QB-9 USB Upgrade

[Blackstone]

My original post was “Why is this taking so long”, but it should read “was well worth the wait!”

[AudioPhilio]

What you have posted sounds like nothing more than a rumor to me. Have you called Ayre customer service and asked about getting an upgrade? It took six weeks turn around for mine, and I think that has been the turn around time for some others. Yes, that is a bit longer than I would like to waited, but the 8 months you are stating seems hard to believe. Maybe your dealer is not shooting you straight?
Ayre is a small company that has been really ambitious with product development and release this past year and that must really tax their resources considerably. But the fact that they have the philosophy to provide an upgrade path at all puts me in their corner as a loyal customer.

[Blackstone]

Originally Posted by AudioPhilio

What you have posted sounds like nothing more than a rumor to me. Have you called Ayre customer service and asked about getting an upgrade? It took six weeks turn around for mine, and I think that has been the turn around time for some others. Yes, that is a bit longer than I would like to waited, but the 8 months you are stating seems hard to believe. Maybe your dealer is not shooting you straight? Ayre is a small company that has been really ambitious with product development and release this past year and that must really tax their resources considerably. But the fact that they have the philosophy to provide an upgrade path at all puts me in their corner as a loyal customer.

Ayre won't even return my calls. And the dealer I work with always shoots me straight.

[Manbient]

My dealer told me just to not bother for now until things slow down a bit for them. I doubt it's the way you presented, but I'm sure they are pretty bogged down with trying to do the upgrades. My QB-9 still sounds great anyway, just light when I bought it so I'll probably just upgrade to the next DAC they do in a 5 series (whenever that might be!)

[Jwhcfi]

I had a bad QB-9 experience with Ayre in 2012. I bought a new unit Feb 2012. It had a technical issue with spurious noise. Not repeatable, random noises. They initially said nothing was wrong but claimed to swap out the mother board. The first instant I had the "repaired" unit on it started with the same issue. After 6 months of the run around they agreed to send me a factory demo unit to see if it did the same thing in my system. It did not. Finally, after nearly a year, they agreed via email to send me a replacement unit. Over two months went by ... radio silence. I got fed up and asked for a refund. Alex Brinkman was a real turd at that point and stiffed the dealer who was a real professional the whole way. While I had the factory demo on hand I went to the McIntosh dealer and did an A-B with the D100 DAC. I bought the Mac. Never had a moments issue with noise of any kind. Ayre make good gear but the customer service has really gone down hill.

[adhesiv]

I also had an interesting experience where my K5xe had been upgraded to an MP but they didn't place the "new" identifying sticker on the unit. I didn't know until I tried to sell it and was asked about why the sticker was missing if it was indeed an MP.

I called Ayre to try and rectify it...at least get them to send a message in writing proving this serial number was indeed an MP but they took over a month to call me back (after multiple attempts of calling them) and then refused to help at all. They wouldn't even help prove to me, the current owner, that the change was made...end result...I took a hit on the sale cause I couldn't prove it was upgraded...this was about 3 years ago.

[edkoz]

From what has been posted above, Ayre SHOULD go on the do not buy list!

[BillK]

Originally Posted by adhesiv

I also had an interesting experience where my K5xe had been upgraded to an MP but they didn't place the "new" identifying sticker on the unit. I didn't know until I tried to sell it and was asked about why the sticker was missing if it was indeed an MP.

I called Ayre to try and rectify it...at least get them to send a message in writing proving this serial number was indeed an MP but they took over a month to call me back (after multiple attempts of calling them) and then refused to help at all. They wouldn't even help prove to me, the current owner, that the change was made...end result...I took a hit on the sale cause I couldn't prove it was upgraded...this was about 3 years ago.

Not to excuse Ayre here, but wouldn't the receipt for the upgrade from your dealer/Ayre have sufficed?

[audioguy3107]

Originally Posted by edkoz

From what has been posted above, Ayre SHOULD go on the do not buy list!

This is utter nonsense. Ayre is universally known in the audio world as having service that is second to none and can be verified by reading many other sites on the web. Just because a small company doesn't have 5,000 employees to take care of everyone's upgrade a.s.a.p. doesn't mean it should go on a don't buy list. Heck, I was in Boulder one time and called them from the side of the road on a whim to see if they would mind giving me a quick tour of their operation. They said sure c'mon over and made time for a quick meet. Not only that, they also took care of me on a used piece that had a quirky problem all for the cost of shipping. I'd buy any one of their products and not have a second thought. If one of the top selling high end DACs need an upgrade, I'm sure some patience is warranted due to the amount of people clamoring for the upgrade. No companies are perfect.....cut em some slack unless there's something shady going on.

[ChrisAZ]

I upgraded to the DSD when my QB-9 went in for a repair. Turnaround was 4 weeks - this was back when they started doing the upgrades. Ayre could not have been more communicative or helpful. I went to them directly rather than through a dealer. The upgrade was well worth the cost - the unit sounds great. Given the negative stories above I thought it only fair to post a positive experience.