indiecognition

thanks. And to everyone else, I'm not saying Klipsch is a bad company. I wouldn't care about the speakers so much if I didn't love them. But I take very good care of my electronics, and had the sub/amp in a cool place where I never bumped or jarred it. So I just want to know that assuming it is one of these common issues, I can get it working again in a reasonably fast, fair way. Honestly, I would pay cost for the parts to fix it myself...or for a whole replacement amp board. But the system retailed for $400, and I just worry about having to pay half that just to keep the system working after a relatively common and simple problem. I don't want to cause problems for the company, or be incredibly negative with other Klipsch fans. But I think that showing some passion about the issue may help get the attention for Klipsch to be a little bit more proactive or flexible in taking care of it for me and other customers. It'd be nice if these common, and dissappointing, issues would be covered for free...but I'd be satisfied as long as Klipsch is reasonable with the pricing for parts, service, and/or shipping. It's just that there are lots of stories on the web of that happening. And I think the slight ding in long-term profits from repairing one system would repay itself severalfold when customers thrilled with the product AND the service remain loyal to Klipsch and buy new products in the future. People who have old products that have good reliability and service will pay more to upgrade to a better system of the same brand, whereas people who are asked to spend a lot to keep the old system working will be less likely to get some thing of that brand in the future. And this doesn't have to be done at a financial loss -- it should just be done in a way that is fair for the company and the customer, such as providing services at cost instead of being opportunistic about making money from issues rather than solutions. I'm still waiting to hear back from Klipsch about what I/they can do. In the meantime, I've already opened up the box and gently plied the BASH chips to see if there was an issue with the contact...I also looked around for loose or burned out looking chips, solder connections, etc. I had no luck with that. But as long as this gets resolved in a decently reasonable way, I'll post that too...and continue to spread good word-of-mouth about Klipsch. I posted this to help get the attention to resolve the issue, not to trash the company.

I had contacted them, and received no response. Logitech does not have this issue. And 1% is a huge margin of error for manufacturing -- companies today aim that for all the products made, everything within six standard deviations of the norm should be functional, and only extreme outliers (screwups) should be made. That is far less than 1% -- it's 0.00034%. (Look up the six-sigma standards -- the concept and goal is widespread in many industries. Further, you sound like a company rep, and I don't know where that 1% came from. I'd venture to say that over a reasonable timespan for ownership, far more units have failed but were never reported. And most states have consumer protection such that, even when there is no warranty coverage, a product or service must turn out to be delivered as represented before the sale. For a "Premium" product, 1% failure rate is actually incredibly high, and signifies that the product is in fact not designed to remain in working condition. Further, at normal volume, shielded and separated from EM interference, and without any sudden power spikes or adjustments, soundsystems should not have a shelf life. I bought the Klipsch system for a reason -- its purportedly superior quality vs. Logitech -- and Klipsch has proven not to back up their products in a way that meets such standards. The bottom line is that this issue is due to a bad part. It's something Klipsch never chose to repair, and continued to produce and sell these speaker systems after discovering the issue. Stories from other Klipsch customers prove that instead of attempting to repair or replace ProMedia systems for free or at cost, Klipsch has taken advantage of their faulty product to further gouge their customers for overpriced repairs -- $120 and up for work as small as jiggling or resoldering a chip, or replacing a fuse. In the case of the revenues from the ProMedia speakers in question, either the company or the product is indeed at fault. Good products are sold fairly and live up to the claims made by their purveyors. If the ProMedia line was truly built to standard, and not so ubiquitously defective, you would not find this: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1B3GGIC_en___US356&q=klipsch+promedia+amp+faulty&aq=f&oq=&aqi= Seriously, don't tell me the way things are done on a forum -- if Klipsch wants a community, they need to stand buy their products and customers. If they help fix the problem, it'll be nipped in the bud.

Overnight my ProMedia Ultra 5.1 system died. I didn't change the wiring, touch the volume, or use the computer it's attached to. Just suddenly dead. Silent. I googled seeing if there was a fix, and apparently it's fairly widespread for Klipsch ProMedia amps to crap out due to design issues related to heat dissipation, chip soldering, etc. This is a well-known issue and instead of attempting to do the right thing to stand by their products to ensure that they work the way they're intended, Klipsch offers overpriced repairs to fix the parts. But the parts were never working properly, or of adequate quality, from the get go..