Recently had an issue with my Harmonic Technologies Crystal silver phono cable in which the insulation of one of the ground wire had become broken. I called their phone number and their phone is disconnected and no forwarding number is available. So, I sent a message thru their contact page and requested to send the Interconnect to get re-terminated at my cost. This is the reply I got:
"Thanks for your picture, it looks very old model.I like to tell you that HT had changed the ownership 5 years ago and also changed the products.Sorry we do not have the details about the very old model. "
I insisted that this is not an inexpensive cable and a reference for me for a long time but they replied:
"This cable was very very old model maybe 10 years . We changed all the specification and the previous ownership didn’t leave any information to us.We don’t have the part and our engineer can not guarantee to repair it.Beside, our repair department is in Taiwan, not economical to you to pay the shipping cost. "
And with that, the stopped communications.
It seems that a once high line brand has now fallen off the cliff. It is the first time in my audiophile life that a cable manufacturer has refused to service one of their products, at the clients cost.
We dumped them after they trashed our customer's speaker cables. They cut the pigtails so short they wouldn't reach the posts. Now shows them headquartered in Thailand. Harmonic Technology are manufactured by the same company in Taiwan as they always have been. I wouldn't deal with either company now. I have more horror stories. Bad business practices and full of crap.
This reply makes perfect sense to me. I respect their honesty. Apple
doesn’t support their 10 year old Snow Leopard OS or their 10 year old
Ipod Classic anymore either.
Audioquest still supports and repairs cables that or over 15 years old. They fixed a pair of AQ Vipers that had broken.
The company is run now by Jim Wang's niece and I believe the quality has gone down the connectors on is good they're using neotech connectors instead of foretech and they don't even put a woven jacket on the outside anymore like they used to. Acoustic Zen still makes all our cables in California and it's run by the former partner of Jim Wang who used to design all the cables. Just as good or better as harmonic tech and cheaper.
You didn’t give further explanation as to what happened to the cable other than "the insulation of one of the ground wire had become broken."
Sounds like you broke it. You can’t expect a company to fix an old piece of equipment (or cable in this case) - that did not occur as a result of the manufacturing or workmanship. ESPECIALLY these days where company ownership changes hands over the years. We get it that you expected immediate (and probably free) repair or replacement - many years after manufacture and/or purchase. Stop whining and trying to badmouth the company name. If you are so butt hurt about it, then don’t buy any of the new company’s products. You can replace it with a purchase of the same cable from TMR audio now available for $300. It's not like it's $30,000. Suck it up buttercup - and look at it as an opportunity to buy a new cable.
Actually even when Jim Wang owned the company all the wire was supplied by neo tech in Taiwan to his specifications there's only three manufacturers of OCC single crystal wire, two are in Japan, the other in Taiwan which is neo tech but their parent company which actually manufactures the wire is a different name. The name of the manufacturer is Wan Lun.
Jim was great to deal with. Had lots of respect for him. As soon as he retired and the prices jumped up across the board, we stopped dealing with Harmonic Tech. They were good value for the money, but when the price increases kicked in, we had better options at those price points. Surprisingly, I see we're still listed as a dealer! We haven't purchased a thing after the new ownership.
I remember talking to the old owner (Jim Wang?) a few years back when I bought an HDMI cable from him. Pleasant and helpful process, liked their products and have a few. He would explain his thinking on the cables and their design compared to others. He told me he was selling the company on and retiring, and I suppose a lot of the intelligence in the old products went out the door with him. That said, sure sounds like the new owners are far less customer oriented, can't imagine Jim ever leaving a customer hanging like that.
Hmmm? From their net site under Support: "Harmonic Technology is dedicated to providing you with best customer service possible, as we believe the support we offer is as critical as the high-performance cable we create."
I dont know how a company expects to get away with this crappy customer service now days on expensive products like they sell. What is to say that they will not want to service what they make today, in the future. It would be expensive to ship to taiwan you know.......
Never thought they made great cables from day 1.Look at Purist in the future for phono cables you will never have a problem as they have great service.Good luck though!!
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