Kerry Design mini GRHV\GRLV and JoaMat mini T2 Group Buy

[mwl168]

FedEx was supposed to deliver the re-manufactured PSU main boards yesterday. 

FedEx messed up the delivery (long story), I ended up calling FedEx customer support to straight things out. Wes put on hold for 40+ minutes, finally talked to a rep and confirmed address and contact info. Then, nothing - tracking info still shows "pending" due to incorrect address today. Called customer support again just now, went through the same routine. Let's see what happens next.

It shouldn't be this hard!

 

[dsavitsk]

58 minutes ago, mwl168 said:

FedEx was supposed to deliver the re-manufactured PSU main boards yesterday. 

FedEx messed up the delivery (long story)

 

Good luck. Since this pandemic started, FedEx has screwed up numerous shipments for me. They have damaged things, lost things, sent stuff to the wrong place, or simply been late. And they have denied all claims ("You can't prove that that damage happened while the package was in our possession - maybe your customer, upon receiving the package and before opening it, ran a spear through the box."), and refused to answer their phone. I would estimate they have cost me ~$3K at this point.

[skullguise]

Sorry to hear, Doug....I had FedEx damage some nice speakers recently sent to me.  Took almost 2 months, lots of pictures and documentation, but I got the claim settled.....second time I've "beat" them even when they tired to delay or deny.

Edited May 19, 2020 by skullguise

[mwl168]

The latest FedEx tracking shows our boards are "in transit" in Japan 

I don't know if to laugh or cry! 

[judo]

One of my first Fedex shipping came from Viet Nam and went back and forth to China two times and after that to a lots of arabian country I was amazed I thought this was the Fedex way. After that something little from Amb went back and forth on the Los Angeles San Francisco line for a month but that was UPS so this is not exlusively Fedex method. Viet Nam would be the connecton ?   Here Fedex is nice they bring my Mouser orders.

[jose]

Fedex subcontract to other transport companies depending on the country. 

[jamesmking]

The subcontracting is everywhere. For example the courier dpd in the uk, deliveries are by DPD and if you have a company account with them you can send things. If you don't have a company account you can use DPD online or DPD local... all three are separate companies plus DPD online has no telephone support, not even an support email address. DPD local has telephone support as does DPD. None of the support of any of the three companies has access to the records or support of any of the others and you effectively have separate accounts with each one...  what a mess. The DPD website does not mention this but as soon as things go wrong you find out the hard way... especially if you sent something using DPD online and expect to talk to someone on the phone rather than by web text chat to someone in India who has no clue.... 

Many Amazon deliveries in the uk done by "amazon logistics" AKA yodel. Judging by the internet and my personal experience Yodel is probably the worst delivery company in the uk... I ordered something before corona virus lock down, delivery to my university address. By the time it arrived the university was closed due to lockdown. Yodel did not contact me to ask for a new delivery address or inform me of any problem. Fortunately I was pro active, when I looked at the tracking it said to go to a web page to change the delivery address... when I tried the page said you don't have permission to change the delivery address!. So I tried to contact customer support... Telephone support... closed because of corona virus. online support.. busy waiting time 5 days.... when I finally got through the support person 5 days later they where not sure if they could change a delivery address...  10 minutes waiting their line manager approved the change. I said my home address and they said no that address is wrong and for that postcode Yodels system says "N 40 london" I said thats an impossible address its not even in the correct format. I was informed it was the only address change they could make or send it back to the sender. I asked if they could hold it and I get the sender to change the address? NO the sender can only change the address once its sent back to them.... long story short 2 months later I am still waiting for delivery...

 

 

[mwl168]

This whole thing is just odd - less than 24 hours after getting a call from FedEx to inform me that the "shipper" in Taiwan had sent FedEx the wrong item to ship and the correct item has not been shipped and I should contact the shipper directly, the boards showed up yesterday (I know that PCBnet has some of their boards fabricated in their Taiwan facility).

As expected, these 2mm boards look and feel great! Going to start packaging boards for shipment and I should receive the GRHVxxxx bare boards next week.

   

[HatIsMyFriend]

Great to see them arrive well.
I read a lot of horrifying things about Fedex in the US, but strangely enough, they're pretty much the best of the bunch where I am. I consistently have them arrive full days in advanced, or  have packages sitting at their warehouse waiting for delivery day, and I can get them to deliver much earlier if that's the case.
The local postal service, on the other hand, loses packages by delivering it to another address, stuck onto the bottom of another package. Of the same shape and size. 

[Vintage12]

Oh no, just picked up this thread and looks like I’m arriving late to the party. If anybody has a mini T2 board set they don’t need or if there is a spare set of boards available I’ll be happy to take them off your hands and cover the costs.

 

1x mini T2 (pair)

1x PSU Main board

2x GRHVxxx (partial build preferred, bare is ok though)

1x GRLV79xx

1x GRLV78xx

 

I‘m impressed by all of you taking on this project and what the potential might be to improve off the shelf amplification. After many years I’ve finally invested in a decent headphone system that just landed this week – SR-009 & SRM-007tii, I’m listening to Qobuz streaming at high resolution and the combination sounds pretty sweet to my ears. Even red book CD sounds awesome.

 

But, I’m intrigued by the possibilities of what a high quality DIY build could do for the SR-009, perhaps open the surrounding air, extend the bass, keep the voicing and amazing mid-range and manage those highs without losing any sparkle. 

 

With some experience of amplifier builds from bare boards upwards, time on my hands and the necessary tools the mini T2 looks like a fantastic project. My only hesitation is working with such HV and some limited time soldering SMDs. I’m sure HV calls for an abundance of caution with these builds.

 

I’ve read through the threads on the KGSSHV Carbon, BHSE, T2 and KGST. I’m also tempted by the SS Carbon build but my preference is towards the T2. Perhaps a separate PS build has the potential to drive any of these down the road, definitely want that to be safe though and not compromise on performance.  

 

I’ll stop there and finish with thanks to Michael for making this GB possible. Wish I had found you all earlier. Good luck with the builds.

[mwl168]

I am starting a new build thread for the PSU (GR78, GR79, GRHVxxx and the main board) so all can share and exchange experience. 

[mwl168]

All boards are here and I am ready to start shipping the boards to the GB participants.

I'll be using USPS Priority Mail for all US participants. All US GB participants please PayPal me $8.40 for the shipping charge.

For international participants I will PM you the shipping charge after I have the package weighted at the post office. I have used first class mail without insurance and tracking in the past. Please let me know ASAP if you want to add tracking and/or insurance but be warned they are quite expensive options.

I'll ship the package when I received your shipping payment. 

When you PayPal me, PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR SHIPPING ADDRESS and HEAD CASE ID if you have not done so when you PayPal'ed me the cost for the boards.    

[mikeymad]

sent and thanks

[Oneguy]

Money sent. Looking forward to getting them. 

[mwl168]

A few packages went out this late afternoon but I think I missed the last truck out from the post office today. 

[grendel23]

Paid.

Thanks

[Blaino]

Money Sent, thanks again.

[steefdebruijn]

Hi, I did not receive (yet) a payment request. (The Netherlands). Still busy?

i do not want to look impatient but would hate to things go wrong 😬

and thanks for putting this thing up!

stay healty and take care,

Steef

[mwl168]

8 hours ago, steefdebruijn said:

Hi, I did not receive (yet) a payment request. (The Netherlands). Still busy?

i do not want to look impatient but would hate to things go wrong 😬

and thanks for putting this thing up!

stay healty and take care,

Steef

You have not missed anything. I am just not working very fast 🙂 

[mumford]

Paypaled.  Thanks.

[Blueman2]

Look what arrived today!  Boards look wonderful.  @mwl168, I did get an extra PSU board, I think from the 1.6mm batch?  Is that OK?  I am sure I can use it!

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by Blueman2

[mwl168]

I included an extra 1.6mm PSU main board in some packages mostly for extra protection of the assembled GRHV boards. It’s great if you can find use for it 🙂 

Edited June 2, 2020 by mwl168

[jamesmking]

paid. good luck everyone with your builds

[boinger]

Payment sent. 

[stv1756]

Payment sent for blubliss. Thank you!