Wow - that was great customer service!
Bryston Support
Been having trouble with my Bryston BOT1 CD transport. The unit has been discontinued by Bryston and certainly out of warranty as their players dont carry the same generous warranty as the amps.
They shipped the unit to and fro at their expense and fixed it for free. They didnt have to do that but I sure appreciate it.
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This is typical Bryston service, but of course that's no reason to take it for granted. I've been using the same Bryston 4B amplifier on the bass towers of my Infinity IRS system since I bought the system new around 1990 or so. It has been serviced at Bryston a few times over the decades, always done expediently and at a modest price. Never any drama. Compare that to the recent experience of others here with established companies - Benchmark refused to examine an ADC that was only five years old. MoFi wouldn't examine an $11,000 phono cartridge that was about a year old. The Bryston 4B replaced a Bryston 3B in my system. I sold the 3B to a friend and last I checked he was still happily using it. |
I didn’t want to go into details either but I really found this to be bad. My BOT stopped working after burning about 5 discs. I had to pay to ship it to Vermont or wherever the repair center was. It was there for months and I finally called, after my emails went unanswered, to inquire. After my initial call they emailed me a few days later saying they had fixed it and I had to pay the return shipping. The BOT returned and did exactly the same thing as before, conking out one minute into the disc burn. I called the repair center and was told to send them an email detailing the problem, this being all of 10 days after my last emai. I duly did so, waited two weeks, no response, called again, I did get a tech to sit with me on the phone and also try a few things through their service portal on the BDP3, after which I was told it needed to go back to the shop, again at my shipping expense . I argued that point with them unsuccessfully. I finally buckled and sent it. I had to call again after emails went unanswered for weeks, was told it was dead and they would ship me a new unit, at my expense of course. Unit arrived, it dies on the first disc. I checked the serial number and it was the same unit. I called to complain, no one returned the call or subsequent emails. I gave up. I should add that in past years I had repair issues with a Bryston pre and power amp, both of which were over a decade old. I was able to get them handled quickly and efficiently through the dealer who sold them and was very happy with the Bryston service and warranty. As mentioned elsewhere I had numerous issues with the BDP3,which sounded great but was extremely unreliable. My conclusion here was that Bryston core business is amplifiers, and they are really good at that. I can’t speak to their CDPs, turntables and speakers. I have their DAC3, which has worked flawlessly. Their networking digital division is the problem, and since the incident that I described happened in the months before the COVID shutdown, perhaps they have improved in that area, but I am not going to spend any of my money to find out |
Wonder if which side of the border your on is a determining factor on shipping costs being eaten by the repair facility? @jbuhl ? |
It's a BOT not a BDP and it would not stay connected to the BDP. I think it had a component inside that had either corroded a bit or come loose. They just tidied it up a bit and it started working. Not sure if they replaced some pieces or not. Full disclosure: I paid to have a shipped once before and they shipped it back and it still was having a problem. But it was during the hight of the pandemic and I think they squirreled out a bit on that effort. So I went back onto audiocircle and ask (kinda bitched actually) for help and thats when they came back in a got it done. By that time I had a much better understanding of the behavior and explained to them in details about what was going on with the unit which helped them isolate the issue.
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Regarding your BOT experience, I think there is a reason why that unit got discontinued. And I would also say if one pops up on the used market pass it by. You can purchase an aftermarket dvd player that the BDP will control. I also have the BDP pi and it has been discontinued as well but has worked reliably for well over a year as a dedicated player and better yet as a Roon endpoint. And yes the Manic Moose interface is certainly spartan but it sounds good and works. |
I had a lot of issues with the BDP3, but ultimately their CS was pretty good here, as you could leave a ticket and put it in a repair mode and they could work on it remotely and I didn’t have to be present. Ultimately I think most of the issues-not all-were due to Manic Moose and we’re not fixable. Streamers are networking computers, a very different animal than amplifiers, and probably a lot more difficult than DACs. I just don’t think networking is Bryston forte. They went from BDP1-3 quickly, and while I didn’t own the earlier units I suspect that they were trying to fix software issues by continually upgrading hardware. About the BOT, I have nothing to add to my previous post |
I’ve had on and off glitches with the Manic Moose software however, I’ve always been able to remedy the problem and get it back up and running as it should. Each time however, I prematurely contacted Bryston telling them that I was having issues, only to email them back saying that it was fixed. Bryston knows that their software is prone to problems now and then and they have been making improvements with each updated download. However, the sound quality of the BDP3 given it’’s price point makes it a good value. If Bryston could develop its software so that it’s equal to or better than the best of what’s out there, their digital player sales would increase exponentially. |
