Denafrips offer to replace my faulty Pontus 15th, for a replacement fee?

a few years back i was pretty enamored with denafrips, especially their ares and pontus at the time, they seemed to bring a welcome ’anti digital’ sound to the dac scene, which was awash with sea of over-analytical threadbare clones it seemed

alvin at vinshine represented them well, bridged the language barrier to the us and european markets, got them many good reviews (which the products deserved) and a good customer following 

then, one could see signs of restlessness in the home base, and worse yet, mounting evidence of short-term greed in face of a modicum of market success -- constant model and firmware updates, version 2 this, version 3 that, 12th anniversary this, 15th anniversary that.. plus new, additional boxes (ddc’s) you just had to have... in order to get the best sound out of their kit -- as a poor customer, well, you bought a pontus 2 or a venus, and six months later it is superceded with a better and greater version, you be left hangin’...

then, the big move, they cut off alvin/vinshine at the knees, told him to go take a hike buddy, they had their market following, so screw the middleman, the loyal rep who helped them build the business, denafrips was now going direct!!!

i still respect their dacs (though the value equation has gotten worse, their sound is still quite good) but i really dislike how they do business -- so i got rid of the pieces i had, and stayed away

this example of how denafrips ’factory direct customer service’ is handled is just more evidence that these guys are just some straight up a--holes

@bartmannm sorry to hear this. Denafrips correspondence with you does have a similar tone to their interactions with me at the time of my OP.

It’s a shame Denafrips have evolved in this manner since parting company with Alvin and Vinshine; I only ever had positive experiences with Alvin and co.

Since I made my OP, I have sold the new Pontus 15th they shipped to me, together with my Denafrips DDC. Denafrips did also transfer a 1 year warranty for the Pontus to the new owner on request with no further wrangling (condition of the sale to the new owner)

Denafrips also seem to have expanded their distribution and their DACs are now selling from a number of UK Hifi retailers which was never the case previously. At the time of writing the OP there was only the one online-only retailer in the UK, who I dealt with for other gear.

I’m not sure what this means in terms of customers who buy from these retailers and their DACs go on to develop faults, and whether faulty units can be returned to the retailer or for a straight swap; I hope so, but I won’t be tempted to buy a Denafrips DAC again. I still think the DACs sound good, but once bitten, twice shy.

As stated previously, I don’t wish Denafrips any ill will, or hold any animosity toward them; they’ve chosen a business model post Alvin and Vinshine, and only time will tell if this works for them, but they don’t seem to be fostering a base of solid customer relations. Not sure how sustainable this newer way of doing things will be, but it is what it is, and best of luck to them. I won’t dip my toe in the Denafrips pond again though; I can do without the hassle.

Cheers guys 👍

As @sns posted "Seems reasonable way to go for me."  Not having DAC at all and being out of about $800, this logic escapes me. This being said, I agree that Alvin leaving Denafrips reflected quite negatively on their customer support.

@knock1, yup you are 100% right. Alvin was Denafrips and without 

Alvin, this brand is not worth doing business with anymore.

After endless research, I've had my sights set on a Pontus 15th for some time now, but hearing stories like this makes me incredibly nervous ($2k is a lot for me at this point). What would be the closest DAC to the Pontus 15th, sound-quality wise? So far, I've narrowed it down to the Musician Pegasus (though it may suffer from the same risk factors as Denafrips) or the Border Patrol DAC, but I'd love some other options.