Home  High-End Audio Reviews  Audiophile Show Reports Partner Mags  Hi-Fi / Music News

  High-End High-Performance Audiophile Review Magazine & Hi-Fi Audio Equipment Reviews

  High-Performance Audio Reviews
  Music News, Show Reports, And More!

  Celebrating 29 Years Of Service To Music Lovers

 

Enjoy the Music.com
Australian Hi-Fi Magazine
November / December 2017
Desperately Seeking Schematics

 

Australian Hi-Fi Magazine November / December 2017

 

  The recent closure of Canadian manufacturer Classé Audio, which had been owned by B&W since 2001, seems to have been the result of B&W being purchased in 2016 by EVA Automation, whose founder and CEO — Gideon Yu — is a finance specialist rather than a hi-fi specialist (he was once Chief Financial Officer at Facebook).

I can't say I was particularly surprised at this turn of events, because I had always thought that Classé was a strange purchase for B&W, even as far back as 2001. At the time I thought that B&W was throwing a life-line to a struggling company partly because of the high quality of its products, but mostly because B&W's then-president, Joe Atkins (who was Canadian), was trying to help out a fellow Canadian.

After having had two years to look at the books and investigate the financials of the hi-end audio market, Yu (who isn't a Canadian!) obviously decided Classé was not a good fit for the organisation and pulled the plug. To his credit, Yu committed to honouring all existing warranties and has promised on-going service support for all owners of Classé products… but also, rather curiously, has not ruled out building further Classé products.

I was motivated to write about this as the result of a recent experience shared with me by one of Australian Hi-Fi magazine's newest readers, who recently immigrated to Australia from Europe, bringing with him his high-end audio system. He'd made contact because his amplifier had ceased working and he was having problems getting it repaired because the European manufacturer (a boutique outfit whose products have never been available in Australia) not only refused to supply a circuit diagram for the amplifier in question, but also advised that neither would it supply the parts necessary for the repair even if these were ordered. This made it impossible for the local firm tasked by our reader with repairing the amplifier (a very well-known repair firm, with more than 40 years of experience repairing high-end audio components) to repair it. The European manufacturer's suggestion was that our reader should pay it to repair the amplifier, as well as all the freight costs of shipping the amplifier to Europe and back.

 

Australian Hi-Fi Magazine November / December 2017

 

What was already a complicated issue was complicated further by the fact that the repair company had in good faith undertaken to repair the amplifier and had done considerable work on it to find the fault — despite the absence of a schematic diagram — for which it quite understandably expected to be reimbursed.

I would like to suggest that this is a rare occurrence, but unfortunately it's not. My experience is that many small high-end audio manufacturers refuse to supply circuit diagrams and/or parts — not only to individual repairers, but also sometimes even to their official Australian distributors.

To make things even harder, manufacturers who do this often remove part numbers from internal components, so they can't be identified. Why would they do this? One reason might be that they don't want anyone to copy their designs. Another might be that they've copied someone else's design and don't want to be found out. Either way, it's a problem.

The solution? The only practical one I can think of is that all high-end hi-fi manufacturers should offer extended warranty periods. After all, if Bryston (co-incidentally a Canadian manufacturer) can offer 20-year warranties on its amplifiers, why can't everyone?

But if you can think of another solution, I look forward to reading your suggestion in your email to me!

 

--- Greg Borrowman

 

 

Subscribe To Australian Hi-Fi Magazine
Get this issue of Australian Hi-Fi Magazine by clicking here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

Premium Audio Review Magazine
High-End Audiophile Equipment Reviews

 

Equipment Review Archives
Turntables, Cartridges, Etc
Digital Source
Do It Yourself (DIY)
Preamplifiers
Amplifiers
Cables, Wires, Etc
Loudspeakers/ Monitors
Headphones, IEMs, Tweaks, Etc
Superior Audio Gear Reviews


Show Reports
Capital Audiofest 2024
Toronto Audiofest 2024
UK Audio Show 2024
Pacific Audio Fest 2024
HIGH END Munich 2024
AXPONA 2024 Show Report
Montreal Audiofest 2024 Report

Southwest Audio Fest 2024
Florida Intl. Audio Expo 2024
...More Show Reports

 

Videos
Our Featured Videos


Industry & Music News

High-End Audio & Music News

 

Partner Print Magazines
audioXpress
hi-fi+ Magazine
Sound Practices
VALVE Magazine

 

For The Press & Industry
About Us
Press Releases
Official Site Graphics

 

   

 

Home  |  High-End Audio Reviews  |  Audiophile Show Reports  Hi-Fi / Music News  About Us  |  Contact Us

 

 

All contents copyright©  1995 - 2024  Enjoy the Music.com®
May not be copied or reproduced without permission.  All rights reserved.