or I should say wheeler-dealer.
Conrad-Johnson on the other hand, is fantastic, attentive and responsive. Their products are among the best that money can buy, albeit pricey.
+1 on Upscale Audio. They are very good with service and Kevin won't steer you wrong. The Prima Luna amps I bought from him are dope. I also bought a BAT phone pre from him. When dealing with BAT you are talking to Victor, the man.
For on-line, my experience with Audio Advisors is mixed. It seems they don't have a place to setup and audition equipment is what I was told by one of the sales people. So when they give advice it is not from personal experience, just the company line. Music Direct is very different. Everyone in sales has some in-depth audio experience plus they can listen to what they are selling you.
At the top on my list is Sound-Smith. Peter Lederman is a genius. The products are incredibly good, extremely high quality and a terrific value.
Peter Green the support person is attentive and thorough.
Owner, John Rutan, who I have known for over 20 years is tops in the field.
I purchased Vandersteen 5 speakers, still own them, from John. As I ordered the Birds Eye Maple finish, they took several months before delivery. This was 1999-2000.
We we had moved to Tennessee during this time. John drove down to set the speakers up! An 1800 mile round trip. NO CHARGE!
Try try to find this kind of service anywhere in the audio industry. John is the best. THE MAYOR OF VERONA, NJ
Let's not forget Michael Kelly and Aerial Acoustics. Their gear, while expensive, easily compares to speakers 3 times the price and 20 years after I've bought my first 5Bs they had a replacement twitter in stock after my toddler decided to experiment. And they charged me less than $200 for it.
Audio Connection Verona, New Jersey. John is the most patient, never pushy, audio person I have ever met. He has spent many hours with me helpings to design a system that would be best for me.
In my experience over 4 decades Ive found that its not just about the customer support (though that is the primary consideration)...it is also immeasurably about long term serviceability of great products 15 -30 years down the road. With that in mind, I nominate the following companies for the reasons listed: * BRYSTON: 20 yr transferable warranty, no questions asked...they track the initial sale of every serial number...so it doesn't matter if you are the 3rd owner without any paperwork....add to that quality servicing after the 20yrs. SILNOTE: There is no customer service rep...you are on the phone/facebook/email with the Owner, his wife, or the lead Technician. They are each and everyone personable and genuinely wanting to help you for the sole purpose of audio nervana amd the live of music. * BOB CARVER: not only can you speak to him directly on the phone or email about ANY of his past and current products with service and even advice on how to improve on them, but his primary engineers will also pick up the phone or respond to emails...not just some customer service rep. The techs from his past products have set up shop servicing, upgrading, or straight repairs for amazingly affordable prices relative to what typical manufacturers charge just to service old products. Additionally, his product fan base makes for tremendous amounts of easily accessible advice online for every product he has ever built, to include upgrading. *MARTIN LOGAN/PARADIGM/ANTHEM : Simply put, talk about a large company that Truly Cares! Very hard to find in today's world
Between all of our posts here are sooo many companies being listed, it almost seems as if NONE are poor. Might be interesting to hear warnings to one another of bad experiences with customer support. With that, here follows: OPPO: I whole heartedly disagree with a prior posters assertion they are great. In my view they WERE great. Just 1 yr after issuing a product with major sales (udp 203 and 205), they have cut off live phone support for those and prior disc player products....email ONLY folks! Good luck with how many weeks of back and forth emails you'd have to do to get to the bottom of a problem or an authorizarion to send a product back for warranty repair, ESPECIALLY if you are not tech savie...how much fun would that be explaining a problem by email? ESS (British Speaker Company & owner of the original Heil Air Motion Transformer design/expired patent): This company has now been reinvented 4 times since it's birth in the 70s when John Heil patented the AMT, now mimicked by Golden Ear, Emotiva, Legacy, etc (rebadged as the folded ribbon tweeter). They constantly offer lifetime warranty on their speakers, then go under, only to be refinanced or bought by someone else, without honoring of the prior products/company of same name's, lifetime warranty. Interestingly, and even worse, the current ESS says they'll repair the original issue of speakers from the 70s (not 80s or 90s, etc), for straight PR, yet they do that full well knowing it was a US only company at that time, of speakers that weighed 110lbs (AMT 1A Thru AMT 1D) and were huge....good luck with the shipping charges to send those to Britain and back for 'Free' repair! SONY: Talk about a company that goes out of its way to avoid honoring warranties! Consumer complaints everywhere on the net from Televisions, to disc players and beyond. Throw in, that while they may be hi quality visual/sound/etc for the money, and feature packed, they too often seem to have annoying shorcuts or omissions in features that you don't realize until you own it. I've been seeing this since the 90s over and over again.
Bryston and Magnepan. Sales and service from these two is the best, and this is a combination that is hard to beat.
I must also give a shout out to Mark and Eric at Audio Perfection in Minneapolis Minnesota! Great to have a audio dealership that is trusted and well respected.
I've owned the Cary SLP05, their superb mono blocks, the 211s as well as their SACD player. Never a problem with anything over the past decade, except for a socket/short problem which was my fault. Great customer service. Friendly and prompt. Excellent value to cost.
On the top of my list of manufacturers is PSAudio. I personally dont think anyone else compares. As a dealership, although I have not purchased from them in the near past, Sound Components, in Coral Gables, FL.
As far as companies, you must include Rogue Audio in Brodheadsville, PA. There is always a human available to answer a call and your question. Bill is upfront, honest and reliable. Always happy to support a US company as well.
And for dealers, happy to include Goldprint Audio in Lexington, NC. Taylor is knowledgeable about his products, always returns calls, and provides honest, reputable transactions.
I must put in a good word for Quintessence Audio. Mick and company have been the premier retailer for 2 channel, High End Audio in Chicago and for the Midwest for well over 30 years. I have found them to be honest, reliable and exceptionally professional and am proud to have been there customer my entire adult life (I'm now in my 50s. Some retailers you recommend because of a particular line, or item. I recommend Quintessence, independent of the lines they carry, for this reason, some of the very best companies are on board with them: Audio Research, Pass, Wilson, Simaudio, Sonus Faber and others. I wish that I could afford to buy more equipment from them and I never hesitate in giving them an unqualified recommendation.
I have quite a bit of concern with Cary Audio, I had own SA200.2. Upon audio conditioning my room I had noticed strange midrange buzzing sound that had been traced to power amp. When I had contacted Cary Audio they confirmed that first batch of this model had been doing this and it is design feature and not a subject to the warranty service, though they have a fix for it. Now this power amp had right channel blown away and I had to trade it in for whatever I can get for it. I had and opportunity to test CD303T - this supper audio cd player was vibrating badly on some cd's and was warming CD's to high temperature. I was really concern about destroying my collection. So I was glad when dealer took it back.
Another vote for Audio Concepts in Dallas. And while I don’t own their equipment, thumbs up to Paul McGowan’s blog and videos at PS Audio for a great attitude toward education.
McIntosh - top notch for customer support. Superb build and quality control, research
Magnum-Dynalab - fantastic for upgrades and purchasing new equipment. They bend over backwards for the customer. Terrific products with exceptional build quality.
Krell - Very customer friendly and helpful. Great build quality and research.
Yet another + for Audio Connection in Verona, NJ. And another one as well for Audio Classics in Vestal, NY.
As for manufacturers that go above and beyond when it comes to help and service:
Ohm Acoustics - Easy access to owner/designer John Strohbeen
Oppo Digital (I know they recently exited the business, but promised to continue to service their discontinued models, and based on my experience with their service department, I take them at their word).
McIntosh Labs - amazing support for legacy products.
Sweetvinyl (makers of the Sugarcube SC-1 and SC-2) - a newcomer, but my beta experience with them has been outstanding.
Conrad-Johnson
Vandersteen Audio - Easy to access owner/designer Richard V.
All retail and manufacturer (and other...) attitudes come from the TOP. If the TOP person/people are wise about their business, they will display a customer-focused philosophy even if the customer is less than polite or reasonable (up to a point, of course--there are 3 sides to every story as we all know). As a former dealer, I can name two major companies that were less than professional when I dealt with them, but I won't as that was in the 1970's-'80's. Today, MOST companies are customer-friendly. If they are not, I would contact the top person. If there is still no resolution, the buck stopped there and you will know all you need to about that company.
Herron Audio, Keith Herron always there to provide excellent advice. Also ModWright, first rate advice and service. Finally Mark Sammut at Reno High Fi for Pass Labs equipment. Great advice and service, absolute dedication to customer satisfaction.
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