I call the following "the dirty little secret in audio" and that is frequency of repair. I sent a suggestion to Robert Harley (actually based upon an idea HP had many many years ago) but he has never responded.
First a note I wrote to a reviewer a Mr. Nack (on Positive Feeback Online) who wrote that two weeks after testing interconnects that retail for $5,000, the plugs fell off!
Dear Mr. Nack,
Talk about coincidences. Right before I wrote to you I sent an inquiry to Albert Porter at Ultra Audio asking him why after 12 years did he switch from Soundlab instead of trading up to their newer improved models and below is what he replied:
To answer your questions, the Sound-Lab is an incredible speaker that I would have owned forever except for reliability. Most of my friends refer to me as a perfectionist with the patience of Job, but enough problems and even I will give up. During the time I owned (and loved) the Ultimates, I replaced approximately 21 cores, did several repairs to the back plates, finally completely replacing both with new units.
When I made the decision to move away from Sound-Labs, I had lived with crippled performance on both speakers, arcing insulators, burned copper rings and blistered mylar. I waited over seven months for Sound-Lab complete their new cores, stators and diaphragms. By the time these changes were available I had given up hope and was searching for an alternative speaker. I wrote Roger West a complete email explaining my dilemma before selling them and going to the Dali. Roger and Connie are some of the finest people I have ever met, in audio or anywhere !
The final chapter to this story, the fellow that purchased my Ultimates contacted me three months after getting them up and running in his place and emailed me that one of the "new" speakers had failed again. To me, this was confirmation I had made the right choice. I sold those speakers with the latest and greatest of everything, in perfect working order, and in another location with completely different equipment, they FAILED again.
Mr. Nack,
Last month I posted in the Planar Asylum of AudioAsylum with called Quality Control: Here it is:
Posted by SOUNDMAN ( A ) on May 31, 2006 at 16:37:24
Would any/all of you planar 'stat owners address quality control issues (I love cross overless 'stats too and planars)In the Absolute Sound Jonathan Valin stated that during the time he owned CLS's he had to send the panels back FOUR TIMES due to failures...I read a posting where a NEW Quad owner in England states that his speakers have been back to the factory 3 times in 12 months. Then I found this on audioreview...please tell me it is one in a million...I sent a copy to Steve Winey and no reply:
Dear Mr. Winey
I came across this owner's experience ...please tell me if it is a one in a million... also Wendall does not appear in a light that reflects well on your customer service end...read on
mbovaird
(Audio Enthusiast)
Review Date
January 22, 2005
Overall Rating
5 of 5
Value Rating
5 of 5
Used product for
1 to 3 months
Price Paid: $4150.00 from Audio Visions South
Summary:
Let me start by saying I LOVE my Magnepans. Every listening experience is wonderful and I wouldn't trade them for anything 4 or 5 times the price. ***BUYING EXPERIENCE*** I purchased my 3.6's new, about two months ago. At first, Magnepan shipped me a speaker which had a damaged panal resulting in severe crackling. Before accepting return, Wendel at Magnepan insisted I purchase some test CD's like the Sterephile Test CD, a Digital Multimeter and a Sound Level Meter to ensure it wasn't me!! Thankfully, my dealer (over an hour drive away), came down with the necessary equipment and ran the test for me to satisfy Wendel that I wasn't loosing my mind! After testing it, we did specifically find out which panel was damaged, and off they went back to Magnepan. Two weeks later, a brand new replacement pair arrived. After getting them home (again an hour drive from the dealer), I opened up to find one of the speakers cloth completely torn!! Back to Magnepan the speakers went (you can't just ship one speaker back....due to the crappy shipping box Magnepan uses...you need both speakers for support). Three weeks later, the SAME speakers arrived back, and the one with the torn cloth was fixed....but the job was just "OK" at best. There were little bits of cloth "pilling" at the top. A funny side story: before purchasing these speakers, I called Magnepan MANY MANY times asking why I couldn't buy from them direct.....my local dealer only had one pair of 1.6's shoved in a corner (not even hooked up) and he refused to order a pair of 3.6's for me (yep, that's right, I bought the 3.6's UNHEARD). Again....I said to Magnepan, "my dealer is over an hour drive away, he doesn't carry your 3.6's, why can't I buy direct?" The answer, "we value our relationship with our dealers and if we ship it direct, there is too much risk for DAMAGE!!!" HILARIOUS. I am sure my experiences fall into the "one in a million" category....but we definitely didn't get off to a great start. Had Magnepans Customer Service been better....I definitely wouldn't have minded as much. I'm not sure what it is....maybe they have sold so many speakers, they've forgotten the term "customer service"....
People went absolutely biserk. The replies were hateful.
Here is my second post:
Posted by SOUNDMAN (A) on June 01, 2006 at 22:55:51
Many years ago Harry Pearson at the Absolute Sound proposed publishing a column which addressed the frequency of repair issues that readers were having with particular brands, i.e. blown resistors, dead channel etc. as a service to readers much in the same way Consumer Reports publishes Frequency of Repair ratings of cars. A potential consumer can look up a particular car and learn that it is much worse than average in the area of electrics or brakes.
UNFORTUNATELY THIS DOES NOT EXIST FOR THE AUDIOPHILE CUSTOMER! I certainly do not expect the dealer to tell me.
When I graduated from college Consumer Reports gave a great review of the Fiat 128 four door sedan in terms of performance and handling blah blah blah. I bought the car and ended up having an intimate relationship with the mechanic. The following year Consumer Reports based on the feedback from owners created a special frequencey of repair category for this car--VERY MUCH WORSE THAN AVERAGE!
Mr. Pearson suggested the possiblity of this kind of column based on a column written by a woman who reported on her audiophile friends, one who had several turntables in various states of disrepair etc., etc.
I have read ALL of the positive reviews extant of the Sound Labs, Magnepans, Martin Logans and others. I am totally aware of all the good reviews. At the same time I have come across numerous postings of product failures and not so good response to those events. AND THAT IS THE REASON I CAME TO THIS FORUM TO ASK FOR AN HONEST OWNER EXPERIENCES & RESPONSE REGARDING QUALITY CONTROL FOR THESE KINDS OF SPEAKERS.
If you are honest everyone here knows either from experience or has audiophile friends who can tell you that there are certain brands that consistantly seem less reliable than others.
Frankly it appears from my perspective to be the dirty little secret regarding planar/stats and the high end in general too and that is no one wants to address Frequency of Repair among brands.
MY INQUIRY IS MORE THAN REASONABLE GIVEN THE COST OF THESE PRODUCTS.
Instead I got condescending flames which suggests a very clubby club in which no one wants to acknowledge the elephant in the room--(thank you to all who were honest in there responses).
QUICK SURVEY--In the same way there are surveys to see what cartridges members are using how about a survey to see which members in this forum have had problems with planar and or stats in the first five years of ownership? Then we can have a shake out a see which brands show up the most or percentage wise.
Be honest and just a cursory glance at the overall postings reveal the number of maintenance issues people are experiencing--Again, I am not talking about performance. No one is disputing that they all in their way sound great. (My Fiat ran great when it worked)
Still hoping for honest responses. A new Quad owner in England who says his Quads went back 3 times in 12 months is the kind of experience that regardless of how much I may like their reproduction of music is totally off putting --I guess what I am seeing is members here do not seem to care about this side of the coin and are willing to put up with whatever frequency of repairs are necessary. Asked another way is there an overall consensus as to which of this breed HAS THE LEAST problems for both quality control or service issues requiring repairs?
Thank you in advance to all of you who will not get bent out of shape, sensitive and then aggressive about their chosen beloved brand. I am not CHALLENGING anyone so there is no need for the kind of over reactivity that I have been subjected to--I have already been told to "move on" when I have simply come to ask a VERY REASONABLE question.
After more hateful replies (you can verify this for yourself if you go into the Planar section and put in Frequency of Repair) there was a posting saying my question was "eminently reasonable." I replied and in the interim received an email from a television producer in Switzerland. Below is my reply:
In Reply to: Your question is emminently reasonable..... posted by Marc Bratton on June 3, 2006 at 15:33:17:
Thank you so much for agreeing my question is reasonable. I just last night told my wife that this forum is so hostile that I want no more anything to do with it. Apropos "I've just not HEARD of Maggie owners having probs" I just received a private email and what this person shared totally breaks my heart---put your self in his shoes and read on: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE DIRTY SECRET IN THE HIGH END AUDIO BUSINESS AND THAT IS FREQUENCY OF REPAIR AMONG BRANDS AND WORSE--OUT AND OUT DISHONESTY OF SOME MANUFACTURERS WHO REPEATEDLY PUT THE BLAME FOR THEIR PRODUCT'S FAILURE BACK UPON THE OWNER--IT FAILED BECAUSE YOU SCREWED IT UP SOMEHOW--TOTALLY UNETHICAL:
It is not easy to share this kind of experience but this gentleman somehow "got me"...the litany in the first few lines alone of product failure is enough to give one pause--
This is the email from a televison producer in Switzerland:
I myself owned Maggies for 15 years (1.0, 2.6, 3.0) and had nothing but problems with them: Broken internal wiring, broken binding-posts, bendig frames, conductors breaking away from the foil, uneven distribution of sound. I finally got wiser and I finished my relationship with this product. I simply do not understand, how companies like Magenplanar survived in the market, as I know, I am not the only one to experience these problems.
5 years ago, I had a pair of Martin Logan CLS 2 ESL. I spend a lot of time to get advise in AA to find a truly appropriate amp to drive these ESL's. The information I gathered in AA forum was so confusing and contradicting, that I gave up to use it as a resource. Finally I bought, after careful interviews with the manufacturer, a pair of
GOLDMUND JOB amplifiers. Mr. Reverchon, the brain of Goldmund here in Switzerland told me on the phone, his amps would perfectly drive ANY loudspeaker available on the consumer market, a CLS for certain. Well the truth is: His JOB amps went up in smoke after driving the CLS for 10 minutes only. He then refused repair work (still under warranty), as he claimed, I had misused his amps...
After some time I send my CLS to a guy called "Electrostatic Doc" in the US. (the stators needed to be replaced). On his homepage he claimed, that he had the ultimate expertise in repairing and upgrading the CLS.
After the ML CLS had returned from him, the CLS had a foil with unaligned/screw spacers and after 2 month of use, the ESL started to click and arch.
ED suggested to send the CLS back to him (approx 1000 $ for shipping, on my expenses of course).
I bought a pair of Cain & Cain horn loudspeakers, after reading all the hail in the different internet publications (6moon & enjoythemusic) I thought I was safe this time.
Wrong I was again.
After pre-paying the Cain & Cain loudspeakers, I waited 8 (eight) month and hat to write countless emails to Terry Cain, I finally received the loudspeakers. The internet magazines stated: exceptional quality cabinet work. The truth: cabinet work was about the level of a mediocre DIY project. After hooking them up, I observed a strong
coloration in the vocal band. TC (he is a nice guy, really) suggested changing the amps and the cables (!). Of course nothing about the coloration was mentioned neither in a forum nor in one of the mentioned magazines. Then, one day one of the C&C speakers did not work anymore. I checked everything carefully and ended up in opening the frame with the binding posts of the C&C. Result: broken soldering
caused the problem (please keep in mind, that the loudspeaker was not moved around, but stayed at his place for month before the shutting down). TC was appologetic...
It seems to me, that hi-fi business is a madhouse full of in-honesty, arrogance and madness, where naiv jerks like me are cheated day after day by manufacturers, dealers and reviewers.
Anyway finally there was a posting that hit the nail on the head:
"Some people do not mind buying a product that performs wonderfully but operates temperamentally and requires constant maintainence and coddling. Having used a beautiful-sounding Krell SACD Standard that broke down 2 days after I bought it and has never worked properly for the last 2 years even after 12 visits to the dealer, I am eager to avoid another such relationship!"
The subject is more than "frequently bypassed." Even John Atkinson who to his credit does report on failings of equipment as they arise when he is testing, PLAYS IT DOWN.
In fact my wife who is the perfect sounding board having read numerous columns and reports of equipment failure cannot understand why I would want to take this on.
Sometimes audiophiles are so deep into their passion that the product failures and the shipping back and forth is totally taken as a given and taken for granted. But to an outsider it is every reason if not THE reason not to enter into the high end no matter how passionate one is about music reproduction in the home.
Again unfortunately we are forced to learn of frequency of repair from hard experience --the hard way--but by sharing our frequency of repair experiences we can help others so that they do not have to go through the same thing...why is this a hard concept--it is compassionate and generous to do so. (from another posting below)
Martin Logans tend to 'wear out' the panels in 2-4 years. You get them, they sound great. 3 years later, they still work. But they don't sound so good. Time to get the panels redone. Really a PITA, IMHO. It bugs the hell outa me that a 3-5 thousand dollar speaker can't be designed to work for ten years without expensive refurbishing.
I sent an email to HP reminding him of him long ago very good idea regarding a column discussing frequency of repair among brands...no reply
I call the following "the dirty little secret in audio" and that is frequency of repair. I sent a suggestion to Robert Harley (actually based upon an idea HP had many many years ago) but he has never responded.
First a note I wrote to a reviewer a Mr. Nack (on Positive Feeback Online) who wrote that two weeks after testing interconnects that retail for $5,000, the plugs fell off!
Dear Mr. Nack,
Talk about coincidences. Right before I wrote to you I sent an inquiry to Albert Porter at Ultra Audio asking him why after 12 years did he switch from Soundlab instead of trading up to their newer improved models and below is what he replied:
To answer your questions, the Sound-Lab is an incredible speaker that I would have owned forever except for reliability. Most of my friends refer to me as a perfectionist with the patience of Job, but enough problems and even I will give up. During the time I owned (and loved) the Ultimates, I replaced approximately 21 cores, did several repairs to the back plates, finally completely replacing both with new units.
When I made the decision to move away from Sound-Labs, I had lived with crippled performance on both speakers, arcing insulators, burned copper rings and blistered mylar. I waited over seven months for Sound-Lab complete their new cores, stators and diaphragms. By the time these changes were available I had given up hope and was searching for an alternative speaker. I wrote Roger West a complete email explaining my dilemma before selling them and going to the Dali. Roger and Connie are some of the finest people I have ever met, in audio or anywhere !
The final chapter to this story, the fellow that purchased my Ultimates contacted me three months after getting them up and running in his place and emailed me that one of the "new" speakers had failed again. To me, this was confirmation I had made the right choice. I sold those speakers with the latest and greatest of everything, in perfect working order, and in another location with completely different equipment, they FAILED again.
Mr. Nack,
Last month I posted in the Planar Asylum of AudioAsylum with called Quality Control: Here it is:
Posted by SOUNDMAN ( A ) on May 31, 2006 at 16:37:24
Would any/all of you planar 'stat owners address quality control issues (I love cross overless 'stats too and planars)In the Absolute Sound Jonathan Valin stated that during the time he owned CLS's he had to send the panels back FOUR TIMES due to failures...I read a posting where a NEW Quad owner in England states that his speakers have been back to the factory 3 times in 12 months. Then I found this on audioreview...please tell me it is one in a million...I sent a copy to Steve Winey and no reply:
Dear Mr. Winey
I came across this owner's experience ...please tell me if it is a one in a million... also Wendall does not appear in a light that reflects well on your customer service end...read on
mbovaird
(Audio Enthusiast)
Review Date
January 22, 2005
Overall Rating
5 of 5
Value Rating
5 of 5
Used product for
1 to 3 months
Price Paid: $4150.00 from Audio Visions South
Summary:
Let me start by saying I LOVE my Magnepans. Every listening experience is wonderful and I wouldn't trade them for anything 4 or 5 times the price. ***BUYING EXPERIENCE*** I purchased my 3.6's new, about two months ago. At first, Magnepan shipped me a speaker which had a damaged panal resulting in severe crackling. Before accepting return, Wendel at Magnepan insisted I purchase some test CD's like the Sterephile Test CD, a Digital Multimeter and a Sound Level Meter to ensure it wasn't me!! Thankfully, my dealer (over an hour drive away), came down with the necessary equipment and ran the test for me to satisfy Wendel that I wasn't loosing my mind! After testing it, we did specifically find out which panel was damaged, and off they went back to Magnepan. Two weeks later, a brand new replacement pair arrived. After getting them home (again an hour drive from the dealer), I opened up to find one of the speakers cloth completely torn!! Back to Magnepan the speakers went (you can't just ship one speaker back....due to the crappy shipping box Magnepan uses...you need both speakers for support). Three weeks later, the SAME speakers arrived back, and the one with the torn cloth was fixed....but the job was just "OK" at best. There were little bits of cloth "pilling" at the top. A funny side story: before purchasing these speakers, I called Magnepan MANY MANY times asking why I couldn't buy from them direct.....my local dealer only had one pair of 1.6's shoved in a corner (not even hooked up) and he refused to order a pair of 3.6's for me (yep, that's right, I bought the 3.6's UNHEARD). Again....I said to Magnepan, "my dealer is over an hour drive away, he doesn't carry your 3.6's, why can't I buy direct?" The answer, "we value our relationship with our dealers and if we ship it direct, there is too much risk for DAMAGE!!!" HILARIOUS. I am sure my experiences fall into the "one in a million" category....but we definitely didn't get off to a great start. Had Magnepans Customer Service been better....I definitely wouldn't have minded as much. I'm not sure what it is....maybe they have sold so many speakers, they've forgotten the term "customer service"....
People went absolutely biserk. The replies were hateful.
Here is my second post:
Posted by SOUNDMAN (A) on June 01, 2006 at 22:55:51
Many years ago Harry Pearson at the Absolute Sound proposed publishing a column which addressed the frequency of repair issues that readers were having with particular brands, i.e. blown resistors, dead channel etc. as a service to readers much in the same way Consumer Reports publishes Frequency of Repair ratings of cars. A potential consumer can look up a particular car and learn that it is much worse than average in the area of electrics or brakes.
UNFORTUNATELY THIS DOES NOT EXIST FOR THE AUDIOPHILE CUSTOMER! I certainly do not expect the dealer to tell me.
When I graduated from college Consumer Reports gave a great review of the Fiat 128 four door sedan in terms of performance and handling blah blah blah. I bought the car and ended up having an intimate relationship with the mechanic. The following year Consumer Reports based on the feedback from owners created a special frequencey of repair category for this car--VERY MUCH WORSE THAN AVERAGE!
Mr. Pearson suggested the possiblity of this kind of column based on a column written by a woman who reported on her audiophile friends, one who had several turntables in various states of disrepair etc., etc.
I have read ALL of the positive reviews extant of the Sound Labs, Magnepans, Martin Logans and others. I am totally aware of all the good reviews. At the same time I have come across numerous postings of product failures and not so good response to those events. AND THAT IS THE REASON I CAME TO THIS FORUM TO ASK FOR AN HONEST OWNER EXPERIENCES & RESPONSE REGARDING QUALITY CONTROL FOR THESE KINDS OF SPEAKERS.
If you are honest everyone here knows either from experience or has audiophile friends who can tell you that there are certain brands that consistantly seem less reliable than others.
Frankly it appears from my perspective to be the dirty little secret regarding planar/stats and the high end in general too and that is no one wants to address Frequency of Repair among brands.
MY INQUIRY IS MORE THAN REASONABLE GIVEN THE COST OF THESE PRODUCTS.
Instead I got condescending flames which suggests a very clubby club in which no one wants to acknowledge the elephant in the room--(thank you to all who were honest in there responses).
QUICK SURVEY--In the same way there are surveys to see what cartridges members are using how about a survey to see which members in this forum have had problems with planar and or stats in the first five years of ownership? Then we can have a shake out a see which brands show up the most or percentage wise.
Be honest and just a cursory glance at the overall postings reveal the number of maintenance issues people are experiencing--Again, I am not talking about performance. No one is disputing that they all in their way sound great. (My Fiat ran great when it worked)
Still hoping for honest responses. A new Quad owner in England who says his Quads went back 3 times in 12 months is the kind of experience that regardless of how much I may like their reproduction of music is totally off putting --I guess what I am seeing is members here do not seem to care about this side of the coin and are willing to put up with whatever frequency of repairs are necessary. Asked another way is there an overall consensus as to which of this breed HAS THE LEAST problems for both quality control or service issues requiring repairs?
Thank you in advance to all of you who will not get bent out of shape, sensitive and then aggressive about their chosen beloved brand. I am not CHALLENGING anyone so there is no need for the kind of over reactivity that I have been subjected to--I have already been told to "move on" when I have simply come to ask a VERY REASONABLE question.
After more hateful replies (you can verify this for yourself if you go into the Planar section and put in Frequency of Repair) there was a posting saying my question was "eminently reasonable." I replied and in the interim received an email from a television producer in Switzerland. Below is my reply:
In Reply to: Your question is emminently reasonable..... posted by Marc Bratton on June 3, 2006 at 15:33:17:
Thank you so much for agreeing my question is reasonable. I just last night told my wife that this forum is so hostile that I want no more anything to do with it. Apropos "I've just not HEARD of Maggie owners having probs" I just received a private email and what this person shared totally breaks my heart---put your self in his shoes and read on: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I MEAN ABOUT THE DIRTY SECRET IN THE HIGH END AUDIO BUSINESS AND THAT IS FREQUENCY OF REPAIR AMONG BRANDS AND WORSE--OUT AND OUT DISHONESTY OF SOME MANUFACTURERS WHO REPEATEDLY PUT THE BLAME FOR THEIR PRODUCT'S FAILURE BACK UPON THE OWNER--IT FAILED BECAUSE YOU SCREWED IT UP SOMEHOW--TOTALLY UNETHICAL:
It is not easy to share this kind of experience but this gentleman somehow "got me"...the litany in the first few lines alone of product failure is enough to give one pause--
This is the email from a televison producer in Switzerland:
I myself owned Maggies for 15 years (1.0, 2.6, 3.0) and had nothing but problems with them: Broken internal wiring, broken binding-posts, bendig frames, conductors breaking away from the foil, uneven distribution of sound. I finally got wiser and I finished my relationship with this product. I simply do not understand, how companies like Magenplanar survived in the market, as I know, I am not the only one to experience these problems.
5 years ago, I had a pair of Martin Logan CLS 2 ESL. I spend a lot of time to get advise in AA to find a truly appropriate amp to drive these ESL's. The information I gathered in AA forum was so confusing and contradicting, that I gave up to use it as a resource. Finally I bought, after careful interviews with the manufacturer, a pair of
GOLDMUND JOB amplifiers. Mr. Reverchon, the brain of Goldmund here in Switzerland told me on the phone, his amps would perfectly drive ANY loudspeaker available on the consumer market, a CLS for certain. Well the truth is: His JOB amps went up in smoke after driving the CLS for 10 minutes only. He then refused repair work (still under warranty), as he claimed, I had misused his amps...
After some time I send my CLS to a guy called "Electrostatic Doc" in the US. (the stators needed to be replaced). On his homepage he claimed, that he had the ultimate expertise in repairing and upgrading the CLS.
After the ML CLS had returned from him, the CLS had a foil with unaligned/screw spacers and after 2 month of use, the ESL started to click and arch.
ED suggested to send the CLS back to him (approx 1000 $ for shipping, on my expenses of course).
I bought a pair of Cain & Cain horn loudspeakers, after reading all the hail in the different internet publications (6moon & enjoythemusic) I thought I was safe this time.
Wrong I was again.
After pre-paying the Cain & Cain loudspeakers, I waited 8 (eight) month and hat to write countless emails to Terry Cain, I finally received the loudspeakers. The internet magazines stated: exceptional quality cabinet work. The truth: cabinet work was about the level of a mediocre DIY project. After hooking them up, I observed a strong
coloration in the vocal band. TC (he is a nice guy, really) suggested changing the amps and the cables (!). Of course nothing about the coloration was mentioned neither in a forum nor in one of the mentioned magazines. Then, one day one of the C&C speakers did not work anymore. I checked everything carefully and ended up in opening the frame with the binding posts of the C&C. Result: broken soldering
caused the problem (please keep in mind, that the loudspeaker was not moved around, but stayed at his place for month before the shutting down). TC was appologetic...
It seems to me, that hi-fi business is a madhouse full of in-honesty, arrogance and madness, where naiv jerks like me are cheated day after day by manufacturers, dealers and reviewers.
Anyway finally there was a posting that hit the nail on the head:
"Some people do not mind buying a product that performs wonderfully but operates temperamentally and requires constant maintainence and coddling. Having used a beautiful-sounding Krell SACD Standard that broke down 2 days after I bought it and has never worked properly for the last 2 years even after 12 visits to the dealer, I am eager to avoid another such relationship!"
The subject is more than "frequently bypassed." Even John Atkinson who to his credit does report on failings of equipment as they arise when he is testing, PLAYS IT DOWN.
In fact my wife who is the perfect sounding board having read numerous columns and reports of equipment failure cannot understand why I would want to take this on.
Sometimes audiophiles are so deep into their passion that the product failures and the shipping back and forth is totally taken as a given and taken for granted. But to an outsider it is every reason if not THE reason not to enter into the high end no matter how passionate one is about music reproduction in the home.
Again unfortunately we are forced to learn of frequency of repair from hard experience --the hard way--but by sharing our frequency of repair experiences we can help others so that they do not have to go through the same thing...why is this a hard concept--it is compassionate and generous to do so. (from another posting below)
Martin Logans tend to 'wear out' the panels in 2-4 years. You get them, they sound great. 3 years later, they still work. But they don't sound so good. Time to get the panels redone. Really a PITA, IMHO. It bugs the hell outa me that a 3-5 thousand dollar speaker can't be designed to work for ten years without expensive refurbishing.
I sent an email to HP reminding him of him long ago very good idea regarding a column discussing frequency of repair among brands...no reply