JR Audio amplifiers aka zero fucks are given - caveat emptor

[spritzer]

1 hour ago, Sarieri said:

Es1a is just a sloppy clone of omega. It sounds okay but the build quality is no where near any of the stax, the headband especially. Seems to be 3D printed with some type of nylon coating, which peels off easily like hail.

It is a copy of the SR-Omega so it has all the same issues as the Omega... i.e. a headband which Stax should never have used for them.  They break... a lot... and have since 1993. 

As for the ES-1a, i have been using my set pretty much daily for 18 months now and they are still perfect, no issues at all and always sitting on a Stax stand... even with a couple of tumbles to the floor as I pulled on the cable. 

[Sarieri]

1 hour ago, spritzer said:

It is a copy of the SR-Omega so it has all the same issues as the Omega... i.e. a headband which Stax should never have used for them.  They break... a lot... and have since 1993. 

As for the ES-1a, i have been using my set pretty much daily for 18 months now and they are still perfect, no issues at all and always sitting on a Stax stand... even with a couple of tumbles to the floor as I pulled on the cable. 

Mine arrived broken day one.

[spritzer]

That looks like the paint failing and not the actual plastic? 

[bwck2000]

I am sorry to hear that. We should be held responsible for any defect on our units upon arrival. Seems the primer under the paint is not adhering well onto the body. Please email me your situation and let me send you an replacement.

[Mach3]

On 9/3/2021 at 5:17 PM, johnwmclean said:

Looks like a Chinese company that’s pricing using AUD.

I have wondered how they made their amps so cheap. What a steaming pile of crap.

No he just an Australian reseller for JR Audio in China.

[bourke]

Howdy, so this is where I step in with some helpful facts surrounding why ppl are buying JR gear, what Myheadfi is about and what can be used as constructive criticism to better the children for the future.

But first it's story time, once upon a time......

I started in headphones around 3 years, I had no stereo gear at all ever, PC sound out or car stereo, but always bought CD's to play.

Bought a AKG 712 Pro, then MONOPRICE 1060's, SENN HD700 and so on. When I found out about E-stats I eventually ended up here to learn what it's all about.

Prob read 1000 pages on all topologies, without knowing much background knowledge about SS or Tube amps, all Tube stage, 2 stage, 9 stage.

I know nothing about PCB or electronics, surface mount, through hole, all sounds Greek to me. What I do know about though is cold bore center-mass shots@ 1000yds and Benefication and Extraction of Earth's minerals.

So when it came to getting into E-stats, what are the options.....

And that's how I ended up with, Stax 353X, Stax-700T, JR Grounded Grid, JR KGHVSS Mini, JR Carbon, FLS Blue Hawaii...which all work, although QC is another story.

[bourke]

Something that erk'd me though was the trash talking about Vance@Myheadfi, so I had to say a bit on that for the record, which also covers why he's pushing JR gear.

I live on Ebay and there's not alot of E-stat gear on there, well not for us Internationals, US is usually post to 48 states.

When searching comes up with JR amps it's from Myheadfi listing, Vance is the owner and it's a one man band, I thought out of HK but I think could be China.

He came across JR coz he likes headphones and was getting into E-stats, then started to sell them.

MyHeadfi is a headphone shop that sells mostly secondhand and some new headphones/Iems/Dacs.

I've bought the 3 amps through him and a week ago I dropped another $1k on him for iems even after reading the "issues" the other user has with him.

I have atleast 50 emails between us over the last 2 years, and quite frankly is one of the most solid guys i've ever dealt with in the interwebs.

When you go to his website, it displays prices based on your location..i.e AUS is AUD, US is USD, EU is EUR.....Vance is smarts

And lastly, the iems I bought off him, I asked if he can check for imbalance before posting them, he sent me back a pic of the FR graph from a EARS  rig....if he's such a scammer why is his customer service so damn good😝

 

[Craig Sawyers]

So you joined an hour ago, and you're two pushy mails in. Did you not read and understand the welcome message?

[bourke]

Where can I find it, I don't see one.

[Craig Sawyers]

You should have received one along the lines of lurk and understand head-case before posting, and don't mistake others familiarity with each other as inviting you to join in.

This is NOT a conventional forum by any stretch of the imagination, and piling in with idiot messages is a sure fire way of you getting kicked out on your ass. If you want somewhere to just post rubbish, join head-fi https://www.head-fi.org/ .

I suggest you pipe the fuck down, lurk for some weeks and get a feel for the place. If indeed this is the place for you - which I strongly feel it isn't.

[rayofsi]

On 9/4/2021 at 5:09 PM, Sarieri said:

Mine arrived broken day one.

No issues with mine. i have 2 sets. once with a serial number in the 1x and one with a serial number in 3x.

[Sarieri]

Well I don't have a large sample of es1a. I can only speak for myself. The first one arrived with a tilted right driver and a headband with failing paints. The seller was nice and responsive though. He swapped me with a new set. drivers were fine this time, but the headband was still with failing paints. Sent me a sperate headband. Used for a month or so. Didn't fail this time but I doubt how long it's going to last. The paint of the headband doesn't look sturdy at all. I might be biased because of the back and forth. The earpads also mounted in a stupid way. Base plate under the earpads tilted up if you don't use a glue to fix it. In general, build quality of both side earcups are fine to me, but not the headband. It just feels like a cheap DIY unit instead of a well built product.

The point I want to make here is that it might be a better idea to get a 009 or 007 if you only plan to get one single electrostatic earspeaker. The es1a sounds just fine to me, but the build quality is not up to that level.

I do think the original Omega design limited them(or him) to design something better built. I personally can't think of a reason why it has to look like an Omega though. If you are making some crap like Hifiman R10 then there might be a reason to steal the fame of sony and bump up the sale. If you can design something sound decent enough just like this one, shouldn't it be a much better idea to just start with a new design instead of borrowing something a few decades old? 

[bwck2000]

After hearing your story I get to know which order it is. The custom border in China has been tight since COVID. They are taxing almost everything they receive so since then we are shipping headphone and product packaging separately exclusively for orders from China to avoid heavy tax. 

Furthermore, not only they will open each parcel that they receive they will also mess with it. According to your discription, In this case they put the headphone at the bottom of the cart box and took out most of the other shock absorption material. Not sure that they do this on purpose or not. From the photos you gave me the place where the paint falls off is always the same corner of the headband so that might explain it is due to impact during shipping.

The discount you asked for a month ago for second unit shipping to USA is still valid and I am certain that the same problem will not happen again including the tilted plate thing because the shock absorption material will be intact throughout the journey. After replacement the warranty is still valid so please give us an email if you have further concerns.

Since es1a is an omega clone and aims to recreate omega so it has to be omega-looking.

[Long Way Around]

Thank you for exposing those crooks. They always advertise their wares on a couple of facebook groups I'm on. I might start circulating a link to this page.

[spritzer]

Please do as there are a lot of people out there with broken crap by them.  I'm urging them to come forward with their stories so we'll see

[Turcoda]

On 9/7/2021 at 8:22 AM, bourke said:

Something that erk'd me though was the trash talking about Vance@Myheadfi, so I had to say a bit on that for the record, which also covers why he's pushing JR gear.

I live on Ebay and there's not alot of E-stat gear on there, well not for us Internationals, US is usually post to 48 states.

When searching comes up with JR amps it's from Myheadfi listing, Vance is the owner and it's a one man band, I thought out of HK but I think could be China.

He came across JR coz he likes headphones and was getting into E-stats, then started to sell them.

MyHeadfi is a headphone shop that sells mostly secondhand and some new headphones/Iems/Dacs.

I've bought the 3 amps through him and a week ago I dropped another $1k on him for iems even after reading the "issues" the other user has with him.

I have atleast 50 emails between us over the last 2 years, and quite frankly is one of the most solid guys i've ever dealt with in the interwebs.

When you go to his website, it displays prices based on your location..i.e AUS is AUD, US is USD, EU is EUR.....Vance is smarts

And lastly, the iems I bought off him, I asked if he can check for imbalance before posting them, he sent me back a pic of the FR graph from a EARS  rig....if he's such a scammer why is his customer service so damn good😝

 

I face palmed so hard I think I'm gonna have to call my physician tomorrow to have my palm surgically removed from my forehead. I work full time and I attend university now, so I don't know how to find the time to even begin addressing all the logical fallacies from your two posts, but here's the gist of it:

You claim to "cover[s] why he's pushing JR gear] by stating that it's "coz he likes headphones and was getting into E-stats, then started to sell them." Great. Very informative post after leading us with your initial promise of providing us with "constructive criticism to better the children for the future". Well, lets start with you presuming to understand a 3rd party's motives and intentions. I don't think you speak on his behalf here, but if you did, then this is the saddest bit of troll food I've ever seen in my life and can't fathom how this could possibly "educate children of the future". The drastically more realistic scenario here is that MyHeadFi is able to sell JR Audio with a significant enough margin because they both operate from the same country and likely struck some very significant business deal selling subpar electronic chinese parts without quality control - NOT because the owner of MyHeadfi "likes headphones". Oh boy.

Sure thing, lets take the fact that this owner sent you over 50 emails to mean that he is a well intentioned business dealer selling top quality audio gear. I'm not the least bit sure how number of emails and quality of hardware sold is positively correlated, but I think if we were to follow your logic then basically every local Bestbuy or walmart here would be qualified to sell you some Beats headphones and have it compete with the best. Furthermore, if quality and email count were correlated, I must state that Vance ALSO sent me upwards of 50+ emails to me in less than a few weeks and promised me that no headphone amplifier had ever been sent back to him for repair and that they never once broke down. In the end, after all was said and done, of those emails, the bulk of them ended up being either threats or lies. He did NOT respond to my emails in a prompt manner and when he did respond, he did so in a very round-about fashion. Regardless of all this, Mjolnir Audio also sent me over 50+ emails with far more insightful and helpful bits of information when looking for alternatives. If we're to make purchasing decisions based on email counts, I think we have far better options than Vance here.

So here's the other fallacy that I need to point out. You asked: "if he's such a scammer why is his customer service so damn good?... well let me answer why this question is entirely too biased based on your particular experience. He's had you hooked for multiple purchases and its in his best interest to have you see him in a favorable light. So, for one thing, all of your transactions went smooth and your gear functions properly so far - I assume. Honestly, judging by your comments, this is probably because you upgrade faster than your gear deteriorates. The biasness arises because you've never had to experience dealing with him when something went wrong. That's were the problem lies: it's one thing to judge someone's behavior when everything is all rainbows and unicorns, but what happens when the going gets rough and there is a hiccup? What happens when part of your gear starts to fail? THAT is the real judge of character right there.

In the dealings I had with Vance, he refused to offer any kind of refund. Here's what he wrote to me (And also what I had to write to my statements with VISA in order to get the charges reversed):

I asked Vance multiple times for a refund or an exchange with a new item. The last time I had asked, he finally caved and replied with this:

"Yes, you can exchange for something else when it's returned, probably KGSS?"

You should note here that the replacement item in question is for a KGSS and I wanted to exchange it for another KGSSHV, NOT his KGSS that is being sold for HALF the cost of a KGSSHV. Woooow total scam.

Prior to that he was incredibly reluctant to exchange with anything at all, and when I asked for a refund, he countered by offering to "help me" by repairing the amp and selling it for me on his site's marketplace as a used item. LOL. What a crook. I therefore had to ask him what kind of loss I would take if I did so and he never replied to that email. I have the full email thread as proof, and it reads exactly like you would think communicating with a child reads like.

When I told Vance about the blown rectifier and the dead unit he responded with "It should be just the fuse burnt, sometimes there's surge in the mains and the fuse burnt to protect the circuit." Vance is just generally unknowledgeable about amplifier electronics.

In the end, Vance only offered to send me replacement parts to repair the item's issues and didn't want to offer service to repair the unit until after I had contacted visa with complaints. In the VISA dispute he argued his case by stating that his return policy excluded faulty items from being returned. See attached image from the dispute. Vance essentially argued that a "myheadfi.com does not accept return of a brand new item with valid warranty", which turns out to basically be the biggest pile of steaming garbage I've ever read in my life. Logically it means that any item with warranty cannot be returned, which would translate that to mean every item he sells. Does that mean that the only way to bypass this beautiful piece of logic is to wait until the warranty period expired and THEN try to return it? Lol I'm sure waiting a year to return something would work even better... Wow. This folks is what you have to look forward to when dealing with crooks. He lost the case. And with good reason.

 

[Turcoda]

On 9/5/2021 at 8:42 AM, bwck2000 said:

I am sorry to hear that. We should be held responsible for any defect on our units upon arrival. Seems the primer under the paint is not adhering well onto the body. Please email me your situation and let me send you an replacement.

If my order comes in the next month for my brand spanking new KGSSHV from Mjolnir, I think I'll be buying this unit from you as well. I feel like the drivers are the most significant factor of a headphone, and I don't see any quality issue with that yet. If you stand by the quality of your product overall, I don't see an issue with buying an ES1A from you. I'm looking for insanely fast transient response from my electrostatic drivers and I want sharp, articulate sound. I fear the 007s might not be to my taste, and I feel like your unit would fit my taste as well as the 009s for significantly less. I feel like headband issues, were they to ever arise, could easily be resolved in the future. Driver issues would be another thing entirely.

[Juansan2]

5 hours ago, Turcoda said:

I face palmed so hard I think I'm gonna have to call my physician tomorrow to have my palm surgically removed from my forehead. I work full time and I attend university now, so I don't know how to find the time to even begin addressing all the logical fallacies from your two posts, but here's the gist of it:

You claim to "cover[s] why he's pushing JR gear] by stating that it's "coz he likes headphones and was getting into E-stats, then started to sell them." Great. Very informative post after leading us with your initial promise of providing us with "constructive criticism to better the children for the future". Well, lets start with you presuming to understand a 3rd party's motives and intentions. I don't think you speak on his behalf here, but if you did, then this is the saddest bit of troll food I've ever seen in my life and can't fathom how this could possibly "educate children of the future". The drastically more realistic scenario here is that MyHeadFi is able to sell JR Audio with a significant enough margin because they both operate from the same country and likely struck some very significant business deal selling subpar electronic chinese parts without quality control - NOT because the owner of MyHeadfi "likes headphones". Oh boy.

Sure thing, lets take the fact that this owner sent you over 50 emails to mean that he is a well intentioned business dealer selling top quality audio gear. I'm not the least bit sure how number of emails and quality of hardware sold is positively correlated, but I think if we were to follow your logic then basically every local Bestbuy or walmart here would be qualified to sell you some Beats headphones and have it compete with the best. Furthermore, if quality and email count were correlated, I must state that Vance ALSO sent me upwards of 50+ emails to me in less than a few weeks and promised me that no headphone amplifier had ever been sent back to him for repair and that they never once broke down. In the end, after all was said and done, of those emails, the bulk of them ended up being either threats or lies. He did NOT respond to my emails in a prompt manner and when he did respond, he did so in a very round-about fashion. Regardless of all this, Mjolnir Audio also sent me over 50+ emails with far more insightful and helpful bits of information when looking for alternatives. If we're to make purchasing decisions based on email counts, I think we have far better options than Vance here.

So here's the other fallacy that I need to point out. You asked: "if he's such a scammer why is his customer service so damn good?... well let me answer why this question is entirely too biased based on your particular experience. He's had you hooked for multiple purchases and its in his best interest to have you see him in a favorable light. So, for one thing, all of your transactions went smooth and your gear functions properly so far - I assume. Honestly, judging by your comments, this is probably because you upgrade faster than your gear deteriorates. The biasness arises because you've never had to experience dealing with him when something went wrong. That's were the problem lies: it's one thing to judge someone's behavior when everything is all rainbows and unicorns, but what happens when the going gets rough and there is a hiccup? What happens when part of your gear starts to fail? THAT is the real judge of character right there.

In the dealings I had with Vance, he refused to offer any kind of refund. Here's what he wrote to me (And also what I had to write to my statements with VISA in order to get the charges reversed):

I asked Vance multiple times for a refund or an exchange with a new item. The last time I had asked, he finally caved and replied with this:

"Yes, you can exchange for something else when it's returned, probably KGSS?"

You should note here that the replacement item in question is for a KGSS and I wanted to exchange it for another KGSSHV, NOT his KGSS that is being sold for HALF the cost of a KGSSHV. Woooow total scam.

Prior to that he was incredibly reluctant to exchange with anything at all, and when I asked for a refund, he countered by offering to "help me" by repairing the amp and selling it for me on his site's marketplace as a used item. LOL. What a crook. I therefore had to ask him what kind of loss I would take if I did so and he never replied to that email. I have the full email thread as proof, and it reads exactly like you would think communicating with a child reads like.

When I told Vance about the blown rectifier and the dead unit he responded with "It should be just the fuse burnt, sometimes there's surge in the mains and the fuse burnt to protect the circuit." Vance is just generally unknowledgeable about amplifier electronics.

In the end, Vance only offered to send me replacement parts to repair the item's issues and didn't want to offer service to repair the unit until after I had contacted visa with complaints. In the VISA dispute he argued his case by stating that his return policy excluded faulty items from being returned. See attached image from the dispute. Vance essentially argued that a "myheadfi.com does not accept return of a brand new item with valid warranty", which turns out to basically be the biggest pile of steaming garbage I've ever read in my life. Logically it means that any item with warranty cannot be returned, which would translate that to mean every item he sells. Does that mean that the only way to bypass this beautiful piece of logic is to wait until the warranty period expired and THEN try to return it? Lol I'm sure waiting a year to return something would work even better... Wow. This folks is what you have to look forward to when dealing with crooks. He lost the case. And with good reason.

 

I genuinely cannot understand why some people would even contest your and Spritzer's findings, especially with all the photographic evidence provided. I appreciate that a scammer feels the need to protect his imagine in order to continue making money but to come on a place like this (of all the forums) and peddle this moronic BS beggars belief. The more these things are reported the better off we will all be, however much these people/companies disappear and then pop back up. 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Juansan2

[luvdunhill]

On 9/7/2021 at 7:22 AM, bourke said:

When you go to his website, it displays prices based on your location..i.e AUS is AUD, US is USD, EU is EUR.....Vance is

 

Makes sense. I can see why you were easily impressed!

[Long Way Around]

I'm seeing less and less "JR Audio" but more and more similar looking "Felista Audio" amps being flogged on facebook.

Here's a Blue Hawaii build that they are sharing - of course, no photos of the inside.

I'm fairly certain that Felista and JR are one and the same (or a very similar enterprise), but I wonder if anyone can confirm or deny that?

 

[spritzer]

See the Megatron thread to read about everything Felista Audio... its about par with Jr audio in build quality. 

[tumpux]

No, Felitsa is based in Vietnam. 
JR is based in China. 

[justin]

On 9/2/2021 at 6:12 PM, Juansan2 said:

I completely forgot about McAllister 

Edited July 14, 2023 by justin

[spritzer]

They are still going and I really want one of these amps for my wall of shame.   

[Spork]

3 hours ago, justin said:

I completely forgot about McAllister 

Inspirational!
So if I were to buy some random electronic bits and pieces and throw them in a shoebox I could call myself and amp' builder?