[julien-hifi]

Audition6 is very good, I used him myself. But if it's being fixed by Final in Japan, you likely have no option but to wait. I had a similar issue with a Japanese amp. Two month wait, and still not fixed. Frustrating.

I agree, maybe it’s a Japan issue as it’s quite far… i sent an email to FA, and didn’t get an answer. This gives me some thinking about buying their product again, if something happens, you’re in for a long wait

 

[Tano]

Im pretty sure it's Final's fault. Sadly, it's not the first time that I heard that they took a long time to solve issues.
Hope that you can enjoy your headphones soon.

 

[Nostoi]

I agree, maybe it’s a Japan issue as it’s quite far… i sent an email to FA, and didn’t get an answer. This gives me some thinking about buying their product again, if something happens, you’re in for a long wait

Honestly it's so frustrating. I had to pay about 100€ to send to an Australian dealer who then sends onward to Japan. Will I get that back? Probably not. Communication from both is minimal and vague. Love Japanese products but if they're niche companies and there's an issue that needs fixing, it's a bloody nightmare.

Anyway hope you get the issue solved!

 

[balvan]

Hello,
The company is based in Germany and named Audition6 (http://www.audition6.de/).
So far, the owner is great, answering the next day each time i ask news about the headphone.
Right after he received it, he sent the headphone to the distributor, and said he will get back to me when this distributor will give him news back, usually when the headphone is back from service or replaced.
Just wondering then what is a reasonable waiting time. A friend had similar issue with a FA d8k, and waited around 3 months to get his headphone back.
What do you guys think, i just wait? what choice do i have anyway…?

I considered ordering my pair from him too, thanks for the input.
How long did you have them before they failed?
2 months is not reasonable, you should ask a refund, but then I somehow doubt he'll be forthcoming.

 

[julien-hifi]

About 6 months before one driver failed, still working but with half normal DBs

 

[ChJL]

Haven't read much about driver failures of D8s, what about you guys?
Bought an amp and DAC from Heiko Boss who was on point, like a Boss (sorry) . But although I don't know too much about his business, I'm not aware of many other shops not to mention one man operations who have that many different brands on offer... a dealer.

Comparing a company like T+A which can service/repair (almost) all their products no matter the age.

I'm only a couple of years in this hobby but had failures on 3 devices already... Pro-Ject streamer, Ifi DAC/Amp, Clear OG's driver.

The service should be in accordance to the quality of the product. They should at least update you on the progress.

@julien-hifi hopefully all shipping is covered by warranty, good luck, hope you'll get a new one!

 

[OctavianH]

About 6 months before one driver failed, still working but with half normal DBs

Are you listening at very high level? Mine are 1 year old and I listen to them around 12h / day. No problem. It's true I keep around 75dB, mostly for safety of my ears than for the equipment.

 

[balvan]

About 6 months before one driver failed, still working but with half normal DBs

that sucks

 

[julien-hifi]

Are you listening at very high level? Mine are 1 year old and I listen to them around 12h / day. No problem. It's true I keep around 75dB, mostly for safety of my ears than for the equipment.

Really not at high volumes, just normal use…
I will let you know when the wait is done, so you have an idea how long it takes for FA to service a headphone.

 

[OctavianH]

Really not at high volumes, just normal use…
I will let you know when the wait is done, so you have an idea how long it takes for FA to service a headphone.

I am very sorry about your situation. I bought mine from Headphone.shop in Germany but I guess all are serviced in Japan and each shop has to send them to the distributor and then they take that route. What I would consider normal at this price point is that the distributor will offer you a temporary demo unit to use until yours gets serviced. Unfortunately this thing does not happen and I start to wonder what I would do in a similar situation, I sold all my headphones because D8000 Pro was my end game. I guess I'll buy a new one and wait...

 

[Pharmaboy]

Really not at high volumes, just normal use…
I will let you know when the wait is done, so you have an idea how long it takes for FA to service a headphone.

I hate to hear about these driver problems. There have been reports and rumors about loudness-related driver failures in D8Ks, also in D8K Pros, for some time. I hope you get your headphone back soon.

I'm one of those who can't tolerate high volumes. Moderate loudness is my loudest. Maybe that's why my D8K is well behaved...? I bought this used (and in perfect condition), so maybe the original buyer was also a well-behaved headphoner...? Who really knows.

The only thing I conclude from this topic--and related controversies at other mfrs of planars (most notably Audeze, whose driver failure rate some years back was widely commented on)--is that it's harder and riskier to design a high performance planar driver that will stay healthy long-term. You just don't hear this volume of driver-failure stuff about dynamics.

 

[up late]

^ you aren't familiar with the focal utopia general discussion thread?

 

[Pharmaboy]

^ you aren't familiar with the focal utopia general discussion thread?

Guilty as charged. I'm not a fan of Focal headphones and don't keep up on stuff like that.

 

[up late]

Guilty as charged. I'm not a fan of Focal headphones and don't keep up on stuff like that.

fair enough. the thread is littered with posts about driver failures and warranty terms and conditions. i think the utopia is an excellent headphone fwiw.

 

[Pharmaboy]

fair enough. the thread is littered with posts about driver failures and warranty terms and conditions. i think the utopia is an excellent headphone fwiw.

If the utopia thread is littered with posts about driver failures, do you think it this headphone is more or less failure prone than other headphones using dynamic drivers?

Would you agree with my unscientific (tho based on years of Head-Fi reading) belief that planar drivers are more prone to failure than dynamic drivers (ie, a class effect)?

Maybe I'm missing things here, but I can't recall many dynamic headphones that were plagued by driver failures; while I have seen countless posts about planar headphones having driver failure.

FYI, in 6+ years of headphone audio (owning many) I've had one driver failure--a planar. I owned, then sold several older Audeze LCDs. They were on their best behavior with me--no failures. Then again, the Darwinian nature of headphone survival probably holds that most of the driver failures one would expect in pre-fazor LCD-2.1s and LCD-3s had already happened before mine arrived...