[FlySweep]

Well.. my Fortis cable is starting to go (dark) brown in places too.. **smh**

 

[Cryok95]

.

 

[rroseperry]

Looks as though the external plastic sleeve is picking up skin oils or something given where mine are turning brown. It doesn't clean up though, which is decidedly weird.

 

[Holymoly]

I quote from Cogsandgears:
"The new Fortis now uses a different, lower-quality cable and has been out-sourced to China. The person who designed the original Fortis is no longer affiliated with Amp City UK."
www.head-fi.org/t/581309/review-fortis-pure-silver-custom-in-ear-monitor-cables/30#post_8397284

To be honest, i have had some insider's information on the new cables for a while now. The post i quoted just confirmed my suspicions. I am pretty sure that the new cable now has 7 strands as opposed to 36 strands in the old version(Thus, the stiffness of the new cable). If anyone is willing to check strand count, please do. I do not have the cable on hand to verify. Just unscrew the viablue plug to check soldering, perhaps post some pictures.

As an avid DIYer myself, i can obviously see that the new cable now uses one wire for each side-(Main conductor for Signal and Shielding for Ground). Which results in 2 wires in the v2 cable as compared to the 4 in the v1 cable. (A sign that Ampcity may be trying to reduce costs by skimping on amount of silver used). Worse of all, I am actually very irritated that the new 'Fortis v2 cable' has now been outsourced to China.

Where is the promised.. Wait, let me quote: If that weren't enough to impress you, we're throwing in a free cable upgrade to the AmpCity Fortis, a 99.99% pure silver, hand crafted cable by our partners, Ampcity.co.uk, valued at ($230USD) That's right, pure silver, wood slider, ViaBlue slim plug. Pure quality.
(Important parts underlined)


Don't know about you guys, but i personally cannot accept this new cable. Looking at the pics and posts above, the build quality is indeed pretty bad. Come on: Oxidation? Breakage in plug soldering? Where is the Pure Quality promised?

Furthermore, this has come together with a 6 month wait time, couldn't Ampcity/UM Global take the time to design a great, high quality cable? While it's good that Ampcity has sent us an apology letter, they still couldn't make up for the v1 cable with this new one... Seems like they have been crossing legs and drinking beer at their office tables while we have been eagerly waiting for our promised items.

I am only writing this because i don't think it is fair that Ampcity gives us this cable when the cable promised was of a much higher quality..

To make matters worse, Matt from UM Global has not been responsive at all when i emailed him regarding the cables. No reply since i emailed him on 21st of April. Customer service has been terrible.

So much for Ampcity saying the delay in the cable was die to them having a better cable produced.

This is exactly what happens when you manufacture a new product with the sole intention of cutting costs on the previous product.
They have still not replied to the 3 emails I sent them requesting information on the construction of the cable, wonder if i now get the 15% discount they promised if the don't reply to emails on time,

 

[Cryok95]

Quote:

So much for Ampcity saying the delay in the cable was die to them having a better cable produced.
This is exactly what happens when you manufacture a new product with the sole intention of cutting costs on the previous product.
They have still not replied to the 3 emails I sent them requesting information on the construction of the cable, wonder if i now get the 15% discount they promised if the don't reply to emails on time,

 
I did exactly that a few months ago, will re-post their reply here.
 
Ampcity:
 
"Thank you for your enquiry and my apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

I can assure you that the v2 of our AmpCity Fortis cable has added a number of enhancements over our original design, improving all aspects of the cable including durability, flexibility and above all sound quality.

Unfortunately, we are not currently releasing any detailed specifications regarding the actual makeup of the cable and our suppliers. We do use a number of different suppliers for various components and have involved cable experts at every stage of the design and manufacture. I can however say that we have made a shift to more sophisticated and automated manufacturing techniques to improve the quality of the cable and are therefore not using the same person, to make our new v2 Fortis cables.

If you have any further questions at all, please do let me know."

 

[cogsand gears]

[size=10pt]Hello. cogsand gears here. [/size]
[size=10pt]I thought it may be time to chip in as my name is being pinged about. I will start off by saying that those are not my words that are being quoted as mine. I quoted the front page of the Fortis review thread in order to answer a question posted on the thread by another member. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]The front page and my quote have since been changed by the author of the review as he was contacted by ampcity regarding the remarks about the cable being of lesser quality. Since he had not heard or experienced the revised cable, and was going on second hand info, he agreed to change the description. He asked me to edit my post which I did as I thought it was fair for ampcity to request this. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]Anyway, as it turns out the guy who made the original version of the Fortis cable is someone I know. I didnt realise this until the above events unfolded. The person in question has contacted me independently and informed me that I can post his account of events to let everyone in the thread know what is going on. So here is what happened ( paraphrased from his account ):[/size]
 
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]Ampcity approached the chap at last years Headfi UK meet to ask if he wanted to release cable with them. This was agreed to. [/size]
[size=10pt]He at first gave them a very good discount on the understanding that as the cable took off and was selling more the discount would become less. The UM Global promotion then came along and ampcity informed the chap that the wire he was using was too expensive and that they were having other stuff manufactured in China with overmoulded connector bodies. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]The original maker told ampcity at this point that he was not willing to put his name to the 'random' Chinese cables as he was not sure of origin or quality. Ampcity then said that if he wanted to carry on producing the original version of the cables he could, but would only get paid half of his current fee as they needed about 50 cables and that amount offered was what they could expect to pay from China. He told them to go ahead and get them made in China.[/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]Ampcity have since approached the original maker about making them cables again and he has refused each time. They are unable to fufill any orders for the original Fortis cable because of this. The chap told me that he will most likely not be working with them again as 'I will not work on a cable when no thought went in to making the wire and where the wire was only made to cut costs'[/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]So thats what I know. I was a little surprised to be involved in this thread as I had not heard about it till this morning. Anyway, hopefully this has answered some questions. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
 
 
[size=10pt]While we are talking cables. silver doesn’t just go black right away when it oxidises. It goes from yellow to brown and eventually through to black. That’s my experience of sterling silver (jewellery - not wire) oxidisation.[/size]

 

[Poetik]

^Wow, what a very interesting revelation in the story behind all of this stuff.  When I saw the v1 cable I was astounded by the quality of it but when looking at the v2 and hearing the stories from people that already received them, it's easily much lesser quality.  It's really a shame that we all couldn't get the quality of the v1's.

 

[cogsand gears]

Quote:

^Wow, what a very interesting revelation in the story behind all of this stuff.  When I saw the v1 cable I was astounded by the quality of it but when looking at the v2 and hearing the stories from people that already received them, it's easily much lesser quality.  It's really a shame that we all couldn't get the quality of the v1's.

It is a shame.
 
Handmade is often far better quality - evident when a handmade item has been made with pride and care.

 

[Cryok95]

Quote:

[size=10pt]Hello. cogsand gears here. [/size]
[size=10pt]I thought it may be time to chip in as my name is being pinged about. I will start off by saying that those are not my words that are being quoted as mine. I quoted the front page of the Fortis review thread in order to answer a question posted on the thread by another member. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]The front page and my quote have since been changed by the author of the review as he was contacted by ampcity regarding the remarks about the cable being of lesser quality. Since he had not heard or experienced the revised cable, and was going on second hand info, he agreed to change the description. He asked me to edit my post which I did as I thought it was fair for ampcity to request this. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]Anyway, as it turns out the guy who made the original version of the Fortis cable is someone I know. I didnt realise this until the above events unfolded. The person in question has contacted me independently and informed me that I can post his account of events to let everyone in the thread know what is going on. So here is what happened ( paraphrased from his account ):[/size]
 
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]Ampcity approached the chap at last years Headfi UK meet to ask if he wanted to release cable with them. This was agreed to. [/size]
[size=10pt]He at first gave them a very good discount on the understanding that as the cable took off and was selling more the discount would become less. The UM Global promotion then came along and ampcity informed the chap that the wire he was using was too expensive and that they were having other stuff manufactured in China with overmoulded connector bodies. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]The original maker told ampcity at this point that he was not willing to put his name to the 'random' Chinese cables as he was not sure of origin or quality. Ampcity then said that if he wanted to carry on producing the original version of the cables he could, but would only get paid half of his current fee as they needed about 50 cables and that amount offered was what they could expect to pay from China. He told them to go ahead and get them made in China.[/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]Ampcity have since approached the original maker about making them cables again and he has refused each time. They are unable to fufill any orders for the original Fortis cable because of this. The chap told me that he will most likely not be working with them again as 'I will not work on a cable when no thought went in to making the wire and where the wire was only made to cut costs'[/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
[size=10pt]So thats what I know. I was a little surprised to be involved in this thread as I had not heard about it till this morning. Anyway, hopefully this has answered some questions. [/size]
[size=10pt][/size]
 
 
[size=10pt]While we are talking cables. silver doesn’t just go black right away when it oxidises. It goes from yellow to brown and eventually through to black. That’s my experience of sterling silver (jewellery - not wire) oxidisation.[/size]

 
Sorry if i misquoted you. Will change that immediately..
 
Thank you for telling us the truth on these cables.

 

[cogsand gears]

Quote:

 
Sorry if i misquoted you. Will change that immediately..
 
Thank you for telling us the truth on these cables.

Not a problem, just thought I would clear things up.

 

[cogsand gears]

Right - time for a slight update.
 
It seems that I got a couple of points wrong in my previous post. So to correct - it was the new cable ampcity wanted made for them at half what they originally paid, not the original V1 cable as I previously posted.

The original Fortis maker had an agreement with ampcity that after 3 months when sales picked up his fee would be revised. They agreed to this and were very thankfull to the maker for the good introductory rate. However when three months had passed and it came time to revise the fees as agreed, ampcity said there were not making much profit despite the cable maker knowing otherwise.  
 
Ampcity informed the maker that they could not pay him any more than they were already, then 'had the nerve' to ask him to make the UM Global deal cables at half price saying they thats what it will cost them to have them manufactured in China. So the maker refused to make not only the UM IEM cables but any further cables for them as they had not kept their promise with regards to revised payment as originaly agreed.

According to the original maker, ampcity did not even know what they were going to get cable wise as they just ordered a random wire. They also admitted to the original maker that they were worried it would be no good but decided to go ahead as it was the cheaper option.
 
So there it is.
 

 

[DannyBai]

Wow, that's terrible.  Nothing like screwing over everyone and ultimately ruining their reputation.  I suppose like the cable maker, all of the customers who should have received the quality cable are just simply out of luck.  

 

[Holymoly]

Still no reply from ampcity to half dozen emails I sent in last 2 weeks.

 

[Cryok95]

I on the other hand, have gotten replies from ampcity but not from UM Global. 4 emails sent over the span of 1.5 months.

 

[svyr]

well either UMAus/global are clearing things up, or as usual dodging hard questions. (probably the latter)

as for ampcity. bait and switch on customers is dirty and disgusting.