If you buy equipment mail-order, a dealer warranty may be a pain in the neck, especially if you have to ship the gear to the dealer more than once to get it fixed correctly. Then again, some factory service requires shipping gear far away at your expense, too. Frequently, home audio equipment is sold with a warranty restriction that if the gear is used commercially or in any profit-making enterprise, then the warranty is void. This is to protect the manufacturer from having to frequently repair equipment meant for light service. Professional audio equipment often comes with very liberal warranty terms, such as lifetime parts and labor.
Professional gear takes heavy use and severe wear from constant transportation.
It is expected to be able to take this abuse. In addition, a few of the failures occur at random. Infant failure occurs in the first fifty hours of use, and is the principal responsibility of warranties. Infant failure is frequently caused by defective parts or a design defect. Abuse failure is that caused by a person who pulls a cable too hard, bangs the equipment on the table, pushes the controls too firmly or too fast, or does anything else which the manufacturer did not expect.