As everyone has been saying, it depends on the company owner, or in bigger companies, their policies. Everyone is pretty happy with ARC in the latter. In the former, Bruce Thigpen of Eminent Technology is great to deal with, as is Roger Modjeski of Music Reference, the Weisfeld's of VPI, and of course Keith Herron. EAR-Yoshino's Tim de Paravicini I can't say, but his American distributor (Dan Meinwald) is an absolute a-hole.
Hostility from manufacturers
I know its a cottage industry, and margins are thin, but I still think its shortsighted of them, and harms the industry in the long run. I'm talking about several interactions I've had with manufacturers after having purchased their products on the secondhand market. They should think about what would happen to their prices and their sales if their products were not resellable. Maybe they would like us to send our components to the scrap heap every few years or so just before we purchase their latest upgrade.
Fire away..
Fire away..