[Happy Camper]

The forums are full of A gd threads. They have made an impression in the community with quality and innovative products. But seems every week something new comes on line and your new toy is now obsolete/discontinued. When time comes for servicing, will all this gear get proper care or are we taking the life of the component as part of the cost of purchase?
 
How do we, as a community, deal with product support? Especially for imported gear.
 

 

[tk3]

From what I've read, that company does seem to have good after-sales service.
Although personally I find all those threads about about Audio GD somewhat irritating, especially in the DAC forum.
Once I noticed there were so many threads, I counted the first page and in the first 20 threads or so, 12 were about Audio GD products, that's just ridiculous.
 
Might just be enthusiastic people who want to talk about new products from a company they like, or something darker, who knows.
I think it would be a good idea if all those threads were condensed into one, similar to the STAX thread, or at least one thread for their amps and another one for DACs.
Myself I wouldn't buy anything from them though, mostly for the reason you mentioned.
I don't like having my stuff being upstaged by a different/new/better model even when the product itself was just released.
 
Not that a company shouldn't innovate, but it seems like they do it at an extremely high rate, which makes me wonder how much effort/time was put into every model, and how much is "withheld" just so another better/different model can be released soon after.
Of course, with all the new releases, your older models become less desirable and drop in resale value as well, which is another factor to keep in mind.
 
 
Just my personal view, although I'm positive the mob is already on its way to educate me about why I'm wrong and all the models in Audio GD's product lineup serve a different purpose, etc.
I just feel they release too much, too fast, because of that they've pushed away a certain group as potential customers, who don't like this.

 

[sizwej]

I've wondered the same thing, it's astonishing how frequently they put out new products. I assume they must have an airtight business model. However the shear abundance of choices may leave potential buyers confused and fatigued.
 
Mind you, that's just my opinion, and my comments don't detract from the overall quality of their products, which i understand is of a very high standard.
 
As far as after sales support is concerned, i have yet to see any "red-flag" horror stories, so i would assume they can be trusted to stand by their products regardless of which model it is.

 

[Happy Camper]

Other vendors have their own threads that keeps the chatter specific and out of the main forums. If all the vendors dropped their forums and the volume came back into the main forums, It'd be kaos. Right now A gd is getting a lot of advertising and we don't have any history to form a judgment of reliability. I recognize there are no issues and I'm happy for our community that's the case. I hope it continues and we keep seeing the same product refinement and customer service A gd has cultivated to date. The one exposure I've had with their product (REF 7) was very impressive. It was a comfort to see, touch, smell, hear (no I didn't taste it) an example of their art work and performance for their price points. Their product is being reviewed by several members of the forums but it is already discontinued. I understand the quest to keep their cost down but to have you're flagship discontinued while making a roadtrip just don't seem right. Why not send out you're most available units for demo?
 
I don't mean this to be a criticism but we need to consider this because of past issues on this topic. The global market forgets the service cost of round trip shipments should you need servicing. Other companies have faded away from the community with several member's monies, property and trust. Our younger members need to be prudent in their considerations. How can we better protect our interests and keep some form of independence from being overran.

 

[transient orca]

Quote:

The one exposure I've had with their product (REF 7) was very impressive. It was a comfort to see, touch, feel, hear (no I didn't taste it) an example of their art work and performance for their price points. Their product is being reviewed by several members of the forums but it is already discontinued. I understand the quest to keep their cost down but to have you're flagship discontinued while making a roadtrip just don't seem right. Why not send out you're most available units for demo?
 

 
They said that they couldn't get any new supplies of PCM1704 chip.