manufactured refurbished

I would search the web and ebay and find out people's experience with refurbs of that model. some manufacturers job out the refurb work and the results can be very spotty. sometimes it's a totally new unit that was open box. sometimes they've been repaired, sometimes someone at the refurb center plugged it in, saw that it lit up and said "good enough for me". I would also read through the warrantee terms carefully. You'll probably have to exchange it for another refurb if you have problems. I've bought plenty of refurb stuff and that has been my experience. You just have to decide how much of a hassle you are willing to put up w for the discount in price.

Like new in my experience. In fact in high end it is often new and a way to reduce price and move out inventory.

I looked at the ad on ebay and saw all the negative feedback, most relating to poor service and defective items. It looks like 3rd party service. It's a gamble.

I'll tell you my experiences;
1. bought refurbished item online from Apple with warranty...great experience.
2. bought a refurb preamp from a dealer on ebay w/ warranty... died after a couple of weeks, and then began a back and forth shipping event to a 3rd party tech for warranty service. The dealer was covering the repair cost, not the manufacturer. I paid a couple hundred in shipping.

I would buy refurb again, but the bottom line is the poor feedback.

thank you everyone for your responses. I am practically interested in Lowrider57's response. It looks like I should be asking questions about who is doing the refurb. Even though the manufacturer is backing the repairs the work might have been done by a 3rd party, which might not be up to par with the original manufacturer.

I have purchased a few "B" stock Sony items.. No problems at all.
Kind of like buying a 'Demo' item IMO.