Audiofeil, I had the pleasure spending an hour on the phone
yesterday, the 16th, with Simon Torcher at Spectron, who is a co-designer with John and is the Director of sales.
However, the response by some on this thread I started is
over emotional by the Spectron Police. Talk about touchy
feely! Cool your jets guys! At this point, I am convinced that the modulator issue is false, and there really is no point of anyone responding any further, unless your just out to make hay. |
As a former Spectron owner, I have view that even if you had an issue with an amp (and I did) Spectron were by far the best people to deal with to resolve it and I would highly recommend them as a quality and customer service oriented company.
They are well designed products and if ever there was a design issue that created a quality problem you can be absolutely sure that John Ulrich would be all over it immediately and resolve it. |
I have mine for over 3 years. Always on, no problems.
Spectron had some problems with their older II's not the III's.
Anyway, their customer service is excellent! |
I would ask if anybody knows of any problems with Spectron amplifiers - instead of spreading rumors but that's just me. |
The Spectron website has been down for the past 2 minutes! I sent them an email 5 minutes ago and NO RESPONSE!!! I called 30 seconds ago AND GOT THE ANSWERING MACHINE!!!!! ARE THEY STILL IN BUSINESS!?!?!? WILL ALL SPECTRON AMPS EXPLODE TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!?!?!?!?!? ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! |
As an aside, I remember retail dealers who dropped the Von Schweikert speaker line after they began to sell direct. In a similar way they trashed the speakers and their designer. Funny how the internet has allowed the spread of "truth". Not saying that happened here but its hard to get any truth out of the internet these days, even here. |
M297904,
Hi Joe.
Totally agree but in this case the OP's behavior is back asswards i.e. the concerns are addressed after the order is placed.
Shouldn't these questions, concerns, issues, etc. be reviewed prior to placing the order?
I'm just not a big proponent of manufacturers getting called out on what might very well be heresay. The forums are full of this nonsense and serve no purpose IMO. |
Audiofeil,
Prudent? Definitely not without also checking with other users.
How often does a manufacturer NOT come clean on a systemic issue until his back is against the wall - think of all the auto recalls for a few examples. And then ONLY MAYBE!
I personally know of an audio mfr that was replacing power harnesses like crazy on one of their products years ago but never did they "admit" to a problem.
OTOH, a "former" dealer is hardly the definitive voice since most of the time the decision to drop a line (or, in this case, being dropped) has NOTHING to do with sound quality, design quality or build quality.
So a prudent audiophile should check all avenues (users, mfr. and dealers (past (with a BIG grain of salt) and present) before coming to a conclusion. |
ID means Internet Direct....caused ill feelings by dealers... and people who bought from a dealer at a much higher price. |
Did you contact Spectron before initiating this thread?
Seems to me that would have been the more prudent route.
Had you done that without a response this thread may have been better justified.
Manufactuers' reputations can be unfairly and/or unnecessarily damaged by irresponsible threads such as this.
IMO |
Audiofeil. I am not out to trash Spectron and like most,
am well aware of their history since 1974. I am not a dealer or related to any company. One of the sources is a former Spectron retail dealer out of New York who dropped the line two years ago. I just wanted to confirm his statement and check it out. The answers to my question confirms these statements are indeed rumors and I will move forward with full confidence and purchase the Amp.
No need to make a snap judgment just because I question
a switching device. |
Monsters from the Id maybe? |
Scp,
On a side note, what did you mean that we are being 'ID'?
Chuck |
I own two monoblocks for a few years now (one was purchased used) and I never had any problem. I enjoy immensely these amps (w/Joule-Electra preamp) driving my new power hungry Sasha by Wilson.
I am sure that some amplifiers failed here and there - in exact manner as other well established amp did. Its obvious.
The REAL question must be: what was a customer service? Did they hold this amp(s) months and months, did not answered e-mails and phone calls ? Were unresponsive etc?
From my own experience, Spectron has one of the best customer service around. Cetainly much better then most I encountered. |
I've had mine for a year..no prob's. I read as much as I could find before purchasing it and never read anything about switching modulators. Worse thing I ever read was some people are miffed that they are now ID. But in todays amrket that is where things are headed. |
Another dumb unsubstantiated rumor.
Consider the source here folks.
Actually ignore the source. |
You've been told this by several Audiophiles??? I have no idea who those people are but as an owner for some two years I can tell you I have never had a reliability problem with my Spectron amps. Mine switch on, make music, and generally are about the most fuss-free components I've known in 20 years in this hobby.....maybe I am not an Audiophile. |
