Pete
Don’t you get to a point though where upgrades come under a law of diminishing returns and you won’t be visiting said dealer that often?
The diminish returns is a complicated thing, I my view taking a simple DAC of 1000 euros as an example and compare it to a 2000 euros of the same brand with similar sound presentation it will not be two times better, it will be better, and that better could not be justified because the uplift is small for some users, and plenty of justification for other users.
I do not know if when go up the ladder in any brand the price you pay is directly proporcional to the uplift you get, again what is perceptible to be a small uplift for some users could be a great uplift for others.
I purchased a new better amp, for my wife was almost the same sound, diminishing return for her, for me was a big upgrade in the sound, very justified for me. Was the diference that huge, he’ll no… but was enough for me to justify it.
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There’s always that risk but a good dealer can also talk you out of those needless upgrades, mine has. Anyway my post was about warranty issues which I’ve never had, touch wood.
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Hi sonwleo
I agree about the diminishing returns thing, but it must get to a point where you have to spend appreciably more to get any significant improvement. To some people that’s a hobby and they’re happy to spend £X’s but most people have finite resources and you must get to a point of Nirvana listening wise with careful purchasing.
I upgraded from a Nait 3, CD player, streamer, and Rega Elas to (initially a Uniti Star) now a Nova and PMC Twenty5 24i’s. Wife loved the one box Star/Nova, hates the PMC’s as they’re twice the size. Won her over with the Naim App, as she now doesn’t have to switch on a load of units and press buttons to listen to music… phew!
Gradually crept in the CD transport and Record deck, not sure she’s noticed… yet!
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Yes I still think diminish returns are very present in most áudio gear, cables are one of them.
And most of the time when we double or triple the value on a single component the price is not on par with the result. And at sometimes there is a point that we are searching for a little and investing a lot for that little.
But the perception of, or if a change in the system is small or big, is different for every one.
Upgrading only a component could not bring a lot. But upgrading an entire system could be life changing.
Gosh, Sinclair power amp modules. I used them to build my first ever amplifier.
Some years later, I had a chrome bumper NAP250. There was a nearby lightning strike which damaged it and when I turned it on it pumped DC into both speakers.
Do you know which law this is in. Do you have a reference?
MTIA
Mike
Looks like Sale of Goods Act, talks about “satisfactory quality” and defines it:
(2B)For the purposes of this Act, the quality of goods includes their state and condition and the following (among others) are in appropriate cases aspects of the quality of goods—
(a)fitness for all the purposes for which goods of the kind in question are commonly supplied,
(b)appearance and finish,
(c)freedom from minor defects,
(d)safety, and
(e)durability.
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The Consumer Rights Act 2015
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland you have six years from the date of purchase to return a faulty item. In Scotland, it’s only five years.
My Dad had a Panasonic microwave which after a couple of years of normal use, the coating inside the ‘open door frame’ started to bubble. The retailer referred me to the manufacturer… who were not that helpful and didn’t accept that they should give him a refund.
Went online and found the statement above, wrote an email to the retailer saying it was a health hazard to use, and only a couple of years wasn’t a reasonable amount of time for it to last before failure - therefore it had not reached its merchantable life.
A couple of days later he was offered a full refund.
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Thanks. That’s all I have been able to find. This is a Miele dishwasher with faulty pump and heating element after just 3.5 years but out of warranty.
I couldn’t find the exact term, but a suggestion that it was an implied term, with the above section included as rationale. IANAL though - and could well be the CRA that @GeoffC quotes above
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I thought Miele products had a 10yr warranty?
Afaik the 6 year thing is a statute of limitation, so if it was deemed that the item had a fault at the time of sale, ie, a known manufacturing fault, then you have 6 years in which the item can be repaired or replaced. If everything had an automatic 6 year warranty as such then it would make all other guarantees or warranties pointless
No, in UK anyway, they most certainly don’t, except where they include an extended warranty as a sales incentive, in which case 10 years is occasionally but not frequently offered. Our Miele tumble dryer has a two year warranty, whereas our washing machine was sold with a 10 year warranty.
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As far as understand it that is precisely the point of the protection afforded by the legislation: that a fault may not manifest within the relatively short guarantee periods offered for products one would reasonably expect to last for a decade or longer etc.
I think the reason I asked was I saw a recent TV advertisement and subconsciously thought I’d heard 10 year warranty.
Possibly output transistor going ape, it happened to my uncle’s nap200 before, but thank god it’s within warranty.
Other than that, semiconductor aging with heat, signal transistor leaking.
Some years ago, I bought an LG TV from Tesco for a guest bedroom.
When it was out of warranty by a couple of months, the TV failed.
I called the main repairers for LG who came and looked at it but said it was “beyond economical repair”.
I was about to buy a new TV when my secretary told me about the “reasonable life” of anything, even if outside the usual warranty period.
A call to Tesco and they refunded a generous portion of the original purchase cost which went towards a new TV.
It’s definitely worth pursuing in the UK.
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The other thing that is often forgotten is that warranty starts the moment the item comes into your possession, not the moment you make the purchase.
Especially with online sales those two are often not the same date.
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That’s important, because I purchased my supernat 3 in first week of august and received it in 31 October. My invoice is two months older than my SuperNait 3.
Also have a similar issue with my atom, my first unit was defective and exchanged by a new one, so the new unit is newer than the invoice also.
But how to prove something like this on the warrantee claim if an issue arises.