Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylab /img/forum/go_quote.gif
According to the Meier website:
So one of 2 things happened:
1. He charged you a re-stocking fee he shouldn't have, OR
2. You returned the amp in less than new condition.
If #1, I would complain if I were you. If #2, I'd let the matter drop and not complain, as this is a perfectly fair policy.
FWIW, all Meier amps pass a small amount of signal if they are off, which of course is only an issue if you leave your source on even after turning the amp off, which seems a non-issue to me with a headphone amp, although perhaps there is some application in which this would be undesirable.
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Condition #1 definitely applies, and I did write to complain about the restocking fee. That is why I was so offended to receive the e-mail response (which I will send to you by PM rather than posting publicly) I described previously. To me, it was very clear that the €10 was of more importance to him than the possibility of future business with me.
About the volume control issue, I also noticed what you pointed out - that audio passes through even when the amp is completely powered off. However, the thing I found completely unacceptable was that a SIGNIFICANT amount of volume passes through when the amp is on, and the volume knob is turned all the way down. And this was with relatively high-impedance HD580s. I do have a little baby, and like many other babies, he cries sometimes. If I wanted to be sure I heard him wake up from a nap (and I do want to be sure), for example, I would either have to take the headphones off or switch the amp off and wait several seconds for the signal to drop, at which point it still wouldn't be silent unless I also paused iTunes. With a busy household, this kind of thing is just something I can't deal with. For what it's worth, I find it rather ironic that a device whose primary purpose is to control volume lacks the ability to turn off the volume. No other device I've ever plugged headphones into behaves that way.
I wrote to Jan to explain that the whole unfortunate product return could have been avoided if he simply stated something on his web site to the effect that the volume of the amp cannot be turned off completely. I would certainly not have bothered ordering the amp in that case. Since that information was not available, and (more importantly) I was not able to test the product in a retail store, it doesn't make sense that I should lose approximately €25 (return shipping plus restocking fee) just to find out that the product is unacceptable.
I do not see it as my job to pay the price for customers who want to abuse the system. Jan had all the information at hand when making this decision, and still chose to keep some of my hard-earned money. I think it was extremely narrow-sighted of him to handle the situation this way, and hope that the OP doesn't experience the same kind of service I did.
