"Don Pearce" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 08:43:02 +0100, Jim Lesurf
This problem is particularly to be found in the "high end", where
there is simply not enough time and money to develop a design
properly, which generally takes a large number of models to establish
- as you imply - criteria for tolerance sensitivity, stability etc.
The result is that every unit sold is essentially an under-designed,
under-tested prototype, which really should never have left the
premises.
**Nonsense. High end designs can be very mature, depending on the talent of
the designer and his manufacturing team. SOME designs are as you say they
are, however.
A properly-engineered design simply never gets the chance to happen in
this market, whereas further down the food chain, not only can it
happen, but it absolutely MUST happen, or heads start rolling.
**Utter and complete ********. In a past life, I was service manager of
Marantz (Australia). Each month I received a flood of modification sheets
for many Marantz models. These ranged from relatively minor stuff, to major
mods to various products. One of those products concerned an amplifier which
I still own. The Marantz Model 500 power amp. An impressive beast, of (then)
prodigious power output. The 500 was stunningly unreliable, mostly due to
the use of complementary symmetry output devices, at a time when such
devices were both unreliable and of marginal ratings. 300 amps were
manufactured by Marantz USA. They had an RRP of AUS$1,500.00 in 1974. Three
units were imported into Australia and each amp (with the exception of mine)
had to be serviced around 5-6 times, before head office figured out how to
prevent them from self-destructing every few weeks. Each repair took around
10-12 hours. Rumour has it that the entire Model 500 project cost Superscope
inc (Marantz's owners) US$3 million, from cradle to grave (initial design,
to the end of the warranty period). It almost sent them to the wall.
Along with mod sheets, I also had access to a fascinating document, which
outlined the reliability figures of every Marantz model (for the duration of
the 3 year warranty period). The legendary Model 1070 enjoyed a failure rate
of 0.5%, whilst the 4230 enjoyed a failure rate of 60%. The Model 500
enjoyed a failure rate of 100%.
I am presently a service agent for a number of large, well known brands.
Whilst chatting to the service manager of one of these brands, he casually
mentioned that their then current DVD player enjoyed a 63% failure rate. And
this was in 2003, not 1973!
Make no mistake: MANY designs are being produced which are incomplete
designs. It will always be that way, it seems.
--
Trevor Wilson
www.rageaudio.com.au