Hey rickytickytwo, This post does take a positive turn as Esoteric did respond by offering a new service whereby the transport itself is removed in California and sent to Japan reducing the cost of service considerably. I haven't heard from anyone who took them up on this yet. Hopefully that will change! Has anyone used this new service? Please report it if you did. Thank you. Joe Novak |
OK, I'm back from vacation. I received the player back from TAP. Very strange! It plays SACD's perfectly. It seems that there are more questions than answers to this one. Did TAP clean it? Did they adjust it? I don't buy the idea that bouncing it in transit has a positive effect. At this point I guess I'll keep it for awhile to make sure it's still operating as it should. Anyone have thoughts on this matter? Joe |
All Tap charged me was a basic service fee plus shipping. With the shipping that I paid included, I'm out of pocket about $350.00 It did not go back to Japan. I'll keep you all posted. PLEASE keep this thread going here and everywhere else. Esoteric needs to fix an obvious problem. Joe |
daveyf, you must have read my mind! I had just picked up a replacement CD player in anticipation of selling my Esoteric. It is a perfect wave transport and a PS Audio NuWave Dac. It pales in comparison to the Esoteric! Thinking about it, does a new buyer of an Esoteric CD player care about servicing the player 15 years down the road? Probably not. Anyone willing to shell out $13,000 for a cd player is going to trade it in at maybe eight years or so. Does Esoteric feel obligated to maintain their players for 2nd or 3rd generation owners? Probably not. So. right now I'm in limbo. Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and let TAP send it back to Japan one day. Right now it's working great. I was somewhat troubled by the information given to me by TAP. I'm not sure that they did ANYTHING to my player beyond a cleaning by means of a cleaning disc. That's another conversation though and only a gut feeling on my part. Can anyone recommend a CD player they feel equals the Esoteric? Thank you. Joe |
Ok. WHERE do the luxmans get serviced? They have come and gone over the years |
Good point cleeds. I'd like to know of people who used the service and if were they happy or not.
also, I emailed one of the Japanese guys on ebay who sells Esoteric players from Japan. I asked him how much it would cost to send a unit from Japan to here. His answer was $800.00 to $1000.00 dollars. I guess TAP wasn't gouging on shipping. I remember selling two LP's to a guy in Japan a few years ago. The only way to get them to him and get a confirmed receipt was FED Ex. It cost $125.00 for shipping. (I got $800.00 for the LP's). |
Wow! Thanks arch2. This helps, "I hope". The next question is; Is TAP Electronics aware of this change in procedure? I'm going to email them. I'm not optimistic. I'll keep you all posted.
ALSO, It isn't just the "X" series that needs to go back. From what TAP told me two years ago, the UX models go back too. AND the current model of their integrated amp and one other model from their lineup needs to go back to Japan as well though which one escapes me right now. Lets see what happens. Joe
|
THE SYSTEM WORKS!!!!
I emailed TAP electronics this week after arch2 posted. I expected nothing from TAP in terms of them being up to speed on this new procedure. Sal from TAP called me back the same day with the news that ,"Yes, its the new procedure" that the CD players go to TAP and then they remove the transport and send it to Japan for the repair. Sal tells me that the entire transport gets a rebuild, not just the laser assembly. It costs around $1000.00 for the parts and Japanese labor. Add to that Taps invoice plus shipping to Japan and back. Sal couldn't give me the exact cost. He said my unit would be the "guinea pig" unit as there may be a few unknowns. This still sounds more involved than I'd like to see BUT still the shipping probably will go from $1600.00 to maybe $400.00
I don't know if I'll send my unit right away as it's working perfectly. Let's keep this thread going! THANK YOU again everyone who got involved with this issue. It's great news if it works out. Joe
|
|
jab, did you read all of the posts to this thread? It seems you did not!
I didn't bad mouth TAP. I wasn't unhappy with their service. They were polite and professional. This thread was instrumental in persuading Esoteric to modify their repair protocol. This is a win win for everyone.It is a model for how problems can be addressed and fixed. NOW, anyone sending a unit to TAP that needs to go to Japan will save $1000.00 at least. How is this a negative to
|
jab, if I won $1,000,000 in the lottery and posted that I'd like to share it with my fellow Agoners, YOU would find fault with that! You are the only one here with a negative attitude. There was an existing issue with servicing Esoteric units BOTH new (under warranty) and old. A thread here was instrumental in improving Esoteric service on many different levels. That is good for everyone EXCEPT YOU!!! You are the person whose glass is always half empty. Cheer up! |
Yes, you are right daveyf. I owned the Sony SACD player; the black model. Ten years is all most Japanese companies will support. Sony sold all of their NOS parts for their open reel recorders as well as everything else. I sold my Sony TC880-2 because I didn't want to deal with the hassle of finding someone to fix it. This was before the WEB. Darn! I wish I had that machine back! I sold it for $500.00 They now sell in excess of $3000.00 I owned three TC880-2 machines!
The fact that Esoteric modified their repair procedure is great for everyone and especially would be new buyers of Esoteric gear.
I hear you concerning other players. My first high end CD player was the mighty Krell KPS20i. When Krell release the 30i, Phillips discontinued the transport for it within one month of its release! Krell was upset to say the least. This entire post is a feather in Esoterics cap. Long live Esoteric!
|
Since the beginning of this post, I've been auditioning DAC's and CD spinners in hopes of finding a cheaper option than Esoteric. "Surely I thought, someone else is making a decent player these days at a fraction of the cost". I've purchased five different dacs so far. Some decent stuff for sure. So far though, NON have bested my Esoteric. Esoteric responded to this post by modifying their repair procedure. Sal from TAP called me the other day to ask if I wanted to send my unit in. I think I'll just send it in. FYI; it will still cost about $1500.00 shipping included. Let's not write off a great company who did act on this post. BTW, who better to service a delicate unit like the XO-1 than the factory? Joe |
Joe, The truth is; E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G in this industry will eventually be a door stop. Esoteric has gone above and beyond in their servicing of older CD players. Sony and most other Japanese manufactures only stock parts for 10 years. At that point they purge that OLD inventory. My XO-1 is sixteen years old and Esoteric is willing to maintain it AND in my humble opinion it stills sounds fantastic! |
