Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Rotel Amps

In reply to:

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most of the capacitors in home eletronics are made of aluminum foil and paper….

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This was mostly in professional video gear...where replacement parts were not available.

Thanks for the info, I did not think that part of the post was accurate, or else there is a lot of wasted money going into keeping puter room cooled.

on the notion of transferrable warranties i believe Bryston has a transferrable 20 year warranty. They make some nice equipment and might be worth checking out used.

Yes they do, its actully one of the best warranites I have seen. The owner only pays for shipping the unit in for any repairs, they pay return shipping. So buying a used Bryston would be rather a safe purchase for sure, could be a big savings over the cost of a new unit from them.

I am going to continue to look, listen and learn. I am in no big hurry. It took me about a year to decide on a receiver to use as a pre/pro, so I guess I can take a while to decide on an amp. LOL!!!

My two cents, warranties and guarantees are way overrated. Buy from good companies that have good build quality and you should expect a solid item either new or used. In the least, a repair should be quick, local and relatively inexpensive. Certainly the odd thing will go wrong (my Panny dvd needed a new part last year), but track records count.
Mass user reviews reporting the same issue should tip you off (note how many times someone had problems even getting a company to recognize, take and properly fix a unit under warranty).
Read the feedback from online buyers and call them before you buy.
Have lots of communication if you have questions and contact some of their other buyers.
Do the research and you should have the answers and confidence you need to buy something used or refurbished. So far every one of my Audiogon or Ebay purchases has been fantastic. No broken items, all in excellent condition, all still working fine or if they died, it was not unexpected from something like a $10 mp3 player. I have easily saved myself over $4k in the past 4 years compared to buying any of these items new. That money could go towards a future repair if necessary, and that is alot of cash for most repair jobs!

I have a friend who won't buy ANYTHING unless it has a warranty AND an extended warranty option. He is beyond a doubt, the model Future Shop customer! In the past 3 years i estimate he spent over $2k on warranties from his electronics purchases (forgetting about his car warranty extras) and he will buy extended warranties if they are available after the old ones expire.

Just to note, there was only one occasion where he used a warranty to return an item that he figured was broken. He was a little miffed by the limitations of some speakers he bought some time ago and was convinced they were broken when in fact he was just pushing them beyond their abilities. A couple of trips to the seller, a 'tweak' that really did nothing and now he believes the sound problems are no longer there. The sound issues remain. We did some critical listening after the 'repair' job and the sound quirk was still there. However I think he chooses not to hear it. His exact words a year ago, "i don't seem to hear it as much anymore".
As much?!
Heck, something had to change since my friend liked the sound of these speakers so much that he didn't want anything else. The power of the brain at work.

People often complain they cannot afford this part or that part b/c they were out of money, yet they bought all new items in part for the warranties. If they had bought good used components and saved the cash, had a little confidence that other people take care of their stuff, they could all afford new chairs for the media room.
Warranties that cost extra are simply not worth it IMO. Buying new solely for the idea that your item will be so much more hassle free b/c it has a warranty coverage is so highly dependant on other factors that the warranty itself my be worthless or near useless.
Some people just need to feel comforted i guess, even if the blanket is thin and full of holes.

I have to agree with you 100%. In many years of buying electronics and othe gear, I've never had a product go bad (cross my fingers). The money I have saved buying B-stock or used has been substantial. The savings I've gained could in fact replace half my equipment.
There is also the theory in buying B-stock that you are getting a product that has been repaired or checked for whatever reason, where alot of new products go straight into the box for shipping with no testing done.

I for one was glad that I had bought new when it was time for me to buy a new amp. When I was looking at what amp to buy I did look into what amps out there had a reliable reputation and high customer satisfaction. It came down to two amps Parasound and Rotel; I went with the Rotel solely because the dealer was 40 miles closer to my home.

When I did buy a Rotel RB 1070 I had brought it home had it all hooked an then...................nothing, it was dead. I took it back to the dealer and instead of going with the same model I figured I would go with the bigger RB 1080. From what I had read it was suppose to be a good reliable amp. I then brought this amp home got it all hooked up, it powered up fine and played fine for 4 hours when it then had the left channel go out. By this time I was pretty disappointed with my luck and the Rotel amps. I told the dealer I would give them one more chance and luckily this amp has been flawless for over two years now. I was told by the Rotel rep, not the dealer that I was the only one he knew of that had ever received two bad amps, call that luck...........bad luck I guess.

Anyhow I was certainly glad these were new products or I would have been sol twice.

You have my luck Rick. The wine cooler had some fingerprints behind the plastic overlay on the readouts. We hauled it out of the house, re-packaged it, and exchanged it. As soon as we open the box on the second one, I chekced the readouts, same problem but not as severe.
Took a digital picture and returned to the store and was offered a third one, I settled for a discounted price, since this one was not nearly as noticable. lol

i've been lucky with extended warranty...with all the electronics i've purchased, the only time in my life i bought EW was when i purchased my tv about 4 years ago. Even though it was tube technology it was still some of the newer forays for CRTs into flat screens & 1080i. After pretty much finalizing the deal i gave him the old, "well i'm still not too sure, but if you threw in EW i'd sign right now". Got it and turned out to be a good decision. I've had work done on the TV a couple of times now to fix minor problems. Would have easily eaten up the little over $100 for the price of the EW.

In my opinion, deciding to buy EW depends on a number of factors including:
-reliability of the manufacturer
-newness of the technology
-% EW cost vs the product cost
-transportability of the product (most EWs provide in home repair - a saviour with my TV)