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Ashdown Mibass 2.0. Big problem (Resolved)...


itsmedunc

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Not a great response. I would have expected that by now they would have had time to do the right thing.

It looks that with Ashdown it's a lottery. Some get great service, and others are left in the cold even if they clearly are right, like you. 

 

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Ashdowns email reply following the phone call.

Hi Duncan

Here is my suggestion to sort out your dilemma

Remove the speaker from the extension cabinet and fit it into the combo, this will give you a 10” Mibass combo at 8 ohms with the full range driver.

Purchase an eminence beta 10” 250/500 watt driver and fit it into the extension cabinet, this will then get you back to the required 4 ohms when used with the combo.

We can supply this speaker for 29.95 + shipping at 5.30 and vat.

As I said to you on the phone this is at cost price to help you out of the situation you have found yourself in.

Please let me know if you wish to proceed.

 

I don't think anyone is actually listening to what I've said. Or, I've been fobbed off!!!

 

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OK, let's see if i got this right...


The facs:


- Ashdown originally released the 400W Mibass combo with a single (presumably 400w) 4 ohm driver and no extention out.

- After some time they decided to add the ext. out and swap the driver for a 250W 8 ohm driver.

- Aparently your combo got caught in a transition period where they fitted a 250W 4 ohm driver in your V2 combo with ext. out capability.

 

The questions raised:

- Were did that 250W 4 ohm driver came from? Logic says it was from one of the old V1 combos but why is it only 250w? Could it be that they sold the first V1 batch to the public with a driver not suited for the amp?

- In the e-mail replys they admited that your combo was a product of their manufacture error. Aren't they liable for it, there must be laws the make them repair the error at their own expense, even after waranty has expired (in reality you couldn't know the driver was 4 ohms without taking it from the box, thus voiding waranty)?

Asdown is at fault here, a big fault. You could have blown your combo simply by pushing the volume or adding a ext cab just by having faith in the product you bought. You're lucky to still have a working combo. I think they got caught with their pants down and are trying to avoid the shame of admiting that they put a underpowered driver in that combo, i now also believe that every V1 combos out there are fitted with the same 250w driver, until Ashdown comes to prove it isn't true and that particular driver came from somewere else.

Use every weapon at your disposal, demand for the correct speaker to be installed in your combo at their expense, don't pay them a cent, threaten them with exposure of this situation all over the biggest bass players forums/pages/sites/magazines/etc. They owe you a fully working product. IMO

Good luck

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Is that driver a match for the one already in the ext cab? If so, why not just put the new one into combo, and leave the ext cab as it is? 

 

See if they don't budge... I'd still buy the speaker, and then just sell the one you have once changed over. If the amp is exactly the sound you like, then for a few quid it seems worth it! 

 

Although, if Ashdown have admitted an error, then they should be supplying the new one out their pocket! 

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31 minutes ago, pete.young said:

£30 quid is a good price for this driver and gets you out of a hole. How long have you had the combo, is it out of warranty?

It's out of warranty. The price is very good and I think I'll go for it. I don't think I can be bothered with all the hassle of complaint procedures etc either. It's just a bit depressing that another company seems to have made an error and the consumer has to pay for it.

49 minutes ago, Ghost_Bass said:

OK, let's see if i got this right...


The facs:


- Ashdown originally released the 400W Mibass combo with a single (presumably 400w) 4 ohm driver and no extention out.

- After some time they decided to add the ext. out and swap the driver for a 250W 8 ohm driver.

- Aparently your combo got caught in a transition period where they fitted a 250W 4 ohm driver in your V2 combo with ext. out capability.

 

The questions raised:

- Were did that 250W 4 ohm driver came from? Logic says it was from one of the old V1 combos but why is it only 250w? Could it be that they sold the first V1 batch to the public with a driver not suited for the amp?

- In the e-mail replys they admited that your combo was a product of their manufacture error. Aren't they liable for it, there must be laws the make them repair the error at their own expense, even after waranty has expired (in reality you couldn't know the driver was 4 ohms without taking it from the box, thus voiding waranty)?

Asdown is at fault here, a big fault. You could have blown your combo simply by pushing the volume or adding a ext cab just by having faith in the product you bought. You're lucky to still have a working combo. I think they got caught with their pants down and are trying to avoid the shame of admiting that they put a underpowered driver in that combo, i now also believe that every V1 combos out there are fitted with the same 250w driver, until Ashdown comes to prove it isn't true and that particular driver came from somewere else.

Use every weapon at your disposal, demand for the correct speaker to be installed in your combo at their expense, don't pay them a cent, threaten them with exposure of this situation all over the biggest bass players forums/pages/sites/magazines/etc. They owe you a fully working product. IMO

Good luck

According to the phone call today, that's what happened with the Mibass production. It  all seems pretty plain to me - they fitted the wrong driver in some of the units...  Even though it states 250w on the driver, he then said more or less take that with a pinch of salt and went on to say it was a 250/500w. Not 500 peak but another Chinese used measurement which I've now forgotten the name. After a while it basically meant it was half of 500 anyway! It seems nobody wants to talk RMS now and fudge around with other figures. The fact that it was 4ohm and not suitable was more of less rejected. 

For the cost of the replacement, although fekin annoying, it's not worth raising my already high blood pressure any more! The moral of the story is - If buying a Mibass combo, always take a philips screwdriver with you!

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Ashdown were fixing (or offering to fix) Superflys recently on here so they should sort this out, that's at best a plain-as-day manufacturing oversight and at worst a sneaky way to get rid of the 4ohm speakers in their inventory. Imagine if you didn't know about impedance and plugged it in anyway? They're designed to work with each other right?

Offer to send that dodgy 4ohm driver back and happily accept the correct 8ohm version in the post courtesy of Ashdown, their customer service is great apparently. Maybe they have some nice covers for it knocking around they can send you to apologise for this patronising cr@p:

2 hours ago, itsmedunc said:

As I said to you on the phone this is at cost price to help you out of the situation you have found yourself in.

 

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3 hours ago, itsmedunc said:

Ashdowns email reply following the phone call.

Hi Duncan

Here is my suggestion to sort out your dilemma

Remove the speaker from the extension cabinet and fit it into the combo, this will give you a 10” Mibass combo at 8 ohms with the full range driver.

Purchase an eminence beta 10” 250/500 watt driver and fit it into the extension cabinet, this will then get you back to the required 4 ohms when used with the combo.

We can supply this speaker for 29.95 + shipping at 5.30 and vat.

As I said to you on the phone this is at cost price to help you out of the situation you have found yourself in.

Please let me know if you wish to proceed.

 

I don't think anyone is actually listening to what I've said. Or, I've been fobbed off!!!

 

That's some of the best crap I've read in a long time. 

"We've made a mistake which could have blown up your amp. Pity..... However, if you give us some cash and swallow our immensely condescending comments, we can fix this terrible problem for you which had nothing to do with us"

Pfft. Jog on.

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1 hour ago, Wolverinebass said:

which could have blown up your amp.

A bit melodramatic don't you think? The amp can handle 4Ohm no problem. You'd hear the speaker distorting before anything serious happens.

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1 minute ago, Bolo said:

A bit melodramatic don't you think? The amp can handle 4Ohm no problem. You'd hear the speaker distorting before anything serious happens.

If the amp doesn't go to 2.6 ohms wouldn't it be reasonably likely? 8 ohm and 4 ohm cabs creating undue stress on the amplifier.

Still, Ashdown are giving a very curious response to this. One that there is no way I'd be taking.

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8 hours ago, itsmedunc said:

Ashdowns email reply following the phone call.

Hi Duncan

Here is my suggestion to sort out your dilemma

Remove the speaker from the extension cabinet and fit it into the combo, this will give you a 10” Mibass combo at 8 ohms with the full range driver.

Purchase an eminence beta 10” 250/500 watt driver and fit it into the extension cabinet, this will then get you back to the required 4 ohms when used with the combo.

We can supply this speaker for 29.95 + shipping at 5.30 and vat.

As I said to you on the phone this is at cost price to help you out of the situation you have found yourself in.

Please let me know if you wish to proceed.

 

I don't think anyone is actually listening to what I've said. Or, I've been fobbed off!!!

 

 

'help you out of the situation you have found yourself in'????

Really?

As if it were your fault!!!

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7 hours ago, pete.young said:

£30 quid is a good price for this driver and gets you out of a hole. How long have you had the combo, is it out of warranty?

 

It is a good price... but it was Ashdown who made a mistake, and now the customer should pay for it? This has nothing to do with warranty.

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3 hours ago, Bolo said:

A bit melodramatic don't you think? The amp can handle 4Ohm no problem. You'd hear the speaker distorting before anything serious happens.

 

It won't be 4 ohm once you add an extension cab, and THAT could be a problem as the amp was not designed for less than 4ohm. 

That is the issue: a combo with an extension speaker connection, yet you can't add an ext speaker without bringing the impedance below 4 ohm

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That combo had the luck to be own by a sensible player with ears in his head and carefull to check the driver before adding the ext. I don't think many other combos with similar MANUFACTURER ERROR had the same luck and suffered a worst fate... more savings for Ashdown...

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On 3/1/2018 at 14:08, itsmedunc said:

Spoke with Ashdown today. Lots of facts and figures but the upshot is - They say it is the right speaker? Apparently, the first lot had no extension capability as they made it as a standalone with the 4ohm. Then it became apparent that customers wanted an extension and so they added an output and started producing the Mibass extension cabs. I believe this is where the problem has arisen. If what they say is right, then my combo should not then have a 4ohm, it's been fitted in error. The head has an extension out and then should be 8ohm. Still they say it's the right driver.

So, they've  offered me an Emminence Beta 10 250w 8ohm for about £30 plus vat, plus shipping. I've swapped drivers from the extension to the combo as they are exactly the same apart from the ohms.  Looks like, either buy another driver or sell the cab then...

I decided to buy the driver for the extension from Ashdown. Contacted them on the 9th of March and today I got a reply - 

Hi8 Duncan,

I have looked into this for you. Unfortunately we can only supply from stock a  Celestion pulse 10 bass speaker this is a  200w  unit.

Since you are going to use it in the extension cabinet together with the combo it should be fine

Price is 25.13 + shipping @ 5.30 and VAT . call me if you wish to  order it

 

I can appreciate that a 200w will do the job but after the initial cause of the problem, I suppose I expected a bit better from Ashdown. Surely they could at least supply a larger wattage driver for the original price considering the circumstances? I even mentioned if they had any covers knocking about could I get one 'preferably' free (I can't see why not after all the problem was their fault and I'm having to pay to rectify it) but as you can see by the reply, there's no mention. A bit of me wants to ditch all my Ashdown gear and go with a firm with a decent customer service. I've had a lot of new gear from them over the years but that's now definitely come to an end.

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What I find baffling here is Ashdown think £25.13 + shipping and VAT is worth more to them than their reputation.

The £30 of goods-will from sending one FOC to the OP would be worth far more than they'd get from £30 of marketing budget

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12 minutes ago, Graham said:

What I find baffling here is Ashdown think £25.13 + shipping and VAT is worth more to them than their reputation.

The £30 of goods-will from sending one FOC to the OP would be worth far more than they'd get from £30 of marketing budget

Yup, this is most unlike Ashdown, perhaps they've got someone new on customer service who doesn't really understand how damaging this kind of stuff can be for their reputation.

I hope someone else steps in a does the right thing.

Eude

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It seems to me to be a blatant case of mis-selling...

They sell the combo as being able to work with an extension cab.

You found out that they have mis-described the combo, and it doesn't do what it was advertised to do.

You tell them, and they offer to fix their mistake by charging you money. They're taking the P!

A few years ago I took a car dealer to court for mis-selling; dealer had sold me a van saying that the gearbox had been replaced recently, showed me a piece of paper to prove it. Then the gearbox went (just out of warranty!), and the receipt for the alleged replacement gearbox turned out to be for another vehicle. He refused to do anything about it, we took him to court and the judge found he'd mis-sold the van. Ironically, we'd told dealer-boy we'd accept £1000 toward the cost of the fix, he told us to go spin - judge awarded me the full cost of the repair (£1600) plus £500 out of pocket expenses...

So I'd be telling Mr Ashdown that the item was mis-sold, and that advertising standards and the courts take a very dim view of that!

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I think i've said this before, Ashdown let a faulty piece of gear leave their factory (it may work but it's faulty because it can't operate with the installed ext speaker out without blowing the amp), it shouldn't have been sold in the first place. The only way to fix this is for Ashdown to send a courier pick up the combo at the OP's home, have it shipped to them and replace the driver for a suitable 8Ohm unit that's designed for that enclosure, and then ship it back to the OP. All this FOC and if they value their reputation adding a cover for the combo or another complementary gift would only suit well with them.

If it was my combo i wouldn't accept anything less from them and i would go all the possible ways to have this situation solved. Their position on this and the way they're trying to avoid the responsability is very concerning. One brand in my not to buy list!

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