I am cutting them slack. They make great stuff. They can't meet demand. No big deal. I just want some information. Usually there is at least an explanation and an apology.

Upgrade was an early one done through Ayre directly. No dealer, no receipt, which was equally dumb by me. Don't get me wrong the gear is good, I had a QB-9 and Vx5e as well and they were awesome but this experience just rubbed me the wrong way.

I bet Charlie would love to hear about any issues at Ayre regarding service. I bet it is so frustrating not to be able to go into the office to check up on people you trust. Ayre has been slow in responding to me in the past on an issue but I posted somewhere else without slamming ayre and Charlie wrote me back. I prefer to reserve judgement because we don't know why. Finding employees competent enough to build this quality of parts has to be hard. If you own a company and/or manage one then you know how hard it is to find good help. Also you can't hire enough for the demand and the. Lay them all off because the rush will be over by the time all get trained. If anyone believed the eco reports, most companies aren't hiring and people are not spending money on such things so anticipating the demand load would be hard.

A bad experience is not utter nonsense. My story is factual. Let me be clear ... Ayre make good gear. The problem is their current customer service rep. Alex Brinkman is not an original employee. HE is THE problem in my experience.

FWIW, Alex isn't a customer support rep, he's their North American Sales Manager.

That may be his title but he was the guy calling the shots on my issue ... I call that customer service ... Or lack thereof.

I don't have a problem with someone venting about a problem with a service issue, my comment was directed at the whole......"well, based on this situation Ayre should go on a do not buy list". If that were the case, then every company on the planet would be on a do not buy list since no one is perfect and all companies make mistakes. My point was that Ayre is universally known to have some of the best service in high end audio and to say that you shouldn't buy their products based on this situation is nonsense, which it is. A more sensible comment would be that maybe anyone thinking about purchasing this high end DAC from Ayre may want to hold off for now until this situation is resolved or take a look at offerings from other manufacturers. From what I know about Charles Hansen, he would do anything and everything to take care of his customers.

I had emailed Alex B. as to how I would go about purchasing their DAC without hearing it since my local dealer didn't have upgraded DSD compatible DAC at the time. Alex was great when I met him at THE Show in Newport last year, but felt he left me hanging when I was what you would call a "hot sales lead" with concerns about being able to demo.

But this is the post (rant) from Charlie Hansen that really turned me off to their products quite some time ago:

ANOTHER Example of Why I HATE DSD and Why Customers Who Bought Sony's Boloney Are So Annoying

Why?

Charlie's rant seems rather justifiable, especially the bits about the customer turning to the manufacturer of his DAC to try to solve a software issue.

You of course can feel about Ayre how you like for the reasons you like, and I'll be the first to admit that Ayre can, at times, be non-responsive.

But by the same token so can most other audio manufacturers, big or small.

FWIW, the issue of how to hear equipment your dealer doesn't have is an ongoing one. Dealers can't afford to purchase "one of everything," and manufacturers can't afford to supply dealers with new products on a demo basis.

So far the only answer is shows like RMAF, or, if you're lucky, the manufacturer might have a show demo they can let the dealer borrow if the timing works out.

I know when I was in the market to purchase a Wadia CD player/DAC, the only way I got to audition it was to contact Wadia directly and they then drop shipped a unit to my dealer for me as my dealer didn't want to be on the hook for ordering one if I didn't like it (understandable, as who knows when/if they'd ever sell it otherwise.)

On a similar basis, the only reason I got to demo an ARC Reference 2 SE Phono Stage is that ARC just happened to ship one to my dealer in preparation for a "Music Matters" event.

That's fine but I'm not spending $15k on a company's products when they cannot be bothered to respond to a direct email inquiry. I demand better customer service and support than that. This is in stark contrast as to how I was treated by Pass and that sealed the deal for me.