Very interesting. Thanks for making us aware.
Dave
Dave
Verastarr's Mike Powell upgrading SR "Stuff"
Mike Powell of Verastarr has been upgrading my SR Grounding Block cables with Silver foils and now the MPC's for the Tranquility bases with far superior internal parts.
Mike is one of the best Philes I have ever worked with and understands customer satisfaction. I have all of his cables/ power strip and MServer and they have out run all previous cabling i have had in my system.
The sonic upgraded work he has done for me is well worth the $$$ and has lifted my SQ to a more desirable state.
Mike is one of the best Philes I have ever worked with and understands customer satisfaction. I have all of his cables/ power strip and MServer and they have out run all previous cabling i have had in my system.
The sonic upgraded work he has done for me is well worth the $$$ and has lifted my SQ to a more desirable state.
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First off anyone mentioning HRAM must be from long ago. The other thing is if somehow anybody feels slighted by us in any way and it was or is not rectified, its not because we refused to make it good. Because we have never done that once. Every manufacturer makes mistakes or accidents or has some issues here and there, and in our 15 years serving audiophiles we have not ever once refused to admit if we made a mistake, then compensate the person. We have a phone number and email on the website for contact, so we are not hiding. We have never changed our company name or tried to dodge detection, I'm right here to contact on the phone if anyone is unhappy and I bend over backwards to make it good. So Pete, if you feel our product was not made well or it had a mistake and you did not ask to have it fixed or made good then what can I say ? I shore up any shortcoming if we have ever overlooked something. If you still feel sore about anything from us, please call so I can make sure you were treated well and fair. If you were treated well and fair yet still chose to complain, then we all know someone like you. Best wishes and I'll open this discussion to anyone who ever in my 15 years on AG feels they were not treated fair or with respect for any reason whatsoever to please contact me direct and I will compensate you even more as I know you've already been taken care of once, so maybe you need more..Whatever it takes.... I'm not aware of anybody. NOW, to get to the real reason for this post that was misdirected, we just started making options for other companies grounding devices and tweaks, including Teds SR stuff. We use pure silver foil for most, and for these little things that we are not trying to build a business model around you may purchase direct from us at what would be dealer cost. If anyone is wondering about a product they have that uses little, unique and or different type cables than the regulars, please feel free to ask here openly.. We do custom cables built to clients spec nearly every week. Cheers and Happy Listening ! |
glory Yes i had a bad dealing with Mike, yes it was a long while ago. Hot Rod Audio Mods had a very big web page detailing their up grades for a Denon 3930 disc player. On there web sight they listed 3 or 5 mods levels for the player I purchased them all. They could not deliver on 80% of them. They farmed it out to a 3rd party. The 3rd party was able to get some of it done. It froze up about a month or two after i finally got it. When the 3rd party said they could not fix it with out another unit to take parts from. Mike suggested i buy another one so they could fix the hot rod one up. I refused, why would i buy a second unit! Mike need to buy the second unit to deliver on what i paid for. This took quit a while before i got it back again. It worked for about a year then stoped working. Hot rod Audio Mods took the web page down shortly after this played out. I never got all the mods i payed for on the unit nor a refund of any kind. I have moved on since then, but will never do business with Mike again... |
Mike Hot rod Audio Mods Yes i asked you to fix it you could not! You blamed the 3rd party for it. I did not hire the 3rd party you did. You said you put more money into it and could not put any more, Not my problem i payed you to do the things your web page said you would do and you did not. You tried to slide out of it and make it between me and the 3rd party. You ducked my phone calls when i would call. |
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Well its clear someone does not understand communication. Did I say contact me direct for resolution ? Yep, pretty sure its above. So we can assume any communication 10 years ago was not clearly listened to or understood. After reading the reply posted here out of desire to harm rather than resolve, its clear you have a vendetta. Its why I asked for direct contact to offer anyone who feels they are not shored up to come get shored up. 10 years ago I was broke. Guess what ? Im not now. I’ll happily review your claim and if its legit, GIVE YOU MORE.. Am I nuts or was that completely ignored just to complain in public ? Yep, we all know someone like you. You dont want resolution, you want resentment inside. Bummer for your whole experience.. So we never did 3930, we did 3910. Our mod was licensed from Alex Peychev of APL HI Fi .. The guy that sold Denon 3910s for $8K and people lined up. Incredibly hard mod. We never farmed anything out.. Never had 5 levels either, never told anyone to buy another unit but we sure did. Evidently, we bought a second unit for you to get parts from as you state. I guess we did yours for free. If it broke a year later, bummer. I wonder what Denon revised on the next unit. How would you know if all your mods were not done ? HotRod mods is still up lol, never went down, its still there with all the old stuff.. Aaaand, I told you to contact me for resolution and you have not yet.. You simply want to hijack this post to make it about you not the amazing grounding cables Gary is speaking of. Its been 10 years.. Joe Casey, look at 68Petes post history, he is the utter definition of a fanboy. Wonder what Ricky was doing 10 years ago to customers Peter? Thats right Pete, things change. Broke is broke. Looks like according to your story we made a very valiant effort to get your unit done right, we even bought a unit for roughly $1K then made the expense of sending it to a third party more knowledgeable than us to get you taken care of. Then you contacted me a year later regarding his work ?? Anything could have happened in a year.. DPM 2340, (sorry dont know you by your moniker) If you feel you were treated unfair, please contact me direct, lets clear it up... Thats what my reply said above right ? . This is a post to celebrate the incredible VERASTARR products, namely the new grounding cables. It was also to show gratitude for our above and beyond personal client service. As a testament to that, I offered to clear up and give more resolution to any unhappy folks from up to 15 years ago after I read Peters post. I am not aware that any unsettled business exists.. Who offers that kind of commitment to their clients in this industry, what kind of guy does that ? Mike Powell does, thats who.. ME, right here.. 5 seconds phone call or emails reach. |
Mike Verastar Yes you did do the 3930. I still have the receipt give me a fax number and i will fax it to you! Your invoice #2183 date 1/3 07 Whats the number to contact you???? The last mod on your web page at the time was for the feet to up grade from the hard plastic to a soft jell type. It was one of the ones not done that i can recall now. the other mods where ones you said could not be done to the unit. Because of the design you said. Alexs fixed it twice in a 3 month period and said there is nothing more he could do with it. Alex moved his operation overseas so if i wanted it fix or looked at i would have had to ship it to him. Yes Dennon went away from the design of the 3930, but i did not buy it from Dennon i bought it from you. SO FANBOY you never knew what was inside the player, what could be done and what could not. But your web page claimed you did.. When you could not do the work is when you brought Alex in and he installed a new board of his design to get it to your claim. But the mods on your web sight could not be done in full. |
Hi David, I can probably explain better. First off we offer the cable upgrades. Then as far as the MPC, we took out the single filter cap and replaced it with dual FC type, and that was the first test and it clearly worked. Next step is replacing the diodes then replacing the cable run.. Finally I will be trying a much larger linear low noise power supply on it to see if or how much it makes a difference. |
@68 Pete, the story keeps changing. If I got Alex to work on this for you I performed a miracle on your behalf. If he could not do it, nobody could. If mods could not be done, what was there to fix ? Clearly it worked for a year, and if that was without mods, well its Denons fault my friend.. I'll contact you personally here since you dont seem to know how.. |
Mike The story has never changed Its been the same. It would not matter if Denon worked on it you could not deliver on what you said you would do....You and Hot Rod Audio failed not Denon or Alex. Getting Alex to work on it was to cover your screw up. Not knowing what mods could be done to the 3930. Not my fault not Denon fault not Alex fault your fault. What makes it worst is your name calling and trying to drag down another cable co. which has nothing to do with our situation. Can not wait to hear from you. My number and email have not changed |
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2340, Would it not be wise and edifying to write the positive "he did however go out of his way to correct it" and leave it at that without the digs and smart A$$ comments? So that is Mike's reward for taking care of you in the "end"!??? A public rebuke? With 68 to "move on" means not to bring up the "dead body" of past negitive experiences in life and re examine it! You may need some inner healing? |
I found an old email where I tell Alex to ship this guy a brand new unopened unit and what I would do on the rest. It was in the hands of the best in the country and if Alex could not do the mod it means it was impossible on the new model. We agreed to do a 3930 for you when it was not part of our regular lineup. To accommodate you. Where I come from Fanboy is a compliment. I’m a Gryphon Fanboy, who cares ? I’ve been very calm and civil. You’ve got the number so send the invoice. I know exactly what we did for you. And even though we sent you a brand new unit, I’m still going to send you something from us anyways today. Then you know we made you a second concession on a settled claim 10 years later. If you can’t sense my intent in that, well I’m sorry then. Things happen in life. Nobody can prevent it. The people that accept blame, apologize and go out of their way to make it right are few and far between. I’m not going to reply on this any longer. It’s a waste of good time. |
I just got off the phone with Pete and as stated above it was in fact a 3930. We never actually carried through with 3930 because Petes order taught us that Denon had gone to a chip architecture in that section making the full mod impossible. This was the experience that taught me to not agree to do mods based on the former "house" architecture of any given manufacturer. Tough lesson learned. If I was Pete in this situation I would be upset as well. I was depending on a digital genius that I remember now was very slow because he was always backed up with orders. So I wasted Petes time by sending the mod to the best Denon tech in the USA. That certainly didnt work as planned. All of these things were rookie mistakes and I gave my best effort at that time. Again, it was a tough lesson learned. Pete has been offered further compensation as a result. @2340, It sounds like I did whatever it took to compensate you, if you feel you weren't treated fairly, please contact me. |
2340 was taken care of also "in the end" so.... Verastarr makes some of the best cables/upgrades on the market and has integrity and character to go along with it. Ten years ago? 95% of manufacturers would not give out the time of day to someone like 68. I would never start a thread and recommend a seller of audio goods to members here on the 'Gon unless I knew, by experience, that they have integrity and character and Mike has all of that plus!! |
Mike, i think you should just let this thing die. You'll learn in life all too late that you can't satisfy everybody. The best thing to do is try to make it correct. I always was happy with the advice I got from you. you always were willing or found a way to meet my needs. I thought about purchasing another pair of grand illusion inters from you but I'm looking at others. I'm sorry our relationship ended the way it did. my father always said "you're only as good as the last thing you do for somebody". seems to be true. it would have been nice had things worked as planned. |
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@glory just wanted to thank you for pointing me in the direction of Mike's work on SR kit. I have a fairly extensive selection of SR items including most recently the grounding block (discussion of my experience here). One of the more obscure ways I use this is to ground my Grand Prix Audio stands. I was using the stock unshielded cables and once I dressed these (away from anything electrical) they worked quite well. I wondered what a better cable might sound like but did not want to spring for the HD cords, especially as I need a bare wire termination to secure under the end caps on my stands (so they contact a bare metal surface). I sent Mike a message and asked what he could come up with. His idea was to create some silver foil cords, unshielded, but with the end of the foil exposed to connect with the stands. We agreed a price (much less than the SR equivalents) and two weeks later I got six new cords. In comparison with the stock cables, themselves carefully dressed to avoid interference, the main characteristics of the Verastarr cables are in terms of what they do not do. The do not exaggerate bass and leading edges. They do not add a harshness to vocals when the mic is driven hard. They do not spotlight, push forward, or pull back instruments in the mix. Overall they deliver a more clear and natural performance that can at first listen seem less dynamic, less spacious and less layered but is in fact more integrated, more musical, and more relaxed than the stock. The improvement is most apparent on vocals where it's much easier to hear sub-vocal details such as breath-work and subtle infections. Bear in mind these are small differences at the margin on a megabuck system and I'm not sure anyone would have been dissatisfied with the performance before but in the overall system, and considering this is only grounding a set of stands, then the impact is well worth the investment. Mike was a pleasure to work with and I'd strongly recommend you give his ideas a try. |
FF, I am glad you found Verastarr's upgraded Grounding Block cables a positive listening experience. Just got a Verastarr upgraded MPC and giving it a test out in comparison to my other upgraded MPC from Michael. This MPC is running one of three Tranquility Base I have. Mike is a crazy mad man when it comes to upgrades. He gets high on them and loves to hear the positive feedback from his work. Give one of his top AC cables a ride and report back. |
Let me tell you first Hand Mike at Verastarr goes Way out of his way works late calls customers even into the evening if that is what they prefer. Very fair in pricing vs the competition and very innovative .his cables are totally different then conventional , although much different similar to when nordist hit the market. Verastarr maybe should tell a bit more about the engineering of the product I think many people would be willing to give it a good .he does not advertise much , but maybe should . Mike is a testament to the way a quality business should be run,and backs everything with making your satisfaction part of the deal. Just check Verastarr out I think you will be very pleased . |