Who is your preferred shipping carrier?

Do you prefer UPS, FED EX,  USPS, DHL, or another carrier?

  Just shipped a Yamaha PX3  to a poor guy named Rex in the southwest part of the country. Wrapped this in three layers of bubble wrap surrounded by three inches of styrofoam peanuts. The platter was removed and placed underneath separately also in bubble wrap, and the front of the arm was secured with a wire tie anchored to the base to prevent any horizontal movement. The headshell, cartridge and arm weights were all packed separately. This was dropped with such force the wire tie bent the tone arm! The dustcover was already cracked, but dropping it nicely finished the job. A chunk is broken from the left side of the base. Of course, the carrier's insurance company denied the claim stating that it was not well packed. I am including the section of the shipping receipt that is clearly marked that it was. I have shipped several turntables over the years, thank goodness this was only $300.! I can imagine if it were a Sota!

 This carrier is remaining unnamed for now, as the dispute is still pending. The only way I found out the claim was denied was when I called to check on the status of it, no one had notified me prior to this. So much for communication.

After opening a dispute, an extremely curt and condescending  woman from the companies insurance co. called and informed me cut and dry that they were denying the claim. Not adequately packed. Several calls through the robot menus and waiting on hold an average 20 minutes finally got me one of the  carrier's supervisors who said she would have someone from claims call me.

Sure enough, that same rude woman called me again. "No point in discussing this with you any further," I said and ended the call. A fax to the carriers US headquarters finally netted me  a decent result, and after several very attentive out of state conversations yesterday my claim is supposedly approved. The companies business development center overrode the insurance companies decision.  Of course, somewhere in the fax I sent them I reminded them of the power of social media.........

801's again

  Some things you own more than once in your lifetime, Dahlquist DQ-10s (three times), Dynaco Stereo 70 (more times than I can remember), Klipsch Heresys (at least three times), Minimoog synthesizers, Sonab speakers, the list goes on. A pair of B&W 801 Matrix series IIIs popped up on Dregslist when I least expected to see them. "Nah", I said. "Been there done that". Then I continued to read the ad. These were still sealed in their boxes in climate controlled storage up until 2011. Mind you, these are probably around 20 years old! A nice young guy named Zanny (like Manny but with a Z) had them, and as you could imagine his ad had attracted a lot of interest.People from Canada, PA, etc. It seems his father had gotten them years ago from Soundworks  and never used them. Zanny popped them open in 2011, listened to them for a while,decided that they were too big for his place and put them back in their boxes. Basically about as close to new old stock as these could get. Just when you start to think the stuff is starting to dry up in Rochester.

The last pair of these I had was about 10 years ago, now I had moved into a bigger house and was curious to try them again. My last ones I traded to Bob Hamme of Stereo Shop fame for a truckload of tube amps, Infinity Modulus speakers, other miscellaneous speakers and I forget what else. My friend Johnny G. still has a pair of these that he has had for years. He is a musician, and has not been tempted to replace them. They were/are widely used in recording studios throughout Europe, some of the most prestigious classical record labels used them.

 Zanny thought it best to keep the sale local, actually delivered them to me, and I could see why! In their boxes they were like washing machines, and the two of them just barely shoehorned into a Jeep Grand Cherokee! They are in the exact condition that he described. Beautiful walnut, boxes intact, not a mark on them. He helped me bring them into my garage and I hoofed them into my family room myself. Pretty sure I popped a tire on my hand truck in the process.

  Enjoying them as I did years ago, now they have more room to breath. Using the Mac 275 is somewhat out of the question, these are power hungry beasts, and tubes with 13" woofers are generally not a good combination. I dragged my Forte 200w solid state amp out of the closet, and it is serving for now, I will probably try biamping these in the near future.Paul Klipsch would have referred to these as "space heaters".

 I will keep them this time, it is getting hard to find products of this caliber in this kind of condition. Plus they are too big and heavy to ship or steal. If someone broke into my house they would leave them, look at them and say "Nah!".