Goldenear….recent experience and lesson learned

OP, I agree, it's especially regrettable when you went against your instincts, and far too short a time to not have replacement parts in stock.

I own a few unique cameras that are no longer made, that were never updated, i.e. Olympus Stylus 1, and when the makers stop having parts available (usually a few years after they are discontinued), they no longer work on them. So, many of us bought spares.

Disappointedly, Mack Camera will not use functioning used parts to make repairs: if they cannot obtain new parts from Oly, they refuse to work on it.

My Mr. Fixit skills are very limited regarding cameras. 

My Paradigm sub died after about a decade.  They were willing to "fix" the problem but wanted to charge me about 70% of the original price of the sub!  ($2,500 sub, they wanted to charge me $1,700+ to fix it).  That’s why I’ve been warning folks here on Audiogon about powered speakers.  I have passive speakers that still work fine 40+ years later.  Why would I spend thousands on speakers that might die in a decade or sooner?  Most powered speakers today have Class-D amplification, and from what I understand, it is very hard-- and costly-- to fix Class D amps.  Buyer beware.  Make sure to check the warranty.

That’s why I replaced my $2,500 sub with a $700 sub.  (REL HT 1205 MK2 on sale).  I also own 2 JL Audio subs (E-110's) for my main listening, they have worked flawlessly so far-- owned them about 7-8 years now.  But I know now not to expect them to last past 10-15 years (they don’t get as much playing time as my HT setup with the REL sub).

@nubiann 

Great to hear.  I’ll still never buy a powered speaker. 🙂

Life is too short to bother about spare parts or gear life span...

I am 75, i dont give a damn about passive speakers versus powered one...I look at S.Q./price ratio  using optimization skill and basic...Optimization is a funnier process than just buying ...

And our own life span being unknown it makes no sense to bother about audio gear pieces life span...

I bought long ago two low cost Chinese optical convertors in case...I was worried... I was stupid because the one i used for 12 years i gave it to my son it was working well for ever and i have one as new  i no longer need for my worries about life span... I will give it to my surprised son if the one he use reach his end time 

With what was going in the world i am more worry by my granchildren life span state...

Yes most powered speakers have class d.when mine die I'll get the 300$ ice module from parts express and plug it in it's 1k and highly rated and used. The problem is woofers require alot of power so many manufactures re putting class d on the base so you can drive the mid and tweets with less expensive external amp  some include dsp to make them integrate better. There is always pro and con. My hegel h 30 a mono run 5kw transients so it doesn't care but most don't want to spend 49k.i bought mine used< 20k for both. There is always a compromise. Hope you get yours fixed soon as I hVe def tec and  triton golden ear.enjoy the music.