Pars Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 It was way more than that and goes back almost as far as when drewd was (justly) banned from HF. Oh yeah... him
F1GTR Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 This is easy to do. Just track it on the shipping site and don't pay until the package, which must be addressed correctly, is actually picked up. What isn't easy to do is to confirm that the box contains you expect. Shit...I would wait until it had made it to its first stop in another city before even thinking about making a payment. If it were me though, especially after hearing about Mr. Hankins experience, Mikhail wouldn't be seeing a dime until I had the box in hand and everything was accounted for.
n_maher Posted January 7, 2009 Author Report Posted January 7, 2009 I really wish Tom would post pictures of the power supply that he was shipped.
blubliss Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 Shit...I would wait until it had made it to its first stop in another city before even thinking about making a payment. If it were me though, especially after hearing about Mr. Hankins experience, Mikhail wouldn't be seeing a dime until I had the box in hand and everything was accounted for. I would wait until you had it, made sure it works and then provide him with some false money payment dates, and see how he likes it. On a very sour note, I just fried something (there is a black component in there) in my ES-2. I am looking for someone local to fix it, no way it is going into the morass. I don't think it was my fault but i did slightly move one of the tubes while it was on.
jp11801 Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 There has got to be a competent tech in the greater LA area that can work on the amp. Well just like Melos Audio Restoration formed after Melos folded maybe we can form SPAR Single Power Audio Restoration. There will be two tiers of service one straight forward and fair priced and another that offer the full experience of additional wait times, refusals to respond, unauthorized work being done and false shipping numbers, this service will of course be about double the standard rate as it is alot of work to do all that.
purk Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 I really wish Tom would post pictures of the power supply that he was shipped. I saw the PSU and tested the amp with Tom 3 weeks ago. The amp is housed inside a small-form Meastro chassis. The PSU was supposed to be made inside another Meastro chassis, instead it made inside of the "toaster" style PPX3 chassis. The transformer also has a dent it in.
Icarium Posted January 7, 2009 Report Posted January 7, 2009 Shit...I would wait until it had made it to its first stop in another city before even thinking about making a payment. If it were me though, especially after hearing about Mr. Hankins experience, Mikhail wouldn't be seeing a dime until I had the box in hand and everything was accounted for. Thing is money is the only leverage I have to get him to ship in the first place. If I don't use that leverage he very well may never ship my amp ever. What is there to compel him to ship my amp? Pleading... his word... threats of making public my plight... nothing has really worked. The only thing is he's been better about communication but words != amp. I've looked into small claims, but it's a very drastic solution that will not be cheap (1-lots of flights to colorado + accomodations + vacation days I need to expend to see this through) that won't recover the full amount of my investment (Max of 7500 dollars) nor the expenses I incur by pursuing it. And even if I somehow win and minimize expenses I have to deal with collection which not only is non-trivial but a pain to try and organize out of state. A class action law suit has been suggested as well, but I don't have the energy or experience to pursue organizing that. Moreover I don't know the state of his corporation or whether or not there is anything to tap even if we do win to cover the cost of the law suit and reimburse my expenses. Anyway I've only spent a couple hours looking into this stuff so if I have any wrong info or there is a path that I have not considered feel free to post a correction or shoot me a pm.
guzziguy Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 There has got to be a competent tech in the greater LA area that can work on the amp. Well just like Melos Audio Restoration formed after Melos folded maybe we can form SPAR Single Power Audio Restoration. There will be two tiers of service one straight forward and fair priced and another that offer the full experience of additional wait times, refusals to respond, unauthorized work being done and false shipping numbers, this service will of course be about double the standard rate as it is alot of work to do all that. Sounds to me like SPE* could easily become SPAR. Singlepower East
Icarium Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 Hooray a reply: Dan, It should be Okay. I'll know by tomorrow when I turn in my shipping plan for Thursday through Tuesday.
Hopstretch Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 When did next Tuesday become part of this week?
kevin gilmore Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 On a very sour note, I just fried something (there is a black component in there) in my ES-2. I am looking for someone local to fix it, no way it is going into the morass. I don't think it was my fault but i did slightly move one of the tubes while it was on. I've now seen enough Singlepower amplifiers to last a lifetime. The biggest single cause of failure on every one of the amplifiers is the massively shitty tube sockets. Same sockets on everything mikhail makes. On the ES1/2 units, wiggling the tubes with the power on can very quickly destroy the G2 or plate resistors. Problem is the tube socket is a non-standard size. The hole in the chassis is 1/32 of an inch too small to put in the really good tulip sockets. I've made a special punch to take care of this problem, but done correctly it is still quite a bit of work on the circuit board units, because you have to take the board out first. If you do it from the other direction, it leaves a sharp lip on the top of the chassis.
blubliss Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 I've now seen enough Singlepower amplifiers to last a lifetime. The biggest single cause of failure on every one of the amplifiers is the massively shitty tube sockets. Same sockets on everything mikhail makes. On the ES1/2 units, wiggling the tubes with the power on can very quickly destroy the G2 or plate resistors. Problem is the tube socket is a non-standard size. The hole in the chassis is 1/32 of an inch too small to put in the really good tulip sockets. I've made a special punch to take care of this problem, but done correctly it is still quite a bit of work on the circuit board units, because you have to take the board out first. If you do it from the other direction, it leaves a sharp lip on the top of the chassis. Thanks for the info . I guess I 'll get it working again and not touch it in the future. Anyway, I took the unit to Blackie Pagano today (he returned my call within a few hours ). His shop/house was really cool and he is 20 minutes from me (which is next door in Los Angeles ). He says it is a fried resistor or two that were in line, which probably resulted from a bad output tube, which I had changed the day before. He will give the unit a once over and make sure all seems ship-shape. I guess he can sort out the circuit from the one working channel. I doubt Mikhail will give me a schematic but i'll ask. Blackie tells me 4 weeks since he is so busy; i could see his line of amps and it was not short. Hopefully he is more reliable than Mikhail, which will not be very difficult. At least I can drop-in if he takes too long. Mikhail and his lies are just too frustrating for me. Let's hope Blackie is better. His repair rates are really low considering some of his clientele.
blubliss Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 Blackie's very well regarded Thanks, good to hear. He already taught me several things which Mikhail should have in the beginning. He said it is really important to have matched output tubes and I didn't know how important it was . He said my O2s were probably humming due to mismatched tubes??
luvdunhill Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 He said it is really important to have matched output tubes and I didn't know how important it was what, you listened to Nate? I keed, I keeed..... ok, better hide.
blubliss Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 what, you listened to Nate? I keed, I keeed..... ok, better hide. Is that for me or Nate . I asked Nate how important tube matching was after i got a set from him and did not get a reply. I think he may not like me
luvdunhill Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 I was misquoting Nate slightly, I think he would agree matched tubes are desirable, but hard to match unless you have the exact circuit to match the tubes in...
blubliss Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 I was misquoting Nate slightly, I think he would agree matched tubes are desirable, but hard to match unless you have the exact circuit to match the tubes in... Blackie mentioned something about matching tubes in a circuit as being ideal, i think? The technical talk is quite beyond me.
n_maher Posted January 8, 2009 Author Report Posted January 8, 2009 I was misquoting Nate slightly, I think he would agree matched tubes are desirable, but hard to match unless you have the exact circuit to match the tubes in... Yes, that is my theory. And of course some amps are less tolerant than others of tubes that behave differently. blubliss, I don't know you enough to not like you, must not have gotten the PM or it got lost in the Lily shuffle. What set of tubes did you get from me?
blubliss Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 Yes, that is my theory. And of course some amps are less tolerant than others of tubes that behave differently. blubliss, I don't know you enough to not like you, must not have gotten the PM or it got lost in the Lily shuffle. What set of tubes did you get from me? Yeah, I was kinda joking, figured you get a lot of PMs. I got a Tung-Sol 6F8G from you. Anyway, I am definitely going to be more careful with tube matching in the future and probably won't roll tubes too much. Just find something I like and stick with it.
luvdunhill Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 or just say a 50v offset with 400v rails is "acceptable" .. that's only like 10%, right?
Elephas Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 How about using an escrow service? I think that the large amounts of money and the likelihood of dishonesty on the part of SP justifies the cost and inconvenience. If everyone who deals with SP from now on is made aware of the history of deception and broken promises, and will only be willing to deal with SP if an escrow is used, we SP customers might be able to influence some changes. It's too late for me, Mikhail already has my money and I'm still waiting for a Supra-XLR. I am pleased with the ES-1 (formerly Icarium's) that I received in early Oct. though.
spritzer Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 I hope you get your amp up and running again Andy. Mismatched tubes could be the issue with the SR-007's but the extra volume required to push the Stax compared to the He90 could also be the culprit. That means more voltage on the plate which pushes the tubes even harder due to the grounded filament wiring.
Icarium Posted January 8, 2009 Report Posted January 8, 2009 How about using an escrow service? I think that the large amounts of money and the likelihood of dishonesty on the part of SP justifies the cost and inconvenience. If everyone who deals with SP from now on is made aware of the history of deception and broken promises, and will only be willing to deal with SP if an escrow is used, we SP customers might be able to influence some changes. It's too late for me, Mikhail already has my money and I'm still waiting for a Supra-XLR. I am pleased with the ES-1 (formerly Icarium's) that I received in early Oct. though. It's a good idea, but organizing customers esp ones that aren't on head-fi/head-case might be tricky. If a steady stream of big ticket customers break rank or aren't informed then he'll simply allocate his time towards those that are willing to pay up front or simply without escrow. He probably needs money to operate anyways. Also on the other hand if his business IS in dire straits financially then we risk giving him the death blow driving him into bankruptcy or worse and then its sadtimesx2 as far as getting what we are owed from him or even a busted/work in progress/incomplete thing. Sure he says he's doing fine, but he says a lot of things. If he fails to ship anything this week I'm going to research looking into the process of hiring a forensic accountant. If the cost is not prohibitive maybe we (Either I or perhaps a group of us who are owed something) can pull some money together and shed some light on the state of his business and plan our next course of action based on that.
Recommended Posts