Discussion
Just thought I'd say - what a top place! 
My CD player broke last week. I had a £20 3 year warranty on it, and was expecting a lengthy repair or suchlike. As it was, they asked me to come along with my broken CD player and they'd exchange it for a new one. I just popped in with the broken CD player boxed up for them, and the guy I spoke to greeted me there - he'd done all the paper work already, and he just handed me a brand new 'latest model' all boxed up and ready to go. Superb! Oh, and I got another three year's warranty starting from today as well!!
When I bought the player I received service just as good. Despite only having a maximum of £200 to spend, I got an hour's demo of various different models, at no extra charge; complete with people to plug things in and out for me and to advise where necessary. great!
My CD player broke last week. I had a £20 3 year warranty on it, and was expecting a lengthy repair or suchlike. As it was, they asked me to come along with my broken CD player and they'd exchange it for a new one. I just popped in with the broken CD player boxed up for them, and the guy I spoke to greeted me there - he'd done all the paper work already, and he just handed me a brand new 'latest model' all boxed up and ready to go. Superb! Oh, and I got another three year's warranty starting from today as well!!
When I bought the player I received service just as good. Despite only having a maximum of £200 to spend, I got an hour's demo of various different models, at no extra charge; complete with people to plug things in and out for me and to advise where necessary. great!
Agreed, they are absolutely outstanding. When they can do extended warranties for £20 I laugh out loud when some shaved monkey at Currys wants me to part with the best part of a ton for the same thing. Staff who actually know the products...no that'll never catch on.
>> Edited by wolves_wanderer on Wednesday 8th February 15:51
>> Edited by wolves_wanderer on Wednesday 8th February 15:51
wolves_wanderer said:
Agreed, they are absolutely outstanding. When they can do extended warranties for £20 I laugh out loud when some shaved monkey at Currys wants me to part with the best part of a ton for the same thing. Staff who actually know the products...no that'll never catch on.
>> Edited by wolves_wanderer on Wednesday 8th February 15:51
I couldn't agree more. I used to work at Curry's, and I completely agree with you.
My amp had a problem with it two years ago and that too was replaced with a new one with no quibbles at all. When you can get a glass of water, sit on a comfy sofa in a soundproof room and try out all the equipment, even if you're only spending £200 - what more do you want? Imagine doing that in Currys
not in a million years! People often spend three times that amount in there, they get next to no advice and a 2 minute demo in a busy store with poorly spaced speakers Kinda like buying a car - Ford or BMW vs Lotus. BMW gave me a five minute spin round the block and I came home with the wrong car, which ended up costing me thousands 
BMW didn't even care when I called them up and asked for my money back. Lotus (my replacement for the BMW) took me out for half an hour in two cars and advised me to think long and hard and read EVO a bit. It's all about customer service - and who gets my custom for the next 50 years I'm going to be on the planet? B17NNS said:
Have bought a few bits and bobs from there. Always had good service and their prices tend to be the best around particularly on NAD and Cambridge Audio stuff.
Is CA not their own brand?
Incidently, my amp and CD player are CA - nothing else sounded better for under £200 for each unit.
When I was at uni in Liverpool I bought a subwoofer from Richer Sounds, after a couple of weeks I was regretting it so went back to ask if I could exchange it for some speakers I liked the look of. No problem at all they said, but they didn’t have the speakers I wanted in stock so they let me have a pair of speakers priced at £200 for £120 (the price of the out of stock) !!! I couldn’t believe that! I’ve bought some other stuff from them as well and have asked some questions that the worlds biggest techno-geek would be proud of and they have always been able to answer 
RobM77 said:
Is CA not their own brand?
Not sure. They may be the sole UK distributors.
Cambridge Audio seem to be able to do no wrong at the moment - cracking gear for the money.
Anybody who spends £500 in Currys on a midi/midi system really wants their head examining when you can get a quality CA seperates system and speakers for less.
Not sure if they still do this but I remember when the Richer Sounds national "employee of the month" got the use of a Bentley or similar for the day!!
As for CA, I went into Practical HiFi once and asked if they had a specific CA product in stock....they just looked at me like I was taking the pee. At the time I didn't realise Richer Sounds was the only place you could get CA! [homer]DOH![/homer]
As for CA, I went into Practical HiFi once and asked if they had a specific CA product in stock....they just looked at me like I was taking the pee. At the time I didn't realise Richer Sounds was the only place you could get CA! [homer]DOH![/homer]
B17NNS said:
Is CA not their own brand?
Not sure. They may be the sole UK distributors.
Cambridge Audio seem to be able to do no wrong at the moment - cracking gear for the money.
Anybody who spends £500 in Currys on a midi/midi system really wants their head examining when you can get a quality CA seperates system and speakers for less.
It's simple ignorance I suppose. I didn't know anything about hi-fi until a friend sold me some Mission speakers really cheap and I had to go and buy an amp and CD player to match! I did my research and discoverd that music could sound twice as good! I also discovered new instrumental parts on my favourite CDs! I'd just had a combo system before then. Several of my friends are the same at the moment. One friend of mine who is massively into music has a Kenwood combo, and the other has a Midi system with the speakers on the carpet!
I have about £300 worth of CA amp and CD player, carefully chosen after a demo involving 5 or 6 different brands in enough combinations to drive me mad! I am so impressed with the quality. It is sufficiently better than my mate's £300 combo system to make him comment on it instantly every time he hears it. To be honest, it's like comparing a Lotus Elise with an Audi for feedback and handling finesse.
Richer sounds are very good at customer service and especially when it comes to there own brands - Cambridge Audio, Acoustic Solutions and I think mordant short too.
I think they used to be better a long time ago as they seemed to sell more high end stuff at very silly prices but they seem to do that less and less these days.
That said I think if I ever wanted a cheap system I'd go back - I even got a letter from Julian Richer when I sent back a customer satisfaction form. A company that "does what it says on the tin"
I think they used to be better a long time ago as they seemed to sell more high end stuff at very silly prices but they seem to do that less and less these days.
That said I think if I ever wanted a cheap system I'd go back - I even got a letter from Julian Richer when I sent back a customer satisfaction form. A company that "does what it says on the tin"
I think they're absolutely brilliant.
We've bought the odd bit from them for a while and then went in to buy the stuff for the living room. The guy demo'd a couple of bits of kit I'd read about in magazines but it sounded odd so he listened to what we were saying he replaced the marantz cd player with a CA one and the amp with a second hand unit that he said would work with the CA well, was better quality and better value than the amp we were looking at and they sounded fantastic. We've still got them both and they still sound great and we bought them a good 7 years ago. Probably slowly degrading over time but then so are we
Mark
We've bought the odd bit from them for a while and then went in to buy the stuff for the living room. The guy demo'd a couple of bits of kit I'd read about in magazines but it sounded odd so he listened to what we were saying he replaced the marantz cd player with a CA one and the amp with a second hand unit that he said would work with the CA well, was better quality and better value than the amp we were looking at and they sounded fantastic. We've still got them both and they still sound great and we bought them a good 7 years ago. Probably slowly degrading over time but then so are we
Mark
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