“ABSOLUTELY DISAPPOINTING! ONE STAR IS TOO MUCH!
Here I'm repeating partly what I already emailed several times:
On Thursday July 1. I purchased an upgrade from Ref. 3 or 4 to Sound ID order # SW-EU-48054. Following the instructions, I logged into my account and only found a serial number for Reference 3 but not for the activated Ref.4 Studio I’m using right now. There is no upgrade button. Therefore upgrade not possible.
I immedistely emailed this with a screenshot to orders@Sonarworks where I got the upgrade code from. No response.
Friday July 2. I emailed practically the same with a screenshot to support@sonarworks.com.
No response.
July 7. I found a create a ticket button or so, sent another email explaining my problem again with a screenshot, asking for a solution and got at least a confirmation.(request 105498)
Later that day someone named Max emailed me, NOT answering my questions and suggested to look into FAQ. Fantastic! Great support!
I expressed my disappointment and asked again what I need. Haven't heard from him since.
I am under the impression that Sonarworks doesn't want to be bothered with support questions at all. But support happens to be part of this business, especially if customers don't understand certain things.
I asked concrete questions what I don't understand with screenshots and what to do exactly. Nothing got answered. Instead I was suggested to read the FAQ.
As a long term customer (Ref. 3 and 4 Studio, Microphone, a calibrated headphone) I can expect a troublefree, simple upgrade process like other companies provide, and if there's a problem, a support (also with a phone number) which deserves the name.
I remember some trouble with Ref.4 Systemwide, where I finally got a separate activation code for that. Can that be a part of the actual problem?
As I said: absolutely disappointing and quite a waste of my time so far.
So, what's next? Is anyone going to read this and doing something about it?
Regards,
Werner
wschnell@wschnell-design.de”
“Software keeps crashing and has many issues, support has to be the worse that I have ever experienced in decades of audio, Emails take over a month to get a response and the response is that you are busy so waiting is another month with no help, this is just another take the money and run , very disappointing, I should have listened to the blogs and not invest in this because the support is disgusting,”
“Upgraded Reference 4 Studio to SoundID Reference for Speakers & Headphones. I have Sennheiser HD 650 calibrated headphones purchased directly from Sonarworks. While the headphones work well, I have had issues with SoundID Reference working with my monitors when I play any YouTube video. Weak crackling sound on these videos until I open settings on my 2018 MacMini 64GB ram 6-core i7 and select my Apollo 8X as the output. If I am missing something here, please let me know.”
“Not much improvement to justify the upgrade. It keeps messing up my Steinberg ASIO driver so I never know if it’s going to work or not. It crashed my DAW few times too.
I’m not sure I actually like what it does”
“Hi. The upgrade was ok for the 89€ price. In all honesty, I didn’t really feel the need for the new features, but I was tired of the bug that garbled the sound in Safari with Reference 4, so I went for the upgrade. One thing I dislike is the interaction between SoundID Reference and SoundID Listen, the way they collide with each other. I really feel you guys should find a transparent way to deal with using both apps without having to quit one of them. I also want a way to listen to music on my iPhone and iPad with the correction applied, but since TrueFi was discontinued I don’t think it’s possible now, which is a shame,
For the main purpose that I use it, which is music mixing, SoundID Reference is as good as Reference 4 before it, but in all honesty, if it weren’t for the Safari bug and the relatively low upgrade price I would have stayed with Reference 4.
Sorry about not being more positive, but this is my hones opinion.”
“It is a good product and cross grade from Reference 4 was easy. It would benefit from the possibility to save two headphone profiles to favourites as well as two speaker profiles ; one for tracking, one for mixing.”
“Still need a plugin in my DAW. Wouldn't it be nice if my Imac always uses Reference 4.
I own S-Gear and when I use the standalone version it doesn't play through Reference 4.
I have to open a DAW project and make a track with S-Gear in it and Reference 4 in the master...”
