Most helpful audio companies


I don't think I saw this thread before, if it already exists: cover my head with ashes.

A few days ago I spit my gall at Vibex as one of the most customer unfriendly companies I have ever encountered. (I consider not giving any information on the products the epitome of customer unfriendliness; meanwhile, even the Austrian/German distributor admitted that Vibex never tells them anything and never will). And whilst I am at it, allow me to lambast Wireworld and Audio Physic as well.

More importantly, though, why not reward the guys that will bend over backwards to try and help their customers, by which I don't mean attempting to sell their products but genuinely give advice (which may mean advice not to purchase one or the other product) and let us share their knowledge and experience. Keeping to manufacturers only, my nominees are:

Tidal Audio (Joern Janczak and Lothar Braeun)
Audioplan (Thomas Kuehn)
AMR (Vince Luke)
VooDoo Cable (Bruce Richardson)
PS Audio (Paul McGowan)
Townshend (Max and Sue Townshend)

Alright then, here are a few non-manufacturers as well (non-exhaustive!): special thanks to Tomasso Piemontese, Alex Loth, Albert Porter, Ed Doggen, John Potis et al.

Three cheers to all of them!

karelfd
I have had a couple of Eagle amps and Russell Sherwood at EKSC is always available for audio advice.
Ayre: Charles Hansen
Decware: Steve Deckert
Synergistic: Ted Denney
MIT: Bruce Brisson
VPI: not quite as user friendly but still supportive
emotiva is the epitome of how to establish an audio business in lean times--build a decent product, market it directly, which enables it to be priced substantially lower than comparable retail-distributed products, and be zealous about customer service. i've also been impressed by vmps, whose principal strikes me as particualrly knowledgeable and sincere.
I accompanied an audiophile friend to CAI principal Dusty's house, and Dusty was a friendly as could be. I now have one of their phono stages and power supplies, and have sent 2 emails to CAI requesting information. Neither has received a reply.

In contrast, Velodyne and DVDO have provided great customer support. In the past, Madrigal was magnificent in supporting Proceed products -- I dropped my Amp 3 taking it out of the rack, forgetting how heavy it is; Madrigal repaired and shipped the unit without cost to me even though I admitted culpability.

db