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Krell Audio Research

Studio Tech was very helpful to me last year. I ordered one of their Audio Cabinets (Ultra in Birdseye Maple) and had a few questions about the assembly. Everyone I spoke with was friendly and helpful (even the president of the company). And the cabinet is a beautiful conversation piece!

VTL has been a great company to do business with. They are responsive and helpful.

GNP in Pasadena

I used to own a pair of Thiel CS 3.5s. Because of the first-order crossover characteristics, the mid-range driver was called upon to handle substantial bass energy depending on program material. In my 10 years owning them, that attribute resulted in my cooking several drivers. In all cases, Thiel overnighted a new driver asking only that I return the failed one to them AFTER I had effected repairs.

CARY AUDIO DESIGN. CALLED ONCE WITH A QUESTION AND GOT THE OWNERAND WE TALKED FOR 15 MINUTES. PURCHASED AN AMP FROM THEM. HAD TO HAVE IT REPAIRED TWICE IN 6 YEARS BUT THEIR SERVICE WAS PROMPT .

Theta Digital. During a thunderstorm my Gen III bit the dust. I had bought it used & the original warranty was long gone (or so I thought). Theta had me ship to to them FedEx 2nd Day (at my cost). It was repaired (reprogrammed)& sent back to me by the end of the same week. (Theta paid for return FedEx, repairs were gratis.) The only downside (or upside) to this was that that single digital-less week, opened my eyes to the superiority of analog. But the service from Theta Digital was superb!

Bought a pair of B&W 603 S2 from Audio Den. They were out of stock in the store and the factory. B&W kept me informed via e-mail untill the speakers were in my hands.

Nelson Pass freely gave me instructions by e-mail on how to set bias and offset on my Aleph 0s. Note that this happened before he put service manuals on his website. Magnepan's importer for Germany reglued the wire grids of my six-year-old 2.6Rs, and replaced two broken terminals, while they were at it. All for no charge.

Magnum Dynalab

The folks at Audio Concepts, Inc (ACI)[www.audioc.com] are nothing short of excellent when it comes to customer service. Their staff are friendly, knowledgeable, and respond to emails very promptly. Their sales staff has even surprised me, sending an email after having purchased a product, to inform me that part of the order would not be billed to me, as there was an unadvertised promotion on-going. I can't say enough about the quality of the people at this company.

The service that I received as a new customer was superb at Magnum Dynalab.

Uptown Audio Video in Portland, Or. Best group of people to work with. Yung is understanding of need/want and budget. He put together a Martin Logan and Krell system for me thats sounds out of this world. The store helped me with understanding acoustics and placement of speakers. They even showed me how to make my own wall panels to get even better sound out of my equipment. Along with which components work well together. Offered all the help I needed with no additional costs.

Conrad-Johnson and Classe are two companies that have been very friendly and responsive to me. I know in the future I will consider them for any purchases if I decide to upgrade my equipment. None of the problems were serious but they treated me with respect and resolved my problem quickly. On the downside, I have made attempts to contact Rega with some simple queries via the internet and never received a response from them.

I have an original GyroDec, which I bought second-hand. I later found out that the main bearing was slightly off, probably due to it being transported roughly at some time in its long life. I spoke to John on the phone, and he told me to send him the bearing for a fix, or a replacement with a new or reconditioned bearing. I had to phone him straight back to ask how to remove the bearing. I was only without sound for one day, as the bearing came back by return of post—a new reconditioned one with a bill for

BRYSTON. BRYSTON. BRYSTON. When my preamp needed a repair, I had it back in three days, including an updated power supply section. When I needed a part, they mailed it out immediately, and told me to send a check, when I had a chance. This is why they are a great company: customers are their lifeblood!

I was really happy with Panamax after I had a voltage-related problem in my audio system. They claim to back up their product and guarantee products that are plugged into it. After my Max1000 seemed to have a problem with lightning, they immediately replaced it and reimbursed me for my insurance deductible, no problem. They delivered as promised!

Aragon (Mondial)

PS Audio Chord Electronics Linn

Dunlavy

My first "high-end" preamp was the B&K Pro10 MC. I bought it used and out of warranty. One day a lightning storm fried much of the electronics in our house. In fact, the voice coil to my Boston Acoustics speakers got so hot the speakers caught on fire. Anyway, I called B&K and told them what happened. They told me to ship the preamp to them and they would fix it. I paid $5 shipping and they sent me my preamp with all new stuff inside. Basically, a new preamp. That's some way to run a company!

Many years ago when I was about 13, a Kenwood 6+1 disc player is all I could afford. Well, about 2 years after the warrenty the mechanism to move the disks just broke. I took extreme care with this player and was upset that the only way I could use it was to take the case off and manually put disks in. This was a well known problem with Kenwood players of the time. Anyway my father and I talked them into replacing the unit. I still have that unit, even though it had warrently work on the laser within 90 days, worked for 2 years and the problem is back. 2 lemons even with good service equals no more business. Since then O bought Dennon, Marantz, and Nakamichi components and they have been working flawlessly for 4 years. So I guess sometimes you get what you pay for. Or my luck has been better.

When I sent my Goertz Alpha Core speaker cable for changeover from bi-wire to single, they sent back all new cable at NO CHARGE just because there was a new model. Fantastic!

Let's see, ARC pre-amp sent back to Minnetonka twice - finally got a hoaky fix, Meridian 508 CD player went back first week I owned it after another customer experienced same problem, Magnum Dynalab and Mirage ignore phone calls and e-mail, Aragon amp buzzes (they laughed), and Linn - who the hell can understand those Scot's?

Audio Advicee in Raleigh, NC, is superior to every audio dealer I've found in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Houston, Las Vegas or anywhere else in the last 20 years. They not only let me try equipment at home, but delivered it, set it up, let me keep it over a long weekend and, if I decided to order it, they left the demo model with me until the new unit arrived. Their stock is first class, their facilities magnificent and their attitude totally devoted to customer service. Though I left Raleigh three years ago they remain my dealer whenever possible today, providing the same quality of service I enjoyed for six years when there. They recently offered to ship me a Class A preamp to try out and keep until a new one came in, or return as above, from 2000 miles away. Who could ask for anything more?

Good customer service is when they want your $$$ and you can see it in their eyes, hear in the way they push their products and they can't seem to say enough. Excellent customer service is when they still want your $$$ and you never knew what hit you but you've spent your $$$ somehow with a sense of satisfaction.

Grado. I had some problems with one of their "Blue" cartriges which isn't a big money item. The gentlemen I dealt with, whose name escapes me, was incredibly courteous and treated me like I had purchaced a $4000 cartridge.

Mondial

When I purchased a second-hand Linn turntable, I phoned Linn in Scotland for information on the age of the components in question. The people at Linn were most helpful and enthusiastic in telling me the age of the products and who the original shop selling the 'table was.

How about asking the reverse question next week..."Have you ever received lousy customer service from an audio compnay?"