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Buyer Beware

This is my first post on Audiogon Forum but I have been a audiophile for almost fifty years. I like to buy and sell used equipment because it gives a chance to try a much wider range of products. Recently I wanted to try different USB cables and in that process I purchased two products from Mad Scientist Audio. One was their Black Magic and the other was the Ultra version. Both were purchased used from different sellers. I own two systems and decided to keep both. In both systems I use a AMR DP-777SE dac. In the system using the standard Black Magic USB the system was not using the built in volume control. About 2 month after purchasing the cable I tried using the internal volume control in the dac and it only worked at full volume. Thinking the dac was faulty I sent it back to TMR (great company) for evaluation. They tested it for 2 weeks in every configuration possible and determined it was working as it should. When i got the unit back (after a cost of approx. $200) I determined that the problem was the Black Magic USB cable. I contacted Bob at Mad Scientist Audio by email multiple times and he replied that his cable is incompatible with 1 in 50 produces and mine must be the 1. I then tried it in two other systems and also had the same results. Either the volume control didn't work or  I would get cracking noises. after many emails back and forth Bob would not exchange the cable for a working one and only offered to sell me a Ultra cable at a discount. I don't know what his profit margin or warranty policy is but I have never experienced this especially with a cable manufacture, I offered to send it back to him so that he could access the problem but in the end his last email read "Therefore I don't think it's worth you wasting anymore money trying to fix or exchange your cable." Very disappointing. The cable is now in the trash. I know that this is a small boutique manufacture but with the controversy regarding cable costs and  if expensive cable are necessary I thought that buy telling my story maybe it would alleviate this situation with this company. 

sdorfman58
bigkidz
3,444 posts
 

Buyer beware from who the sellers?  As a manufacturer of audio components, we try and test our components in multiple systems most of the time for noise as our products are tube designs.  It is impossible to manufacture a product and know how it will work in every system.  Just not possible to know.

Obviously, we back our products sold new if something should occur.  Never had this situation but I guess we would at least be interested in understanding why our product did not work as intended.  Seems like MS knows about this situation though.  Always willing to learn but we probably would not back a used product as we would not know what happened to the product from a previous owner.  We would work with the last owner and try our best to accommodate them for repair expense.  Hard to say if we could replicate the issue though.

I think your topic is misleading though as you seem to be putting the blame on the manufacturer.

Happy Listening.

ticat's avatar
ticat
392 posts
 

… so glad to not have to deal with situations like this anymore… (Retired and glad to be…)

kennyc
2,020 posts
 

So the OP is griping that the manufacturer isn't giving him a freebee service for an out of warranty product? 

ned1000
28 posts
 

Thank you for your post ! it highlights again ( if we needed any more confirmation)  that high priced cables are snake oil we have more evidence here 
the USB they sell , the cables are $300 to 1199  new 
i watched carefully the YT videos by Audioholics  Gene a real audio engineer who tests empiricly and has been honest for 40 years!  
he exposed the fraud of cables like audio quest quite convincingly ! 
yet some flat eathers STILL persist in insisting  THEY can hear things that cannot  be measured . a fool and his $ is soon parted !  
NO and when you do double blind audio testing w/ someone else switching the cables you will quickly be exposed as fool who was parted fr his $ but people will spend the $ anyway so sometimes i wish i could sleep at night making expensive junk that does not really work. it is pretty cheap to do so too! HUGE profit margin! even if i used some good parts NO WAY would the price justify it 
There would STILL be people who insisted it was better , happy customers !
I would not have to prove a thing ! 
Gee ! you sure can't get away w/ that w/ Exotic cars! or car parts  Ferrari could never sell cars that did not work ! 
car magazines , and YT reviewers TEST cars, parts  and report the TRUTH they are believed .  how why is it some of you audiophiles ignore and deny truth , facts scientific proof and you believe lies ? some of you educated , intelligent advanced degreed professionals ! in your field of expertise you would NEVER assert things worked if they didn't . your research would be discredited your funding vanish . your personal professional reputation in tatters ! your peers would disown you ! 
I'd like a new Ferrari ! Cables are a license to print $ unethically 

dill
2,578 posts
 

After carefully reading this again ned1000, do you think you should be posting at 3:12 in the morning?

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