[ssrock64]

I always try to use USPS where I can since there's a post office in town and they tend to take care of packages physically better than most private carriers, but I too have had a few lost packages that've soured my opinion over time.

 

[RainHeaven]

I got these a few days ago and love them. Love the neutral sound with a lot of depth. Unlike most people, I have to say, the weight is perfect for me. After getting used to the weight after a couple of days, its not even a problem. It feels very secure on my head and very comfortable.

 

[dc-k]

  I have absolute HAD IT with the USPS.  For the first two years they were great, but we've had almost a dozen packages that were two weeks late without explanation and no tracking updates and two lost packages (fortunately cables) in just the last month or so.  USPS doesn't answer the phone anymore, either.   I was on hold for 2.5 hours today before I simply had to hang up.   I wanted to use USPS, but it is becoming untenable.
 
We're going to turn on Fedex this week and we've got good rates.  It's not yet clear if the notifications for the system will be more reliable, but I have verified the integration is working to get accurate shipping rates so we're getting closer.
 
For notifications, we use PayPal for all our payment processing and shipping, but the problem is if you register at www.mrspeakers.com with an email that is not in use at PayPal they won't send a shipping notice.  If you use a credit card and an email registered with PayPal they do send a notice.  I call that a bug, they say it's a feature, and that it won't be changed.  This may not change when we add Fedex, this is something we're working on.

 
I would completely support the change away from USPS, particularly from the perspective of a UK buyer. I now have my ADs and already love them, thanks Dan, but they spent two weeks in customs tracked as "pending duty payment customer informed" but I never received any notification and it's impossible to contact USPS without going through an online form that requires a US address. They also clipped a key address line from the label which rendered the notice, and the package undeliverable in any case. No other courier I've used from the US is anything like as error prone...

 

[hekeli]

  but they spent two weeks in customs tracked as "pending duty payment customer informed" but I never received any notification and it's impossible to contact USPS

 
Eh, why would you contact USPS when it's already in your countries customs process (I assume Royal Mail takes over the packages)? USPS has zero to do with it at that point.
 
Never had any problems with USPS myself, probably 10 packages from US so far.
 
To clarify, USPS are regular "post office" parcels which are pretty much always handled by your countries post office agency. Couriers are a completely different thing, usually they handle it from end to end and even handle the customs part of it.

 

[dc-k]

   
Eh, why would you contact USPS when it's already in your countries customs process (I assume Royal Mail takes over the packages)? USPS has zero to do with it at that point.
 
Never had any problems with USPS myself, probably 10 packages from US so far.

 
Glad you've never had problems, I've had problems with each of the five deliveries from them. 
 
Why would I want to contact them when my parcel is here? Only because no one has ever told me any different and there's no handover in the tracking process that tells me who to talk to. A simple pointer in the tracking process that says "for further information contact x" is all it would take. It's not Royal Mail, as it happens and they'd probably be confused if you asked them. The clipping of the address on their labels is also incompetent and has regularly contributed to delays.
 
Give me an end to end courier every time...

 

[Sanctuary]

  I have absolute HAD IT with the USPS.  For the first two years they were great, but we've had almost a dozen packages that were two weeks late without explanation and no tracking updates and two lost packages (fortunately cables) in just the last month or so.  USPS doesn't answer the phone anymore, either.   I was on hold for 2.5 hours today before I simply had to hang up.   I wanted to use USPS, but it is becoming untenable.
 
We're going to turn on Fedex this week and we've got good rates.  It's not yet clear if the notifications for the system will be more reliable, but I have verified the integration is working to get accurate shipping rates so we're getting closer.
 
For notifications, we use PayPal for all our payment processing and shipping, but the problem is if you register at www.mrspeakers.com with an email that is not in use at PayPal they won't send a shipping notice.  If you use a credit card and an email registered with PayPal they do send a notice.  I call that a bug, they say it's a feature, and that it won't be changed.  This may not change when we add Fedex, this is something we're working on.

Is there any kind of invoice on your Mrspeakers site account that shows they've been shipped at least?  I've never heard of ordering something online, especially a big dollar item and not getting any kind of notification unless you're using Paypal.  I do have a Paypal account, but I almost never use it for anything and I didn't want to bother attaching my credit card to it.  Also used a different email.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Dan, I have a question: do the standard Mad Dogs still use the standard 3.5mm input or have they all been fitted with the XLR connectors?

 

[kugino]

 
Is there any kind of invoice on your Mrspeakers site account that shows they've been shipped at least?  I've never heard of ordering something online, especially a big dollar item and not getting any kind of notification unless you're using Paypal.  I do have a Paypal account, but I almost never use it for anything and I didn't want to bother attaching my credit card to it.  Also used a different email.

according to dan, there is no option for notification of a shipment if paypal is not used. i don't think this is entirely right, though, because he could email you with your tracking info after the label is created. yes, that would take an extra step or two on his part because he'd have to manually create an email and send the info to you, but i would think that for $600 items this would be part of the service.  i know that dan is extremely busy these days with the increase in business, but i think that not sending out a shipping notification with tracking no. is kind of strange. hopefully the move to fedex alleviates this problem.
 
on another note, i just finished my balanced->1/4" adapter and am finally listening to the ADs. initial impressions are that they are rather heavy (compared to the d7000), have excellent seal, but are quite comfy. still getting used to the sound. bass is certainly much less than the d7000, which is to be expected, but it's tight and pleasant. vocals are nice, but not as forward as i thought they'd be. driven quite easily by my millet hybrid maxxed. 

 

[hekeli]

  according to dan, there is no option for notification of a shipment if paypal is not used. i don't think this is entirely right, though, because he could email you with your tracking info after the label is created. yes, that would take an extra step or two on his part because he'd have to manually create an email and send the info to you, but i would think that for $600 items this would be part of the service.  i know that dan is extremely busy these days with the increase in business, but i think that not sending out a shipping notification with tracking no. is kind of strange. hopefully the move to fedex alleviates this problem.

 
Any decend website designer/coder could come up with some scripts to automate all that stuff in any scenarios. Of course, I know it's sometimes hard to come up with good people.. especially if you are not technically savvy enough yourself to be able to judge what could be done and how.

 

[kugino]

   
Any decend website designer/coder could come up with some scripts to automate all that stuff in any scenario. Of course, I know it's sometimes hard to come up with good people..

heck, don't even need to be a coder. lots of options out there for online marketing. but that's okay. hopefully things get sorted out. it's good to see dan's business doing well and hopefully all the kinks will get sorted out.
 
diana krall sounds great with the ADs.

 

[Rudiger]

I am waiting for my Alpha Dog from France (purchased from stereodesk that is a very sympathetic seller.)
Yes it seems that USPS is... eeerhm, look at this :
 

 

[MattTCG]

Dan, I have a question: do the standard Mad Dogs still use the standard 3.5mm input or have they all been fitted with the XLR connectors?

 
They still use standard 3.5 until you get to the Universal MD.
 
Dan...FWIW, usps is as realiable (and unreliable) as any of the carriers including fed-ex and UPS. I've done a significant amount of shipping in the past 15 years and I've found that usps is a little better than any of the others and for less money. I'd speculate that the recent rash of issues that you've had are due to the winter storms more than anything else. 
 
I do support a choice of carrier especially since there are so many overseas customers now. Hang in there!!
 
gL!!

 

[preproman]

  nice! look forward to the review.
 
also wondering if anyone here has used low-power speaker amps to power their ADs. i have a couple of old tube monoblocks that are for high-sensitivity speakers that i used for the k1000 when i had them. wondering if that would be too much juice for the ADs. hope to try this combo if/when my ADs are ever found...

I have one.  The ADs will scale with more clean / good power.  They sound really good out the F1J.  I much preferred  them over my now sold TH900 in many ways.

 

[mrspeakers]

Is there any kind of invoice on your Mrspeakers site account that shows they've been shipped at least?  I've never heard of ordering something online, especially a big dollar item and not getting any kind of notification unless you're using Paypal.  I do have a Paypal account, but I almost never use it for anything and I didn't want to bother attaching my credit card to it.  Also used a different email.

Not at this time. Last night I made the decision to upgrade our store platform to solve this once and for all, but it will take a while to transition to a new store.

Our shipping estimates have been pretty good, we are currently shipping Jan 22 orders. If you need your tracking so as to be home at the right time, etc, you can email me if three weeks hits and you don't have tracking, but if you don't need the tracking I appreciate not getting too many requests as shipping is taking a lot of time that could be used for test, or building a better store platform.

Thanks for the patience!

 

[mrspeakers]

I am waiting for my Alpha Dog from France (purchased from stereodesk that is a very sympathetic seller.)
Yes it seems that USPS is... eeerhm, look at this :

USPS is doing this a lot right now, probably 5% or more of our shipments hit this and then nothing for 5-10 days. They usually show up the day you give up. I spent 2.5 hours on hold trying to track a lost package and never got anyone to answer. Until November USPS was incredibly reliable but I think the budget cuts are really starting to hit them.

It's a sh a me because they have been great, until man we had not lost a single package in almost two years.