For the first time, ever, I backed out of a deal. There was a CD player for sale here and the ad indicated the unit had a new transport installed and the player was in great shape both physically and sonically. Since the ad was a "OBO" I contacted the seller to make a reasonable offer. He responded with a higher price than the orginal ad...claiming that the power supply was recently changed as well! We finally came to an agreement on an equitable price and I was supposed to meet the gent the following week (he has a store) and exchange cash for the player. The transport AND power supply had crapped out? Got me thinking, my gut said something was amiss. I went to Audioreview.com to research the item more carefully, and man there was a ton of horror stories about this CDP. Very common for the transport and/or power supplies to repeatedly fail on this item. The combination of the up-front discussions re. the transport/power supply and the product reviews caused me to drop a note to the gent and advise him that due to product reliability concerns I would not be buying the unit from him. He responded, less than happy with me to say the least.
I almost went ahead with the purchase for the sake of maintaining a "perfect record" but the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that backing out was the right thing to do. I often try things for a while then sell it, part of the fun of the hobby. In good consicence I could not sell something problematic to someone, so I shouldn't be expected to buy a problem either. Even though this item was made by a well-respected manufacturer that I have auditioned in my system a few years ago,I would have been smart to read up on the unit before considering buying it. "High end" does not imply high quality. Lesson learned. In any event, although the seller was pissed at me he did not leave negative feedback.
I almost went ahead with the purchase for the sake of maintaining a "perfect record" but the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that backing out was the right thing to do. I often try things for a while then sell it, part of the fun of the hobby. In good consicence I could not sell something problematic to someone, so I shouldn't be expected to buy a problem either. Even though this item was made by a well-respected manufacturer that I have auditioned in my system a few years ago,I would have been smart to read up on the unit before considering buying it. "High end" does not imply high quality. Lesson learned. In any event, although the seller was pissed at me he did not leave negative feedback.