Best and Worst customer service?

Both Bryston and Mark Levinson are amoung the very best!

In my experience, Bryston is so good, it's scary. Sent in a 14 year-old 3B amp that had heretofore worked flawlessly throughout its lifetime, because it began exhibiting a slight mechanical hum. The amp arrived back at my residence a few days later, causing me to believe I had screwed up with the address or something and that therefore, it had not been deliverable. Further inspection however revealed no signs that such had been the case. I next opened the carton and found a letter from Bryston informing that the necessary repairs had been made, detailing the diagnosis, detailing the repairs, detailing a list of additional parts replacements and revisions thrown in for good measure and stating that as a result, the amp had been brought up to near current [3BST] specs! No charge!! Wholly incredulous. Bravo, Bryston!

Based upon my experience with trying to keep a Data II transport functioning, Theta gets a thumbs down. While they were polite, it was clearly apparent that they had no system. They kept no records of previous repairs to specific units. Theta makes good sounding products, but I will never purchase another of their products again.

My best experience was with Beyerdynamics. I always liked their headphones better than Sennheiser, although the latter was always rated higher by the audio press. So I bought a pair of their DT 811 headphones 8 years ago and recently the plastic suspension system broke. I sent them a letter and asked them to send me a replacement at my own cost, but they sent the replacement for no charge! They have also been very helpful with servicing microphones I have bought from them.

Talon Audio has been great. They are always accesible, willing to stay on the phone and answer all your questions, and are very helpful.