I'm going to take the side of
disliked dealers/manufactures. Business practice is the only thing I look at. Customer reviews that I can verify and or
have personally encountered. I look closely at seller and buyer ratings. They tell a story.
I don't care for 5 dealers/manufactures and with good reason.
1. RFWAVES2. It's in Perth AU. A purchase of two NC500 builds with transformers and optional opamp boards. He shipped the two heavy
monoblocks stacked on top of each other 4 months after they were paid and shipped the 55lb package on the slow boat from China.
When they arrive they were tweaked BAD! Transformers were loose and flopping. Case was bent from over-torquing the transformers
with no bolt nut stops. He left the original opamp inline with the new board he added.
They lasted all of 20 minutes before going into protect mode, shutting down, low/high, you name it they did it.
Resolution: "Sue me if you don't like it". I won't even go to Australia because of that. The legal system is more corrupt than Spain or the US, that is
saying something. 10K minimum for a lawyer. BTW he is still doing business on EBay. EBay has a pretty shady rating system too.
2. AudioGon. I won't do business with them. You have to log on to see a rating of a buyer or seller. They have 100% or 0% but no bad reviews.
They launder their negative reviews by erasing them. They remove any question about shady deals on their site. They willfully participate in
letting their members participate in unfounded character assassination of other members. Their moderator, (they only have one main one and one
on the weekends) and their VERY old and limited site has deleted most of the great information while keeping the junk. They use to have an
OK exchange of older more seasoned members. A lot have passed away, many have blackballed the place and very few of the old guard remain.
Sad, but true.
Side note: I see Amir correcting some of the worst information (at least) at AG. He sure keeps a cool head. I can't do it over at AG. To many ass holes.
One place where BANNING people is an olympic sport. If you ask to have your name removed, (like I did) they add "suspended" by your name.
I did the same at two other sites. "Best" because of Viking Acoustic and AH because of their constant new member bashing.
They are worse that AG and that is really saying something.
Side note 2: I really don't like a comparison of AVR/AVPs to Stereo equipment and then going on about AVR/AVP measurements. One is for sound
effects and one is for music. An AV will work for music. PERIOD! It is not the best, BUT it's not bad.
Simple score 6 out of 10 for the best AVR doing stereo. You might squeeze a 7 if it's a great AVP. It's kind of like trying to make chicken soup out of
chicken $hit.
3. Viking Acoustic. I need not say more.
4. VTL. If you have ever done business with them you know what I'm talking about. They offer no advice, no support other than "send it in" and their
prices reflect what snobs they really are. I gave up on them when having to deal with Bea on several occasions. Everytime it was "send it in" and every time
they recommended new valves, upgrades to make it better and nice fat bill. Fast turn around though. Try to get a schematic. LOL It's like chicken lips for
sale. What's that? They are less than 40 miles from me.
5. Salesman; there is one that just turns me off. HE sells STUFF it's all very expensive stuff. He changes gear like I change underwear and his boxers cost
20-150k a pop. He doesn't understand the basics. ROOM, electrical, decoupling, placement. 1-20K PC. 20K speaker cables and he has followers.
He has a pay per view approach to his services which include "Look what I have for sale, It sure sounds good" "Let's have a 20.00 dollar beer."
I think he started out with Mcintosh C1100 and all the goodies. It went down from there for me, but up in cost. Everything was pure
opinion and based on what it cost. If what things cost is a measure of quality,
sensibility and personal preference, I'm ok with that.
What he paid for a power amp, I paid for a house! Actually he paid 100k more. I paid 39K for a home one time. I still have it.
Recommended:
Mcintosh is probably the best service.
Accuphase is good in most countries.
Cary's valve gear is fun and their service department is helpful
for the DIY guy or for tech help in the US. I was working on site for 3 months in Brazil. I had a Mcintosh valve amp serviced and a voltage change. They
turned it around and got it back to me in less than 3 week in the 90s. Accuphase just makes good gear. I love the Tannoy/Accuphase combo.
Nord Acoustics; I've had a relationship with Nord and
Sparco Labs since they started. Straight shooter, no BS kind of guys.
Speakers: DIY are the best for the money. I'm not paying 39K for Jensen Imperials when I can make a better cabinet than 99% of what I WILL buy.
GR research; They have some very nice kits and some not so good ones. LOL Some of the products he pushes are a little oily so to speak. LOL
I get along with most people. I'm more like Danny in how he was trained OJT vs scholastic achievements. I'm pretty sure by the 100s of courses
I was required to take, accounted for something through the years other than a binder I have some where saying "I was smart". They said I could
fix things too. I wish they would have fixed it instead.
I'm pretty common to many I suppose.
My chickens would disagree.
The goat is on the fence.
