BigVoyevoda

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Trucker1964

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2385 European Blackface

When I found this beauty I knew I probably wouldn't get another chance to buy such nice black 2385 again (the black face was dead mint perfect).

Years ago, my brother gave me one just like it in poor condition. I loved it and it sounded fantastic but I let go because the overall condition was poor (I needed the money!) and since have always had my eye out for a really nice one. I ended up purchasing this one from AudioKarma member dennisqle for what I thought was a crazy amount of money, but since I figured it was a rare piece and I had a sentimental feeling about it, I pulled the trigger. You can see dennisqle's post about the unit here:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=624549

I contacted a few members on AudioKarma regarding restoration and as you can imagine, the most notable restorers all had long wait times. I decided to go with an AudioKarma member with less experience but seemed to have a real passion for Marantz gear, so I took a chance.

Big mistake.

The member, who will go unnamed here, promised to turn the unit around in 18 days (I think work days). He was very excited about the prospect of restoring the big 2385. He even asked if I wanted to remove the blackface but I knew he wanted to take pictures of the completed unit to show off and I told him I trusted him with the unit and I would carefully pack it in its original double box which I had delivered to him on March 7th in working condition.

Upon delivery, the unnamed member let me know that the rear panel had gotten slightly bent and the AM antenna had been damaged in shipping. It was my fault; when I packed the unit, I wrapped the large European power plug in bubble wrap and nestled it against the rear of the unit. The unit shifted a bit and damaged the rear panel. My bad.

Thankfully the panel could probably be straightened and the AM antenna parts are not to hard to come by.

We had several discussions about restuffing the dual filter caps. I sent him links to catrafter's and silversmith's work on Marantz dual filter caps (the 2285 has them too, I just had Tom Ishimoto recap my blackfaced 2285 and he did it catrafter style, side by side in a puck).

He sent me some pictures of a board he made up to mount the individual filter caps side by side and stated that he thought it would be better for cooling. It looked kind of hokey but I figured I wouldn't see it anyway so I said ok. It was at this point that I figured that the $420 in cash I had given him was a pretty meager amount for the work that would be required to finish the unit. I think that his desire to restore such a nice unit got the better of him and he underbid the project so I sent him another $300.

I had to chase him down several months ago and he told me that he changed the filter cap setup to a stuffed orientation and was waiting for another member to return the stuffed caps to him. Ok, that sounds good.

Fast forward to the middle of May, he indicated that the filter caps he installed "blew up" and that he had never seen this before and he said that the filter caps were defective. Hmm... He also indicated that the chassis had been damaged in the explosion. Needless to say I was disappointed but hopeful that the damage to the chassis was not too bad and that it wouldn't be seen when the unit was put back together.

I tried to follow up with several calls and emails but he had gone silent. It was at this point that accepted the fact that he was in way over his head and I had trusted someone without proper experience on this beautiful rare unit.

I suspected that the explosion has caused a catastrophic failure of the unit (like the transformer) so I began to press him. I called him like a mental patient and emailed him and asked him to be honest with be with no response.

He finally responded yesterday in a poorly worded email apologizing for his poor communication and indicated that he need to remove the filter caps and transformer !! The only conclusion I can make is that the transformer is blown.:sigh:

He then went on to suggest that he purchase the unit from me for a fraction of what I had invested in it. Wow. Needless to say I sent he an angry email requesting that he return the unit to me in its present condition so that he doesn't do any more damage.

No response

This is my tale of woe. I figure someone may be able to repair the transformer ?I'm resigned that I will have to start over again with a qualified tech but it may be a year or two before someone has the time.
 

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Trucker, everyone will feel for you on this. I hate to be cliche but we get what we pay for.

That said, get it back as soon as you can, if you can. There are a lot of great techs on here that will chime in soon that will give you more advice. Who was the member so someone else does not send along a treasured piece of gear to have it restored by them.

Hopefully they see this and make it right by you.
 
Thanks Fairlane. I think its best at the moment to keep his name out of the thread for now. I'm hoping that the good members here can help me get the unit properly repaired, particularly the transformer (ugh) if it is in fact blown.
 
I'm terribly sorry about your ordeal. I'm sure you have your reasons for not revealing the members name. I only hoped you might to protect others from this happening to. It almost seems like he scammed you out of your unit and your money. I hope I'm wrong
 
I definitely wasn't scammed, this particular person is operating out of his depth, made some mistakes and then compounded the problem by ignoring my emails and calls. It's frustrating but I'm optimistic about the great people here who are offering help (RobInONT, I may have to take you up on the transformer!) I will post when I get some final resolution.
 
I'm sorry to hear of your problems. I hope you can work with whomever to a resolution you can live with. I'm not saying it can't happen, but I've never personally seen a blown power transformer in a Marantz. It's great that RobInOnt has one, just in case.

Best of luck!

Tom
 
Trucker,

Thank you for taking the high road, even though you surely have a right to be unhappy. The lesson that this guy should hopefully learn is that these pieces are worth far more to us than just the $ we invest, and he should have 1). stopped when he realized he was in over his head; 2). but really, never tried to begin with. He can screw up his own pieces, but not someone elses.
 
I admire your patience and optimism!
I'm not sure i'd be so understanding. No , I'm sure i wouldn't. Very commendable. I wish you the best of luck. I once needed a bottom cover for a fisher. Another Aker offered to send me his to take measurements to send to machinist. The machinist wanted the original. I couldn't bring myself to send him someone elses cover. If it got lost or damaged in shipping (hey it happens, its rare, but it happens). In any event i was grateful and declined the offer. As it turned out one turned up on the auction site and i was set. My point being this stuff sometimes is irreplaceable (or nearly). What's that saying in the medical credo? Do no harm?. If this guy was out of his depth he shouldn't have taken it in the first place. Even the best tech can have an event (nobody is perfect). BUT! This story got worse and worse as it went on. Maybe early on the guy might've said hey. I think i bit off more than i can chew, maybe you should get someone else. It just seems (at best) he used bad judgement after bad judgement. Man, i hope this story has a happy ending!
 
I hope it works out for you.

Most problems in life are a simple case of miscommunication.

Bob
 
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In my years of lurking on AK, I have observed that most AK'ers are not about the money and are driven by their passion for the gear and their quest for beautiful sound. I agree, it's not about the money.
 
I agree but, we are a slice of society. Even if there are a hundred good guys to every bad guy, if there were 5000 of us, there'd be 50 bad guys. No idea what actual numbers are but you get the point.
 
By not naming the person who perpetrated this fraud, you are allowing him to continue the same actions on others.

In some way, this makes you partially responsible for his on going fraudulent actions going forward.

He has the same open forum as the rest of us and he can post his side of the story, if he chooses to defend is actions and himself.
 
By not naming the person who perpetrated this fraud, you are allowing him to continue the same actions on others.

In some way, this makes you partially responsible for his on going fraudulent actions going forward.

He has the same open forum as the rest of us and he can post his side of the story, if he chooses to defend is actions and himself.

Chris,

I really do appreciate your post here. I have been in touch with several very reputable members here on AK. The last PM I Received was pretty damning of the member in question.

I honestly believe that it is a societal imperative that we do the hard things in life so that other are protected. Believe me, it's practically my credo.

Give me a moment to finalize my thought on this and I'll be back shortly.

Thank you all.
 
The member still refuses to respond to my voicemail messages and emails.

The member is Bigvoyevoda. His name is Noah Schumacher.

I hope to just get the unit back in one piece.

Thanks again everyone who took the time. I'm hopeful in the end this makes for a stronger and better community.
 
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Not that I think it will help this situation (well you never know). But open a thread in the feedback forum. If he eventually makes it right you could post that too. Feedback can only be by people who have direct dealings with the parties. For reasons I can't explain I'm taking this one personally. Maybe because it could happen to any of us.
 
It gives me no pleasure to post this here but some of the old guard in the Marantz Forum requested that I do so.

I won't go into great detail here but you can read about my experience with Noah and my beautiful Marantz 2385 Blackface receiver here in the Marantz Forum:

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=670468

The short of it is Noah has made some serious mistakes in his business practices and has failed to communicate after I demanded the return of this rare unit which he may have damaged.

If anyone here is a friend of Noah's, please encourage him to contact me to arrange for the return of what is a piece of gear that has great sentimental as well as monetary value.
 
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Have you heard back from him?

I have not heard from Noah since he emailed me the $1,500 offer for the unit and the tidbit about removing the transformer :tears:

I have however received quite a few PM's from members about Noah...

I'm quite sure that he will get the unit back to me eventually. I really don't think it will take me getting on a plane.

I'll let everyone know when Noah surfaces and cleans up his mess.
 
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