Good afternoon from Spain.
As I said yesterday, I can't reply to every single participant in the thread, though I appreciate all the input given in good faith and with good intentions.
What I can do is summarize a few points that seem to still be up for debate or discussion here, but which I see quite clearly.
1: Another remote control WOULD NOT HAVE SOLVED ANYTHING. The whole "minimalist style" thing was just the first excuse they came up with.
2: The manufacturer neglected to implement a VITAL function for any player: fast-forward and rewind. I respect everyone's opinion, but I simply cannot understand how some of you think this omission isn't a big deal, or why you've called my complaint "whining."
3: "
A cheap player sounds the same as a $10,000 one." For starters, that's not true, or at least not always true (and I know what digital audio is, and how ones and zeros work). But even if it were, EVERYONE CAN SPEND THEIR MONEY ON WHATEVER "VICE" THEY PLEASE. I have a massive CD collection, about 5,000 I figure, and for many years I've wanted to finally own a great Hi-Fi setup, including a player. And performance isn't the only thing that matters in a device. The simple act of using it is also part of the enjoyment, especially when you have a piece of gear in front of you that you bought to last at least the next 15 years.
4: None of you who now see everything so clearly in the owner's manual would have caught this issue beforehand. NONE OF YOU. Purely and simply because you wouldn't have needed to, since you would never have even imagined that these functions wouldn't be there. You would have taken them for granted, just like we take for granted that the unit will have Play, Pause, or Stop.What do you actually need to know before buying a unit like this? Well, basically the inputs and outputs it has, to see if they fit your needs. But NOBODY goes to the manual to check what happens when you press the Play button, because you know exactly what's going to happen when you do. Well, it's exactly the same deal with fast-forward and rewind. From the moment you see the first picture of the remote, or the front panel of the player itself, you assume that a short press will skip the track, and a long press will fast-forward or rewind rapidly within the track itself.
Let me give you an example: When you bought your latest, shiny $50,000 OLED TV, for instance, did you bother reading a manual beforehand to explain what the power button was going to do? With all due respect, if anyone says yes, that they carefully read that little section, I don't believe you.
Now imagine your TV arrived, you mounted it on the wall, you DIY, and you're happy. But upon testing it for the first time, you discovered that the power button boots up the device and the picture comes on, but it turns out that pressing the button again doesn't turn the TV off. You write to tech support, you pull some strings with them, and the manufacturer eventually tells you that, in order to turn it off, you have to unplug the TV, or wait two hours for it to turn itself off "
thanks to the autosleep option", because in a "
minimalist design choice," they decided their magnificent, ultra-expensive TV can turn on, but it can't turn off. And if you don't like it, just go buy another remote. But oh, wait, it turns out another remote wouldn't work either, because what's really missing is the power-off function itself. They just forgot it. And no, they aren't going to fix it, but if you're not happy, just return the TV and be done with it.
Does it make sense now? Because this is exactly the same, or at least very similar to my issue with this—otherwise absolutely magnificent—Michi Prestige Q430. An absolutely essential function is missing, and the manufacturer hid it. Because with some things, it's not enough to just not mention them, to not say they're there. You have to clearly state that they are NOT there. Because those two things might seem the same, but they are absolutely not.
5: An owner's manual has contractual value when it comes to the features the device discussed in that manual will have, true. To give a pretty extreme example, no one would expect the manual for this Rotel/Michi to specify that it can't be used to heat up a hamburger, or wash your socks. Those aren't features anyone would look for in a CD player. But when on ALL, ABSOLUTELY ALL players on the market, a buyer expects to find
7 essential functions, which are:
- Play.
- Stop.
- Pause.
- Open/Close tray.
- Power ON/OFF.
- Track skip forward/backward.
- Fast-forward/rewind within the track.
...at that point, if you as a manufacturer decide (for whatever reason, even due to the sheer incompetence of your engineering team) to remove one of those functions, you must state it WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT both in the manual and in the promotional material you've sent to every website on the planet.
In the manual for this Q430 (thanks,
@marin.weigel), it shows there are two buttons for forward and backward. Well, 100% of buyers are going to understand that those buttons include both types of seeking: full track skip and partial scan. Are you seriously going to try to convince me that, even in the highly unlikely event that it had crossed your mind that this missing feature wouldn't be there, that information wouldn't have led you to the same conclusion I came to?
Put another way:
A - No one, beforehand, would have imagined that this function would be missing from any player on the market, from the cheapest to the most expensive.
B - No one, beforehand, bothers to read the manual to see what the Play or Pause button does on their remote or on the front panel of the unit, because everyone KNOWS what they do.
C - Even in the highly unlikely event that someone, before buying this player said: "
Oh, look, I'm going to see what the manual specifically says about the forward and backward buttons, because hey, I don't know what those buttons could possibly be used for on a CD player...", upon seeing this in the manual, they would absolutely, 100% assume the dual function of those buttons. It would never cross their mind, once again, that the function wouldn't be there. Because, I insist, I have NEVER encountered a CD player without fast-forward and rewind. And I'd venture a guess that none of you had either, until the one we're dealing with here.
Cheers.
