Over the ten years that I have been in this hobby I have encountered a number of equipment failures from well known and respected manufacturers. Bryston is not synonymous with bullet proof. Two of my amps (7B & 5B) have died. To Bryston's credit they were promptly repaired and returned. Within the first month my Sonic Frontiers Line 1 stopped working. This took three weeks to repair. During the remaining two years that I had it there were no other problems. After six months my Meridian 508.20 CD player began skipping tracks and would get into a repeat loop. The player had to be returned to Meridian twice, the second time around Meridian updated my player to a 508.24. I still have it and it has been working fine for the last three plus years. I recently bought a 5 channel B&K amp that started blowing AC mains fuses after the first twenty hours of use. Fortunately I was able to return it. My worst experience was with an Audible Illusion L1 preamp. The sound became distorted, even after tube replacement. It took nearly a week to get in contact with someone at AI, and then over two months to get the unit repaired. Bottom line, even well known manufacturer's equipment are prone to failure. Service after the fact is just as important. I might add also that buying equipment through the internet may save some bucks initially, but it has been very reassuring to bring my equipment back to the dealer, in most cases, and let them coordinate the repair with the manufacturer.
Most reliable equipment manufacturers
I would like to know people's opinions as to which are the mist reliable manufacturers. In my book, reliability means: first and foremost, reliable and continued performance of the equipment over an extended period of time, but it also includes quality of workmanship, manuals/ease of use/design, shipping materials, upgradeability, customer service, choice of dealers, etc. For instance, in my experience I give Thiel an A rating, Sony a C.