AOR reaction
There is not much more that I can add which has not already been said. At this point, it would appear that AOR has just decided to "ride out the storm" and hope for the best.
It went much further than 'hiding their head in the sand' and 'riding out the storm'. Certain people, provably affiliated to the Company went on to the attack, denying the evidence regarding the most serious frequency stability/drift problems in particular, and intimating the people who were posting about the problems were fabricating the proven facts, and were doing so out of malicious intent or affiliation to other Radio Manufacturers.
AOR themselves took 'punitive' action where they could against customers who brought these things to the Public's attention, and adding threats of legal action to many in their emails.
As I have said before, I sympathise with AOR, the top Management were clearly deceived into believing the DV10 was ready for release, when it was not. However the fact remains, that decision was wrong.
It is AOR's subsequent actions regarding the DV10 that beggars belief. AOR should have quickly accepted the consequences and should have acted 'correctly' if for no other reasons than to protect their reputation, and hopefully by withdrawing the current DV10's and re-issuing 'fixed' units, to re-coup the financial losses that would have initially incurred.
I still cannot quite believe that AOR's top management are being fed the real information, and thereby cannot see the only sensible 'long term' solution. I realise that there will be those in Middle Management and below who would be desperate to try to get the 'toothpaste back into the tube', and pretend the faults are fabrications by a few so called 'AOR Haters' on the Internet. Totally short sighted and futile of course, since the DV10's problems cannot remain hidden as every imperfect Unit sold is a potential 'advert' for the existence of them.
Even though the DV10 costs almost twice that of its nearest competition, mainly due to the well deserved success of the AR-DV1, it should have been a Market success. It STILL could be, if only AOR would do whatever is necessary to fix the hardware, and abandon the futile attempts to persuade Customers they are something that can be mended with firmware updates.
Admitting mistakes may temporarily shake some people's belief, but is more likely to enhance a Company's reputation quite quickly, if they then adopt the 'right' courses of action.
I 'believed' in AOR as a great Company, and in fact 'still do', because of almost all of the other superb products they released. I doubt if I am alone in 'hoping' AOR 'see the light', abandon this short sighted attitude towards the DV10 in its current form, do whatever is necessary to re-release a DV10 that will bring them the credit we expected, more success, and re-establish their reputation.