Speaking of the AV10, it’s selling like hotcakes even with the huge price increase.
As soon as you got your AV10, it sold out quickly and went on backorder again. I placed an order for a client 2 weeks ago.
I just spoke to the SU Director of Sales to inquire about my order. He assured me my order is being shipped to me. Basically every single AV10 that just came in on shipment was already allocated to an order. So the moment the shipment arrived, the Inventory went from Zero back to Zero.
Can’t even keep up the DEMANDS. Selling like hotcakes.
I am definitely not a good business person, so if I owned SU, I would make a ton of AV10 units and offer a 20-YEAR warranty like Bryston does for their amps. That might make me a bad business person, but that’s what I would do.
I know, I was very lucky. I think I snapped up the last one in the US, when I bought mine. In times of uncertainty, people go for quality. Also after just over 20 years AV technology is becoming mature. I think the number of channels has reached its practical limit for most.
Sound United's problems are just aggravating the situation. This sale is held up in government red tape right now. How long this will go on is anyone's guess. However after Elon's chainsaw, I bet a lot longer than anticipated. The whole deal may yet fall through. Sound United are on their beam ends. I think anything from Marantz or Denon not made in Japan right now has to be suspect and likely junk with no service possible and the warranty worthless.
I had, and continue to have good service from my two ols 7701s. The 7705 and 7706 are junk and I bet the receivers on which they are based are also junk. The 7705 had no boards available, which is a disgrace. Neither I, nor my dealer can get a response from Marantz in my 7706. I bet it will be junk whether they repair it or not.
So purchases at the moment are risky. I have no idea how Onkyo now hold up. I suppose if you want a receiver Yamaha is the safest bet, but they are reducing their offerings available.
If you want and need a pre pro then your options are the AV 10 or may be the AV 20, but we don't know the track record of that yet. So that leaves the AV 10 as the safest option. The other option is Anthem, but I think they have increased risk over the AV 10. Other options are units costing insane amounts of money like Lyngdorf. So safe options are very limited.
I am actually not sure these units are fixable, though the construction of the AV 10 gives hope for the prospect of repair. These units are now so complicated that they need a diagnostic port like cars have the OBD2 port by law. I think the way the boards are constructed getting test probes to the right places with the unit on and under test is probably impossible now. In any event the boards are not repairable now. So digital interrogation via port seems essential if there is going to be any prospect of repair going forward. Design practices need to make board replacement straightforward and NOT an awful hassle, where you likely do more damage replacing boards.
Now this AV arena has reached the current level of maturity, we need units that last 20 to 40 years and not 5, 10 or 15. And it needs to be serviceable, and by local dealerships and a return to local repair shops most likely as part of local dealerships. Right now a local repair shop does not stand a chance, and that is largely due to criminally atrocious design.
So, yes unless you buy something of the quality of the AV 10 your purchases are risky, and it seems others are seeing it that way. I found that out the hard way, and I thank my lucky stars I was able to snag that AV 10, otherwise I would be sitting in a silent AV room right now.
If the pleasure of home AV is to survive other than sound bars then, things need to change fast.
