Lefisc
New member
- Thread Author
- #1
I thought this was going to be my opening preface to my review of the Marantz sr7009, but I realized this really an preface to ALL my equipment reviews on this site, so figured to post this first .
You don’t know how much I respect the opinions of the people here. They have been so helpful and so accurate (except when David reviews masked western heroes!!!!!!)
You see, I am not a professional, I don’t have equipment coming in and out of the house all the time and I certainly don‘t have a company’s’ tech support on dial up. Sadly, I longer have many AV stores to visit either, so I am kind of going a bit “blind” in buying certain equipment.
I realize that I what top give, because I want to read, a real person’s review of equipment, not just a professional. I don’t care about specs and measurements; I want to know how does it sound? How does it look? Is it easy to set up? Does the manufacturer stand behind his product? Are the instructions understandable? And, nowadays, are there instructions?
Let me tell you where a lot of this comes from. In the 1990s I found it a tremendous chore putting together my first home theatre system. Instructions were often vague as were dealers, I got a lot of conflicting information and, frankly, dealers often knew how to sell, but not how to set things up and get them working!!!!! And things were changing so quickly, especially when discrete, five channel sound came in.
I should mention that we take for granted today that audio stores make house calls and want to do the installation, but this was rare in the 1980s-90s. They wanted you to pick up the equipment and then they wished you good luck. Those were the first stores to go out. I tried calling a couple of manufacturers for tech support but no avail.
I had a letter printed in the old Stereophile. They gave a great review to a system they had trouble setting up by themselves and even some parts had to be replaced. So the editor called the president of the company and he came over and set things up.
I wrote, “Good Luck in having anyone from the company come to your house, especially the president.” How can you give such a good review to a product that needs an expert to set up.
Stereophile’ s reply was ridiculous. They said that all the salesman are trained in setting this unit up and they’d help you out. First, then, why didn’t Stereophile use a salesman? And my dealer told me he cannot afford to send his salespeople to California for a week to learn this system, he’d never sell enough to make up the cost.
So reviewers (thank god, not here) are often in a vacuum. So when I give a review, I like to present what I want to read: how easy was it to buy; what was the cost to me (something reviewers never discuss) how easy was it to set up (using a “normal” service guy); what settings are important (and maybe hidden); how easy is it to used and finally how does it sound and look.
You don’t know how much I respect the opinions of the people here. They have been so helpful and so accurate (except when David reviews masked western heroes!!!!!!)
You see, I am not a professional, I don’t have equipment coming in and out of the house all the time and I certainly don‘t have a company’s’ tech support on dial up. Sadly, I longer have many AV stores to visit either, so I am kind of going a bit “blind” in buying certain equipment.
I realize that I what top give, because I want to read, a real person’s review of equipment, not just a professional. I don’t care about specs and measurements; I want to know how does it sound? How does it look? Is it easy to set up? Does the manufacturer stand behind his product? Are the instructions understandable? And, nowadays, are there instructions?
Let me tell you where a lot of this comes from. In the 1990s I found it a tremendous chore putting together my first home theatre system. Instructions were often vague as were dealers, I got a lot of conflicting information and, frankly, dealers often knew how to sell, but not how to set things up and get them working!!!!! And things were changing so quickly, especially when discrete, five channel sound came in.
I should mention that we take for granted today that audio stores make house calls and want to do the installation, but this was rare in the 1980s-90s. They wanted you to pick up the equipment and then they wished you good luck. Those were the first stores to go out. I tried calling a couple of manufacturers for tech support but no avail.
I had a letter printed in the old Stereophile. They gave a great review to a system they had trouble setting up by themselves and even some parts had to be replaced. So the editor called the president of the company and he came over and set things up.
I wrote, “Good Luck in having anyone from the company come to your house, especially the president.” How can you give such a good review to a product that needs an expert to set up.
Stereophile’ s reply was ridiculous. They said that all the salesman are trained in setting this unit up and they’d help you out. First, then, why didn’t Stereophile use a salesman? And my dealer told me he cannot afford to send his salespeople to California for a week to learn this system, he’d never sell enough to make up the cost.
So reviewers (thank god, not here) are often in a vacuum. So when I give a review, I like to present what I want to read: how easy was it to buy; what was the cost to me (something reviewers never discuss) how easy was it to set up (using a “normal” service guy); what settings are important (and maybe hidden); how easy is it to used and finally how does it sound and look.
