Audio Research still services every piece they have ever made.
Companies with good customer service?
I really like buying older gear, but one concern is always what happens if the piece breaks down? I'm curious to see what other people's experience has been with high end audio companies. I have had good experience with krell and with MIT. With krell, the repair took a couple months, and there were often periods of silence, and it was relatively expensive ($500), but they did replace a broken tray of a cd player and all the belts/bands, and ship a pretty heavy piece, which was a lot cheaper than a new cd player. And when I finally talked to them, they clearly knew their stuff and were very pleasant. With MIT, some balanced interconnects I had were acting screwy, so I got an RMA and they replaced the plastic interconnect part with heavy duty metal parts, and shipped them back without charge. Again, it took a few months, but there was no charge to fix cables that were probably over 10 years old at this point. Both these experiences made me feel like Krell or MIT are "safe" buys, in that I can get anything of theirs repaired if need be. What experience do other people have? What companies are good?
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Without question however and based on my exp with them all of these are easy to contact, affable, forthcoming, and sheer pkleasures to deal with and request info be you a new purchase customer or otherwise. In no particular order, they are: BAT VooDoo Cable Onkyo Audio Art Synergistic Research Dodd Audio B&W (US & OFFSHORE) Art Audio Phase Technologies Coincident Odyssey Audio Audio Magic Wilson Audio Blue Jeans Cables PS Audio Running Springs Audio Sound Anchor Herbies Audio Labs Vintage Tubes Imperical Audio Benchmark Apogee M Audio Lavry Engineering Velodyne Silverline Audio Pass Labs McIntosh Cardass Audio ACI Definitive Technology Im sure there are others which escape me now . As to how long some of these cottage industries at their finest will continue to be prevalent and ongoing concerns is anyones guess. Especially those whose operation is restricted to limited numbers as it pertains to personnel eg., one man efforts so to speak. This latter note however has not been a detraction for me to purchase their products. New or used. Any warranty there goes with the understanding (I assume) that is as good as is the ambition and helth of the designer (s) themself. Naturally the build of many of these items is more than solid and that is a tremendous plus to consider too. |
An awful lot of companies are good - they have to be in a community this size. But one does need to factor in which companies are likely to be here when I need them... Also there is old gear that is supported by third parties - pretty much the same thing as having the factory behind you There is another thread on this very subject currently here on the Gon called "Company Loyalty" http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?hbest&1229010059&openmine&zzCkorody&4&5#Ckorody for me personally: Rowland Merlin Butler Cary BPT Pass Supratek Boulder Cable Wavelength Audio note that in each case I bought their gear secondhand - meaning that the mfgr made nothing on the deal - but they were all right there without a seconds hesitation pretty great IMHO |
Here's a recent thread with a similar theme. |
According to the hi-fi stores I patronize and have visited in the past, Rotel and B&W get high marks for excellent customer service and support to the dealer. Marantz also. I've e-mailed both companies in the past with quesions and both have responded promptly to just an individual consumer like me. PSAudio is another one that has responded to me promptly. |