Quote:
Originally Posted by bubbawilly
Ask the sellers 
We all know that you sell and install H/K, but I'd rather ask the owners (buyers) what they think of a given product, not the sellers.
The buyers have spoken here and on virtually every other A/V forum. I'm quite certain that other AVR brands (all electronics, for that matter) have experienced 'problems,' and they correct them and move on, but H/K is the only brand that I've seen where buyers have described the same or very similar QC/reliability problems for numerous generations of product. But, don't take my word for it. Just ask the buyers, like the OP has done here.
Ask the sellers I know what they'll say. I want the real story, not some reseller's spin.
For a minute I almost took you seriously  |
You are confusing the terms of
seller and installer..
The
seller sells only the product and if there are any technical or service issues they are usually referred back to the brand. Also the overhead/expense structure of the seller can vary greatly. But he makes his profit by the one-time component sale.
The
installer makes his money on the
install labor, so if a product fails a repeat service call is required. And often a loaner or replacement product is required. Yes, we do make a minimal profit on the component sale but if we have to send another technician/truck out to replace an AVR or DVD player the additional labor/overhead expense far exceeds the profit from the sale of a single component.
A good example, is an install we are just finishing up the total cost of the install is about $19,200. And the component costs are slightly over $8500, the other $10,700 is labor including in-wall mounting of a plasma panel, in-wall mounting of audio loudspeakers (4 pairs), mounting of loudspeakers for the home theater room (5.1), pulling of 550' of cabling and custom mounting of the audio/video components. The choice of components was made based upon the customer's system requirements, we could have recommended other audio/video brands besides Harman/Kardon and Infinity but have had great sucess and performance so we went with them. Note that we carry virtually NO hardware inventory as this is purchased through our distributors.
The HK products require significantly more setup expertise as they offer many feature/setup options over the competition.. And often the less experienced consumer becomes frustrated as they are not able to configure these properly. Then they turn to the internet and discussion groups to vent their opinions.. Also the
seller type dealer has little incentive and often is not willing to make the customer satisfied by exchanging the unit or issuing a refund, so he just blows off him off. Guess who the customer than goes back to for resolution..
ie.. The brand
not the seller..
We have access to several other major AV brands besides HK including Yamaha, Denon, Elite and Marantz but have had incredibly great, reliable performance from HK products as long as they are installed and configured
properly..
The problems I noted in my other insert are real ones and entail one of the major Japanese audio brands, read some of the other AVS threads closely and you will be able to correlate which brand we are referring to..
Just my $.02 worth...