"Three defects out of three Ashdown Superfly Amp."

Feature:
Interesting concept: create a sound with the graphic equalizer and the compressor and store it in one of the memory bank. Good creative engineering and useful for the musician who plays with a lot of different sounds. The buttons are not the easiest to use; they are small and require a lot of pressure to work. The unit can however be programmed on one's computer which solves this issue. This amp offers a true 250W x 2 (they are two independent amp sections in it). It is light, compact and has no fan (no fan noise) so it can be used for recording or for low volume practice.

Quality:
It might be a fluke but 3 amps out of 3 had problems. I did not persist and returned the third amp. I believe this is a case of good design and bad manufacturing "made in China". Also note that the amps were set on 230 volts (Euro voltage) instead of the 115 US setting. I caught this before even plugging the amp into the electrical outlet.

Value:
Very good value at $279.00 if it worked properly. It's a poor value at any price if the unit does not work as it should.

Desirability:
Interesting design and look. It's different; you like it or you don't.

Sound:
I received three different Ashdown Superfly and they all had an electrical buzzing sound in the sound path, even when the volume was turned all the way down. The sound would have been decent (I would have rated it a 5) but this quality issue is obviously unacceptable.

Ease of Use:
Very straight forward.

Support:
Once the retailer referred me to the US distributor of Ashdown, the company took 5 days to get back to me. The second time, I gave up after waiting 9 days. It seems that the US distributor has no power to take decisions and has to wait for answers from the Ashdown in the UK, which obviously slows things down. Also the US distributor has no parts for this amp and is obliged to send brand new amps whenever there is a problem.

Overall:
Again, an interesting and innovative design seems to have been torpedoed by defective manufacturing. Three out of three amps came out of the same retailers so this might be fluke or a bad series. I have seen positive reviews of this amp so my experience might be isolated. I would approach it with caution however, in the light of the limited after sale service. Ashdown has to decide if they want to seriously work/service the US market; in this case they need to give the tools to their US distributor to react to customer issues. I believe that wanting the sales but not being able to service the market will prove to be a self defeating commercial strategy for Ashdown in the competitive US market.