Customer Service & Warranty claims what to expect and suggestions how to go about it ? Fosi Audio, Topping, SMSL...

[Earwax]

Looking for suggestions how to handle these situations.

Also past experiences with Customer service and also Warranty claims of a reasonable situation.

Fosi Audio ?

SMSL ?

Topping ?

Hope all the replies are mature and not emotionally based rambling, please take the time to compose your reply if you have been dealt with poorly and that situation burned you acknowledge that fact before the final word is saved to the thread.

Thank you for your patience

I`m dealing with Fosi Audio as the DS1 I bought March 8th 2025 died April 25 2025 only 1 channel working with very low volume and much distortion other channel is dead silent.

Not sure what to expect from them so far only 2 replies both very polite and apologetic...

Curious how they go about warranty claims ?

 

[Talisman]

There are several experiences that are questionable to say the least on Topping, Fosi seems to have a much better report, I don't know about smsl, I haven't read anything in particular, either good or bad. However, with cheap electronics that come from another continent, I would always rely on the dealer's warranty much more than that of the manufacturer, this type of product, if I can, I buy them from Amazon with Amazon shipping, any problem within two years is handled by them and they tend to accept the return of the defective product with a full refund.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Topping didn't even respond until Amir intervened on my behalf, and their inadequate eventual response was enough to get me to completely give up on the product. The Stateside dealer -- drop.com -- was no help either.

Anybody want a nice Topping remote?

 

[Earwax]

Just had a second DS1 die on me in less than 8 hours on off use.

Not impressed with Fosi audio seen many reviews showing there amps failing during review test.

Guess I'll wait and see if the replacement actually shows up as in the email they stated if you receive it let us know...
Seriously that says volumes.

Sending the second DS1 back to Amazon as defective in just 2 days of use.

I actually only bought it to do a heat comparison of the one that failed then I got thinking of the other encapsulated DAC's so I ordered DS2 & SMSL D10 to test heat and Musical purity.

DS1 & DS2 very close from about 33C to 35C on case surface.

SMSL D10 was just a tad hotter 37C at the exact area of the crazy powerful blue LED that hurts your eyeballs. It also arrived with a faulty usb c cable.

I'm done with these portable encapsulated DAC's until this lack of quality gets sorted out.

I've seen other reviews people stating DS2 failed with only hours if use. Same with Asus encapsulated DAC so it's probably more common as lots of people don't go the extra mile to give other people a heads up...

I'm done with Fosi Audio I have no doubt the 3rd one is going to fail I'll demand a refund when it dies !

 

[Earwax]

Here is a screen shot of email.

 

[voodooless]

The kind of warranty and support will be vastly different depending on where you live and where you bought the stuff. In the EU at least, the seller is responsible for covering the first 2 years of warranty. They may defer you to the manufacturer in that time. So here, I would recommend to buy from a reputable local reseller.

 

[JeffS7444]

Fiio, purchased from Fiio's official Amazon store: A few years ago, the USB on my DAP seemed to fail, save for basic charge functions. As it was still within it's warranty period, and, and I had purchased from an official source, they had me ship it to a USA address, and a few weeks later, I got it back in perfect operating condition.

MiniDSP, purchased directly from MiniDSP: HA-DSP headphone amplifier had battery issues from the very beginning, and MiniDSP acknowledged that some units had shipped with a faulty battery. They sent me (from HK) a replacement battery. When the replacement battery died a few years later (due to neglect?), I tried a similar, but not identical, part from AliExpress, and it's been working very nicely, perhaps better than the original.

 

[Earwax]

New email reply with tracking link, a positive sign.

 

[gorb]

I have a faulty Sabaj A20d 2022 that failed within warranty period and SMSL did not take care of it unfortunately.

 

[DSJR]

Just had a second DS1 die on me in less than 8 hours on off use.

Not impressed with Fosi audio seen many reviews showing there amps failing during review test.

Guess I'll wait and see if the replacement actually shows up as in the email they stated if you receive it let us know...
Seriously that says volumes.

Sending the second DS1 back to Amazon as defective in just 2 days of use.

I actually only bought it to do a heat comparison of the one that failed then I got thinking of the other encapsulated DAC's so I ordered DS2 & SMSL D10 to test heat and Musical purity.

DS1 & DS2 very close from about 33C to 35C on case surface.

SMSL D10 was just a tad hotter 37C at the exact area of the crazy powerful blue LED that hurts your eyeballs. It also arrived with a faulty usb c cable.

I'm done with these portable encapsulated DAC's until this lack of quality gets sorted out.

I've seen other reviews people stating DS2 failed with only hours if use. Same with Asus encapsulated DAC so it's probably more common as lots of people don't go the extra mile to give other people a heads up...

I'm done with Fosi Audio I have no doubt the 3rd one is going to fail I'll demand a refund when it dies !

All I can say is that my DS2 runs stone cold - mind you, it's feeding an Aux input on the amp and not powering heavily into low impedance ear/headphones... SU1 is nearly two years old and works flawlessly. Only thing I wish the latter had was a display as lighting is low in the cabinet and a pin-sharp led on it's own needs a torch to decipher the text around it

 

[Earwax]

To be fair and honest.

The 2nd one I bought was having issues being consistent in frequency response neutrality as you could hear the music degrading ever so slightly so fast meaning very short time that you question if you heard it correctly.

It happened guessing around 10 times before it died so the 2nd was most likely a lemon in the batch the 1st DS1 was perfect purity and no issues until it just died no warnings.

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

I agree with the comments about where you purchase.

Apos, I have found, to be the best in terms of post-purchase customer care. They run point for diagnosing issues and warranty replacement. Their responsiveness is excellent, and their return policies fair. I also really like Amazon for ease of returns, especially good for products that don't work out or meet my expectations.

 

[Earwax]

Received the warranty DS1.

So far it's same temp as the original one I purchased.

No hints of distortion it's clean, I'm honestly not wanting to use it in fear of another failure
[ meltdown ].

But time will be the judge of it's build quality & quality control ( testing of all circuit parts before assembly )...

I'll keep using it on a regular basis and report back if it fails.