Melos Products = 5 Stars when they work but failure rate too high for my time and money. Melos service = way below the scale into negative territory. The only thing Melos will do with any sense of urgency is cash your check!

I also had major problems with Melos. I bought a sha gold reference directly from the company and it arrived in nonworking condition (low volume, mislabeled/miswired inputs, busted pilot light, etc..). I returned the product immediately but they would not return my money (even though I bought it with a 30 day money back guarantee). Eventually, I had to file a claim through my credit card to recover my money. Stay away from this company and any of its products!! Its not worth the aggravation.

This pre-amp is an outstanding high end headphone amp and a very high quality line stage as well. However, the purpose of this review is to warn others that Melos service can only be described as Low End. Never pre-pay for any upgrade or service. They have absolutely no sense of urgency. Calls don't get returned and when you do reach someone you are given vague and/or conflicting information. Yes, the SHA Gold Reference is a revelation. 5 Stars. But the concept of "caveat emptor" applies with respect to their customer service. FYI. Audio Advisor used to sell the original SHA Gold and even featured it on the cover of one of it's catalogs a couple of years ago. They were at one time Melos's biggest dealer. They stopped selling Melos products because of a very high order cancellation rate when customers got tired of waiting months for delivery. Customer serice less than 1 star.

I wish to add my frustration with Melos service and in fact my disatisfaction with the reliability of their products. I owned a Sha Gold for about a year and a half during which time it had a channel go out taking with it a woofer. It took over 2 months and many phone calls to finally get it fixed. The performance of the piece was ok, but certainly not up to the superlatives of the Stereophile review. I had a Sony XA7ES CD player at the time and the sound direct out using the Sony level control was so much better than going through the preamp I hated to use the Melos. So i sold it and bought a Lexicon DC-1. I also have a Melos 220 phono stage which also broke in the first few months I had it and that also took over 2months to get back. I still have it though and it has been reliable for over 5 yrs. I won't buy another piece of Melos equipment again however. The ergonomics of the Sha Gold remote were poor also. My wife was quite happy to see it go. The remote of the Lexicon is a dream in comparison. Sound of Sha Gold 3 stars. Company 1 star.

One of the best sounding preamps out there.

The hi-fi equivalent of used car salesman support and warranty service.

I've had this preamp for two years. About 6 months after purchasing it the volume control starting making ungodly scratchy sounds when adjusting it. To the point that I'm concerned about blowing the tweeters in my speakers when I adjust the volume. I have tried unsuccessfully on a couple of occasions to get Melos to honor the warranty and fix it. Instead they want to charge me hundreds of $$$'s and always try to sell me numerous upgrades which I don't want. I just want the F'n thing fixed. I can't listen to my $15,000.00 system because of this damn preamp. Can someone recommend a repair shop? I'm willing to ship it anywhere as long as I can get it fixed at a reasonable cost and it'll come back in one piece.

5 stars for sound, -10 for service

The people at Melos are the biggest bunch of losers I've ever dealt with.