While those glue pads are pretty strong at room temp there is a reason for the hole in the middle...

if I cared, I'd find someone with a broken ES-1 and offer to fix it. Then I'd go up to work and use an audio analyzer and look for oscillations that I suspect to occur with Stax that may or may not occur with the Senn stats.

But, I don't care.

Yikes, just... yikes!

ALL HAIL KG

DOWN WITH THE FAILSAURUS

hey i like that one...

electrolytics so big at lower left, one is attached

to the other with sticky tape because it will not

fit into the board...

Looks a little toasty where the FET had been.

And not just any electros, but these look like BG VKs. Note also the VCaps, etc. Lots of hi $$ parts in here, with really poor execution. Which resistors were you referring to earlier that were supposed to be the non-inductive WW? The long brown ones? For what is being paid, no Mills MRA-12s or something else decent?

Unfortunately, it looks like the chickens are coming home to roost for Mikhail. The HF thread is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds. Aaron (immtbiker) has started a "how much of your equipment/money does Mikhail have" thread. People are starting to seriously consider legal action.

I don't think that he ever intentionally meant to cheat anybody but is just a bad business man. I, like many others, have talked to him about fixing his business model. I was hoping that the latest attempt (where Galina is the CEO/business manager) would do it. Mikhail has to take very drastic steps now to save his business IMO. Too bad. I really like him and his amps.

Fact: the singlepower extreme is DESIGNED TO FAIL.

Yikes. Well I'm glad I got a older SP Extreme unit. I hope it doesn't fail. So far the SLAM and my other SP amp is still in good working order (knock on wood).

Well, I'm a big SP apologist, but even I won't go against the grain and say that there isn't something wrong going on, business-wise. He needs to drop everything (figuratively), and start fixing things and filling orders, starting with the oldest ones first.

I actually understand (though do not approve) of the false promises -- I've done the same thing myself. If you make a promise to meet a deadline out loud to someone else, you're more likely to make it then if you just set yourself an internal deadline. Of course, once you start breaking them, the others start being easier to break as well, that's when you fall down the downward spiral that appears to be happening with SP.

I really hope he repairs his business before he goes completely under.

I'm not going to speak for Wayne but he sent and ES-1 to Mikhail for upgrades almost two years ago and it still hasn't returned. He just recieved the ps for the SDS-XLR he sent to Mikhail more than two years ago for upgrades. The amp portion was delivered to me at CJ.

The PS is in my house till the end of August when Wayne goes back to Cayman. What's really sad is that the umbilical from the PS to the amp itself wasn't included in either package, so that's another thing Mikhail owes Wayne.

Which resistors were you referring to earlier that were supposed to be the non-inductive WW?

I had not posted pictures of the es1 before. I will now.

http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/es1inside1.jpg

http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/es1inside2.jpg

People: please stop calling me at 2am. REALLY. I need

my beauty sleep. This is not my fault. This is not my

problem. Believe me, over the last 3 years i tried to

get mikhail to listen to reason...The more i talked to him

the more he went over the deep end. Making lots of new

stupid shit may be a fun thing, but it is no way to make

money.

So that we are all clear on this, none of the pictures i have posted

are mine. They are from other people who have sent them to me or posted them.

I have plenty of pictures of my own, but posting them would show

temporary possesion of various items, and since each one is different

it may point back to the person who owns/owned them.

Am I the only one completely floored by that power supply?? He can't seriously be using fricken twist crimp caps (both orange and gray in the pictures) to splice stuff together in a $4000 amp can he? I mean there's just no way...

Am I the only one completely floored by that power supply?? He can't seriously be using fricken twist crimp caps (both orange and gray in the pictures) to splice stuff together in a $4000 amp can he? I mean there's just no way...

You are kidding right??? The older stuff is much worse. MUCH WORSE...

lots of air mounting of parts. Maybe in few weeks i'll post some of the

really horror stuff.

Its pretty much a reverse price thing. The more expensive it is, the bigger

a piece of shit it is. Just remember it's art, not science.

I knew the older stuff was worse but I had thought that things were getting better? I mean seriously, he's already got one (albeit shitty) terminal strip in there, why not just add a couple more and avoid the perception of cutting corners? I mean jesus, those things are a failure point waiting to happen and oh, if they do let go (like in shipping) they'll leave exposed ends of bare wire.

Even twisting them together, two seconds with a soldering iron, and $.02 of shrink wrap would have been better. And just as easy.

Even twisting them together, two seconds with a soldering iron, and $.02 of shrink wrap would have been better. And just as easy.

That's pretty much what I was thinking, I mean COME ON!

The ES-1 has been a joke from the beginning and that he's charging 20k+$ for the ES-2 is nothing short of a robbery. The amp in the pictures costs the same as DACT equipped BHSE or even more...

where da fan boyz?

I'm NOT a fanboy -

This shit should be public including those pictures. It is outrageous, and to NOT do so is in my opinion, practically being part of the fraud. People need to know this so they don't spend their money on something like this, thinking they are getting 1) a quality product and 2) something that will arrive relatively quickly.

Fortunately I can sort of afford to have made this mistake with my ES-2. But with many others -- this is a very bad situation. Very bad -- on more than just an annoyance level.

Neil

I think even the resident fan boy has had issues with delivery on a couple of amps now, or at least he's said as much a couple of times here.

I'm a pretty big fan boy but this thread is pretty terrifying. I've seen bits and pieces of it before in these forums, but nothing as concentrated as here.

This thread has been moved. If any of the previous posters has issues with what they posted being out there in the public domain please pm a mod or admin with a short explanation.

Nate,

I hadn't noticed your new avatar... nice, Dad!

I'm a pretty big fan boy but this thread is pretty terrifying. I've seen bits and pieces of it before in these forums, but nothing as concentrated as here.

I'm a fan boy too. However, I've known for a long time about SP's delivery issues (how can any SP customer not know?). I've talked about it with Mikhail. In the last 9 months or so, when people want information about buying SP amps, I suggest buying used or be prepared for a very long wait time.

I'm also sorry to see that Mikhail hasn't fixed all of his quality issues, though he seems to have made great improvements since the amp wars days. In looking at the MPX3 photos, the piggy-backed capacitors don't bother me. The non-heat sinked FET does bother me. While my Extreme has been totally reliable, I'll be opening it up to check out the FET. If necessary (and it probably will be), I'll get a heatsink and mount it all on the chassis.

In the end, I'm really hoping that Mikhail and SP can get their act together. If they can, I'll send in my Extreme for the external power supply upgrade. But I won't do it until SP's act is together, including shipping and satisfying everybody who has been waiting for their amps for a long time.

The ES-1 has been a joke from the beginning ...

When it's working, it sounds pretty fucking good.

When it's working, it sounds pretty fucking good.

Yes it does. However, it does have issues. I will open mine up again sometime in the next couple of weeks and can take some detailed pictures if anybody wants them. Please PM me with any specifics you would like to see. I have a DSLR with a macro and ring-light so I can get some nice close-ups.

There are certainly bias issues on my ES-1 with certain tube combinations but not with others. Kevin's explanation certainly makes sense. The fit-and-finish was and is a little disappointing. No other issues than that and the sound is certainly not disappointing.

I also agree that it is a good move making the thread public. I also hope that we can keep it civil and not have it turn into a lynching (i.e calling something a joke is a little childish, but hey everyone is entitled to their opinion).