Hey Everyone,
Big exciting update time! On Friday I traveled to the NAMM show in LA for a meeting with AKG leadership to plan for the next couple K7XX Drops. We covered a lot of material so I'm breaking this update into sections specific to each topic of conversation:
1. Rattle Issues
One part of our meeting was a demo of the rattle experienced by some members. After experiencing the rattle first-hand, AKG has acknowledged that rattles at normal listening volumes (if you experience any rattle while listening to music) constitutes a full repair and matched driver swap. They're launching an investigation into how these units were produced and passed their QC test (which involves measurements, sweeps, square waves, etc). AKG will have an official statement on the rattle to post later this week.
The repair process will be the exact same process we outlined in the last update for units with physical defects. I'll post a recap of that process but I also want to spend some time clarifying the scope of the issue as members have already expressed concerns about this next batch which were produced under the same conditions as the first, implying the units will experience rattling at the same frequency. Here's a stat to put the situation into perspective:
Total # of Support Cases About Rattling Drivers: 50
Assuming the next batch has the same rate of issues, there should be ~45 units with a rattle at normal listening volumes. Given that, beyond the repair process, we're also going to hold 50 units from this next shipment and keep them at the warehouse to give members the option to swap their unit with a rattle at normal listening levels for a NIB unit and let us worry about the repair process.
Again, AKG will have an official statement to post later this week, but in the meantime, here's a recap of the repair process you can start if you're experiencing a rattle.
Domestic orders:
A) We have been assigned a specific AKG representative, Hector Hernandez, from the AKG USA California office who will handle all issues related to K7xx headphones. Contact him by emailing your request to
service.us@akg.com with a full description of the problem.
B) Hector will review the service request and will follow AKG service procedures to evaluate and correct any manufacturing defects. Units that are deemed defective will be repaired, not replaced.
International Orders:
A) AKG is not providing international service (we weren't supposed to sell internationally in the first place). If you are an international customer, you will need to contact Massdrop Customer Support via your transactions page and arrange to have your unit shipped to our offices in San Francisco. We’ll then coordinate the RMA procedure with AKG USA, and when the unit is repaired and returned to us, we’ll ship it back to you at your international destination.
B) Hector will review the service request that Massdrop submits on your behalf and will follow AKG service procedures to evaluate and correct any manufacturing defects. Units that are deemed defective will be repaired, not replaced.
2. Arrival time for the next K7XX shipment
As of yesterday, the ship carrying the next K7XX shipment arrived at the port of Long Beach. Now it's waiting to dock and be unloaded. From there the K7XXs will make their way to our fulfillment center in NJ.
This shipment carries 1500 units. All the existing orders will be fulfilled first. This leaves 718 unis available for the next drop (accounting for the 50 we're holding) with a ship date in the first half of February.
Based on the number of requests, we expect those units to sell out quickly and we're working with AKG to see about expediting the final K7XX shipments.
3. International Shipping
For this drop there will be no international shipping available due to AKG's agreements with their international distributors.
That said, if you're based overseas and want the K7XX, this google search could yield some helpful results
http://bit.ly/1yHqMPS
4. Launch Date for Next Drop
Pending some final confirmations from AKG, we should be ready to launch the next K7XX drop on Tuesday morning at 9am PST.
Thanks for all your interest and we'll keep working hard to make this drop run as smoothly as possible.
- Will