Robert Switzer

Good product and customer service experiences are so few and far between that I feel compelled to give them public mention when they happen.

A couple of weeks ago, my sound card started giving off a loud, low rumbling buzz in the first two channels. I’ve been using this card, an M-Audio Delta 1010, for the audio side of my work for over 7 years. I’ve recorded and mixed hundreds of hours of stuff with it and it’s been great — clean, quiet, and bulletproof under both Linux and MacOS.

Expecting the worst, I went out to Pricegrabber, found the best deal on a new one, and placed the order. A new 1010 cost me a bit less than half of what the first one cost me in 1999.

After the new 1010 arrived, and I installed it, I went out to the M-Audio website and opened a support ticket, on the off-chance that some kind of discount repair/replace deal might be available for older, out-of-warranty units.

M-Audio got back to me a couple of days later and I was delighted to discover that they would repair my 7 year old piece of gear, and return it to me post-paid for the cost of UPS ground shipping to California.

Getting the repaired 1010 back will cut the budget on another project I’m working on significantly.

Three cheers for M-Audio, a company that deserves your business.

On vinyl recently: A 12″ promotional single by a group called ‘Bete Noir’ — ‘Galileo’ b/w ‘Inquisition’; ‘Don’t Let The Bossman Get You Down’ and ‘Big Fun’ by Elvin Bishop; Big Twist and the Mellow Fellows, ‘Live In Chicago’.

Playing right now: ‘Stackalee’ by Frank Hutchison, from ‘Anthology of American Folk Music’.