Voltron

Haven't received mine yet. Looking forward to it.

It was from Amazon. I paid $1069 for the F/4L IS USM. Is yours the L and an IS? $425 would be a bargain.

Oops, then maybe this next shot explains why no response.

He is such a lazy bitch!

Yeah, I went ahead and bought the 70-200 F/4 last night, along with a couple filters and a Crumpler $7 Million Home bag. Gotta be ready to take some shots in Montana in a couple weeks. Glacier, Yellowstone, Tetons, TTVJ, HeadRoom, you know, the big attractions.

Thanks for posting such clear information about your situation. Because several people posted that I was somehow a "third party" who got hold of Mikhail when others could not, I should say that Mikhail asked me to call him for two reasons. First, I borrowed a couple tubes at the recent NorCal meet and he has a very limited supply of them (as in 3 left). He wanted to know if I intend to buy them and how I like them in general. Second, I think he wanted to talk through this mess with me because we have had these conversations for the last couple of years both as his customer -- experiencing many of the same issues/delays/broken promises/etc. -- and as a friend. Your situation only came up because he was talking through the remaining outstanding issues in a general way and I asked why he had not sent you your upgraded amps. I posted yesterday what he said, and I have seen resolutions for Tom Hankins, Blubliss, Kang, Wayne McManus (although not sure if completely completed) and have heard of others. That is one reason why I believe Mikhail is taking this seriously and trying to get current so he can move forward on an even keel. I don't have an answer for you on why he did not send the ES-1. Sadly, it could be that it was not ready when he said it was. Or, it could be that he was tinkering with it or wanted to tinker with it while your Supra issue was still pending. I simply don't know, but he certainly spends way too much time re-thinking and tinkering on custom/upgrade projects. I hope he brings it to the meet this weekend or merely ships it direct to you right away, and that one way or the other you get what you paid for and get this behind you. Best of luck!

Dan's still got 3 hours of birthday left out here on the left coast! Hope you are having a good one Dan, and not chained to a terminal slaughtering things for you guild. Cheers

Thanks Knuckledragger, that post on the f/4 vs. f/2.8 was very useful to me. I was concerned about the weight on the 2.8 and thought that would be a deterrent. I assume that I would use it way more outside than in, so that should be less of an issue. That and greater sharpness has me re-thinking my decision.

I can't remember if you and I talked about it, but Neil and I saw your DV50 sitting in his listening room and he said something like that. It was months ago, and I thought he had it for a long time already at that point.

Nate- I didn't think that you were implying anything, and I just wanted to be clear. I have had this same kind of conversation with Mikhail several times over the last couple of years, including during my own struggle to get my SDS-XLR completed. I just think he has gotten the message in a more direct way this time. Dusty- From reading somewhere, I thought Elephas had told Mikhail he doesn't want the amps anymore or doesn't want them shipped to him because he might sell them, or some such. That was what I assumed Mikhail meant when he said others were advising him to just send the completed amps anyway. I'd rather wait for Elephas to respond instead of speculating, but I thought I read that in one of his posts.

I cannot make it before August 16 so I will just head over to John's sometime in the next couple weeks.

I don't know all the details about the deal with Elephas, and I am not trying to make excuses for Mikhail or taking his side. Asking for pics is reasonable and I did the same when my SP amp was seriously behind schedule. Not getting them is fishy and casts doubt. Still, I am curious whether Elephas would agree there were open issues that might explain the delay, and mostly I am talking about what Elephas does NOW. I am really not sure it is worth his time or money to pursue a lawsuit or other legal process, so if the amps are in fact done then he can either take delivery or sell them. I hope he is able to resolve things soon and satisfactorily. And by the way, I told Mikhail the same thing I said earlier in this thread regarding my unwillingness to send him my amp for repair/upgrade/etc because of the continuing issues. I said it would be too risky for me at this point, and his response was that he understood but thinks he will be able to get on track. He said more than once that custom work will be more the exception than the rule going forward and that if somebody wants to start a custom project they will have to accept a six-month or one-year timeline depending on the complexity/novelty. If he clears out the back log and sticks to this plan then many of his problems would be gone. Workmanship or build style and the like is a different matter, but I don't think I am qualified or have enough information to comment on those things.

I don't intend to get into the middle of this issue, but I spoke to Mikhail yesterday about a lot of the stuff that has been stirring here and on HF. Your story came up and not surprisingly he has a different take on your situation with him. He did not go into specifics, but repeated that he has had the amps ready to ship since February. He vaguely referenced certain chassis changes or other issues that were not completely resolved and he did not want to ship them all the way to you if there were unresolved issues. People have suggested that he just ship the amps to you but he said he has held off because he wants to come to a reasonable solution. I don't know if any of that is true, but that is what he said. I am not taking sides, but if he says he has the amps completed with the upgrades you requested, then why not have him ship them to you? If nothing else, it will call his bluff and you will know whether he has them ready. Maybe you can have somebody in Colorado check them out before he ships, but I am not sure who would do it and how. Asr is one option, and bringing them to the meet is another option, although Mikhail may not want to run the risk of something happening to one of them at a meet. In general, Mikhail repeated many of the things that have been attributed to him here or on HF about changing his custom work policies and selling only a limited number of amps and only when they are completed and on the shelves. I suggested that he make a similar statement on his website or at HF, but without taking the JenaLabs approach. Not sure if/when he would do that, but he admits to being to blame for some issues and being bad at making viable time commitments. I said he has to be brutally honest about timelines and any other issues with his customers and he agreed. To my mind, he seems genuinely sorry that things have gone this far and says he is committed to straightening out all back-log issues and moving forward. We shall see.

Hi Manuel, and welcome to Head-Case! Sorry about your thin skin is the motto over here, but I don't think you will have any worries. BTW, I recently got a dog from your homeland, a Portuguese Water Dog (even though she was born in Monterey, CA )!

Oh sure, Dan, pick a day when I am out of town. Sheesh.

I thought you said you weren't going to be posting any more neurotic questions about your source hunt . . . ? So, I cannot see how taking down an ad after selling the item is an indication of any foul play. If the seller had some feedback and seemed reasonable, then sit back and wait for the package. If you have a question, send the guy an email. Oh, and this is a small forum so you don't need to start new threads all the time about the same subject. You could have asked this question in your "Capitole izing" thread and still get a response.

Cool. Where did you buy it? I am considering this same lens used.

Looks fantastic and easy to navigate. Nice work Indra!

Hope you have had a fabulous birthday so far. Happy listening and have a nice scotch or two! Cheers!

For Eddie Current, the only option you have identified that is a current production option is the Zana Deux, and as Nate points out it is unclear whether there is a current, current run. The ZD is a very nice amp, but I don't think it comes close to the 307A. It is not as flexible, it is not balanced, it does not reach the resolution and detail and transparency that are easily rendered by the 307A. I have always thought of the ZD as a somewhat soft focus, warm style of amp that emphasizes musicality at a cost. I thought of the SP MPX3 in its original 6SN7 stock model in much the same way. The HD-2 was made once for JP#s and has not been repeated and I don't think it could be because Craig does not have the NOS Tango transformers he used in it. As for the TTVJ/Millett 307A amp being bright, I disagree entirely. It is detailed (as Dusty predicted one might say) but it is not bright or etched or edgy at all. Source is going to dictate sound more than the amp as it is currently configured, and your Exemplar Denon source should be pretty warm on its own. Plus, there are tube-rolling options that could have an impact on the overall sound. I enjoyed my time with the 307A immensely and listened to it almost exclusively over my SP SDS-XLR except when comparing the amps. There have also been impressions from 4N6 and Riceboy who were comparing the 307A to the B52, which is a warm and "big sounding" amp. I am not sure where 4N6 came out, but I think the B52 is on its way out. Speaking of the comparison, the SDS is a very "involving" amp and when you switch from one presentation to the other you could react as JP#s did by saying there is a different level of the "suck you in" factor. The SDS is a the better sounding amp overall to my ears and tastes, but it is also a one-off, two-box quite special amp that cost more than double the 307A. It also sounds pretty bad in single-ended mode. That cannot be said for the 307A that sounded great with single-ended cans and some have even used it with IEMs. Looking at the market right now, and for the foreseeable future, I cannot imagine a better option than the 307A if the price tag is within reach. Just my opinions, and I am not saying any of it to diss the other amp makers mentioned: I own 1 SP amp, 2 Eddie Current amps, 1 Moth amp (Craig's former company), and both an amp and a phono stage by RSA.

Last I recall, you had not heard a SinglePower electrostatic amp so how do you know what it sounds like? Based solely on looking at pics of the internals? There are many issues here, but your overreaching claims about what is and is not worth X dollars has no relevance.

I cannot imagine sending him my SDS for any reason. I would rather have somebody local work on it if there is a problem. I have considered having him make mono block speaker amps and a true preamp in the past, but that will not happen at all most likely and certainly not until he has gotten his head out of his ass and above water. I like him and love his work, but this shit is out of control.

Yay! Stax for Nate in 2008! Yay!

That sounds amazing, Indra. Nice day/night, indeed, especially if your dad is a Neil fan.

Hey Spritzer, my ED-1 pics are crap so I am going to send it to Justin so that he can take some pics and he claims he will trace out the circuit for you uber-geeks. At the risk of embarrassing myself, however, here are some lame pics with a lens that was ill-suited to the task: