Post by elvis on Sept 4, 2009 20:08:41 GMT -5
I ordered an XPA-2 and 2 ERM-1 via the internet on a Saturday. My equipment arrived in pristine condition on the following Thursday. That same Saturday, I had also ordered a pair of speaker cables from Blue Jean Cables. With my new cables in hand, I excitedly tore into the Emotiva boxes.
First on the list, I attempted to hook up my new cables with the ERM-1s. The first speaker hooked up with no problems, but I could not get the spade on the second speaker to fit on the binding post. Closer inspection revealed that the binding posts were different sizes on the two speakers! I immediately called Emotiva Tech support and explained the problem. After being put on hold for several minutes, the man, whose name escapes me, told me that “yes, there is some acceptable tolerances between the different posts”.
WTF? Excuse me? One speaker cable hooks up to one speaker with no problems, and the other speaker cable wont fit? And that’s an “acceptable tolerance”? The voice on the phone then went on to explain that if I was unhappy for any reason, I could just send the speakers back. “But who would pay shipping” I asked. I was told that shipping would be my responsibility. At this point I asked to talk to someone in charge, and the phone was passed to Lonnie.
I explained the whole problem, again, to Lonnie. This time however, Lonnie confessed that the company had recently started using a different, larger (presumably better) binding post. Apparently, I had been shipped one speaker from an old manufacturing run and one speaker from a new manufacturing run and thus I was shipped 2 speakers with 2 different sized binding posts, one which fit the spade on my new Blue Jean cables, and one which did not.
When I mentioned that I was mildly disturbed by receiving one speaker from an old manufacturing run and one speaker from a new run with a different sized binding post, Lonnie seemed to think that it was all perfectly acceptable. What with stock rotation, manufacturing lead times and the such, this was just their standard way of doing business.
Admittedly, this problem was not a show-stopper, and there were several work-arounds for this problem. But it was damn annoying and in my opinion, indicative of quality control problems. What I found most upsetting is the fact that Emotiva did not view this as a problem at all.
Lonnie told me on the phone “Emotiva does not want any unhappy customers. Just send the ERM-1s back and we’ll pay shipping – one way”. He also offered to sort though their stock and see if he could find an old style ERM-1 and ship it to me so I could have 2 speakers that actually matched.
I must applaud the company’s effort to resolve the problem, but if I had chosen to return the speakers, it would have cost me $25 in shipping (one way) to evaluate a pair of speakers that, in my mind, were not a matched pair. The binding posts were different, and the onus was on me to find a work-around to make my cables fit.
When I finally got the ERM-1s hooked up, I sat down and gave them a good listen. To be fair, I will withhold my comments, because I don’t have a similar pair of speakers for comparison. The closest thing I have at the moment is a pair of JBL L1s, and in the mid-90s they were around $500. The JBLs are about an inch higher, so they are roughly the same size, but cost considerably more.
I will just say that at the sale price of $298 pair, they are probably a good value. I only say probably because but I don’t another pair of speakers in the $300-$400 range and I’m not sure what the competition has on offer.
One minor criticism: that cheesy magnetic speaker cover is not to my liking. Is it even acoustically invisible? I will try and make another post if I can find another pair of speakers for a fair comparison.
First on the list, I attempted to hook up my new cables with the ERM-1s. The first speaker hooked up with no problems, but I could not get the spade on the second speaker to fit on the binding post. Closer inspection revealed that the binding posts were different sizes on the two speakers! I immediately called Emotiva Tech support and explained the problem. After being put on hold for several minutes, the man, whose name escapes me, told me that “yes, there is some acceptable tolerances between the different posts”.
WTF? Excuse me? One speaker cable hooks up to one speaker with no problems, and the other speaker cable wont fit? And that’s an “acceptable tolerance”? The voice on the phone then went on to explain that if I was unhappy for any reason, I could just send the speakers back. “But who would pay shipping” I asked. I was told that shipping would be my responsibility. At this point I asked to talk to someone in charge, and the phone was passed to Lonnie.
I explained the whole problem, again, to Lonnie. This time however, Lonnie confessed that the company had recently started using a different, larger (presumably better) binding post. Apparently, I had been shipped one speaker from an old manufacturing run and one speaker from a new manufacturing run and thus I was shipped 2 speakers with 2 different sized binding posts, one which fit the spade on my new Blue Jean cables, and one which did not.
When I mentioned that I was mildly disturbed by receiving one speaker from an old manufacturing run and one speaker from a new run with a different sized binding post, Lonnie seemed to think that it was all perfectly acceptable. What with stock rotation, manufacturing lead times and the such, this was just their standard way of doing business.
Admittedly, this problem was not a show-stopper, and there were several work-arounds for this problem. But it was damn annoying and in my opinion, indicative of quality control problems. What I found most upsetting is the fact that Emotiva did not view this as a problem at all.
Lonnie told me on the phone “Emotiva does not want any unhappy customers. Just send the ERM-1s back and we’ll pay shipping – one way”. He also offered to sort though their stock and see if he could find an old style ERM-1 and ship it to me so I could have 2 speakers that actually matched.
I must applaud the company’s effort to resolve the problem, but if I had chosen to return the speakers, it would have cost me $25 in shipping (one way) to evaluate a pair of speakers that, in my mind, were not a matched pair. The binding posts were different, and the onus was on me to find a work-around to make my cables fit.
When I finally got the ERM-1s hooked up, I sat down and gave them a good listen. To be fair, I will withhold my comments, because I don’t have a similar pair of speakers for comparison. The closest thing I have at the moment is a pair of JBL L1s, and in the mid-90s they were around $500. The JBLs are about an inch higher, so they are roughly the same size, but cost considerably more.
I will just say that at the sale price of $298 pair, they are probably a good value. I only say probably because but I don’t another pair of speakers in the $300-$400 range and I’m not sure what the competition has on offer.
One minor criticism: that cheesy magnetic speaker cover is not to my liking. Is it even acoustically invisible? I will try and make another post if I can find another pair of speakers for a fair comparison.
