Long story short: Please do not buy from, or use the 'services' of an audio component modification company called Tube Research Labs. Tube Research Labs They are scammers and liars, will not answers messages for 6 weeks+ on end, and don't even know what they're doing WRT audio component modification.
Short story long: After discovering the sound of a NOS DAC that I loved, and finding that support (at the time) was lacking, I decided to try other DACs which had the NOS sound, but not just a DAC-AH with the basic passive output and DAC chip bias corrections, I wanted something at 'the next level'.
My first purchase was a Audionote DAC 2.1 Level B. Which I built myself. It had some hum issues (regardless where I used it, my house or a friends, and regardless of what other components I used, I still had hum. I had it checked by a friend who has worked as an electronics engineer for the past 45 years, and he said it was simply the design of it letting it down in some respects, not my handiwork. (Hear me out, there's a point to this bit haha). Anyway, after several 5am calls to the American gentleman who sold it to me to try and debug, and much discussion. We can to an agreement for a refund. Great!
My next idea was to buy one of the well known and commonly used DACs and go 'ballistic' on it WRT mods. I chose the DAC-AH (remember I wanted the NOS sound, but suped up). In hindsight it was pretty silly, but after discussing with Paul Weitzel at TRL, I decided to buy a DAC-AH, send it to him, and paid him 1000USD for mods which were to include:
- Making the output passive (der).
- Higher bias for the DAC chips themselves.
- Reclocking work
- External battery power.
- Rearrangement of the signal lines and some other stuff to allow for the battery power and also to improve performance.
- Some other bits and pieces I've forgotten about cos this was nearly a year ago.
Anyway, Paul promised about a 1-2 month turn around. It ended up being about 5-7 months (can't remember exactly, CBF going back and checking exactly) and many MANY badgering emails on my part to get him to finally send it. He said he had health problems (which sucks, but if your in a business and your health is causing such delays, maybe you should get someone else to do the work, or get out of the business!). And also during that time, he admitted to having burnt/buggered one of the DAC chips, so he had to replace it. (WTF, even I can solder well enough not to kill and IC like that!). I insisted that he buy a whole new set of DAC chips from the same batch, because the TDA1543 chips are supposed to be well matched when used in audio applications. This of course took a few weeks (NFI why, they are still readily available). .
Anyway, the big day came and the DAC arrived. I pugged it in and tried the optical connection first (as a test). No sound at all. I tried the coax input. This time there was sound, but it was very muffled and had lots of static and crackling. WTF. I am experienced in troubleshooting with this kind of thing now (those who know my purchasing history wouldn't argue that point lol) and I tried multiple power points, multiple rooms, separate amps, sources, cables etc. Using the battery power and not using it. The problem was definitely the DAC-AH. So I opened it up. First thing I saw was the wire from the main PCB to the input switch lying completely disconnected. Second thing I saw was melted glue EVERYWHERE. Secondly, I saw several solder joins based almost entirely of THIN AIR. Then I saw some extremely dodgy rearrangement of some components, putting them dangerously close to other wires.
Then I opened up the external battery. A few cheap rechargeable batteries and all of them practically encrusted in epoxy/glue material, very messily.
I then took some photos and sent them to a friend who works at a different audio company, who sells Chinese stuff here in Australia, and also does his own modifications to the DAC-AH. Both he and my older engineering friend said there was less than 1 hour's work, and less than 20USD worth of new parts put into the DAC. They said the soldering was atrocious (I already knew that), and couldn't believe someone would charge 1000USD for what was done, let alone 100USD. There was also nothing to be seen as far as 'reclocking work'... AT ALL.
When I rang Paul and discussed it with him, he became very rude, and swore at me. I wasn't going to be 'taken for a ride', and made it clear that I wasn't unhappy with the fact that the DAC didn't work, I was unhappy with the fact that I could see what was/WASN'T done to the DAC, and that I wasn't going to accept it. I wanted a refund. I allow vendors to correct their mistakes if I can see that an honest attempt was made to meet what they offered, but this was just a rip-off, plain and simple.
Anyway, Paul finally agreed to a refund, and I sent his DAC back 'for resale to someone else' (according to him... I feel sorry for that person!). It took about another 4-5 months to actually get that money from him. During that time, I was actually contacted by someone else who saw I was dealing with TRL, and had suffered in a very similar way to me, but some of the communications he received would imply there was something 'not right upstairs', not just general health problems. And this other contact said someone else HE knew also had problems. This shows that it wasn't just me whose had problems with TRL.
I finally got my refund, after HOUNDING Paul for a long time. I kind of felt bad because he said he was sick, but I wasn't going to let someone else's sickness (if indeed he was sick) mean that he could rip me for 1000USD. Cos I DON'T take CR4P from ppl, and I'm the worst customer to have if you're going to try and screw me over - I don't give up and put things down to a lesson learnt - I wait til I have my refund, then consider it a lessons learnt (by THEM).
1) Yes, trying to spend 1000USD on a DAC-AH was silly in hindsight. But with what Paul was telling me and the stories of his previous work, he told a very inviting tale. A tale I was prepared to try out.
2) No matter how much or little someone charges for a product or service, it DOESN'T give them the right to delay months and months, and then send something with maybe 2% of what's been promised and paid for.
Anyway, I'd just like to warn anyone on Head-Fi about dealing with Tube Research Labs, TRL. I don't think many would bother spending as much as I did on a DAC-AH, but I think even a 100USD job from this guy would be a scam and worth maybe a 10th of that at best. Heck, I've dealt/am dealing with what some consider one of the larger 'fiascos' on Head-Fi recently, and frankly, this guy (in my books) is 10 times WORSE. To see the shonky POS that was finally sent to me was jaw-droppingly unbelieveable. AVOID TRL.
Tube Research Labs I just wish I'd remembered to post about it on here earlier, to help others avoid them.
Mods/whoever: if this is against the rules of the forum, please let me know how I can edit/change the post to be OK. I didn't think it fell under the 'protect yourself against scammers' thread, as that was a single/few users on here. TRL are a business which say they've been around for decades, and god knows how long they've been ripping ppl off.
PS, yes I realise it was an insane amount of money to spend on a DAC-AH: I believed I was going to get insane results. Feel free to apply heat about that, but hopefully ppl realise that isn't the primary topic for discussion here.
Short story long: After discovering the sound of a NOS DAC that I loved, and finding that support (at the time) was lacking, I decided to try other DACs which had the NOS sound, but not just a DAC-AH with the basic passive output and DAC chip bias corrections, I wanted something at 'the next level'.
My first purchase was a Audionote DAC 2.1 Level B. Which I built myself. It had some hum issues (regardless where I used it, my house or a friends, and regardless of what other components I used, I still had hum. I had it checked by a friend who has worked as an electronics engineer for the past 45 years, and he said it was simply the design of it letting it down in some respects, not my handiwork. (Hear me out, there's a point to this bit haha). Anyway, after several 5am calls to the American gentleman who sold it to me to try and debug, and much discussion. We can to an agreement for a refund. Great!
My next idea was to buy one of the well known and commonly used DACs and go 'ballistic' on it WRT mods. I chose the DAC-AH (remember I wanted the NOS sound, but suped up). In hindsight it was pretty silly, but after discussing with Paul Weitzel at TRL, I decided to buy a DAC-AH, send it to him, and paid him 1000USD for mods which were to include:
- Making the output passive (der).
- Higher bias for the DAC chips themselves.
- Reclocking work
- External battery power.
- Rearrangement of the signal lines and some other stuff to allow for the battery power and also to improve performance.
- Some other bits and pieces I've forgotten about cos this was nearly a year ago.
Anyway, Paul promised about a 1-2 month turn around. It ended up being about 5-7 months (can't remember exactly, CBF going back and checking exactly) and many MANY badgering emails on my part to get him to finally send it. He said he had health problems (which sucks, but if your in a business and your health is causing such delays, maybe you should get someone else to do the work, or get out of the business!). And also during that time, he admitted to having burnt/buggered one of the DAC chips, so he had to replace it. (WTF, even I can solder well enough not to kill and IC like that!). I insisted that he buy a whole new set of DAC chips from the same batch, because the TDA1543 chips are supposed to be well matched when used in audio applications. This of course took a few weeks (NFI why, they are still readily available). .
Anyway, the big day came and the DAC arrived. I pugged it in and tried the optical connection first (as a test). No sound at all. I tried the coax input. This time there was sound, but it was very muffled and had lots of static and crackling. WTF. I am experienced in troubleshooting with this kind of thing now (those who know my purchasing history wouldn't argue that point lol) and I tried multiple power points, multiple rooms, separate amps, sources, cables etc. Using the battery power and not using it. The problem was definitely the DAC-AH. So I opened it up. First thing I saw was the wire from the main PCB to the input switch lying completely disconnected. Second thing I saw was melted glue EVERYWHERE. Secondly, I saw several solder joins based almost entirely of THIN AIR. Then I saw some extremely dodgy rearrangement of some components, putting them dangerously close to other wires.
Then I opened up the external battery. A few cheap rechargeable batteries and all of them practically encrusted in epoxy/glue material, very messily.
I then took some photos and sent them to a friend who works at a different audio company, who sells Chinese stuff here in Australia, and also does his own modifications to the DAC-AH. Both he and my older engineering friend said there was less than 1 hour's work, and less than 20USD worth of new parts put into the DAC. They said the soldering was atrocious (I already knew that), and couldn't believe someone would charge 1000USD for what was done, let alone 100USD. There was also nothing to be seen as far as 'reclocking work'... AT ALL.
When I rang Paul and discussed it with him, he became very rude, and swore at me. I wasn't going to be 'taken for a ride', and made it clear that I wasn't unhappy with the fact that the DAC didn't work, I was unhappy with the fact that I could see what was/WASN'T done to the DAC, and that I wasn't going to accept it. I wanted a refund. I allow vendors to correct their mistakes if I can see that an honest attempt was made to meet what they offered, but this was just a rip-off, plain and simple.
Anyway, Paul finally agreed to a refund, and I sent his DAC back 'for resale to someone else' (according to him... I feel sorry for that person!). It took about another 4-5 months to actually get that money from him. During that time, I was actually contacted by someone else who saw I was dealing with TRL, and had suffered in a very similar way to me, but some of the communications he received would imply there was something 'not right upstairs', not just general health problems. And this other contact said someone else HE knew also had problems. This shows that it wasn't just me whose had problems with TRL.
I finally got my refund, after HOUNDING Paul for a long time. I kind of felt bad because he said he was sick, but I wasn't going to let someone else's sickness (if indeed he was sick) mean that he could rip me for 1000USD. Cos I DON'T take CR4P from ppl, and I'm the worst customer to have if you're going to try and screw me over - I don't give up and put things down to a lesson learnt - I wait til I have my refund, then consider it a lessons learnt (by THEM).
1) Yes, trying to spend 1000USD on a DAC-AH was silly in hindsight. But with what Paul was telling me and the stories of his previous work, he told a very inviting tale. A tale I was prepared to try out.
2) No matter how much or little someone charges for a product or service, it DOESN'T give them the right to delay months and months, and then send something with maybe 2% of what's been promised and paid for.
Anyway, I'd just like to warn anyone on Head-Fi about dealing with Tube Research Labs, TRL. I don't think many would bother spending as much as I did on a DAC-AH, but I think even a 100USD job from this guy would be a scam and worth maybe a 10th of that at best. Heck, I've dealt/am dealing with what some consider one of the larger 'fiascos' on Head-Fi recently, and frankly, this guy (in my books) is 10 times WORSE. To see the shonky POS that was finally sent to me was jaw-droppingly unbelieveable. AVOID TRL.
Tube Research Labs I just wish I'd remembered to post about it on here earlier, to help others avoid them.
Mods/whoever: if this is against the rules of the forum, please let me know how I can edit/change the post to be OK. I didn't think it fell under the 'protect yourself against scammers' thread, as that was a single/few users on here. TRL are a business which say they've been around for decades, and god knows how long they've been ripping ppl off.
PS, yes I realise it was an insane amount of money to spend on a DAC-AH: I believed I was going to get insane results. Feel free to apply heat about that, but hopefully ppl realise that isn't the primary topic for discussion here.
