Joined
·
24 Posts
Has anyone else had similar or better experiences?
Several years ago, I waited three years for Kyle of Reference Audio Mods to complete/mod the personally hand selected components for my "World Class, West Coast RAM Showroom System". $28,000 later I have one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL BOAT ANCHOR SYSTEMS ever made. I traveled over 35 times taking 3 1/2 hours in each road trip to his parent's house to check on my systems progress, (he works on his mother's kitchen table) only to find that half of our appointments were not kept as either he hadn't made it home from the night before or had female distractions, that's what he professionally treated MY business!!
Here is a list of unresolved issues from day one:
1. Custom Marantz 8260 universal CD/DVD transport W/Cocobola Chassis that from the 1st day didn't play anything more than a few select Cd's in redbook and within the first year stopped playing altogether. Marantz refused to service the dreaded TOC error as Kyle's work negated the warrentee which he also refused to honor. I always wondered why he chose a component with known TOC issues??
2. Silver Rock TVC preamp in a Custom Cocobola Chassis that despite my repeated requests STILL only has ONE input. I guess this was Too Much to ask of you Kyle? I only paid excess of $5000 for this little GEM!
3. Custom modded Carver ZR-1600 D Class Amp that he smoked right in front of my eyes and dispute a world wide power advertisement campaign launched between he and his last Carver client he quickly discontinued as unreliable however refused to take back. Oh yes, he matched this 600 watt pro audio amp with his 98db efficient 60 watt $10,600 bent wood horn speakers that blew the tweeters in the first 2 months of use. A short in the way he wired up the output RCA's caused the problem with the AMP and the speaker failure in one swift act! To his credit was repaired, yet I still couldn't stand the high frequency hiss that remained and heard over the music. I never was able to use and was quickly replaced with some jumbo tubed Amps. Later I found two HUGE Oil In Paper capacitors (a $300 charge for these) that were NOT even hooked up & super glued inside, his excuse was that he tried to cure the lack luster bass response (which didn't work out and said he left in place for me to try again later). Nice eh?? This piece O' Crap cost me $4,500!!! Oh, did I mention the 30 LB. $1500 custom transformer? Later I learned that this amp was sold for $1000 and returned from another dissatisfied customer who didn't like the sound either and threatened to sue. Thanks for the memories!! !!
4. Kyle delivered his custom $5,500 power filter system that amounted to a series of coils, capacitors and a huge transformer that sat loosely on two pieces of 2x6 boards he found behind his father's garage. His promises to install in a covered hard wood box for my protection left unfinished and proved to be a fire hazard and with open wiring had to be removed so my dogs didn't electrocute themselves. Kyle are these products UL approved???
5. AS a 30 yr veteran jeweler I watched Kyle work with limited tools, basically a cheap Weller solder iron and his fathers Fluke Multimeter. What no scope or any other testing gear? I observed and listened his excusse for absolutely the worst soldering techniques where he feels that globs of solder, like super glue was excessively used as he had past problems in shipping returns, his work was a geniune mess. Real "CRAPS MAN SHIP" here folks, I personally bought him a MetCal solder station which did help but his sloppy workmanship remains the biggest problem. I can't trust him to fix and can't sell them for parts!
His response to all of these issues was "Jim if you want MORE sound, you'll have to pay for it"??
Several years ago, I waited three years for Kyle of Reference Audio Mods to complete/mod the personally hand selected components for my "World Class, West Coast RAM Showroom System". $28,000 later I have one of the MOST BEAUTIFUL BOAT ANCHOR SYSTEMS ever made. I traveled over 35 times taking 3 1/2 hours in each road trip to his parent's house to check on my systems progress, (he works on his mother's kitchen table) only to find that half of our appointments were not kept as either he hadn't made it home from the night before or had female distractions, that's what he professionally treated MY business!!
Here is a list of unresolved issues from day one:
1. Custom Marantz 8260 universal CD/DVD transport W/Cocobola Chassis that from the 1st day didn't play anything more than a few select Cd's in redbook and within the first year stopped playing altogether. Marantz refused to service the dreaded TOC error as Kyle's work negated the warrentee which he also refused to honor. I always wondered why he chose a component with known TOC issues??
2. Silver Rock TVC preamp in a Custom Cocobola Chassis that despite my repeated requests STILL only has ONE input. I guess this was Too Much to ask of you Kyle? I only paid excess of $5000 for this little GEM!
3. Custom modded Carver ZR-1600 D Class Amp that he smoked right in front of my eyes and dispute a world wide power advertisement campaign launched between he and his last Carver client he quickly discontinued as unreliable however refused to take back. Oh yes, he matched this 600 watt pro audio amp with his 98db efficient 60 watt $10,600 bent wood horn speakers that blew the tweeters in the first 2 months of use. A short in the way he wired up the output RCA's caused the problem with the AMP and the speaker failure in one swift act! To his credit was repaired, yet I still couldn't stand the high frequency hiss that remained and heard over the music. I never was able to use and was quickly replaced with some jumbo tubed Amps. Later I found two HUGE Oil In Paper capacitors (a $300 charge for these) that were NOT even hooked up & super glued inside, his excuse was that he tried to cure the lack luster bass response (which didn't work out and said he left in place for me to try again later). Nice eh?? This piece O' Crap cost me $4,500!!! Oh, did I mention the 30 LB. $1500 custom transformer? Later I learned that this amp was sold for $1000 and returned from another dissatisfied customer who didn't like the sound either and threatened to sue. Thanks for the memories!! !!
4. Kyle delivered his custom $5,500 power filter system that amounted to a series of coils, capacitors and a huge transformer that sat loosely on two pieces of 2x6 boards he found behind his father's garage. His promises to install in a covered hard wood box for my protection left unfinished and proved to be a fire hazard and with open wiring had to be removed so my dogs didn't electrocute themselves. Kyle are these products UL approved???
5. AS a 30 yr veteran jeweler I watched Kyle work with limited tools, basically a cheap Weller solder iron and his fathers Fluke Multimeter. What no scope or any other testing gear? I observed and listened his excusse for absolutely the worst soldering techniques where he feels that globs of solder, like super glue was excessively used as he had past problems in shipping returns, his work was a geniune mess. Real "CRAPS MAN SHIP" here folks, I personally bought him a MetCal solder station which did help but his sloppy workmanship remains the biggest problem. I can't trust him to fix and can't sell them for parts!
His response to all of these issues was "Jim if you want MORE sound, you'll have to pay for it"??
