Musical Fidelity fine-tuning service

Just got off the phone with Rick Walker of Walker Electronics, it takes a while for him to return calls as he's currently swamped with work. He is the only NA MF repair service center.

Very nice guy to speak to and is certainly very knowledgeable. I really liked what he had to say and he's been around forever.

He does the MF fine tuning service for North America, even before MF UK. MF started doing the same upgrades after they learned what Walker was doing and they liked what they heard. Walker and MF stay in close contact. It's however substantially cheaper through Walker due to the lack of shipping charges, currency exchange and duty but it's the same work. I believe upgrade work for the KW-500 is approx. $850, which I think is a bargain.

Tempo Sales is now the sole distributor and doing a good job. I spoke to them about getting my unit serviced and they were very helpful. I first need to go through them first by emailing my contact info, model #, serial #, date of purchase and where it was purchased. They will then send me RMA.

There has been issues when KEF was the distributor for MF and before that it was Signal Path. Tempo has been very good about warranty work and even with units that were covered by KEF, that's if your unit is still covered by a warranty.

I feel much, much better now about buying a Musical Fidelity unit here in the US, I just wished this info was more readily available to the average MF owner without having to spend so much time hunting this info down. Supposedly Tempo is going to update all this info and make it more readily available to the NA public.

Thanks for everyone for your help.

Unsound,

I agree that one year isn't generous in terms of length of warranty. What I thought you meant that they'd been unreliable about covering original owners while within the warranty period. Obviously, this is something to take into consideration if purchasing a new MF product, especially gear that's higher up the price ladder. That said, I've found their stuff to be pretty reliable and other than a remote control handset that died, I've never had an issue.

Thank You Maineiac.

Eujin,:
http://www.musicalfidelity.com/warranty-registration.asp

I would ask Walter Liederman over at underwoodhifi. I know he carries MF and is a fan of mods.

Who is currently doing warranty service for Musical Fidelity in the US??

For Unsound,

Just curious where you're getting the impression that MF's warranty coverage has been found lacking. I'm not disputing this--I have no impression because I've never had to get anything covered under warranty and my M3 is long out of coverage anyway. I do know, if you're in the U.S., that the distribution for MF has changed quite a few times in the last couple of years, which I would imagine would have caused some issues with getting warranty service. Distribution was with Signal Path when I first bought mine, then it was briefly represented by KEF USA, and now by Tempo Sales (which also distributes Nagra and Verity).

I have two Musical Fidelity devices. I like the sound and plan to keep one for a long time. I am hesitant to have it or any device modified simply because a company says it will sound better. I did that once and the product came back sounding different but not better.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I'm under the impression that MF is not exactly the leader in warranty coverage. If that is indeed the case I'd be leery of spending all that money and time on mods and expensive transport. I'd suggest you get all the details before making a decision.

I have a Nu-Vista M3 that I intend to keep forever. This makes the tune-up extremely interesting to me, but I'm leery of sending mine halfway around the world. I don't see why this service wouldn't be available via MF's distributor--surely warranty service and repair would not require sending the unit back to the UK. The work listed appears to be fairly routine part-for-part swaps. I'm going in inquire with Tempo Sales tomorrow and see what they say.

The problem I have had shipping things back for repair is that some companies want you to declare the units at a very low value so it is impossible to get insurance for the value of the unit. I had my M3 repaired locally , you might be able to find someone who could do the upgrades you want. But better parts don't always give a better sound, sometimes just a different one. It might be better in most applications but not necessarily where you were going to use it.

I have a MF A5.5 and just recently blew the fuse on the right channel. When I replaced the fuse, I was noticing how there could be much room for improvement in this eastern factory made amp. The amp does sound good though.

It's too bad they don't have a better system in place for american customers otherwise the MF tune up seems like a pretty good deal if your in the UK.

I'm curious if someone good here in the states can offer the same mods or better for the same price.

guess not, they have to leave room for "improvement" and make more money off us...

the price would be much easier to swallow if they are local. at $920 + shipping to England both way, shipping will cost nearly as much as upgrade cost.

PCX does mods for many brands, wondering if they will mod MF gears for less?

So they didn't put good parts in to begin with? All fun aside it's to rich for me.