$500 amplifiers to test and review?

[sergeauckland]

So (hypothetically), if you had purchased that item based on that functionality, and communicated that to the retailer at the time of purchase, under Australian Consumer Law, you would be entitled to remedy or full refund as it would be classified as a major fault, not representative of the sample shown and not as advertised? After all, the thing is only 4 years old and surely has not satisfied the expectation of a 'reasonable' life of such a device has it?

Not speaking as a class-action lawyer, just a goober on ASR.

I really wish somebody would take on a Class Action against companies that do this sort of thing. Far too often these days, updates remove or break functions that somebody uses. The definition of a 'reasonable life' should be defined for every product, but as in the case of the Devialet Phantom, this is defacto defined as the 2 year warranty, as once out of warranty, you're on your own.

S,

 

[Sal1950]

FWIW NAD has remove the embedded Spotify integration on the D7050: https://support.nadelectronics.com/...000158908-How-to-Stream-Spotify-on-the-D-7050

Seems to be some issue with keeping Spotify integration working long term. It's been broken in my Clememintine media player for a couple months now. I miss being able to built a playlist using both Spotify and local sources.

 

[andreasmaaan]

Seems to be some issue with keeping Spotify integration working long term. It's been broken in my Clememintine media player for a couple months now. I miss being able to built a playlist using both Spotify and local sources.

Spotify seems to auto-update incredibly often for a piece of software that never particularly changes in function. I wonder if Spotify updates are the cause of these problems.

 

[maverickronin]

Spotify seems to auto-update incredibly often for a piece of software that never particularly changes in function. I wonder if Spotify updates are the cause of these problems.

95% of software these days...

 

[Sal1950]

95% of software these days...

Just had to boot into my Win 10 partition to do a Windoz only thing. Hadn't booted into doz for all of about 24 hours.
Took about 15 minutes for the drive to quit grinding away on some update before I could do anything.
I HATE Windoz 10

 

[TimW]

What about this amp?

https://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-apa150-150w-power-amplifier--300-812

I've got a couple Amir can test if he's interested.

 

[JJB70]

I really wish somebody would take on a Class Action against companies that do this sort of thing. Far too often these days, updates remove or break functions that somebody uses. The definition of a 'reasonable life' should be defined for every product, but as in the case of the Devialet Phantom, this is defacto defined as the 2 year warranty, as once out of warranty, you're on your own.

S,

Companies rely on the fact that most people won't push things to the limit and assume that the potential costs of pursuing a failed case far outweigh the cost of just throwing a faulty product away. However in the UK our small claims procedure is pretty effective at giving consumers a low cost legal avenue to seek redress for small to medium losses:

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money

I used it once and got a full refund of £750 on an item of faulty furniture plus my fees covered by the supplier. Also trading standards can help a lot, a few years ago one of our high street PC shops sold me a dud item and refused to refund. I went to trading standards, the guy just rolled his eyes and told me that was their standard MO as they knew the vast bulk of those affected would go away and sulk but just accept it (and as often as not return after a while). He gave me his card, told me the name of the store manager (didn't that say something in itself?) and to tell him about our little chat and I would be using the small claims process. As soon as I asked for the said manager and showed him the trading standards guys card I got an immediate refund.

So my advice is give it a go but be realistic. Make written communications clear and direct but respectful and keep emotion out of it (I'm fortunate in that I have some friends who are corporate lawyers who, ahem....., are happy to give me a draft text of what a good letter might look like when needed) and quite often these companies decide it's easier to just pay up.

 

[restorer-john]

ust had to boot into my Win 10 partition to do a Windoz only thing. Hadn't booted into doz for all of about 24 hours.
Took about 15 minutes for the drive to quit grinding away on some update before I could do anything.
I HATE Windoz 10

WinAero Tweaker.

https://winaero.com/blog/whats-new-windows-10-october-2018-update-version-1809/

https://winaero.com/request.php?1796

Kill all the junk, updates, useless stuff etc. Take back control of your PC. It is an absolutely fabulous little (download 2.3MB) program. Basically, a front end for regedit/gpe. Does stuff that is hidden in Win10 or hard to find registry entry mods otherwise. Small, can be run standalone if you don't want to install it.

Honestly, I love it. I can fix a heap of what is wrong with Win10 without my usual lists of registry fixes.

 

[Sal1950]

WinAero Tweaker.

https://winaero.com/blog/whats-new-windows-10-october-2018-update-version-1809/

https://winaero.com/request.php?1796

Thanks John!
My problem is my paranoia, I don't trust the authors not to be grabbing my passwords, etc in the background and running a game of their own.
I only boot into Doz when I absolutel have to, rest of the time I'm in PCLinuxOS, a OS I have a long background in building and the people around it.

 

[watchnerd]

Thanks John!
My problem is my paranoia, I don't trust the authors not to be grabbing my passwords, etc in the background and running a game of their own.
I only boot into Doz when I absolutel have to, rest of the time I'm in PCLinuxOS, a OS I have a long background in building and the people around it.

Like when?

Until I got my recent job, I spent 10 years using Mac and Linux only.

 

[Sal1950]

Like when?

I've been using Quicken for my financial life since Micro$oft killed MS Money, it's a must have app for me that doesn't run under Wine at all.
I've also got some ballistic software I use for developing my firearm reloading recipes with a lot of history behind it. There's a few other Doz only programs I need on occasion. Otherwise I work 95% under PCLOS

 

[restorer-john]

My problem is my paranoia, I don't trust the authors not to be grabbing my passwords, etc in the background and running a game of their own.

It's no different to manually editing registry keys. Seriously, it's brilliant.

You can always use 'god mode' that's built in to all versions of windows (from Win7 onward) to bring all the user functionalities into one place.

Make a new folder on your desktop.
Rename the folder to this GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} copy and paste it or type it exactly.

Enjoy being able to find what setting you want logically arranged and accurately described for once.

 

[Sal1950]

Enjoy being able to find what setting you want logically arranged and accurately described for once.

Thanks John, lots of good info there.
For the big picture, I'm forced to use an application that contains all my most delicate personal info (all banking and investing passwords, etc) on the most insecure OS in existence, Windows. For this reason I keep that installation as free from outside software as possible. I don't know or trust what may be written in that code, what it may be collecting, or sharing with unknown parties. I boot it, do my work, and get the hell out. LOL

 

[maverickronin]

My problem is my paranoia, I don't trust the authors not to be grabbing my passwords, etc in the background and running a game of their own.

You can use a software firewall to keep everything in. On my system, no windows process is allowed to talk to anything but my router's DNS or ntp.org's time servers.

Like when?

Until I got my recent job, I spent 10 years using Mac and Linux only.

Or most games...

 

[amirm]

At long last, I found some time to review the amps I had started to collect. Here is the first installment: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...opping-tp60-and-fx-audio-fx502spro-amps.5025/

Pretty depressing news though.....

 

[DataX]

@amirm would you be willing to review the Behringer KM750? I've been working on my home audio setup and picked up this power amp as a budget option ($150). I was a bit skeptical as there really aren't any proper reviews, just customer reviews on Amazon and a couple other sites, but so far so good. They claim <0.02% THD @ 50% load on the spec sheet (attached) and for the amount of power you get, I think it's a pretty great deal.

I currently have it hooked up to a pair of JBL 590's, but when I auditioned these speakers they were being powered by an Aragon 8008 ($6000-7000 ) and really didn't notice much, if any audible difference. If anything, room acoustics and speaker positioning probably had more of an impact.

 

[amirm]

@amirm would you be willing to review the Behringer KM750?

From the specs, I don't think it will be any different than the A500 that I have. So I don't think it pays to ship it back and forth.

 

[wadec22]

Teac ha-501 ($520 on Amazon right now)

 

[FrantzM]

It's no different to manually editing registry keys. Seriously, it's brilliant.

You can always use 'god mode' that's built in to all versions of windows (from Win7 onward) to bring all the user functionalities into one place.

Make a new folder on your desktop.
Rename the folder to this GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} copy and paste it or type it exactly.

Enjoy being able to find what setting you want logically arranged and accurately described for once.

WOW!!!!
Never heard of that mode , followed your ssimple directions and just used it .... WOW !!!!


THANKS RJ

 

[restorer-john]

WOW!!!!
Never heard of that mode , followed your ssimple directions and just used it .... WOW !!!!

It's amazing they buried such a useful part of the OS. I can't take credit for it, it's been out on Windows sites since Vista/7 I think.

Clearly someone in MS put a phenomenal amount of logic and thought into the structure with sensible descriptions and wording.