Icarium

Ah me. Ah me.

Yeah I am going to try and not pay him til Monday when I have some verification Fedex has it in their possession. It's a nice thought Jeepster and I appreciate the sentiment, but that sort of ultimatum isn't all that intimidating. I have only paid him 500 dollars some of which (Possibly all of it) can be considered to go towards work on the headband which I have in my possession even if its kinda crappy. The amp MSRP'd significantly more than 500 dollars. So I'm sure he would be happy keeping it in his possession. If I did a chargeback he very well could just turn around and sell my amp to someone else for significantly more than 500 dollars. It's not like he doesn't still have any customers at all... I guess he might, but shrug I'm sure there are still the faithful. Hell 6 months ago if he was like "Hey Dan I have a completed SDS-XLR that a customer decided they didn't want and stopped payment on.. would you be interested in it for 5k?" I very well may have taken him up on that. Who knows... esp if the full history wasn't publicized. Shrug ;p I'll do the catching of the flight and the knocking on his door if need be, but it's not something I can just do. I have to buy tickets at a decent price and allocate vacation time in case it drags on.. and arrange housing. I was tempted to arrange Fedex pickup like someone said if it truly is packed... but I don't want to throw money down the drain in case it isn't actually packed and Fedex shows up to pick up nothing.

Sounds like fun! How do they compare to Qualias and K1000. Not just like are they on the same level or better or worse, but do they share similar sonic signatures?

Why not? They probably have a partnership of sorts with Sennheiser having been one of the early big cable makers. They could conceivably have a demo unit(s).

Ah you are Seattlean? I went to UW

Thanks yeah nothing would please me more then if it enters Fedex custody Monday as planned.

________________________________________________________________________________ This tracking update has been requested by: Company Name: Singlepower Audio Inc. Name: Galina Rotenberg E-mail: [email protected] Message: FedEx did not process today, it will be processed on Monday. ________________________________________________________________________________ Galina Rotenberg of Singlepower Audio Inc. sent Daniel Chow of Google/ co Dan Chow 2 FedEx Express Saver package(s). This shipment is scheduled to be sent on 01/12/2009. Master tracking number: XXXXXXXXXXXX (1 of 2) Tracking number: XXXXXXXXXXXX (2 of 2) To track the latest status of your shipment, click on the tracking number above, or visit us at fedex.com. To learn more about FedEx Express, please visit our website at fedex.com. This tracking update has been sent to you by FedEx on the behalf of the Requestor noted above. FedEx does not validate the authenticity of the requestor and does not validate, guarantee or warrant the authenticity of the request, the requestor's message, or the accuracy of this tracking update. For tracking results and fedex.com's terms of use, go to fedex.com. Thank you for your business. Ooh sounds promising... tracking #'s werent actually XXXXXXXXXXXX of course.

It's pretty easy. You buy out of production headphones whenever you see a decent price and you wait a few months and flip for a profit (Or sometimes people wait for less or just do immediately on audiogon or another forum). There's a few people who do it and they make it quite well. The only real risk is when a really badass new flagship headphone comes out like this one But if you aren't doing long term holding then it's really not a big deal. It's a pretty low risk way of making a few hundred here or there or even a few thousand come year end depending on what kinda capital you have to work with.. it is at the expense of the community though and there are better ways of making money.

Well it's the first time I've really really liked them I will definitely check them out with the finalized bhse when that's available. They are starting to border on tempting now. I'd say I regret pulling out of the bhse list, but then I'd have like 10 less sources and we can't have that can we.

And word from the man! Dan, The FedEx station will process the packages on Monday morning. They weren't able to process today. Attached are the air bills. I'll give you a call as soon as I get a chance probably tomorrow if you're not busy. - He sent me two images of the labels. I replied with this: Thanks sir. Call me at any time. I hope its okay that I pay when the processing happens. It is the weekend anyways. I hope your accounts payable person is not working tomorrow. My meet went pretty well. The ES-1 was the only amp of yours in attendance though it was only a 6 person meet. I have to say the O2 Mark 1s sounded amazing out of mikeymad's unit.

No word from the man

okay fine o2s mk1 sound great out of mikeymads es-1

Have you seen this thread on head-fi? Designing an alternative to the Zero DAC/amp -- Now it has a name: The Audio-gd Compass - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio I read the first couple of pages and it's pretty amazing what people want for 200-250 dollars let alone 500 dollars.

Yessir. SPA to me show details Jan 2 (8 days ago) Reply Dan, We can do the $1000 payment and then the $250 later, but I need to put through since it's hard for me to get approval for shipment of items not paid in full. It is just that I do not handle the accounts payable, so I have to get approval for this. That's the reason for quicker shipment. I'll have it ready to ship by Monday. Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 2 (8 days ago) Reply Sorry I simply cannot afford to do a 1000 dollar payment at this point in time and I certainly am unwilling to make a payment until I have some legit tracking #s. Perhaps I can talk to your accounts payable person? Sorry, but this is ridiculous that this comes out now when you could have mentioned this when we decided on a deadline in the first place. I don't know what's changed between now and then, but I insist on having the original terms we agreed upon followed. If this requires me to explain the situation in detail to your accounts payable person then so be it. Please give me their name and contact information asap and I'll try to have this sorted out. SPA to me show details Jan 2 (8 days ago) Reply Dan, Let me talk to them and explain everything. I don't handle the transactions and the accounting, and it's a good thing, I have plenty to do. I'll call him tomorrow morning. Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 2 (8 days ago) Reply Thank you Mikhail. I'm just tired of having to deal with this whole mess. Explain to him that I'm good for the money and I will pay you. I just want to make sure that 1. I have it back in my hands 2. That it is something I am satisfied with. Yes I will need new headband reinforcement bars since the current ones are not satisfactory to me as I have indicated for obvious reasons which you have the pictures of. I am also still interested in the AD1 tubes, but if money is going to be an issue for you to get things out to me then do not worry about them at this point in time. I will check back with you when I have the current invoice paid off and I have the money for them. The most important thing is having an amp I can be happy and proud of for me atm. This entire experience has been very draining for me and probably for you as well. I don't know how much more fighting/back and forth I can take regarding this item. SPA to me show details Jan 3 (7 days ago) Reply Dan, You'll be happy with the amp. I'll get this resolved and we'll talk on Monday. Have a great weekend, Dan. Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 3 (7 days ago) Reply I hope so Mikhail. Looking forward to hearing from you Monday then. Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 5 (5 days ago) Reply What's the word Mikhail. Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 5 (5 days ago) Reply Mikhail what's the status? Have you talked to your accounts payable people yet? SPA to me show details Jan 5 (5 days ago) Reply Dan, He's supposed to get back with me by this evening. We'll talk then. Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 5 (5 days ago) Reply Alrite. Here's to hoping that it'll be shipped tomorrow then. We'll talk tonight. What time should be good to call you? Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 5 (5 days ago) Reply Well I'd be surprised if your Accounts Payable person works much later than this. So what's the word? I must insist on a resolution before the end of the week. Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 6 (4 days ago) Reply Can you confirm an okay with your accounts payable person and confirm that we are on schedule for a Friday ship date? Dan Chow to SPA show details Jan 7 (3 days ago) Reply Can you confirm an okay with your accounts payable person and confirm that we are on schedule for a Friday ship date? SPA to me show details Jan 7 (3 days ago) Reply Dan, It should be Okay. I'll know by tomorrow when I turn in my shipping plan for Thursday through Tuesday. Anyways sorry there was some email duplication there.. but yes I did ask to speak to this person. And immediately he said he'd resolve it the next day.. then monday... then monday evening... then thursday. What the fuck? Shrug I can't say with 100 percent confidence that my chain was jerked (I certainly feel like something was jerked though), but I don't know of a single accounts payable type person that I've had to contact that wasn't happy to be contacted prior to lunch or shortly thereafter. Evening work? Pfft.

I have one as well if you need a third That sucks Tom. Well.. I will have satisfaction of some form. I will. I really was and still hoping that his business isn't in dire financial straits. Every time I've talked to him as recent as 2 weeks ago he continued to claim that they were doing great. While at this point I feel a certainly level of animosity I do not want his business to fail. Still I do not regret anything I have publicized or said in an effort to get satisfaction. Because yes I want it. And I hope he is able to have some for you as well. Though yeah I wouldn't advise holding your breath regarding the matter.

Ha I didn't know Edwood was known for such assessments. I'll have to check it out and/or some past reviews.

Oh jesus... talk about worst case scenario if that is true. That was what I was afraid of all this time. Have you given up on having satisfaction Tom?

Yeah. I hope your amp is fine when you get it too... crazy like 30 tube beast if I am remembering even slightly correctly. Yeah... the SDS I had was rock solid and awesome. The ES-1 as well once I realized that it had to be biased and how to do that. The SS-1 always had a couple quirks that were not enough to get me to send it to him.. plus it was never fully complete. It was brought early to the San Jose meet since the original owner insisted but it was supposed to have a crossfeed circuit in it (There's a switch to enable it that does nothing) and there was a dynamics dial that they weren't really sure what it'd do. Talks never concluded on it I guess, but the original owner was afraid to send it back to get these things put in and the amp completed because who knows when he would see it back. The main quirk that really drove me nuts was that sometimes randomly when attaching headphones the right channel would be like 2x as loud as the left channel on the reference section. Sometimes no matter what I did (Turn the amp off and back on... connect reconnect the headphones with the amp being on or off at the time blah blah) this wouldn't go away unless I simply walked away from the amp and tried again in an hr or so... or power cycled the thing like 10x. Oh yeah one other thing single ended performance was pretty much totally shitty and very distorted and oftentimes there'd be channel imbalance. This was somewhat fixable on the "tunable section" but even after I sometimes got rid of the channel imbalance there would be a very high noisefloor and some distortion. I basically never used it in single ended, but that didn't bother me that much since why not balanced. It would have been nice if it could support 4x single ended at meets, but no luck. Oh yeah one last complaint. The tuneable section isn't really even "tuneable" in my opinion. From memory (It's been awhile) there were 3 dials 2 with 2 positions and 1 with 3. The third position on the one with three would make it so sound only came from one stereo channel so essentially it really only is 2 positions. Actually this might have been true with two dials. The rest were pretty much useless though since either (Depending on headphone) 1-2 would chance nothing to the sound and the other would cause a channel imbalance. It would be a diference combo of which dials exactly would accomplish which affect (The nothing or the channel imbalance) for each different headphone... but I never really used it for tuning except in the sense that I'd plug in a headphone one channel wouldn't be making any sound or it would sound like crap because of massive distortion and/or channel imbalance and then I would fiddle with the dials and most of the times that would go away and then I'd never touch them again while that headphone is in rotation. The 3 dials were like bias/power and I forget the last (Been too long). So anyway this again wasn't too big of an issue for me since well I figured even if it fitted my definition of "tuneable" section I would decide after awhile one setting was my favorite and stick with that. What did kind of annoy me was that it was as the original seller told me it was marketed to him/planned to be "tuneable" aka the "fun section" and he passed this marketing to me. It was likened to "tube rolling" for the solid state fan. Well now that I've done some tube rolling.. I would not say it is anything like tube rolling. Anyways I was mostly aware of this final issue prior to when I bought it since I fiddled witht hem a bit and noticed that they didn't seem to do much, but I assumed it was just too subtle and that I had to spend more time with it to process the nuances. Turned out I was wrong. Ohwell. Anyway despite all this wonkiness I was still pretty happy with the amp. I thought it resolved at a pretty impressive level. The best I had heard with the Qualias which it had mostly been designed for. I liked the reference section a lot though it was a bit laid back for my tastes. The fun section was less laid back and more powerful, but it had a way higher noise floor with the qualias. He told me this was just the nature of the beast with the Qualias as they are ultra sensitive and I remembered a noise floor with my SDS and the rudistor I had so I felt like he was right. Well this Gilmore Lite has no noise floor with the phones. Ohwell maybe twas owner's bias. Anyway I did talk to him about the channel imbalance issue early on before I sent it to him and maybe like 3 or 4 missed deadlines ago. He says that it should be gone and attributed to a blown or mismatched mosfet and that that should be fixed because he replaced the amp board. Well fingers crossed.. the other issues I feel like I can live with as solving them will probably be extremely non trivial.

Well yes... yes it would! But I cannot get him to send it out without paying him some money. In fact he says he would not send it out if I did not pay him more than the 500 I first offered. He credits this to his accounts payable person :/

Nice I hope the box is on par with AT's. The HE90 box had a pretty exterior but the interior was ghetto as hell.

Well hey. In the midst of writing my sad, sad sob story I get this email: Hi Dan, It's going out tomorrow. The package is packed and labeled ready for drop off in the afternoon on Saturday. Everything else is good. Can I give you a call sometime during the day tomorrow? Fingers crossed! I replied with this. Great. Call me at any time. I'm hosting a small meet Saturday afternoon but I should be available to talk. I am ready to pay you at any time, but I will need to see evidence that it is in Fedex's hands before making it though. Did you include the replacement bands or the AD1 tubes? If not that's fine. But if we can discuss time frame for that then that'd be great. Perhaps I will have satisfaction at my meet.

Yes I will take it away in whatever state it is. I have been extended offer by someone I trust to go over the amp and either repair it or if the design is completely foobar -- completely gut it and essentially build something that that I will be satisfied with. This won't be cheap, but I will be satisfied in the end. It's a drastic move, but I don't this is a simple matter of shipping next week or the week after. I've gone through 2 months of. Are you going to ship next week. Yes it'll go out monday. I call up monday. Wednesday. I call up wednesday. He says friday or saturday. I call up monday. He says Wednesday.. for 2 months. This is after 2 months prior to the first missed deadline he said it was 90 percent done then 1 month prior he said it was done just need a final once over. Finally he guarantees on like pain of death that it will go out end of december. I say okay well if you say this then this time I expect you to keep it. In fact I will give you to the first week of January to get it out. He says he wont need it, but he appreciates. This I believe is the first week of January. This is ridiculous if he really has completed all this work that he says he's done and I have a fairly detailed list of things he supposedly has done in an email which I can furnish. In fact here it is: Dan, I'll give you a call shortly, but this is what's been done: Replaced transformers and power supply components including the regulators. Replaced the digital display power supply and incorporated it into the umbilical. Updated the entire circuit with higher power settings on the output circuits and replaced two of the amplifier boards with new units. Replaced the headband tension bars with new aluminum milled braces. I've also installed a new hybrid battery PS component for testing and I've been listening to the battery unit. It's just awesome. I can complete the battery supply and have it completed within a 10 days. I think the benefit from the battery supply is excellent. Base upgrades and replacements total $1750. I'll call you to discuss I have no problem with paying him his due. But I am not going to pay him and then be ignored for a year. I do not have much confidence that it'll be as simple as me paying him and then him delivering it upon receiving payment. If he needs more time to work on the amp then I have no problem with giving it to him, but supposedly its been done for months. Moreover, I do not want to be Tom Hankins'd. I have had private communciations with Tom and I believe I have a good grasp of what happened in that situation and I do not want to end up in that situation. I'll look into what kind of shit I can get in for the mechanics lien and make a judgment call based on that. Yeah I know my experience is in fact not all that bad as what some people have gone through. Prior to the Hankins incident and what I got when I finally got my headband I would still have faith that in time I would get something that I would be satisfied with, but now I no longer have that faith. Perhaps if I just give him time it will happen, but I don't have the energy or any inclination anymore to constantly hound him for a year to see this through. Call me a pussy if you will, but I'm just sick of dealing with it. While Tom's story is Tom's so I don't feel I can share it. Here is the headband thing and pictures. Here is what the original headband looks like. You see the acrylic/plastic supports on top? My gigantor headed friend put the headband on his head and one of the supports snapped in half. I talked to Mikhail and asked if there was a cheap/quick fix for that and he mentioned he has a new design int he works and I said well I'm not interested in buying another 1500 dollar headband or whatever that if he could just replace the support possibly with something sturdier that would do me. He mentioned he had 2 metal support bands that were for a prototype that he could swap in for 50 dollars. I said sounds perfect! Please do that! How long? He said maybe 2 weeks. I said perfect! Let's do that. Then months later when I started asking him about the status he said he was waiting on a part for his new design and that he'd get it back to me soon after that came in. I said well can you just put on the prototype bands we discussed and get it out to me? And he said that it would be worth waiting for and it'd be coming in in a week or two max. I said well is this going to cost more because I really only wanted to pay the 50 bucks and he said it shouldn't. A month passes. I ask him what's up. Did he get the part in what's the deal? No not yet. i ask him yet again to put on the metal bands and get back to me. And he says okay. Nothing happens. This is when I start applying the pressure because he had also said the amp was basically ready and after a final listen he'll be able to get it back. I then sold my SDS in preparation and yeah no go. He then tells me he has the part and that it should go out any day now. After another month of missed deadlines he really apologizes and says he'll get the headband out provided I pay him 500 dollars of the stated invoice which is now 1750. It isn't an itemized invoice just a sum and then a list of what he did not including the headband stuff. He tells me that I will love the headband and that it's awesome. Anyway so I pay him. And he sends it! This is what I get. Or rather just the metal bits and not the qualia cups (I only sent him the headband portion as the cups detach). So three issues. Supposedly all that wait time was for a completely redesigned headband. This looks a lot to me like the original design with 2 metal supports. They were supposed to be like ultra clean and machined metal bands too (Some of the wait time was for this process).. he also offered me the option for black or silver. I asked for black. While this may not be evident in pictures but it is dinged up with numerous blemishes. The last and most key issue is if you can see in the picture the two bottoms o the qualia cups touch each other. And these metal supports are strong and stiff as a motherfucker. Even without the cups inserted I was pretty sure that in the default position it will fit NO human head. And it has nearly 0 give so... I call him up and ask him about it and he says that he tested it on some heads in Colorado and it fits amazingly. Blah blah. I say okay well I'll go home and check it out. I go home insert the cups try and I can barely fit my finger between the cups let alone my head. I call him up to no response and so I send him an email with these two pics. He I think at this point suggested bending it. So I bend it. These things have NO give. I had to bend it over my knee and hold it in position for 15 minutes to get the memory of the metal to stick. I'm not a particularly strong guy but there was no way I could just bend it with my hands I had to brace the peak against my knee and apply downward force just to bend it. This is the result: As you can see.. not the prettiest thing ever. It now can get on my head but is still pretty tight. I worry about damage to the plastic part where the cups connect to the headband over time due to pressure. Mikhail says it won't be an issue even though that part is very thin, but then again he also said it would fit my head and be black and be a redesigned item. I indicated my dissatisfaction and he said he would send me some pre bent replacement metal supports that are black. And he might, but basically I am almost back at square 1. No idea when I will see these replacements. I do have Qualias with a headband now.. but they are intensely uncomfortable even though due to the extreme tightness I must admit it is the best fit I've ever had. But it physically hurts to have it on my head and I still worry about the plastic bits snapping. But anyways this experience kinda makes me skeptical that my amp will arrive in a satisfactory fashion no matter what the man says. I don't want to hound the guy for a year. Get something sub par that I have to send back or send to someone else to get made not a piece of shit. If I have to do that then I would prefer to spend a couple hundred bucks or even a thousand if I need a private investigator. Roll up.. grab it and then skip to the sending it to this other guy for the revamp and not go through the year of stalemate to reach that point. The money spent would be worth it to me. I don't know if he charged me more than 50 dollars for this headband "fix", but if he did then I would be pretty pissed off. I will request an invoice with a money break down at some point (Probably when he finally ships it)... but I have no faith that I will get that since I hounded him an Sleestack for a year before and after I purchased it from Sleestack for the emails that detail the config/design/parts/costs/function associated with the amp and though both agreed to furnish me with those emails... I never got any.

K I'll do that this weekend.

I can though usually I've had best results rotating a few work phones. Unfortunately atm my desk phone is disconnected and I left my cell at home :/ I'll call him as soon as I am home from work.

And today is the deadline. No word so far since Wednesday! So much for that Thursday -> Tuesday or whatever the fuck shipping schedule huh.