http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/InPerson/speaker_scams.htm
Purchased At:
The White Van :lol:
Audiophile Reviews
While the technical specs below ( placed by a "Speakerman" at a review site where he tried to bump up the ratings with planted "unbiased" reviews ) sound impressive the more technical purchasers dig a little deeper into what they actually represent.
Dual 8" Floor-standing 2-way Tower Speaker Utilizing a 4th Order Butterworth Ported Design - 15 Watts RMS Amp Power, 200 Watts Music Power, 8 ohms, 91B 1W/1M, 100dB, 39-22,000 Hz (+-3dB), 12/6 dB per octave, 4,000 Hz crossover, 2-8" " High Modulus" Bi-Lamented Cone Butyl Rubber Surround, 1 1/2" Dia. High-temp Voice Coil, 24 oz. High Strength Ceramic Magnet, 13mm Titanium Coated Dome Computer Opt. Phase Dispersion Ring Tweeter, all in a wood black veneered finished ported cabinet.
"The speakers were weak, and could not compete with my ten year old stereo and speakers. He told me once I buy some 12 gauge speaker wire to hook up to them, they would blow me away. After the rewiring, I have not been blown away and I am disappointed."
"I decided to find out for myself just what these speakers were made of, so I proceeded to disassemble them. The two way crossover is very insufficient and not capable of handling what the speaker says. No insulation was placed on the inside to help with bass reproduction. The speakers have weak magnets and no specifications on them. The cones appear to be a polymer product, but when flipped over they are not. All in all, I paid for a speaker box and a nice speaker plug."
"I have personally believed that either the Bose AM series or their VCS was the single worst speaker listening experience that I have ever heard from a non-blown speaker, until I heard these."
"I unscrewed the drivers from the enclosure, these drivers look like they were made by some cheap manufacturer in Taiwan or Hong Kong. The cross-over network contains of some cheap and simple elements. The wires were thin and they weren't even soldered onto the driver. They were clipped on."
"When I pointed out these speakers had dodgy rubber rims and were crappy paper cones, and the titanium tweeter was in fact aluminum, the guy got really shirty and said he was in a hurry."
"On the box it says "Computer optimized crossover on Military spec PC board" but when you open it, There ain't no stinkin' crossover PCB. It's got a single capacitor in series with the tweeter. No circuit whatsoever on the bass cone."
"Their so-called "patent pending" grill design - I thought it was always better to listen without the grill- it's nothing but a piece of wood with black cloth over them. Bass drivers are not flush with the baffle. Even cheap $100 speakers do that."
"Cabinet is made out of cheap low density particle board, and is empty, resonating everywhere. No stuffing, no nothing. They used cheap 20 cents/m connecting wires."
"They produce terrible sound quality and are manufactured from extremely low quality components. Just reading their spec from their "website" is enough to tell anyone that it is a load of cobblers."
"For example, if anyone can tell me what a "Controlled Directivity™ integrated grille" is, other than a couple of slats pointing in a particular direction then I would be amazed. Ditto "High ModulusTM treated cone with butyl rubber surrounds" - other than a polypropylene cone that is no longer used in credible woofer designs."
"These speakers don't even qualify for being in the lowest common denominator mass market category. They are even lower than that.
"If you are one of the rare folks who do like the sound, I advise that you go to Wal-Mart or Dollar General Stores first. You'll find better speakers from Yorx, Emerson, or Symphonic for less than $50.00 and that includes the rest of the system."
"I took them home and hooked them up. The bass was strong - in fact I had to turn down the bass on the graphic to test the high range. About ten minutes of playing and one tweeter stopped working. I took them apart to investigate."
"The spade connector had fallen off. Inside, they are as cheap as the outside (about the same quality as my AUD$200 Wharfdales. Tiny wires, slip on spade connectors, but they do have a pcb with two inductor, two capacitors and two high wattage resistors."
"I did not analyze the filter, but it probably is fourth order Butterworth as in the specs. There was some black baffling inside for damping. The cases are just particle board, and the screws are already pulling out."
"He pulled out a magazine and flipped to a marked page and showed me an ad. I've seen this ad before because I read HiFi magazines quite often. The ad was for a HiFi store that deals in very expensive equipment. There were names like Bryston, Wilson Audio, Cary, Dunlavy, etc."
"There right in the middle was Magnum Dynalab. In the layout of the ad, they had to kind of offset the word Magnum from the word Dynalab. I said that this is in fact MAGNUM Dynalab and it is a company that deals in power conditioners and stuff. They have never made a speaker. Actually they should sue, if you ask me!"
Industry Reviews
Industry estimates rate the worth of the units at about $100 a piece which represents the value of the housing alone,
allowing nothing for the electronic component portion.
#-o
The Fall (Oct) What HiFi magazine issued a warning about this scam. They even got a pair and tested them out. They apparently claim the units have no internal bracing, terrible crossover, terrible speakers etc. resulting in a boomy, resonant mess.
Hometheater Magazine did a humorous article in their April 2001 issue.
and pm me
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