Refurbished vs New


Hi I want to buy an Arcam UDP411. I see on Amazon is an Arcam official dealer who has a refurbished unit for half the price. Is that a good deal?
--Jonathan
Ag insider logo xs@2xarnoland
I have no experience with Arcam, so I cannot say it is a 'good deal'.

But, If it is on Amazon, and the seller is an official dealer, I can't see how you could go wrong. I say this with regard to the safeguards that Amazon provides, should something goes wrong, and not regarding the price consideration.

The term "refurbished" essentially means that the unit is used, but the original manufacturer has done a basic system check on the unit and declared it "fully functional".  They usually give a standard warranty (sometimes less time than new). (for example, Emotiva has 5 year warranty on new, but on used/refurbished/warehouse-seconds, they only give a 1 year warranty).  So it will have to be up to you to decide if this "used" pricing is acceptable (just like buying it on the used market, but with a little bit of warranty insurance).

If it's on Amazon, be very careful on the details of the listing.  I do see one Arcam UDP411 on Amazon, but underneath the title/pricing/availability, I see "Ships and sold by Sound Seller".  In this situation, Sound Seller is just using Amazon as a marketing website.  You will have to really verify if the actual seller is a certified Arcam dealer.  Most of the time, the actual seller address/location is not even available on the Amazon website under the vendor details page.

gdnrbob and auxinput (great name) I want to thank you both for the helpful information.  According to Arcam's US representative they are official Arcam dealers.

When I was a kid in the seventies, I used to plug my electric guitar into the "aux input" of an old KLH phonograph, just like this one. For some reason, the name just stuck with me through the years. lol

http://www.radiomuseum.org/images/radio/klh_r_d_co_cambridge/eleven_497099.jpg

I have had great luck with fully authorized factory refurbs - actually many were never used ...