What would you do?

I would ask the manufacturer to guarentee that the replacement drivers will be matched and demand an extra year of warranty in writing. Truthfully crap happens. Hense the warranty. If you feel that you will always be unhappy then the dealer should arrange for an exchange or refund. At that price level you should be 100% satisfied. Those speakers probably cost the mfg. 30-40% of the selling price if not less. If they mis packed them then they should stand behind it. But that call is yours to make. If you know that you will be happy getting the replacement drivers then by all means get them and enjoy the music. I doubt you will ever have any further issues. But if you will always listen with a critical ear thinking 'these don't sound right', or 'what was that, did you hear that' then talk about exchange. Spending that kind of money the dealer should want to make you happy and be in your corner against the mfr. on your behalf. After all you sent him a check they sent him an invoice. As mentioned above they should be as new from the factory, same solder, hardware etc. You didn't spend 50K on a repaired pair, you saved and bought new. I would think at least you should get the new drivers and demo unit sales discount. This is just my opinion, but money comes hard and we save for lifes little treats and rewards, be it a new car, boat or speakers. We never dream of a scratched 'vette, cracked hull, or dented drivers. Even if it is a 300.00 Denon receiver, if you ordered new you should get new. Best Wishes

What would I do? Have the factory or its authorized agent fix them. It could be a simple fix, or it could get complicated. You may have to send both speakers back to the factory, or it could be done in your home in 30 minutes. It depends upon the speaker.

Should you get a new set of speakers? Not unless the factory cannot fix the pair you have.

Your having to wait 6 months and the price you paid have no relevance to the dealer/manufacturer being able to deliver to you a set of working speakers in new condition.

Questions: were the speakers delivered directly to you or to the dealer? Who uncovered the defective part?

Stringreen,

Remind your neighbor that Ferrari is busy trying to win the F1 world championship. I'm sure they appreciate their customers' contribitions and understanding:)

bmdduck

Foster 9,

You, and a few of the other posters, are of a similar opinion. I'm not saying you guys are wrong. I completely understand your argument. In this case, however, even if the manufacturer made a mistake and did not put all the packing materials in place, the person who is responsible for fixing this mess is the dealer. He's the one who made the sale, and a portion of that sale was his profit. Simply put; he's getting paid to deal with this. Thats why they have dealers in the first place. It would be impossible for the manufacturer to properly service customers without having local dealers. Just to clarify, this is not my opinion. In the high end audio industry, this is how it works. The OP did say that his dealer wanted to come out and replace both drivers. That is absolutely the right way to handle this.

More importantly, though, all this back and forth, well meaning as it is, will probably ruin the experience for the person who bought the speakers. As much as I understand all the opinions here, this is a very fixable situation. I say that if the dealer comes out and replaces the drivers, there will be no more problem; just enjoy the new speakers.

I had the same type of situation happen to me with a DIY speaker builder which turned into a fiasco here with no resolution that made me happy. So what I would do is let the dealer come to your house and replace the drivers with a contigency that if it does not look right or sound right to you then the company needs to replace the speakers.

It sounds like the company is at least listening to your concerns which is better than the sleeze ball situation I went through.