[A_Dying_Wren]

Hi guys,

Well the title says it all. I'll be picking up a MD5000 in a couple days in a face-to-face exchange for my HD650s. I don't doubt the seller is genuine but just for my own curiosity's sake, how can I tell from physical appearance that a D5000 has been modded and by Markl no less? I haven't heard the D5000 non-modded nor will I have a chance to.

Apologies if this has been made abundantly clear elsewhere.

Thanks a lot

 

[Halftrack]

The most obvious sign would be the extra padding on the pads. But this only tells you that it's been modded, and doesn't indicate whether Markl did it. You may wish to consider asking Markl himself whether he's ever dealt with the seller before.

Other than that, from what I've seen (in his pictures), you can't tell if it's been modded unless you open it up to look for Dynamat.

 

[Necrolic]

If it was done by markl somewhat recently there should be a certificate of authenticity.

If not, you can always ask markl if he's modded the cans.

 

[markl]

Hi guys, thanks for bringing this up.

For some time now we have been shipping all product with a certificate of authenticity with serial number. We have records of all of our phones and customers of course, so we can authenticate it's one of ours. We invited all previous customers to e-mail us if they wanted their certificate, that's still open and on-going for all former direct customers of Lawton Audio.

Without this certificate, we can't verify it's one of ours. Even if it has our wood cups, we also sell these separately, and those cups may have been installed in the field. Installing the cups is easy and shouldn't be much of an issue, but as far as what is underneath the cups, there is no way for us to determine if they did any of the other mods themselves, some of the mods, their own mods, none of the mods, or how well they executed it. Determining those details are between that seller and his/her buyer.

Many who do it themselves try to do it piece meal. We see the mods a package, designed to work together for best synergy. Yes, each individual piece is an enhancement, but they sing best all together.

It's OK not to like the mod or our phones

, but I would ask to at least reserve full judgement until one has heard a pair known to be one of ours. I have seen some who execute a partial mod, or more commonly a partial mod with a bunch of their own "enhancements", and then express ambivalence about the "markl mod", or say the difference is "small".

After having repaired and re-done more than a dozen so-called "markl mods" executed in the field, I can report it seems many do not practice the same degree of care or effort. Many use incorrect materials, or bad execution, sloppy work, ad hoc mods of their own....

Seeing this we instituted the certificate.

I don't frequent the For Sale forums, but have also seen and from time to time corrected ads that mis-represented a phone as being one of ours when it wasn't, but I gave up trying to police that, so buyer beware. Read the exact wording of the ad carefully, and ask whether it was one of ours or not. Then, insist on the certificate. "Trust, but verify".

Mark

P.S. Even if requested, I ask all customers to please not post any pics of the Certificate itself. If you have a question about whether a certificate is legit or not, please contact Lawton Audio diretly. Thanks.

 

[A_Dying_Wren]

Thanks a lot Markl. I hope the MD5000 I pick up has the certificate of authenticity but I have my doubts. Along the way I'm sure someone would've lost it or the initial buyer wouldn't have got it at all.

It's worth checking up on I guess. The MD5000 (if that's really it) sounds amazing I must add.

 

[sampson_smith]

Markl modified cans will also be heavier than stock, regardless of whether or not he installed the weight-adding Dynamat himself or it was an "in the field" job. I think the modded cans weigh approx. 20% more than stock.

 

[A_Dying_Wren]

I have no way of comparing it to a standard D5000 though. Thanks for the tip anyway.

 

[twentyHz]

Does Markl do mods for anyone? What does he charge to mod the D5000's?
 
Thanks

 

[obobskivich]

Thread necro.

Anyways:
http://lawtonaudio.com/