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My hifi journey has had a bumpy ride the last month so if you’re looking for a warm fuzzy story then read no further.

 

Just over two years ago I ordered an Audiomods tonearm from Turned On Audio, I needed balanced connections with a floating ground at source end and supplied wiring diagrams to ensure there would be no issues. The tonearm turned up wired incorrectly, despite assurances to the contrary the wiring diagram had not been sent to the manufacturer.

 

I was then told the arm would be sent back to the UK to be rewired to my specs. When it was finally reinstalled on my TT it had weird static noises and would drop out intermittently on one channel so it was taken away again by the shop and several weeks later returned, it has worked fine ever since.

 

At the time I was told it was a grounding issue between the cartridge and tonearm.

 

Fast forward to late last year. The Audiomods arm has a micrometre option which allows easy and accurate VTA adjustment on the fly. A combination of a new cartridge (Lyra Delos, which is fussy about correct VTA settings) and Owen’s ruminations about the importance of such matters, I decided to enquire about the possibility of sending the arm back to have the micrometre option fitted.

 

Two requests to TOA about this went unanswered however after the third request I was finally forwarded an email from the manufacturer on the subject. They had obviously not read this correspondence before forwarding it to me because in it Audiomods had refused to modify or work on my arm in any way due to the modifications carried out by TOA.

 

It turns out my arm had not been sent back to be rewired as I had originally been told, this had in fact been done in house by TOA.

 

Further to this I was sent correspondence by Audiomods where they had told TOA the modifications they had done to rewire the arm to my required specs had now compromised the integrity of the wiring, in their words ‘the wiring loom is now scrap’. I have been told the subsequent grounding issues where likely caused by the aforementioned modifications. Gutted.

 

I went back to TOA with this information and despite initially being told in their opinion there was no problem as the arm had been working fine they eventually agreed to pay for the arm to be rewired however as I was going to send the arm back for the micrometre to be fitted anyway I had to pay to get it there, they would only pay for return shipping.

 

I shipped the arm to the UK mid-December but the pretty young lady at NZ Post did not tell me I needed a NZ Customs client code to get the thing out of the country and now UK Customs want proof that it was originally shipped from the UK to avoid paying duty getting it into the country.

 

I phoned TOA on Monday asking if they could supply this and was told they would see what they could do, I haven’t heard from them since. I have since received documentation from Audiomods (who have been fantastic about this the whole way through), this has been sent to UK Customs but the arm is still awaiting clearance.

 

Unfortunately that’s not the end of my woes, I’ve been having cable issues too but right now I need another drink….

 

[Copious amounts of formatting nonsense removed - Editor]

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I've cleaned up the formatting that was posted along with the contents. I hope I have correctly sliced up the paragraphs.

 

MS Word is evil, people. Evil!

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It is regretful you have had this episode as Turned On Audio in my books has an impeccable history of service and sales. But once in a while you do get a situation that for what ever reason unfolds into a nightmare. It would be interesting to get their side of this story.

 

 

 

It seems unusual the Audiomods company cocked the wiring up in the first place, would they not  know how to wire it according to instructions without the diagram?

 

 

 

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Verdana, sans; font-size: 12px;">I needed balanced connections with a floating ground at source end and supplied wiring diagrams to ensure there would be no issues</span>

 

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Neil Young from Turned-On Audio sent this a few minutes ago and asked me to post this on his behalf:

 

“Mark, let’s get some facts in order.

 

1. The wiring diagram was sent to Audiomods, who refused to wire it the way you wanted as it contravened a British standard which would open him to liability if anything went wrong (which had happened before apparently)

 

2. We told you this and offered to have it rewired which we did at our cost, to your specifications, against manufacturers advice (which we told you).

 

3. You were never told it was going back to Audiomods to be rewired.

 

4. The arm has worked perfectly (in your words, as per email to Audiomods) for the past 2 years. Asking for a full refund after two years on a perfectly working item is not sane.

 

5. You do not need a customs client code to send anything out of the country. How would anyone send anything anywhere if that was the case?

 

6. You called on Monday and I said I would see what I could find regarding the documentation. As you know we are not the distributor for Audiomods, so we have had to ask him to find what he could and we haven’t got anything yet.

 

7. There has been a lot more communication between us and Audiomods that you are not privy to.

 

Its very convenient that you only present the sides of the story that make you look like an innocent bystander and we look like evil manipulative dealers. We are under no obligation whatsoever to pay for any modifications (i.e. rewire) to your arm at all, but we are anyway, as a gesture of goodwill. Seeing as you obviously only interested in trying to make us look bad, perhaps we should rescind that offer.

 

We offered to help you, but your domineering and threatening attitude has certainly not garnered any sympathy.

 

You can’t win them all it would seem.

 

Regards,

 

Neil”

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No, not looking for sympathy, I thought long and hard about posting this and it brings me no joy.  I know you have many fans/friends around here who will choose to believe you can do know wrong.  I think both you and Paul are generally good guys which is why I had enjoyed whittling away many an hour in your shop but you have made some dubious decisions with regards to my tonearm.

 

 

Neil Young from Turned-On Audio sent this a few minutes ago and asked me to post this on his behalf:

 

“Mark, let’s get some facts in order.

 

1. The wiring diagram was sent to Audiomods, who refused to wire it the way you wanted as it contravened a British standard which would open him to liability if anything went wrong (which had happened before apparently).

 

You are conveniently forgetting to mention you never told me this when I ordered the arm, I only found out from the email Paul forwarded to me last year.  If the wiring diagram was sent as I originally requested then the refusal to wire it my way would have come before the arm was built and I would have looked at other options, why would I by an arm that was  not suitable for my phono stage?

 

2. We told you this and offered to have it rewired which we did at our cost, to your specifications, against manufacturers advice (which we told you).

 

Again, you never told me the wiring was against British Standards or that Audiomods refused to do it this way when I ordered the arm.  The email I have clearly shows you performed the modification in house and were told this compromised the integrity of the wiring loom.

 

3. You were never told it was going back to Audiomods to be rewired.

 

Must be my old age but I have a clear recollection of being told it was and being surprised when it turned up again so quickly.

 

4. The arm has worked perfectly (in your words, as per email to Audiomods) for the past 2 years. Asking for a full refund after two years on a perfectly working item is not sane.

 

I said it worked fine in my original post.  I did tell Paul if the wiring wasn't sorted properly I would be requesting my money back.  I can't help it if you don't think this is not reasonable.

 

5. You do not need a customs client code to send anything out of the country. How would anyone send anything anywhere if that was the case?

 

Well they made me get one, I can't help it if you don't believe me.  Suggest you Google 'NZ Customs Client Code'

 

6. You called on Monday and I said I would see what I could find regarding the documentation. As you know we are not the distributor for Audiomods, so we have had to ask him to find what he could and we haven’t got anything yet.

 

I also said I could get this from Audiomods but was hoping you could supply something quicker, you new I was anxious to get it sorted so a follow up would have been good customer service.  I have the docs now anyway thank you.

 

7. There has been a lot more communication between us and Audiomods that you are not privy to.

 

Well if it helps clarify any misunderstanding on my part why haven't you sent it to me.  Audiomods have been very open and honest in all their communication to me.

 

Its very convenient that you only present the sides of the story that make you look like an innocent bystander and we look like evil manipulative dealers. We are under no obligation whatsoever to pay for any modifications (i.e. rewire) to your arm at all, but we are anyway, as a gesture of goodwill. Seeing as you obviously only interested in trying to make us look bad, perhaps we should rescind that offer. We offered to help you, but your domineering and threatening attitude has certainly not garnered any sympathy.

 

Really, the arm was handed over to me by you after you had been told the wiring loom was scrap, this fact can't be denied.  I don't see how any of this is my fault, you didn't offer to do anything but had to be persuaded to fix it.

 

Domineering and threatening, read my first post again Neil I was very careful to leave personality out of this. 

 

Manipulative most likely but not evil, they're your words not mine, who's the one looking for sympathy?

 

You can’t win them all it would seem. Regards, Neil”

 

 

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It seems unusual the Audiomods company cocked the wiring up in the first place, would they not know how to wire it according to instructions without the diagram?

 

 

 

It's floating balanced which means that the ground/shield is open at source end. This contravenes a British standard which is why Audiomods will not wire it this way and the only work around for me to hook the arm up to my phono stage is for it to be wired with a 5 pin DIN plug (which is why it has been sent back) this means I've had to go and buy a balanced phono cable.  I ordered and paid for one a month ago (from the UK) but the shop didn't tell me they didn't have it in stock and are still waiting for it to show up from the manufacturer.

 

While all this was going on before Xmas I had a rat get in to the my room and chew through one lead on a Kimber Monocle speaker cable. I sent that off to the local distributor to be repaired a month ago as well but it has to go to Kimber in the States to be reterminated. I was told last week it may not be back until the end of February.

 

Bottom line is I've had to spend nearly $2000 on my system just to get it back to a status quo, and no vinyl in my house for a couple of months.

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My God I can't believe this story. Audiomods what is the problem in a tone arm cable what voltage and current are we dealing with here .1, 1 or 10,000 volts????

 

Very low safe current and voltage in reality. This is rubbish. They should have wired it they way you wanted it with the proviso that if you incurred hums or issues they were not at fault. No law against this here. Forget the Din plug the most awful plug invented even though Naim used it for years. The Poms are prone to quirky things. Hind sight which is a wonderful  thing probably should have bought the standard arm and had someone like Chris Marquet(Auckland) tweek it for you.

 

Rats you say rats gosh you need a good CAT. They love sleeping on warm amplifiers. The only rats I ever see are dead under my kitchen table thank God, while the cat sleeps on my amps(Plinius are good for something).

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I don't think there is anything more for us to talk about,  I'd had a couple (this should be obvious from the spell check errors)  and I guess I just wanted to vent.

 

I did float the idea of signing some sort of disclaimer with Audiomods however some people just won't bend the rules for any reason, it is frustrating but I have no problem with that.

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I really can see no benefit to either party in dealing with this matter publicly on the forum. I am not sure that using the forum for this purpose ultimately benefits any of us - are we all going to publish names whenever we are disgruntled in an effort to gain advantage? I do have an opinion on this but I cannot see any point in public debate of an issue which should be sorted privately between the two individual parties, or in a small claims court.

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I'm not trying to deal with the matter publicly to better my position, we have negotiated a settlement which is in the process of being actioned.  I have previously spoken very highly of TOA and recommended the shop to anyone interested in buying hifi gear (both here and in the real world) which I know has resulted in sales for them.  As Robocop has alluded to you can't please all of the people all of the time and I see no reason why I should keep what I consider poor service to myself.

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It’s floating balanced which means that the ground/shield is open at source end. This contravenes a British standard which is why Audiomods will not wire it this way and the only work around for me to hook the arm up to my phono stage is for it to be wired with a 5 pin DIN plug (which is why it has been sent back) this means I’ve had to go and buy a balanced phono cable. I ordered and paid for one a month ago (from the UK) but the shop didn’t tell me they didn’t have it in stock and are still waiting for it to show up from the manufacturer.
Chaps, a couple of geek points - firstly, technically the tonearm connector is not a DIN plug, its a Japanese JIS 5 pin tonearm connector - they came up with it I believe.

 

Secondly, what is the 'British Standard' for this? It is usual & technically good practice for the ground conductor of the phono cable (incl. cable shield if any)  to connect to the preamp Gnd. (The signal +/- of ea ch, 4 conductors would be separate of course). If you do not connect the tonearm body to the phono cable Gnd, then the tonearm would be unGrounded - not usual recommended practice.  Similarly, the TT chassis is usually Grounded via the tonearm metalwork & phono cable to preamp. (The TT motor, if Grounded, is done so separately to Mains Earth.)

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I don’t think there is anything more for us to talk about,  I’d had a couple (this should be obvious from the spell check errors)  and I guess I just wanted to vent.

 

It would be best if you did not post whilst drinking. Clearly from your posts you are confused.

 

Why would you expect a full refund after acknowledging that the arm has been working fine for 2 years ?

 

I am surprised that you did not accuse TOA of being responsible for the Rat chewing through your speakers cables.

 

You might like to look at a speaker upgrade - Kharma are reputed to be very good.

 

 

 

 

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Hi Owen - The phono stage is an Aqvox which the user manual shows the need for the shield to be open at source end.  I don't know the specific British standard that is referred to, sorry.

 

Oracle - So  you would be happy to pay $1650 for a brand new tonearm that has been modified by the retailer to a point where it is no longer supported by manufacturer?

 

 

 

And yes I would have requested a full refund but would have settled for less given that I have had the use of it for the last two years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi Owen – The phono stage is an Aqvox which the user manual shows the need for the shield to be open at source end. I don’t know the specific British standard that is referred to, sorry.
That's OK, the Aqvox is specifically designed for balanced input. (Also incorporates the 'Neuman Time Constant' in its RIAA, as mentioned in my now-ancient piece Secrets of the Phono Stage.)

 

Even if the tonearm and TT chassis are connected to one shield/Gnd conductor of the phono cable (as it should), the shield is still 'open' at the 'source' (cartridge) end because the tonearm & TT chassis are floating/not Grounded. I think this is what you mean by 'open'. Aqvox's wiring diagram is standard modern balanced XLR.

 

 

 

 

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Oracle – So  you would be happy to pay $1650 for a brand new tonearm that has been modified by the retailer to a point where it is no longer supported by manufacturer?

 

You are being disingenuous.

 

It is clear that the non standard wiring was requested by you. You acknowledged that the arm has been working fine for 2 years.

 

You sent the arm to the manufacturer for an upgrade. This implies that you are wrong when you claim that the manufacturer does not support the product.

 

I doubt that you paid $1650 for this arm and would challenge you to produce a copy of the original invoice.

 

The only thing that rings true here is your moniker "Harvey the Snake Oil Merchant".

 

 

 

 

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 It is clear that the non standard wiring was requested by you. You acknowledged that the arm has been working fine for 2 years.

 

The wiring diagram was sent to TOA just after I had ordered the arm with the request it be sent to the manufacturer.  It can't have been otherwise  (as I said earlier) the refusal to build the arm as requested would have come before it was built and we wouldn't be having this conversation.  I have emails from the manufacturer to support this, and no you can't see them.

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You sent the arm to the manufacturer for an upgrade. This implies that you are wrong when you claim that the manufacturer does not support the product.

 

As I said earlier, the manufacturer refused to modify the arm as the wiring loom had been modified to a point where it's integrity was compromised.

 

The agreement to modify it was made because we had also reached an agreement for the wiring loom to be replaced at the same time.  I have emails from the manufacturer to prove this and no you can't see them.

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 I doubt that you paid $1650 for this arm and would challenge you to produce a copy of the original invoice.

 

Actually you are right it was $1500, the $1600 figure was what I paid TOA for my Lyra Delos last year.  No you can't see the invoice I can't be arsed, but I will flagellate myself suitably for the mistake.

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Owen - I checked my correspondence and it is an Audio Engineering standard AES48 for passive to active component which states "Use balanced connectors wherever possible with the shield bonded to the metal chassis at both ends"

 

Also, in the interest of complete disclosure (goodness knows it would come back to bite me otherwise) when checking my emails I saw that I did request a full refund in the first instance and ended up agreeing to have the arm rewired instead.

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