Are High End Audio Products Unreliable?

I don't know how anyone can go from one anecdotal account of a failure to a generalization about the product, the company producing the product and the company's country of origin. Rush Limbaugh would be proud of such leaps of logic (supporter of healthcare coverage for contraceptives to slut demanding payment for sex).

There could be a variety of reasons even good product lines will have occasional problems that are NOT the result of trying to cheat the customer, cutting corners, etc. Sometimes the company gets a bad batch of parts or the parts supplier changes the part without notifying its customers. This can happen to a company with a great record for reliability and quality control. An example of that would be the brief period of time when Basis motor controls were prone to premature failure. I own a Basis table and I am amazed at the machining tolerance of critical parts--no discernable runout issues with any of rotating parts--something I cannot say for some of the tables mentioned above.

I have great respect for Nottingham tables. But, I knew a dealer that had a brief period when several tables suffered motor failures in a matter of a few weeks after the sale. The distributor said that one batch of motors from the supplier were bad. These things happen.

I don't think high end gear is particularly prone to such failures, it is just more painfull when something expensive goes bad. What I have found is that most high end dealers work to get things right and make the customer happy even when that means doing repairs for free well outside of the warranty period.

I agree w Larryi and also point out that if you are operating on the bleeding edge, then you have to expect more failures. Nascar or F1 engines only go 500-600 miles or less between rebuild and or junking. Fuel dragster engines maybe a mile or 2. does that make them unreliable?

Larryi,
Rush would need two life times to equal the mangled logic of Bill Maher or Chris Matthews have provided.

Charles1dad- You may have blown your chance to borrow my KRs and AVVTs ;-) Just kidding. Drop me an email if you are interested.

Swampwalker,

Not trying to start an arguement, but your analogy is a bit flawed. If those engines are expected to fail at those times and the user knows this, then there's no issue. If an amp is expected to last, say, 10 years and goes bad after 2, there's a problem. If a CD laser is expected to last 1000 hours and goes bad after 10, that's an issue.

I don't have the money most here have (no issue with that), but I've bought what I can reasonably afford. My decision to buy a Bryston B60 had a lot to do with their warranty and service. Spending that much money, I expect to have it for a very long time. They also upgraded it to SST status for very little money.

I really like Bryston's model - every piece gets played for 100 hours and a final check-out sheet with measurements before it leaves the factory. Their warranty coverage is as rock solid as I've seen it come. I know several who've bought older gear, and Bryston updated it for very little cost, relatively speaking.

I'm not saying Bryston is the only company who does any of these things though.