Ultimate 1ET400A Purifi Amplifier sonic shootout - €820 to €8,344

[Thomas savage]

etc.
etc
etc.

After your complaints thread about your VTV purchase was closed down, several people have reported receiving a VTV amp with which they have no problem. Even if there still seem to be issues with incorrect XLR-wiring.
Just to indicate that VTV seems capable of learning, or that you might have been very unlucky.

That thread btw was closed down because it was felt that the point of substandard VTV quality in your particular case had been made ad nauseam.
Yet here you are again with post after post repeating your complaints about VTV.

What's still sadly lacking in your account is any sense of taking responsibility for your own decisions.
- You took your business to a supplier who is known for two things: rock-bottom prices and quality issues (as per several threads on this very forum, dating from before your purchase).
- You declined a refund from VTV.

I would think those two decisions put an upper limit on how much complaining a reasonable person can do. By now those complaints feel about as cheap as a VTV amp.

This is a consumer based forum , the manufacturer had opportunity to respond and seemed to do little to explain the situation of the build quality.

The thread was closed because there was no more to be said and leaving it open seemed to encourage unconstructive contributions like this one here from you .

It's time to move on from this .

 

[goryu]

Why is this charlatan still allowed to post his drivel here? Ric Schultz has been peddling his fascist audio mod bs everywhere for years, spreading his fallacious snake oil as truth for all.

Let's be clear- when we start throwing around subjective opinions about matters of taste, i.e., what sounds "better", anyone making claims that their version of "better" is universal is either ignorant or a running a scam, or in Mr. Schultz's case, perhaps, both.

 

[CDMC]

Why is this charlatan still allowed to post his drivel here? Ric Schultz has been peddling his fascist audio mod bs everywhere for years, spreading his fallacious snake oil as truth for all.

Let's be clear- when we start throwing around subjective opinions about matters of taste, i.e., what sounds "better", anyone making claims that their version of "better" is universal is either ignorant or a running a scam, or in Mr. Schultz's case, perhaps, both.

I will say why I don’t agree with banning him (and to be clear, I think he is a quack). Doing so starts the slippery slope of choosing members based on their views. Pretty soon, the place is headfi, which is nothing more than a pack of people running around, breathing their own fumes, and patting each other on the back at how great they are.

Part of any intelligent group is allowing differing views, popular or not. He posts his views and people respond pointing out the issues and fallacies. He can respond and the people reading the thread can then make their own choice based on the information of what they believe/follow. Bans should be reserved for spam, violations of clear terms of the forum, and serious violations.

 

[goryu]

I will say why I don’t agree with banning him (and to be clear, I think he is a quack). Doing so starts the slippery slope of choosing members based on their views. Pretty soon, the place is headfi, which is nothing more than a pack of people running around, breathing their own fumes, and patting each other on the back at how great they are.

Part of any intelligent group is allowing differing views, popular or not. He posts his views and people respond pointing out the issues and fallacies. He can respond and the people reading the thread can then make their own choice based on the information of what they believe/follow. Bans should be reserved for spam, violations of clear terms of the forum, and serious violations.

He runs a business ruining equipment with his "mods". His posts ARE spam.

 

[CDMC]

He runs a business ruining equipment with his "mods". His posts ARE spam.

You are conflating two issues. The first is his business, which in your opinion ruins equipment. While I don't believe his "mods" improve the underlying equipment, it doesn't appear that they do anything to harm the sound (the wiring does look dodgy, but that is another issue). In fairness to him, his "mods" are much more reasonably priced than a lot of the stuff you see being sold as improving performance.

The second issue is whether his posts are spam. Here is his first post at #96 and arguably the most "spammy": "For those that listen.......not just measure......I perform mods to Purifi based amps. Every mod I do makes the sound better (believe it or not). For the adventurous: The best Voodoo......I do." Hardly, spamming the forum. He sells something, so do many others.

Allowing people like Ric to post his views makes us confirm the basis for our opinions and conclusions. I disagree with virtually everything the guy says, but banning people that say things we don't like becomes very problematic. Intelligent discussion requires allowing ideas that we don't agree with, or even don't have support. At some point, one of those ideas we disagree with may prove to be correct. That is how we learn and continue to improve.

 

[Killingbeans]

Actually, you guys are not deaf.......in fact, every day there are more and more defectors from your mole hill top. You know the guy that says "How could a 6 foot power cord make a sonic difference when all the wire in the walls is crap?". Then his buddy loans him an "audiophile power cable" and his mind is blown.......so then he starts to buy other voodoo cables and realizes that voodoo is real. Your ears hear the difference, but your scopes won't tell you why.

You make it sound like some sort of silly war is taking place.

If a physicist goes to a David Copperfield show and takes that as proof of magic being real, does that make him/her a "defector"?

Sorry for going off topic. If this starts a derailment, I'll take it to another thread.

 

[echopraxia]

TLDR: IMO debates with extreme subjectivism should be allowed (as long as personal attacks are not), but I think we may find all threads derailed by such arguments if we don’t have a designated forum zone for subjectivism vs objectivism debates.

I will say why I don’t agree with banning him (and to be clear, I think he is a quack). Doing so starts the slippery slope of choosing members based on their views. Pretty soon, the place is headfi, which is nothing more than a pack of people running around, breathing their own fumes, and patting each other on the back at how great they are.

Part of any intelligent group is allowing differing views, popular or not. He posts his views and people respond pointing out the issues and fallacies. He can respond and the people reading the thread can then make their own choice based on the information of what they believe/follow. Bans should be reserved for spam, violations of clear terms of the forum, and serious violations.

An alternate solution might also be to have designated areas for various kinds of arguments. For example, it might be productive to have an area specifically to debate the current scientific ideas here, and another area for extreme subjectivists to make their case too.

I notice that almost every single thread that goes downhill here devolves into either personal insults by people who seem to enjoy such trolling (clearly, the typical reason mod intervention is needed), OR endless debates rehashing the same critiques of the science, or Amir’s review methods, over and over and over again.

I agree and I do think it should be fair to critique the science etc (and I find many of those arguments genuinely interesting). But it does get tiring after seeing the same unfalsifiable arguments the 100th time. As a reader, this makes it very time consuming to get useful information about a product, forced to filter through 99 pages of the same tired old rehashed arguments over and over. So yeah I agree, even extreme subjectivist positions can be worked with here, but I think only if they don’t derail every thread on the site.

Disclaimer: I have not really followed much of what Ric Schultz has said so I have little context, and no real opinion on his ban situations here. That said, I have not seen him be half as personally insulting as some others on this thread have been, who seem keen to attack the personal character of people who criticize the build quality of certain amp builders.

 

[CDMC]

TLDR: IMO debates with extreme subjectivism should be allowed (as long as personal attacks are not), but I think we may find all threads derailed by such arguments if we don’t have a designated forum zone for subjectivism vs objectivism debates.

An alternate solution might also be to have designated areas for various kinds of arguments. For example, it might be productive to have an area specifically to debate the current scientific ideas here, and another area for extreme subjectivists to make their case too.

I think this is a really good idea. It may help ease the moderator load, as once moved, those threads could potentially be given more latitude.

 

[Apollon Audio]

It's 1490€ EX VAT. For EU fellows, final price, shipping included, is closer to 1900€...
View attachment 79365

Still a good offering considering aesthetics and internal build. Also, still waiting for pictures of the White Pearl version, @Apollon Audio...

I'm sorry for my late reply.

Here are the pictures of the 1ET400A mini in white. It is spray painted with a very beautiful pearl white color.

Best regards

Tibor

 

[Panelhead]

I am surprised Ric came here. Doubt there are many potential clients. But free advertising is always better than no advertising.
As abrasive as last post on this thread was, I like seeing differing points of view. He temper it by being more polite to others. And their opinions.
Contributions from Ric, Jeff Medwin, or others outside of accepted scientific theories add to the scope of discussions. Sometimes not much though.

BTW, when building from scratch I use twinaxial BNC connectors. Only two pins, body connects to shield. And to chassis. Floats the audio ground. Usually use a resistor to buffer the audio ground to connection to chassis ground. Couple of ohms is plenty.
These are Amphenol 21-223 and 31-224. RCA sized balanced connectors with heavy silver plating. Pretty patina after 40 - 50 years sealed in a plastic bag.
Guess I have been accidentally connecting the grounding correctly. For a while.

 

[goryu]

You are conflating two issues. The first is his business, which in your opinion ruins equipment. While I don't believe his "mods" improve the underlying equipment, it doesn't appear that they do anything to harm the sound (the wiring does look dodgy, but that is another issue). In fairness to him, his "mods" are much more reasonably priced than a lot of the stuff you see being sold as improving performance.

The second issue is whether his posts are spam. Here is his first post at #96 and arguably the most "spammy": "For those that listen.......not just measure......I perform mods to Purifi based amps. Every mod I do makes the sound better (believe it or not). For the adventurous: The best Voodoo......I do." Hardly, spamming the forum. He sells something, so do many others.

Allowing people like Ric to post his views makes us confirm the basis for our opinions and conclusions. I disagree with virtually everything the guy says, but banning people that say things we don't like becomes very problematic. Intelligent discussion requires allowing ideas that we don't agree with, or even don't have support. At some point, one of those ideas we disagree with may prove to be correct. That is how we learn and continue to improve.

Most of his mods are warranty voiding at best, and many outright dangerous, electrical hazards. When you hack up cases, electric wiring, etc., you may or may not damage the sound, but you have surely damaged the equipment. Maybe you missed the shot of his bare speaker wires protruding from holes drilled through the case?

He is promoting both his facist views on what sounds "best" and his business, in the middle of a thread on a Purifi amp shoot out. I call that spam.

I'm sorry, but while I appreciate and understand the value competing and varying opinions can add to a forum, I see little to be gained from allowing an obvious charlatan spam this forum with dangerous and fictitious audio magic. This site is called audio science, is it not? It's not even a question of agreeing or disagreeing with his ideas, or saying things I don't like- it's a matter of safety and recognizing the utter lack of any scientific basis, or proof, to his claims. You can't have "intelligent discussion" without a common basis in objective reality.

 

[boXem]

You are conflating two issues. The first is his business, which in your opinion ruins equipment. While I don't believe his "mods" improve the underlying equipment, it doesn't appear that they do anything to harm the sound (the wiring does look dodgy, but that is another issue). In fairness to him, his "mods" are much more reasonably priced than a lot of the stuff you see being sold as improving performance.

One of his mods consists in changing the type output filter coil. This is heavily degrading performance, both in terms of sound and EMI.

 

[VintageFlanker]

I'm sorry for my late reply.

Here are the pictures of the 1ET400A mini in white. It is spray painted with a very beautiful pearl white color.

Best regards

Tibor

View attachment 80604
View attachment 80605
View attachment 80606

OK... This one is in the cart right now.

Just wondering: What's the input sensibility (voltage or dBu) of this 1ET400A Mini, @Apollon Audio ?

 

[Apollon Audio]

OK... This one is in the cart right now.

Just wondering: What's the input sensibility (voltage or dBu) of this 1ET400A Mini, @Apollon Audio ?

You can reach full power with around 1.5Vrms. If the input sensitivity is too high for you, we can lower it. The default gain is 28dB but we can lower it to as low as 12.8dB.

 

[CDMC]

He is promoting both his facist views on what sounds "best" and his business, in the middle of a thread on a Purifi amp shoot out. I call that spam.

Do you realize that we are discussing audio equipment, not social policy? Is your life so shallow that you are reduced to engaging in ad hominem attacks on a subjective enthusiast by calling him a "fascist"? Rather ironically, you are engaging in behavior that could result in a ban while calling for a ban against someone else (I believe this is called gaslighting). Take a look at how poorly Amir was treated on places like SBAF, you are engaging in that same behavior towards Ric that people did against Amir. It wasn't right then and it isn't right now. If you disagree with Ric, then respond to his posts and explain the fallacies in his position. You can also ad him to your ignore list.

 

[Hemi-Demon]

For those that listen.......not just measure......I perform mods to Purifi based amps. Every mod I do makes the sound better (believe it or not). For the adventurous: The best Voodoo......I do.

A $1,000-$1,500 mod, that is basically more than the amp costs and voids the warranty? I personally think there is definite value in upgraded wiring, but that is pretty expensive? Also how do you prove the difference in sound, is there some sort of blind comparison, or is the consumer meant to listen to the amp, ship it off, receive it and sit back in amazement at the remembered difference? I personally, do hear differences in wires, cables, power supplies (not the forum norm), but not to the tune of $1,500 and a voided warranty. That seems a bit much.

VTV definitely needs some help in QC, but your stating that you can improve on the engineering of Purifi? Where are your credentials for such a claim, other than I have done it since the 1970's.

Shouldn't there at least be some repeatable basis for your claims on the value of the upgrades, since you are so anti measurement? I just don't get the desire to single out measurements as a discard point of consumer value, such that the audio hobby is only meant to be judged by ears, mostly older ears at that.

and c'mon triangle carboard wire risers?

Also your site is very difficult to read, it may help adding more pictures of your board work, showing your technical skill, potentially to back up your subjective claims. Hey I looked, and I really want to support American based audio companies, as much as I can, but boasting without some verifiable detail, makes me think I would be buying another VTV type amp.

 

[VintageFlanker]

For those that listen.......not just measure......I perform mods to Purifi based amps. Every mod I do makes the sound better (believe it or not).

Wow. We must tell the world. Don't you think @Bruno Putzeys should hire you?

 

[goryu]

Do you realize that we are discussing audio equipment, not social policy? Is your life so shallow that you are reduced to engaging in ad hominem attacks on a subjective enthusiast by calling him a "fascist"? Rather ironically, you are engaging in behavior that could result in a ban while calling for a ban against someone else (I believe this is called gaslighting). Take a look at how poorly Amir was treated on places like SBAF, you are engaging in that same behavior towards Ric that people did against Amir. It wasn't right then and it isn't right now. If you disagree with Ric, then respond to his posts and explain the fallacies in his position. You can also ad him to your ignore list.

Is your intellect so small that you can't discriminate between calling a person a fascist and calling an outlook fascist? Rather ironically, you are accusing me of engaging in ad hominem attacks while you yourself do the same...Hmmm....Kettle, meet pot...

I don't need people telling me what "better sound" is anymore than I need someone telling me what flavor of ice cream is best. These subjective preferences are entirely a personal choice- if there was a universal "best", everyone would agree and the market would have few participants. All of these stupid arguments about tubes vs ss, vinyl vs digital, blah blah blah, which is "better"...there is a flavor for every taste. I joined this site to get away from the golden ears pontificating on what sounds better or best. I enjoy being able to read the objective test results, discuss engineering choices and the rationale behind them. I appreciate fact based discussion. I don't see the value added by making space for someone advertising audio magic which is in direct opposition to the philosophy of this site.

This site is for those who actually believe in science, facts, and logic and are interested in discussing and debating within those parameters. For those who peddle snake oil, there are sites for those both selling and those happy to buy it. I would assume people come here to get away from that very thing, which many know is all too pervasive. If you want to have an "intelligent discussion" about the benefits of adding some wire to your binding posts or freezing your cds, there are plenty of sites that can accommodate.

Maybe it is just me but I find the claims Mr. Schultz makes the height of audacity: without anything other than his own subjectivity and personal biases, he is actually trying to have people believe that he knows better than Bruno, with all his patents, products, and a mile high stack of positive reviews to his credit. What has Mr. Schultz produced? He constantly jumps from popular product to popular product, sprinkling some fairy dust here, a little solder there, and POOF! A mind blowing improvement! Nothing but his word that the alteration has "improved" the product. Shameless and crass. Bruno, on the other hand, takes great pains to produce a product that has no "sound". He has stated this time and again. He backs it up with solid research, design, and the test results speak for themselves. He is an innovator and creator, in bold contrast.

I am not wasting any time on Ric and his fallacies. He goes from site to site pushing his lunacy. I would suggest you take your own advice and if you disagree with my take on things, you can ad me to your ignore list rather than harass me because I don't believe he belongs here pimping bs.

 

[echopraxia]

Is your intellect so small that you can't discriminate between calling a person a fascist and calling an outlook fascist? Rather ironically, you are accusing me of engaging in ad hominem attacks while you yourself do the same...Hmmm....Kettle, meet pot...

I don't need people telling me what "better sound" is anymore than I need someone telling me what flavor of ice cream is best. These subjective preferences are entirely a personal choice- if there was a universal "best", everyone would agree and the market would have few participants. All of these stupid arguments about tubes vs ss, vinyl vs digital, blah blah blah, which is "better"...there is a flavor for every taste. I joined this site to get away from the golden ears pontificating on what sounds better or best. I enjoy being able to read the objective test results, discuss engineering choices and the rationale behind them. I appreciate fact based discussion. I don't see the value added by making space for someone advertising audio magic which is in direct opposition to the philosophy of this site.

This site is for those who actually believe in science, facts, and logic and are interested in discussing and debating within those parameters. For those who peddle snake oil, there are sites for those both selling and those happy to buy it. I would assume people come here to get away from that very thing, which many know is all too pervasive. If you want to have an "intelligent discussion" about the benefits of adding some wire to your binding posts or freezing your cds, there are plenty of sites that can accommodate.

I am not wasting any time on Ric and his fallacies. He goes from site to site pushing his lunacy. I would suggest you take your own advice and if you disagree with my take on things, you can ad me to your ignore list rather than harass me because I don't believe he belongs here pimping bs.

In case you don’t know, it is pretty much always going to be inflammatory to accuse anyone of exhibiting “fascist” traits of any kind (especially outside of a political context), even if you mean well and don’t mean to provoke (and I’m saying this as someone who certainly isn’t perfect either at avoiding accidental provocation from what I have posted).

Anyways, I think all sides have expressed their opinion at this point, so IMO it’s best to leave the rest up to mods to decide. Let’s try to return to focus on the topic and hopefully avoid getting this thread locked

 

[goryu]

Let’s try to return to focus on the topic and hopefully avoid getting this thread locked

Please.