Ok here we go... I am the owner of the R10s in question. I have been lurking on these boards for years while I have quietly built my stash. I currently own a Woo5 LE fully upgraded that was designed and built by Jack to be used exclusively with my R10s. I sold my original Woo5 to Raylinds. I also own an SDS-XLR as well as am about to take possession(after CanJam) of Mikhails crowning acheivement: an ES2 mercury rectified 24 tubed power supply. I am very close with Mikhail and have worked with Jack for quite some time. Both can vouch for my character and consistency.
I was hoping my first post on headfi would be a bit more positive but I guess we need to get this out of the way. I originally purchased my R10s from Hart at Audio Advancement(another character reference). Mikhail susequently modified one pair to balanced to be used with my SDS-XLR. When I moved to the Woo5 I wanted to return them to single ended. Now as much as I love Mikhail I didn't want my R10s languishing in his factory for months so I opted to send them to Jenalabs after reading about Jennifers supposed expertise with R10s on headfi. I spoke with her first and she sounded convincing.
Jennifer recabled these phones first with 18g/22g wire. I complained that they were veiled, muffled, without extension and overly resonant. She responded that I was crazy and that these were in fact the best pair of R10s that she and Ken had ever listened to. Given her reputation in the industry I was beginning to doubt my ears. Nonetheless I returned them for recabling with only 22g wire hoping this would tame some of the boominess. I sent my second pair along for comparison. Again I heard the same thing. Jennifer insisted my hearing was off and that the recabled phones sounded so much better than the stock cabling. This time there was also a channel imbalance L<R. I told Jennifer to just replace the stock cable and I would figure it out some how not really knowing what to do at this point.
Jennifer ended up charging me a ridiculous $1000 for all the cable switching and never said a word.
Shortly after I learned of Alex and his experience with R10s. In talking to him I could immediately tell he had a completely different understanding and experience with the R10s. I sent him the pair in question to examine. Alex called me shortly after opening them up to give me a detailed description of what had went horribly wrong at Jenalabs. I will not be redundant here please refer to Alex's site for details.
Now when Mikhail recabled these phones he cut the external cable and soldered on the new one. Jennifer was quick to point out this "shoddy" work and showcase it on her website. Yet as a result of only cutting the cable the drivers were never removed and hence were not damaged during this modification. Although it was not the greatest.
The issues at hand relate more to Jennifers response and actions once I confronted her with her incompetence. When I called her and told her what Alex had found she was stunned silent. She then said "What do you want?" I told her I only wanted my R10s fixed. When I asked how the voice coil tore she said it was very fragile and it occurred on the second cable change. She states she had glued it back. I told her it wasn't done properly and hence the problems with the sound. She was silent again.
She said she would try and locate a new pair of replacement drivers and call me back. Days went by without a response. When I finally emailed her I was really starting to get pissed off. I told her that I wanted my $1000 refunded less the cost of the AC outlets and CD cleaner I had purchased. Still no response. When I called her again she was very short with me and stated she would "reply by Registered letter" and hung up on me. When I called back she hung up on me again. She sent me an email that stated not to email her anymore and I would be receiving a registered letter shortly.
I had had enough. I emailed her telling her not only did I want my money refunded I also wanted her to pay for the repair of the phones. Still no reply. Eventually i received a 5 page document email outlining the companies refund policy among other things. Jennifer stated she refused to refund any money. Not only that she also stated that the entire job should have cost closer to $4000 but she would call it even at $1000 and we would both walk away. She also denied ever having admitted to me in our conversation that she was responsible for damaging the headphones. Her long discourse was her apparent attempt at damage control.
I must have emailed Jennifer 4-5 times. I told her that the right thing to do would be to just take responsibility and make it right with the customer. I was very clear that if this was aired on the internet the damage to her reputation and future business would be far greater then any refund. I practically begged her to do the right thing to make this go away. I still got no response. So here we are. To bad because I would rather be listening to music.
Jenalabs had no right putting themselves out there as qualified to repair R10s. My real issue comes with the ridiculous lies, deceit and avoidance of both the customer and taking responsibilitythat came after. Jennifer is anything but stupid. Yet I am at a loss as to why she decided to play this one this way. I hope this clears things up a little. I'm sure this won't be the last of this thread.
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