Hi everyone.
Longtime reader/thread searcher, occasional poster, once in a blue moon thread starter.
I wanted to pass along my story of my fun late summer months of not having my receiver... so here goes.
Seventy-three days.
That is how long it took for my Denon AVR-4311CI to finish being repaired.
But, first, let's go back to July 6th. I had finally done enough research and had enough extra cash to purchase the receiver I wanted. However, to save a few more dollars, I purchased a refurbished model from Dakmart. I have purchased refurbished Denon's before (a 589 from Dakmart for myself and an 890 from eCost for my parents), and there haven't been any problems.
So, I purchased one that day, Dakmart shipped the unit on 7/11, and I received it on 7/18. By the end of the week, I finally had enough time to get my wiring somewhat organized, update the firmware, and received all my Monoprice cables. So, Friday I go to start it and...
Nothing.
No sound at all, whatsoever. Tried my DVD player, my PS3, my cable box, my Ipod - nothing. The GUI seemed to work fine and I double checked my cables. Everything seemed like it was in order except no sound from any source. I also tried running Audyssey and didn't even receive test tones. So, I brought up the Denon website and was happy to find that there was a Denon Regional Service Center right in town (
Inner Sound). The next morning I drove over there, dropped it off, and was told there was about a 3-4 day backlog. So, I figure, probably a week or two, in case they had to order parts.
A week turned into two, and that turned into a month. I did call them about 3 weeks in or so to get a status update. I was told they replaced a digital/HDMI circuit board and that didn't work. They replaced that circuit board with another one (in case the first one was faulty), but that didn't work either. Denon Tech Support back in NJ was contacted and they were going to tell Inner Sound to try a few additional fixes. If those didn't work, they would reconvene to talk about whether to ship it back east or send a replacement. This was the end of August/early September, so I was rooting hard for a replacement.
On Sept. 7th, I received a call notifying me that Inner Sound had exhausted all of their options and Denon Technical & Denon Engineering 'were as stumped as we are'.
Denon authorized the unit to be express shipped back to New Jersey, so off it went.
Finally, this last Tuesday, October 4th, I received a call from Inner Sound saying my unit had been returned and was working again. I was able to go over there earlier today and pick it up. According to the paperwork, the HDMI PCB (primary circuit board?) was replaced at the Denon Factory Service Center. All the repairs were covered under warranty, so it didn't cost me a penny (phew).
So when I got home, I did a quick hookup and
BAM! Sound
finally! Just in time for Week 5 NFL action & the Breaking Bad season finale!
At any rate, here's what I learned and a few final thoughts:
- This really felt like a case of being penny wise, pound foolish. The difference between what I paid for my unit and a brand new one from a sale at an online retailer was only a couple hundred bucks. There really wasn't enough price savings to make a refurbished purchase, and I'd get a new model (assuming it's $1500) if I could do things over.
- Never again on high priced refurbs. I definitely feel now it's a much better deal for lower cost purchases (say, under $500).
- I have mixed feelings about my experience with Inner Sound. The person I talked to & received messages from, Alex, was always very polite, and did keep me up to speed with the relevant information. I am not the type to hound someone repeatedly, so what might seem like a lack of contact to some didn't bother me. My assumption was "call me when the work was done". On the other hand, I can't figure out why they seemingly replaced the same part twice and it didn't work, but it worked once replaced at the factory. With that being said, I would use them again for servicing either of my Denon's, partially because they are local and partially because I feel like if Denon's engineers can't figure it out w/o seeing it, it weakens the argument that the local tech was incompetent. As I said though, they had good enough customer service for me to try them again.
- Dakmart however... I think I'm done with them. Not only did they send me a faulty unit (I'm not sure if Dakmart or Denon should have known if the unit was in working order before it was marked for resale, but one of them dropped the ball big time), but they charged my bank card with 3 seperate charges that caused a fraud alert from my bank that I didn't find out about until I was grocery shopping the Sunday after I purchased it. And, I wasn't going to deal with their 20% restocking fee, plus UPS costs to ship it back to Florida...
- As to Denon, I think my opinion is unchanged of them. They had a model containing the features I was looking for (5+ HDMI inputs, preouts, XT32 room correction, and a sub equalizer) and from what I was able to research, very few users had problems with this model, especially after firmware upgrades fixed the 'blue rain' issues early adopters had. And to think, I avoided Onkyo because of their (real or perceived) quality issues, just to end up here. The Pioneer and Yamaha offerings didn't do it for me, although, when I started to see posts about the A3000 on sale for 900-1100, I did get a twinge of buyer's remorse.
At any rate, thanks for reading, and I hope this is of some use to anyone looking to purchase a refurb or in need of repairs for their Denon in the Pacific NW.
And before anyone posts "this thread is worthless without pictures", I'll try and take some after I buy some subwoofers. Right now, it feels like an unfinished painting...
-ET
