James...thanks for reaching out....I mentioned this before...but I am going to repeat it here and elaborate...It is over the feeling of being deceived, clearly by Starke, also...well discussed here... by Gene...but the one that bothers me most is Jay. I cannot prove ANY of what I am about to say..but I am a guy from New Jersey...and I am very aware of "the grift". LOL!...I have been a huge fan of Jay's for well over a year..and have not missed one..not a one of his reviews...so I wanted to think that I had a good sense of him...Some of the qualities I liked was his enthusiasm, and his BALANCED reviews. He seemed very consistent and thorough with his reviews and I was VERY familiar with him...Me, being a New Jersey Guy, when he reviewed The Starke AD4.320 I was taken aback and quite suspicious....about the review...He is a TOTAL adherent to Class A/B amplification....ALWAYS!... So...he reviews the AD4 and GUSHES about it...with no downsides (or nothing close to his regular balanced reviews). Call the amp "insanely great". Never heard him say that before. He is utterly amazed that it is class D, puts out SO MUCH POWER (and has "tube-sound" and warmth as I recall)...ALL of this also can be had for $1500...and possibly $hundreds less during Black Friday Sales. The way he gushed ...it just seemed too good to be true. He justified his claims and I looked into the amp (I have been patiently shopping for a power amp for quite some time), so I had particular interest in my revered reviewer's excitement ...but it just sounded "too good to be true" (and you know what they say about that!
). So his very next review is a review of the Buchardt S400 Mark II...and guess who is sponsoring it...LOL!..Starke Audio..They are announced in the beginning with highlighting lots of details about..guess what?....the Black Friday Sale...
and then again in the middle of the video where he just-so-happens to discuss the amplification (which is normal for him) being used to power the Buchardts (starts at ~minute 9) which of course, it is the AD4 (where he gushes AGAIN and does ANOTHER ad for the Black Friday Sale)... I was thinking...hey..now I really smell a rat. OK..so he is also powering the Buchardts for the review with the Denafrips Hades/Thallo pre-amp/amp combo as well. Thujan, his buddy says he cannot hear any difference between the Starke and the Thallo/Hades Combo..but Jay does admit "he" hears ever-so-slightly more refined highs from the Thallo. The Thallo is a bona fide A/B amp putting out a under-rated 125wpc @8ohms. Knowing what I know now....I am sure that the Denafrips (incredible reputation), is twice the amp that the Starke is ....if not more. After sitting thru the two reviews and having a long history with his reviews I got the feeling that he was almost laughing in my face..sort of smirking when he gushed about the Starke here. I have got a great gut. I believe that Starke paid Jay and Gene and who knows who else to say specific things about the product and the people "sold-out" for the money. And it turns out that the amp is complete junk. Not a big deal...that is the way the world turns....but I just feel it is so deceptive to viewers, especially in the case of Jay and Thujan. Again...I can prove NOTHING of what I have said here...and it is TOTALLY my opinion...but there it is.