Any reliability horror stories out there?

"While the French may rightfully claim superiority in a number of disciplines and arts, engineering doesn't typically make the list."

I don't know about this. French engineering is going to play a significant role in the future of the US nuclear power industry, and also in the aviation business. I've never particularly enjoyed working with French engineers, they can be rather abrasive towards UK and US engineers, but I've never had reason to doubt their competence.

I had a Rotel RB991 amp that kept blowing fuses. Finally the whole left channel went. Then I had a Rotel CD player RCD971 that started skipping just after the warranty expired.

Can you say ASL?

Kora is some of the best stuff out there and its made by the french, its very serious gear though, not cheap.

OK, OK, engaged fingers before engaging brain. Didn't mean to bash the French... Hell, I'm a beeeg fan of their wine & cheese industries. I seem to recall their satellite launch vehicles have a pretty stellar rating too.

In my defense, that micromega sucked horribly as far as reliability went, and its the only French component I've ever owned. (At the time, it wasn't cheap either.) Also was having bad memories of a 2CV that left me stuck in the country and a beautiful French sink that was engineered so that when you turned on the taps at anything more than a trickle, the water rebounded off the front side of the basin and drenched your shirt. Probably not enough to generalize from. ;)