cambridge audio and cheapo china are a bad mix!

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EDITED BY MODS – please moderate your language

once again iam on here now giving out about the shoddy engineering that cambridge audio are selling! both the 740a and 740c have given me trouble after buying only 2 years ago. the cd player has been replaced twice with a faulty loading tray and now the amp and its volume control is giving me headaches! when you go to turn it down it gos up! very annoying when trying to lower volume in a hurry! my dad had pioneer for donkeys years and it never gave trouble... i had a basic sony separates and never a cough! just one last thing to say.... never again to richer sounds and never again to cambridge audio! they are hardly disposable units considering the cost!

eamo.... ireland!

 

[ear]

I comply

 

[Anonymous]

Oh dear, I hope mine don't go that way! They certainly aren't cheap units, and I have always been impressed with how solid they are. You seem to have had some bad luck with yours though. I've had mine for almost 2 years now, with daily use, and I haven't had a spot of bother yet (apart from a dent on one of the remotes and the cat deciding to sit on my amp!).

 

[Anonymous]

It is so disappointing when your kit goes wonky especially more than once or twice in that time frame. My 640's are of a similar age and have been fine except for the amp which had an imbalance at low volume (not uncommon I think) RS did respond and correct properly though.

I guess the important thing here is how RS deal with your problems. From what I know of their customer service they are not likely to push you to the point of having to quote The Sale Of Goods Act 1979 in order to get action. (unlike some retailers I could mention!)

So much gear even previously bespoke type names manufacture in that part of the world so probably hard to avoid unless you are spending shed loads of money.

 

[Red Dragon]

I sympathise eamo, and as both a CA owner (640R AV Amp) and Ireland resident, I am surprised by your concerns re Richer as they have been very accomodating to me re my purchase from the Belfast branch. I hope you get it all sorted and that you are experiencing a fairly rare QC issue rather than an inherent problem with the product line.

I trust you have explained your series of issues in the strongest possible manner and gone to the top if at all possible to relay your concerns...good luck anyway and wish you all the best...

 

[tonky]

I have a CA 840A v2 for 2 and a half years. Sounds great - no problems so far.

tonky

 

[vinod_david]

My CA combo of 2+ years is going great. Great build quality inside and outside for the money. IMO.
☺

 

[Anonymous]

Agreed Vinod...I was anxious about my 640's but now I have better speakers I am really enjoying them. I do understand the frustration expressed but IMO you can't castigate a complete brand or retailer due to individual problems.

Everybody gets things wrong at some point...it is how it is dealt with that matters.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I have alerted Audio Partnership to this thread

 

[Anonymous]

Dear Eamo,

I was very disappointed to read about your unfortunate experience. We are passionate about the performance, quality and reliability of all our products, but like all companies, we do have occasional quality or reliability issues. These are normally resolved by our retail partners who share our commitment to rectify any problems straight away.

If there's ever an issue which cannot be solved within the dealer network – as perhaps appears to be the case here – we operate our own Customer Care Centre which is staffed by Cambridge Audio product experts. If you login to the Cambridge Audio Customer Care Centre via www.cambridgeaudio.com/care we'll do everything we can to put this matter right.

I do however have to take up your reference to “cheapo China” as this is simply not a description that can be applied to our brand. Cambridge Audio products are indeed assembled in China – and have been since the company was part of Audio Partnership in the mid '90s – but it's important to remember that final assembly represents only a portion of the total development process.

Our Research and Development (R&D) team is in fact based in Central London where we design and develop every product from the ground-up. We employ around 30 mechanical, electronic, software and acoustic engineers – one of the most significant electronic R&D teams in the UK if not Europe.

We have a similarly large quality control team based in Hong Kong/China which ensures the highest possible levels of manufacturing quality are adhered to. Our manufacturing tolerances are amongst the tightest in the industry and faults / quality issues across our product portfolio are extremely low. It's important to note that Chinese manufacturing capability and quality has advanced immeasurably in the last decade and the reason some of the world's most respected technology brands choose to assemble their products in China has as much to do with the vast competencies of the production facilities in the region as it does economic advantage.

Going back to your own case however, our primary concern is that every Cambridge Audio customer is a happy one. Without customers who recommend us to their friends and family we would not be the successful brand we are today.

We would very much appreciate the opportunity to help resolve your issue so please do get in touch via the Cambridge Audio Customer Care Centre

Best regards

Simon,

Cambridge Audio

 

[Anonymous]

I agree eaomi,

I have a 640r, and it has done exactly the same thing for about two years now. I have lived with it until now, but yesterday my 3 year old just about blew my speakers off the wall trying to turn the volume down.

My DVD89 has suffered from a sticky tray since it was almost new. I didn't take it back for replacement as I bought it in Hong Kong when I was living there and I moved about a month after I bought it.

I talked to a Cambridge Audio dealer here and they said "You didn't buy it from us... go away". Now I have to find someone to repair them properly.

Appart from these faults I love them to pieces, but my experience with the dealers here in New Zealand is less impressive.

Chris

 

[Anonymous]

I realize that people get issues with malfunctioning goods but why the constant and rather tiresome,

" it's made in china " issue.

Many things are made in china, like anywhere not all products made well. Some, however are very well made and represent incredible value fro money and performance.

My whole HI Fi is made in china and it sounds great. Good on the Chinese and South East Asia.

If you have a problem with your Hi Fi, it's with the Manufacturer, not with China

 

[Anonymous]

I absolutely agree about it's the company that's at fault and not China. NAD have been making things in China for quite some time, it may work for them but not everyone. It's easy to blame China when it's Cambridge Audio that's at fault. I ask a question though... where is all the best hi-fi made? And where is all the value for money hi-fi made? There's an easy answer to that!

 

[Anonymous]

Agreed eggontoast. You want cheap you get cheap. Companies are to blame not China (Not majorly anyway!). NAD have operated in this capacity for many years quite happily, as long as the quality is maintained that's all that matters. I'm still right on where the best hifi is made and where the budget hifi is made...

 

[eggontoast]

I don't see how you can buy budget Hi-Fi components then moan about where they are made. If it bothers you put your money where your mouth is and dig deep, pay for a UK manufactured item. I am guessing that a majority of people won't because they want cheap cheap cheaper. A majority of failures are down to poor quality low grade materials, you cant blame the Chinese manufacturing for that. All of the components would have been specified and signed off by the UK R&D team, the manufacturer just puts it all together.

To hit the budget price point it has to be made in China, India, Vietnam etc etc because of the ridiculous price of labour and overheads in the UK. If it was made in the UK it would cost 2-3 times as much money and nobody would buy them no matter how good the quality was or for the fact that it was built in the UK. Every manufacturer has failures no matter where they are built.

Besides, I remember that Cambridge Audio was UK manufactured in St Ives I think when Stan Curtis was at the helm, I also remember that there were a lot of failures even then.

 

[Anonymous]

It's a bad state of affairs when everything needs to be made abroad when it was made much better in this country! Of all the stuff I own, the made in England ones are much better (Strange but it is) than the made in China ones. Although more expensive, I believe in quality, this fault is down to the company who let themselves let down their customers with their practices. They build them to ultimately fail.. sad but true.

 

[dannycanham]

It is very frustrating when things go wrong.

I've had problems with a Roksan Kandy CD player that was eventually fixed but cost alot of money to transportrepeatedly. The engineers couldn't find the fault and just kept replacing parts on each sendback until the problem stopped. Very frustrating.

Mission 782 speakers that had a known fault with the cones, ours took a long while to go wrong as they were very well cared for, but despite hearing reports that they looked after their customers with this problem in the past mission really didn't want to know for us. Very frustrating.

An old Panasonic CD player that would always start skipping a few months after every fix. Very frustrating.

My cambridge audio stuff was faultless though. Seemed well built.

 

[Omegaman81]

As I previously owned the Azur 640C CD player and upgraded to the Azur 650C, I thought I'd make fellow consumers and audiophiles aware of some serious problems regarding the Cambridge Audio company. While the actual sound quality of previous CD player models -- bass response, spatial separation, imaging, etc. -- is of considerably high quality, it is not worth the risk (or the price) to take a chance on these products failing with nothing short of dismal customer support upon that happening. The light which illuminates the liquid crystal display on my Azur 650C CD player -- the model preceding the 651 -- flickered and went out altogether, rendering the display completely black and unreadable; the unit and the remote still worked. When I tried to contact Cambridge Audio, they were very slow to respond and even then only directed me to their U.S. distributor, a company called Audio Plus Services in upstate New York. The individual at Cambridge Audio did indicate that there were a number of other components with the same problem, indicating manufacturing fault and/or mechanical failure. Audio Plus Services were contacted on three separate occasions with no reply; even a phone call to their receptionist resulted only in the option to leave voicemail. Eventually someone did contact me, indicating that if the unit in question was beyond the two-year warranty period, repair would have to be paid for, despite the obvious mechanical fault of multiple components with the same problem. Another SERIES OF ATTEMPTS to reach Cambridge Audio rendered no response. Only after sadly and dishearteningly having to threaten legal action was a response received. (The entire process described thus far took place over an absurdly long two-week period.) THIS is the quality of customer service when purchasing a so-called high-end audio product from Cambridge Audio. The eventual response from Cambridge Audio -- who apparently were wholly and completely unconcerned with both their own deplorable customer service as well as that of their U.S. distributor, Audio Plus Services -- was simply to say 'a small number of reported instances of an issue in a production run... does not constitute a failure in design or acknowledged production fault.' If that's what Cambridge Audio actually believes -- despite failure happening in multiple units through no fault of their purchasers -- then clearly they are manufacturing a product or products (at high-end prices to consumers no less) that they DON'T EXPECT TO WORK CORRECTLY FOR ANY LONGER THAN THREE OR FOUR YEARS. The corresponding consumer might reasonably expect a considerably longer period of trouble-free use considering the price(s) paid. A cursory review of the internet via any given search engine will reveal postings by other customers concerning product failure with Cambridge Audio amplifiers as well -- another illustration of lack of quality control -- and the same horrendous absence of consideration for their customers. While no one expects a 'lifetime' warranty, one would expect a company to 'make good' on defective products, if only to do the right thing and maintain good business principles. They may say they're 'sorry' at Cambridge Audio, but they don't address the problem(s). Obviously there are serious quality control issues as well as questionable business principles with Cambridge Audio. Regardless of how many units may have failed, Cambridge Audio has failed in customer service, consideration for their customers, and succeeded with only atrocious business policies. Buyer beware.

 

[wilro15]

What are you trying to achieve by spamming multple old threads?

 

[manicm]

I have had my 751BD player for 2.5 years now with no problems at all. My only gripe is that by using generic components some functionality is compromised - such as no gapless playback on USB and presumably uPnP. And I believe this is the case on the newer 752BD as well.

 

[hybridauth_Google_114519455645657274431]

Not only do they manufacture junk, their customer service and so called tech support are as fraudulent as thier products. They will not stand behind what they sell. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!

 

[nopiano]

Not only do they manufacture junk, their customer service and so called tech support are as fraudulent as thier products. They will not stand behind what they sell. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!

Welcome to the forum, Hank. This thread is over two years old, but I suppose we can take it you are not happy? What products did you buy and what was the problem?

 

[Al ears]

Not only do they manufacture junk, their customer service and so called tech support are as fraudulent as thier products. They will not stand behind what they sell. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!

Welcome to the forum, Hank. This thread is over two years old, but I suppose we can take it you are not happy? What products did you buy and what was the problem?

Hey ho, the thread is actually five years old. It's a wonder how they find them. 🙂

 

[nopiano]

Not only do they manufacture junk, their customer service and so called tech support are as fraudulent as thier products. They will not stand behind what they sell. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!

Welcome to the forum, Hank. This thread is over two years old, but I suppose we can take it you are not happy? What products did you buy and what was the problem?

Hey ho, the thread is actually five years old. It's a wonder how they find them. 🙂

Oh, yes, I looked at the last post! I think these are traced via Google because the website itself seems to lack a forum search.

 

[record_spot]

Not only do they manufacture junk, their customer service and so called tech support are as fraudulent as thier products. They will not stand behind what they sell. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!

And yet, my daily played 752BD has done nothing but work a treat.

All companies make the odd duffer. Where did you buy from? Not the UK if guess as then it's a return to Richer Sounds. Who was your dealer?