68.160.180.37
Another SA8260 nightmare.
I bought one a while back and it always exhibited intermittent reading problems that has been well known. I tried calling Marantz about it a couple of times, but they denied the existence of the problem. When I asked about a possible service call, the person I spoke with tried to deflect my question. His denial and deflection succeeded in deterring me from sending it in for repair earlier in its life. I never felt comfortable with the player but figured I’d have to live with it the way it was.
Within the past year, the problem worsened to the point that the machine was barely usable. Since it was still under warranty, I sent it to United Radio around April 2009. It came back after a few weeks (I don’t remember exactly how long they had it) and it was somewhat improved. But, it would still hang intermittently when some discs were loading. In addition to this, it came back also with a new problem, an intermittent “tic” that was audible through the speakers. Nothing else in the system changed, and I have another player that did not exhibit either of these problems. The SA8260 was still not functioning properly.
I have enough experience in life to know what I might be able to expect if I sent it back in with these intermittent problems. I considered it for a little while. Since the player was still not working right, I figured there was a chance that Marantz would do the right thing. Besides, the problems, although intermittent, happened with sufficient frequency that they should be observable. I sent the player back to United Radio in August 2009. I remember the day I packed it up, because I tried playing a disc and got the “tic” 30 seconds into the first track of a CD. I disconnected the SA8260 from my system and sent it back in.
United Radio received the unit in August and reported that they could not reproduce the problems. Some time in October, United Radio sent it to D&M Holdings, the parent company of Marantz, who also said they could not reproduce the problems. As of now, November, D&M refuses to either replace the player or buy out the cost, which were possible options United Radio quoted as being within the scope of D&M’s capabilities.
I understand that some might think that because they cannot reproduce the intermittent problems that they have no obligation here. But, I disagree. The player has been away for around four months of this year. I have much better things to do with my time than spend hours shipping my SACD player back and forth with all the accompanying e-mail and phone calls. The problems I observed were REAL. I cannot account for why they say they are unable to reproduce the problems. From all accounts, it is well known that the SA8260 is one of the biggest lemons in audio history and they owe it to me and everyone else who went through this to either buy it out or replace it with a new player.
There should have been a class action law suit over the SA8260. But, I guess big corporation squashes the little guy again. It’s just amazing that there is no recourse in a situation like this. I’ll never by another Marantz product again, and I am sure I might like to avoid any of D&Ms other subsidiaries. Buyer beware.
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