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Starke Sound AD4.320 Amp Review (Sample 2)
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Hi I requested shipping labels a month ago still have not received them I'm about to make another call to starke
If you have accsess to spokeo.com look up Desmond Fretz, ( head of sales,) his phone # is available.He quit answering my calls, but won't recognize your #. Leave a message if he doesn't answer.
ATI AT523NC,I bought one for LCR, to replace the Starke AD4 I never used. Amir has reviewed other versions of this 520 series. this Hypex module based series with linear power supplies actually deliver what Starke didn't.
That's surprising. Not because Starke is a paragon of honesty but because previously they had been offering full refunds. I know that because I returned and received a full refund on the two units I had purchased. I wonder if Starke now thinks it has weathered the storm and can just ignore it? If so, disappointing--but then again the whole thing was disappointing, so on some level it's par for the course.
Apparently they decided, they no longer need to take responsibility of what they've done. Myself nor my friend received any communication about the refund program. Seems like they relied on people to actually randomly do some research and reach out. While it was a gesture in the right direction, they've never accept responsibility and randomly decided the window in which they would actually help people with the fraudulent product they put out.
I don't think so, thats not how this works....
It's laughable they would offer discounts on their new product after selling people a clearly fraudulently labeled product with no responsibility. They deserve all the flack they get.
Gene with Audioholics has just blasted @amirm :
"AMIR created a religion around SINAD and boils down product performance almost solely on that. It's academic and not real world on any level.
We already informed Starke about the power issue on the older amp and were waiting on a 2nd unit to confirm if there was a problem before publishing gotcha test reports. We always confirm with manufacturers before publishing test data. It may take longer this way but it also ensures accuracy and proper representation.
Meanwhile, they tested the newer Starke Fiera4 model, a 4-ch amp which is based on TI TPA3255 chips (2 per channel, connected in parallel). The reviewer, even in the forum discussion, has glossed over important design issues and has mistakenly claimed (following similar eyebrow-raising statements in Gene's videos) that in a bridged configuration each amp "sees" half the load so that is why the power doubles.
"AMIR created a religion around SINAD and boils down product performance almost solely on that. It's academic and not real world on any level.
We already informed Starke about the power issue on the older amp and were waiting on a 2nd unit to confirm if there was a problem before publishing gotcha test reports. We always confirm with manufacturers before publishing test data. It may take longer this way but it also ensures accuracy and proper representation.
Meanwhile, they tested the newer Starke Fiera4 model, a 4-ch amp which is based on TI TPA3255 chips (2 per channel, connected in parallel). The reviewer, even in the forum discussion, has glossed over important design issues and has mistakenly claimed (following similar eyebrow-raising statements in Gene's videos) that in a bridged configuration each amp "sees" half the load so that is why the power doubles.
Last edited:
OP
- Thread Starter
- #209
I don't know why Gene thinks it is beneficial to him to say such things: https://forums.audioholics.com/foru...r-does-it-meet-power-spec.125868/post-1572133
He post what looked like a review and instead, was a fluff piece. Member here called him on it and he got angry and lashed out. Then demanded to have his account deleted which I did. It was all his own doing and it took every bit of restraint for me to not sanction him in the thread for his conduct. In other words, he brought the toxicity here himself.
The right answer if you are a consumer advocate would have been an apology for making write ups look like a review and take immediate action to fix. Instead, he talked about how Google optimizes searches and stuff so he "had to do" what he did. Really?
As to Starke, he has no idea if they have refunded everyone. How on earth did he determine that? And why did he sit on their measurements showing sub-par performance and not come to our defense when were getting beat that our measurements were wrong?
And what does he mean they didn't know? If you are producing amplifiers, you need to perform a power sweep before releasing them from manufacturing. How could such a big power shortfall pass QC this way?
If there ever was a company wanted to distance yourself from, is this one. Does he not have any standards here? He will give every company a "second chance?"
As to vilifying, it was the company that did so about me and my testing. What about that?
It just boggles the mind that he is doubling down in this case no less.
He post what looked like a review and instead, was a fluff piece. Member here called him on it and he got angry and lashed out. Then demanded to have his account deleted which I did. It was all his own doing and it took every bit of restraint for me to not sanction him in the thread for his conduct. In other words, he brought the toxicity here himself.
The right answer if you are a consumer advocate would have been an apology for making write ups look like a review and take immediate action to fix. Instead, he talked about how Google optimizes searches and stuff so he "had to do" what he did. Really?
As to Starke, he has no idea if they have refunded everyone. How on earth did he determine that? And why did he sit on their measurements showing sub-par performance and not come to our defense when were getting beat that our measurements were wrong?
And what does he mean they didn't know? If you are producing amplifiers, you need to perform a power sweep before releasing them from manufacturing. How could such a big power shortfall pass QC this way?
If there ever was a company wanted to distance yourself from, is this one. Does he not have any standards here? He will give every company a "second chance?"
As to vilifying, it was the company that did so about me and my testing. What about that?
It just boggles the mind that he is doubling down in this case no less.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #210
On this bit, his laxed measurements that hardly dig into performance of AV products is the reason we are here with subpar performance almost across the board. And that consumers don't know about standouts like Denon. A measurement here and there is not remotely comprehensive enough to show flaws. As he well knows, each AVR I measure has a dozen or more detailed measurements. It takes me a couple of days to go through it all, dissect and explain them. So no way it is about "SINAD" by itself. It is about products muting below -90 dB for example. Or lots of jitter. Or poor filtering. Or charging more but delivering more distortion and noise.
What we do is a threat to him. But the reaction should be one of stepping up his game. Use the darn analyzer and create comprehensive measurements and put them in context so that people know what is good, and what is bad. A random THD+N of 0.016% has no meaning to people. Learn what works and express that as SINAD dB. Use the same parameters as I do so that their measurements can be compared to mine.
Good grief....
Gene seems to no longer conduct measurements or write test reports himself. Instead he has a collection of associates who do not use his oh-so-expensive AP analyzer, or just produce purely descriptive and subjective evaluations. From the mentions in his YT videos, it appears he mostly focuses on retail consulting services, evaluating HT setups and recommending changes to them. Also, on promotion pieces, like the recent one about the upcoming Marantz AV 10 and AMP 10 (based on a "leak from a dealer") and the upcoming livestream from Sound United at CEDIA. His last real review was of Yamaha RX-A6A back in December, which was supposed to be followed by an "objective" listening eval that never materialized. Which is all a shame, since he does have the knowledge and capability of providing useful and trustworthy info about the AV equipment.
He may have discovered that telling the truth doesn’t make you money. Most reviews these days are paid for advertising masquerading as a Review! Just look for the endorsements and commercials on these sites and that should tell you all you need to know about what information you’re likely to get.
Starke Sound Fiera4 4CH Amplifier Does It Meet Power Spec?
Hey man, I'm just trying to warn people of their track record. Buying an amp is a lot of money for some people. You needn't make things so personal. While that wasn’t a good situation, I was aware of what was going on in the background. I had one in for review. Before Amir had ever measured...
forums.audioholics.com
Post 46 - Draw your own conclusions.
Right on queue, Gene promoting their latest slick deal:
Starke Sound Fiera4 4CH Amplifier Does It Meet Power Spec?
Hey man, I'm just trying to warn people of their track record. Buying an amp is a lot of money for some people. You needn't make things so personal. While that wasn’t a good situation, I was aware of what was going on in the background. I had one in for review. Before Amir had ever measured...
forums.audioholics.com
It’s rather amazing how they always make these innocent mistakes in specifying unit performance in their favor. If it was random mistakes you would expect to see an equal amount of errors where they understate performance?Starke Sound Fiera4 4CH Amplifier Does It Meet Power Spec?
Hey man, I'm just trying to warn people of their track record. Buying an amp is a lot of money for some people. You needn't make things so personal. While that wasn’t a good situation, I was aware of what was going on in the background. I had one in for review. Before Amir had ever measured...
Post 46 - Draw your own conclusions.
...and now Gene claims @amirm badly treated Erin from Erin's Audio Corner, too. What is that all about?
"I just don't have any good vibes about AMIR after the dealings I've had with him. He likes to point fingers at others regarding conflicts of interest but at the same time doesn't make it very clear on his own website that he sells Revel and other Harman products he reviews.
Bottom line I am NOT a fan of AMIR or how he treated Erin from Erin's Corner."
"I just don't have any good vibes about AMIR after the dealings I've had with him. He likes to point fingers at others regarding conflicts of interest but at the same time doesn't make it very clear on his own website that he sells Revel and other Harman products he reviews.
Bottom line I am NOT a fan of AMIR or how he treated Erin from Erin's Corner."
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I admit to not knowing about 'Gene' before this thread. But here he's either lying, or totally clueless. Maybe both. When haven't we read a Harman related review where a disclaimer about selling those products isn't mentioned? And if there was something going on, some monkey business, why would those products often receive less than positive reviews? Does that make sense to anyone?
BTW, I'd like a coupon or 'gift voucher' for a new dbx EQ, but unlike Gene, shilling 'slick deals' for Starke, I don't think I've seen anything similar here on ASR. [Memo to Amir: can you work on that? I need the dual band dbx 1231--two hundred dollars off like Gene is advertising would be good for me.]
The Erin's thing was about him promoting or click-baiting his own Website on ASR. I think that was the deal, but I'm not sure... Anyhow, you don't clickbait on someone else's dime.
It's all about making up a story that sounds better than 'Erin got banned after repeated warnings and conversations about staying within clearly stated forum guidelines.'
Some of this garbage is really pathetic.
It probably makes them crazy that Amir doesn't need to make money from this endeavor.
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