Quad 988 / 989 reliability ??

Sadly, Hi Fi Farm writes a note which casts great suspicion on their trustworthiness. After reading it I would expect that anything they carry at the moment would be fabulous while gear they no longer carry, but which used to be fabulous, is now unreliable junk. I had Quad 57s for many, many years. Yes, they do sound great if they're not arc'ing, if you limit your SPLs to something short of realistic, if the bass panels don't flutter while trying to do low frequencies, if you don't overdrive and burn them out with your 100 watt amp, etc., etc. There are now many dynamic speakers which have equalled, if not surpassed, the Quad's vaunted midrange and they wont break down.

Lets not glide into a thread of dealer- and Quad bashing. The Quad 63's midrange to my ears still clobbers most of even the most vaunted cones, inspite of what my esteemed beemer riding colleague cares to point out. I fully agree with him though on the 57, which I had in stacked form for over a decade and which for chamber music is unbeaten to this very day. I miss it, as if it were a long lost lover... and come to think of it, the Servo Statics too. Oh, what a Harem I had! (-;

When we first began bringing the new Quad to the U.S.,and yes we picked the first 20 pairs of speakers directly from the U.K.. We had no idea that there was going to be the problems that existed. After selling numerous pairs, and replacing a number at our expence ,we became suspicious of the qc. We started to sell the electronics, particularly the tube pieces, and had further breakdown and this is when we said what is up here. During this time we modified and replaced binding post and tried to make the speaker more appealing to new customers and one's who were owners Quad who might want the new product if it was superior to the original. Not once did I claim it was the superior to the 57 and was only different from the 63. We never carried ProAc ,still recommend Dunlavy and haven't sold Merlin since the middle 80's. We held great hope for the new Quad but it failed to meet our expectations. I would still reccommend a Quad for certain types of listening or for environmental reasons over others we sell but it is a case to case basis. This is why we have 63's on constant display in our showrooms.

Very sadly the old saying "you cant judge a book by it's cover" is true in far too many cases in this business. It may be true we supercede brands as do many other dealers and most of the time there is good reason. In some cases it's reasons that are beyond the control of the dealer and in others it mutual. Sometimes design flaws make it impossible to offer the kind of service necessary to maintain relationships ,sometimes personalities don't jive. Whatever reason the fact remains most relationships begin with good faith. Many of the companies we sell are 20+ year relationships and many more are the longest some manufactures have with a dealer, but some do become short lived. If from our side you could look at the short lived one's service and reliablity are the reason for most that end. Still yet we will always service and maintain every piece we sell to the absolute best of our ability. You don't stay in business 23 years otherwise.

HiFiFarm: Looks like you stirred up a hornet's nest with your first post of 9/7. Then, in the first of your 2 posts of 9/9 (3rd line) you stated that you "replaced a number of pairs at your own expense". Are you implying by this that the manufacturer would not honor the warranty on defective product, and that you, the dealer, had to "eat it" ? I find this hard to believe.