The company deals in snake oil! - I wonder how much resource they really have for a transatlantic legal battle... I hope sensible scottish lawyers are giving them sensible advice....
@@RegebroRepairs yes, the 'golden ears' looove to throw large stashes of $ at these bozos -because the more kHz one pretends to hear the larger the external reproductive organ, i guess
I'm a retired Amplifier designer and this to me looks more hobbiest than professional. Or a 1st stage prototype at best. Looking at the job here... there's no bespoke made by semi-con manufacture parts (FPGA - firmware) specific to this brand. So all off the shelf.. no unobtainium. The prestige pricing is a chancer thinking they can get away with it ... they've been caught and now having a hissy fit. ...Oh .. and I HATE Tantalum bead caps ... they are a poison in the industry.
What do you think about the situation with the boards and the lack of any RF shielding? I read some Hackaday comments saying they thought the whole thing should've been one board and some metal wouldn't have been a bad idea either.
Most notable is that Tom Evans must have spent hours filing off Part Numbers to conceal the fact that he uses inexpensive, ordinary parts in his $28,000 (£ 25,000) Preamp. What a slimball. Good work ! 👍
I did try to persuade a professor at work that, with a bit of work, the amplifier design used for LIGO could be sold for silly money to audiophiles. The gain is basically absolutely linear, and the noise floor is just, and I mean, just above the theoretical minimum. The only problem is that it only goes to 16kHz 🙂You could even slap as used by LIGO stickers on it. It frankly buts commercial audio amplifiers to shame, though they would probably claim it was too "clinical" or some such other nonsense.
part of me is like "come on man, just let the guy grift rich landlords who think they have golden ears" and the other part of me is like "tom i hope you have a weird bbq accident that takes a finger or three"
Even if the board design WAS patented, it doesn't matter. Patents are public. Go look at literally any patent, they include full detailed drawings of every single aspect of the patented thing. The only way to infringe on a patent would be if he reproduced the board for sale, NOT because he showed the board, because a patented board is public information already.
a patent only affects commercial production and to some extent the associated production files. a reverse engineered schematic is not protected. it is also fully legal to clone a patented design for personal or educational use, as long as you do not commercialize it. (correction: not legal in many jurisdictions but pointless to sue against as there is no significant financial damage).
Couldn't agree any harder, I've watched Louis for years, and Mark since he pretty much started, Mark is such a lovely knowledgeable guy who dispenses information in an easy to understand manor, I'm so ready for Louis to take these to the cleaners and thank him wholeheartedly for taking this on
But, but, but that capacitor is supposed to only be replaced with a rare new old stock germanium capacitor looted by english soldiers from a german train that was hidden inside a mountain cave for 60 years. Only they contain the audiophile quality 'magic smoke'.
Honestly, hell of a thing to want to protect. At least make it easy on yourself and don't design seventeen boards with components you have to hand-solder and file.
I watched the original mend it Mark video on this and I was as impressed as everyone else at Mark's technical Skills. At the time I didn't know that the customer had sent this to Tom Evans and that it had got damaged in transport and was quoted such a price for the repair. I think it shows how good Mark is that he was able to repair it. I was so mad at the Tom Evans Company that I tried to write to him but could not find any contact details. I wrote to one of his agents in wales instead saying how pathetic his attempts were at "Making the right of repair" very difficult. It's very good of you Louis to support Mark in this way. Subscribed.
I watched the original video. I am always impressed with Marks repair videos. I thought he was way nicer about the build quality than I would have been lol
A solicitor is a non-barred lawyer, who can deal with matters that don't involve going to court (in contrast with a barrister, who is a barred lawyer that deals with matters with the court). They handle the administrative matters, such as writing contracts and cease-and-desist letters.
The legal term "bar" comes from the railing traditionally used to separate the area of the courtroom that lawyers are allowed into from the public area. Thus when you pass the appropriate law exams you are "admitted to the bar". It's not just a British term, it seems to be used in other countries as well.
@@gcewing The 'bar' is also board the ship. Admiralty Law, Justitia etc. You can be a member of the bAR, and people have to cross the bar, to submit to jurisdiction of the court, whichever jurisdiction they chose.
Like I said in a comment on Louis' previous video on this: they have to. Tom Evans Audio's game is over if they can't suppress that Mend-it-Mark video and they know it, so I predict they will fight till the end, which probably means wiping out their own company. There's simply no way they can keep on pretending that that thing is worth 20 or 30,000 dollars when it does exactly the same as a "normal" competently built phono stage that costs maybe 300 dollars, especially when you see the build-quality, or rather the lack thereof.
@@tjroelsma exactly.. ppl don't realize the level of greed of these scammers. if that (edit:) ) would have spent a modest but reasonable amount of $ to develop and produce a remotely proper device, things would be different... but as is, his only option is to "die" trying to hide how cheap And stupid that product really is.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. The segment of the audiophile market that buy this stuff don't watch videos like this. They're also very good at convincing themselves or being convinced of voodoo magic occurring in their electronics.
@@jondu-sud274 They did go and apologize profusely though. I think dCS is quite snake oily with their pricing, but they did make a good effort to mend relationships over what they claimed was a personal issue of one of their former middle management.
I've been servicing electronics for decades. Every once in a while we run across overpriced junk like that preamp. The gentleman in the video was much more charitable than I'd be.
I think the original designer was just embarrassed that his mid-level schematic design , and skimpy mechanical mounts were exposed for all the world to see...
@@G-ra-ha-m YES! Great point. What a heated over-kill! I think they (ignorantly) ground off the tops of the IC's and regulators because they didn't want anyone to "discover" that very low-noise op-amps, and Linear regulators have existed for over 25 years now! They think their competition is stuck in the 80's using LM7805's and 741's in their modern designs this century!
@@G-ra-ha-m In a way it does matter, as the transducers (cartridges) have such low output, especially MC types that you need typically over 40 dB gain in the amp, sometimes up to 60 dB, PLUS the RIAA EQ being an additional +20 dB at 20 Hz. So yeah, you need a somewhat quiet amp for phono, despite its own SN being < 70 dB, but it's not so over-the-top that a 5532 wouldn't be enough.
@@fluphybunny930 You can make standard off the shelf parts do some amazing things. That’s what most board-level circuit design is about. It takes knowledge to make a great design. But that particular preamp was just run of the mill thing. Nothing innovative, no new approaches.
@absurdengineering It literally looked like it would have been a prototype.. When I saw the OG video, my first thought was wow you can just have put all that shit on to 2 boards? And I all lost lost it when the power supply was in a nother huge ass box. 😂
@@hingeslevers No doubt. At a pace of 10 a year anyone dexterous can sit down with a vise and a piece of aluminum bar stock and hand-cut the grooves in those columns, then drill all the holes in a basic drill press or even hand-drill, cut the metal sheets with a handsaw, and make a similar but bulletproof (almost literally) aluminum case. No expensive tools needed. It would be at least worthy of the handmade claim lol.
@@fricki1997 The only thing that would even really effect is resistance xD The most it would even do, is ever EVER so slightly shift the cutoff frequencies of any filters, but infinitesimally less than the manufacturing tolerances of the components themselves lol The circuit might also draw a negligibly larger current.
That's the NYC in him. I vividly remember calling in an order to one of the New York City photography equipment vendors, back when a phone call was the normal way to do that. Long distance phone calls were expensive and billed by the minute. Less than 60 seconds later my order had been taken, including address and credit card number. I don't think there was even a half second of silence.. order done, hang up. No "thank you for calling X", "would you also like..". You knew who you were calling, they knew you were ordering a product, no point in any extra words or talking slowly.
Not only is a repair not subject to a patent... He's not even taking away business from this Tom Evans Audio thievery conglomerate; A. They told him the repair cannot be done at a reasonable price... B. Then agree to send it to a repair technician ("he will fail. Just wait and see")... C. Contents of patents are publically viewable Additionally: Nobody signed an NDA. What can they even sue him for? This feels like one of those SLAPP Suits... (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation)... meant to censor undesirable criticism, and intimidate the people doing the criticizing in question..
@@jonathanbuzzard1376 From my understanding, this means you cannot utilise the circuit in a design without permission. There should not be any restriction on reverse-engineering the circuit. Think about it! If you can't reverse-engineer or publish a circuit due to copyright, how do you know what is protected by copyright. There has to be a published schematic somewhere.
@@tonycooper5599@tonycooper5599 You are applying US notions of copyright to something that took place in the UK, which has very different intellectual property laws. The fact that it exists means it is covered by copyright in most places outside the USA, particularly in the UK. Consequently, you know it's protected by copyright by the sheer fact that it exists. Stop thinking the rest of the world is like the USA.
I watched Mark's video when he uploaded it, it's a great video I love the way he explains everything.. They are trying to silence him because the video shows that the internals or the amp are almost thrown together....plastic stand off's....crappy ground planes...it looks a bit of a home brew design NOT a top end bit of kit.
Given how poorly packaged it must have been, from the damaged state it arrived in at Mark's workshop, I wonder if Tom was trying to prevent a videoed repair before it even happened? That they couldn't fix it for less than a few thousand pounds must be greatly humiliating, given the exposed simplicity of the cheap capacitor that was swiftly replaced. Tom Evans deserves whatever exposure this brings and Mark wasn't even disrespectful of his product in the original video. As I posted in Mark's comments, every cloud has a silver lining as until now his amazing channel has been way under subscribed, for the content delivered.
@@matthewjenkins1161 Oh I’m sure Tom would have had no problem fixing it. He just wasn’t gonna bother for less than the price he demanded. As is his right of course. But the customers also have a right to make informed purchasing decisions.
Ive watched MIM. He does a good job of showing how he diagnoses and fixes issues with electronic devices. Screw Tom evans audio. Theyre just bullies. I like how you dared them to copyright strike you too. Daring them to take the piss. Keep up the good videos!
@@ro63rto This has nothing to do with patents. Patents are public knowledge - you have to define what you are patenting. Patent law is about preventing others profiting from an original idea without contributing to the patent holder. It doesn't apply here as MiM isn't selling anything. And AIUI, there is no patent for this design.
Just a thought: if Tom Evans does try to sue you, start a crowdfunding campaign to cover all the costs. We'd all love to donate to it to watch Angry Repair Man go to town on them.
We should have a Tom Evans audio circuit drawing contest. Winner gets nothing but the pride of winning. Also I subscribed to Mend it Marks channel as it combines multiple topics I enjoy.
This whole thing is so braindead. Who is making these calls? How have these people not heard of the streisand effect? But i guess scammers arent really that smart.
@mos8541 Barbara Streisand owned a house that appeared in a photo somewhere obscure online. Her legal team tried to have the photo removed from the site (allegedly , Streisand herself didn't know or care about it). The removal attempt got LOTS of media attention. As a result, many more people saw the photo of this house than ever would have had it been left alone. Someone coined that phenomenon after her. The same this is going on here. The video will be seen by many more people because of the removal attempt than would have seen it had the video been left alone.
So instead of Tom Evans Audio simply reaching out to Mark to have a discussion about it, they lay siege to his channel? I can only imagine them side-eyeing in surprise at the sudden army, led by General Rossman, that has just surrounded them.🤣
MiM has been a favorite channel for a long time. I watched the video in question the day it was uploaded. I remember thinking, "Tom Evans isn't going to like this." It's not even like Mark was bashing the guy, but just showing it like it is.
As a recently retired U.K. based PenTester that partly specialised in hardware reverse engineering: I’m pleased to report that EU and U.K. law does allow reverse engineering hardware designs, if it's done for a legitimate purpose; such as to correct errors in a lawfully acquired product or to understand the structure and function of a product to undertake repairs - acknowledging that such work may have an impact on any warranty.
At this point I would just upload the entire reverse-engineered repair manual as a FU. I wonder how hard it would be to figure out all the scratched off part numbers and post those too.
Had an IC with a sanded--off marking in a competitor's product I was reverse engineering many years ago. It was clearly a quad op-amp and didn't need to be anything special so just for fun I removed it and did a few tests. It was clearly an LM324, which would have been what I would have used in the circuit..
@@bertblankenstein3738 I was tracing out the cct to see if the competitor had done anything clever, not to repair it. The part was fully working and went back in.
@Graham_Langley Haha, all good. I was joking. I would've looked in the parts bin and put one in with the part number on it, just to spite the competitor, even if it were never to be looked at again. :)
OH, I'M READY FOR THIS! Usually, I browse TH-cam in my home office, but for this one, I'm taking it to my living room couch, on the big screen. Feet up, comfy pillows, head rest, cold drinks, and popcorn!
I am a subscriber of Mend It Mark and I watched the phono amp repair video before it was deleted. It was wonderful how it called bullshit on the price. TH-cam will always take the complainants view and pull a video as it is the easy no risk way. Great for you reposting and showing Evans some real teeth.
You couldn't make this up..............Manufacturer sends amp on to EE who is well known for his electronics repairs on TH-cam, then has a fit when said EE publishes a TH-cam video about it!! Would love to see this go to court, the cross examination would be something wondrous!
I'm following this topic with great interest too as this could obviously apply to my channel or any other TH-cam fixer/educator. Oh and FYI Attorney is american for Solicitor 😆
Way to go Mr. Rossmann! It's refreshing to see someone stand up for what's right. I know you do it a lot, but you get extra credit for helping Mend It Mark who's objectively one of the kindest people to host a TH-cam channel. It really tears me up inside to see that abusive bully descend on such a fine gentleman.
I never heard of them either.. now I can understand why. Hope I never see or hear of a Toms Evans product again. Also, I hope someone will warn us when the company rebrands. Bc that's what corporations like to do.. nothing like a little bit of rebranding to try and outrun the bad name you made for yourself and evade accountability; am I right?
Thank you for all of: standing up for Mark, introducing me to his channel, standing up to Tom Evans audio, and alerting me to the fact that I should never buy anything from them. Also... I'm _really_ looking forward to watching this play out.
Thank You Louis!!! I don't like this, make a crap product, looks like a High School project, charge 100X, and then wrap it in lawyers. Feel really sad for others who were scammed.
I have watched your channel for years and have always loved your integrity and passion Mend it Mark also gives me much joy and I'm so happy you're willing to back him. Grouping together to take down these corporate shit-whistles is just what we need. Waiting to watch Mend it Marks original video again Cheers mate
Many years ago I built a clone of a well respected audio power amplifier. Some years later I worked for a defence electronics contractor where they had also built clones of the same amplifier as an internal staff project. In both cases we had access to the original, I now own two genuine ones, because they are nicely built. With this pre-amplifier the video does not give me enough information to build a clone, however the poor build quality is exposed for everyone to see. If I was the manufacturer I would want to censor the video, it shames them on a number of levels. Ironically it is only the maker's greed with the repair cost that drove the owner to send it to "Mend it Mark".
Considering at the amateur construction, half-assed shielding and ground routing, the circuit design is likely worse than anything you can find in a decent appnote.
Tom Evans might as well change his name to Tom Streisand 😂 I get it that he's upset about someone slagging-off his creation, which he's clearly very proud of, but these "home-made" boutique audio brands are so "not me". Poor build quality paired with insane pricing. No thanks. Assuming the unit is operating correctly, it doesn't even seem like it's a particularly good design. If I were designing a mega-bucks phono amp, it would be battery -powered, with the AC charging the batteries when the unit is off, and completely disconnected from the mains when in use. Anyway...I'm not designing one...cos I, too, am not a fan of vinyl! Tom might not be an absolute jerk, but he's certainly behaving like one at the moment. He's certainly achieving The Streisand Effect with his tantrum.
Thank you for taking this on. Mark’s channel is one of the most interesting on TH-cam and does not deserve to have this manufacturer make such a situation over the video just because his ‘circuitry’ has been made available for the world to see.
I recaped and upgraded my old Marantz audio setup, it was a breeze. I downloaded super detailed schematics and a part list from the manufacturer, I even reached them via customer service with some questions. They promptly responded with more information than I asked. It was a pleasant and enjoyable weekend "garage" project. That was completely the opposite of this Horror story.
I did the same with some other component swaps (Schotty diodes on the PSU side) on my UK made Musical Fidelity A1 Amp. Did not have to contact the manufacturer as the circuit drawings are already on the net.
When a professional builds electronics (or anything else) they pay attention to doing everything right even if it's hidden deep inside and it's unlikely the customer will ever see it. Two reasons for this, firstly someone sooner or later may have a reason to look inside and see the truth, and (more importantly) as a professional you take a pride in doing things right.
I've even taken that attitude for the software I've written that drives a user interface. I don't care if the customer can't see my source code behind the visuals. *I* know what it looks like, and I like it neat, readable, and 'quality' for when the next programmer comes to modify it.
A large difference of older and modern high end audio is definitely how consumer-friendly they were. Some older equipment even shipped with a schematic right in the owner's manual, without needing to acquire a service manual.
See my top level comment about the point at 01:35 that everyone has missed. You're about to find, I expect, that the manufacturer's/designer's sole *design right* to make those documents, rather than some third party making a full 12-page *design document* diagramming even the physical board layout, splashing the designer's name all over it, and leafing through it page by page in a TH-cam video, is exactly what this is all about.
@@JdeBP I would guess that not everyone missed that point. That is likely the exact reason he is so upset. From a consumer's standpoint though, if the product can be freely sold/traded/distributed, is the internal composition also not able to be fully owned by the consumer? If Tom Evans decides to not make available the documentation to repair such an expensive product, it should be up to the owner or a third party to be able to produce the necessary documentation to repair said product. As someone who repairs audio equipment, if the manufacturer refuses to send a schematic, it still does not change the fact that I am the one who is supposed to be repairing the product.
I designed my circuits like Tom Evans, and they looked like his. It was hobby, I was a teenager and left it there. As an electronics aficionado layman, when I saw Mark opening that case, I bursted out in laugh. Eventually, it's another great Streisand effect example. The type of justice happening here is what the internet is really good for. Louis, thanks for standing up and supporting Mark.
I hope other TH-camrs take inspiration from what you do. Lots of big channels say "oh this TH-cam policy hurts small creators" and then do nothing about it. It takes a lot of integrity to actually take some risk and potential lawsuits on to actually help them though. Tons of respect for this.
Louis, I honestly can say I have no idea what you're talking about (I often don't...) but I've been struggling mentally a lot recently (finals season plus the cold weather), and these videos are a nice comfort for me, especially when I'm away from home. So I'm glad you updated :)
I was already a subscriber to Mark, so I saw the video a while ago. It was great indeed. And not even judgmental. Great to have big Louis protecting this humble gentleman! I love both your work!
Hey Lewis, I just wanted to say that you've brightened up my day immeasurably knowing that you are prepared to take on a bully with such glee. Keep doing what you're doing, the world needs more people like you.
I have seen the video from Mark about the Tom Evans phono pre amp. If this pre amp was build by an electronics hobbyist to be used by him or her self then I can respect the effort put in to it but not if it's build by a supposedly professional manufacturer and certainly not for £ 25000,-. Mister Evans should be ashamed of himself. After seen Mark's video I looked on Tom Evans Audio Design website to see wat the specifications should be but none to be find except pseudo science bladiebladiebla. Mister Evans deserve it to have this whole story back fired straight in his face.
@@ploed If an audio manufacturer doesn't provide proper spec-sheets than it is most likely that their products are worthless. Certainly if the component type number are scraped off.
Personally i think we should create an opensource audiofool preamp based on reffference circuits and release it under creative commons, call it the jester25k and do all we can to to make the bom be no more than 250, then side by side test them and brag about our human design and psu not requiring interdimensional resonances caused by the ripple for an unparrelled response at 500KHz (because we all know audiofools hearing put bats to shame 🧐)
NwAvGuy tried something similar about 13 years ago with his O2 headphone amp and ODAC converter (he put everything in the public domain, including the thoroughly documented design process and heaps of measurements), and every single audiofool in the universe piled up on him (he also made some honest comments about products by equivalents of Tom Evans from those days). He remained anonymous and disappeared from the internet in 2012 (although his blogspot page is still there, so I assume somebody is paying for it to not be removed)
@AleksandarDavidović-r2n there's no talking to audiofools, they just like buying luxury products and spewing marketing nonsense buying goldplated toslink cables...
Rip'm a new one Louis. I will enjoy rewatching Mark's video when you put it up. I was in shock the first time - at the horrific build quality for the price.
@@ralphj4012 Lol, oh yes I forgot the standoffs, thanks for the correction. Did Mark replace the cooked nylon screw and nut on the 3 pin regulator too lol ?.
So they shot themselves in the foot,and thought,hmmm,how can we make this worse? I know,the Streisand Effect has worked out to well for other s,we want in on that.I've subscribed to Mend it Mark,and watched quite a few videos,thanks for the tip
This is the video I wanted to see. People like Evans need exposing and have a lesson taught. Mark seems like a really nice, mild mannered chap who goes the extra mile on all the repairs I have seen him doing. Tom Evans could have done the damage to the phono stage himself when he realised the owner didn't want to pay thousands for the diagnosis and repair. Even at $200 an hour 5k would pay for 25hr labor plus $0.40 for a tantalum cap. Nice work if you can get it.😮😢
This Tom figure pisses me off so much I am willing to donate money to Mark or Louis for legal fees. If all followers of these two channels would do that, this pathetic Tom figure wouldn’t have a change, cause he is bullshitting and bluffing all the way. He will spend his last penny on legal counseling to prove his point. But there is nothing to prove here. The law is clear. The only winners in that situation are the lawyers and other legal counselors. Negative publicity will kill Tom’s scam brand sooner or later. Let us unite and get rid of greedy scammers!
Well done Louis! You’re absolutely spot-on! Mark is a genuine, super-competent engineer. A real gentleman. This Evans character, however… …. Judging by his product build quality and his actions in this matter, he seems quite the opposite.
I too have started a fix it channel and I've watched MendItMark a lot. I was astounded that this got taken down. There's certainly no wizardry in this thing, just very carefully selected components. Right-to-repair I'm passionate about and we shouldn't be held to ransom for it. Filing off part numbers is a big no no in my book.
Has that company been living under a rock? We all know how this is going to end for them. It's only a couple eggs on their face but looks like they are going for an omelet
I'm totally loving this. I watched Mark's original video, but I'm going to watch it again when you upload it. Has anyone asked Tom Evans for an interview? That would be fun.
What more can you expect from these weird audiophile companies It sucks the way these companies are going. Once these monopolistic companies realise that they have so much reign over the market, they can do as much scummy crap as they want because they know nothing will happen to them
while in general you are right - tom evans is just a smalltime scammer, not one of the big players like... the guy seems to build these things completely by hand... and it shows in the build quality... and he overcharges like crazy for them but as usual with scammers - he only needs to occasionally find a mark and he wins... if he only sells one of these per year that makes him 25k pounds... for some people thats around their yearly salary... and he only needs a couple days maybe weeks of work to get there and the components he uses are likely less than 100 quid in total
Well thousands of people pay through the nose for Gucci sneakers, and they're made in the same factory as Nike's or any other meh brand, except they're 3 times as expensive?! Some folk see a big price and that's all they need to be convinced....
Someone's gonna learn a big lesson here, the hard way, and it ain't Louis or Mark. Grab the popcorn.
I hope you’re right, but some people will never learn.
i've learned to not underestimate greed-money combined w/ a team of lawyers and i suspect that Evans bozo has made a lot of money for cheap
The company deals in snake oil! - I wonder how much resource they really have for a transatlantic legal battle... I hope sensible scottish lawyers are giving them sensible advice....
@@duroxkilo Of course, he makes audiophile equipment.
@@RegebroRepairs yes, the 'golden ears' looove to throw large stashes of $ at these bozos -because the more kHz one pretends to hear the larger the external reproductive organ, i guess
I'm a retired Amplifier designer and this to me looks more hobbiest than professional. Or a 1st stage prototype at best. Looking at the job here... there's no bespoke made by semi-con manufacture parts (FPGA - firmware) specific to this brand. So all off the shelf.. no unobtainium. The prestige pricing is a chancer thinking they can get away with it ... they've been caught and now having a hissy fit. ...Oh .. and I HATE Tantalum bead caps ... they are a poison in the industry.
And it costs 25 grand!!
And Tantalum beads sound horrible in audio circuits
What do you think about the situation with the boards and the lack of any RF shielding? I read some Hackaday comments saying they thought the whole thing should've been one board and some metal wouldn't have been a bad idea either.
I think the multiple small boards is because he wanted to make the most of his 5-board minimum order from JLCPCB.
Yup, no unobtainium in that thing, looks more like chineseium to me.
I love it when you get that insane "Try me, I have nothing to lose, and have fought much harder battles" look in your eye.
My family know it well. 😂
Reminds me of George Costanza in the movie theatre.
Yes, as I recall Tom Evans is much much smaller than Apple etc. :D
@@AlbertWeijers Totally! lol
He took on the city of New York. I wouldn't mess with him.
Most notable is that Tom Evans must have spent hours filing off Part Numbers to conceal the fact that he uses inexpensive, ordinary parts in his $28,000 (£ 25,000) Preamp. What a slimball.
Good work ! 👍
As of right now it's almost $32k which is insane for that piece of crap
I did try to persuade a professor at work that, with a bit of work, the amplifier design used for LIGO could be sold for silly money to audiophiles. The gain is basically absolutely linear, and the noise floor is just, and I mean, just above the theoretical minimum. The only problem is that it only goes to 16kHz 🙂You could even slap as used by LIGO stickers on it. It frankly buts commercial audio amplifiers to shame, though they would probably claim it was too "clinical" or some such other nonsense.
@@jonathanbuzzard1376LIGO? also we tend to want stuff in stereo
there's a sucker born everyday
part of me is like "come on man, just let the guy grift rich landlords who think they have golden ears" and the other part of me is like "tom i hope you have a weird bbq accident that takes a finger or three"
Even if the board design WAS patented, it doesn't matter. Patents are public. Go look at literally any patent, they include full detailed drawings of every single aspect of the patented thing. The only way to infringe on a patent would be if he reproduced the board for sale, NOT because he showed the board, because a patented board is public information already.
That's the whole point of patent. You trade publicity for a time-limited production exclusivity.
Note it is in the UK the circuit is in fact probably copyright. You can copyright things in the UK that you cannot in the USA.
There's still something like fair use and educational purposes, isn't it?
a patent only affects commercial production and to some extent the associated production files. a reverse engineered schematic is not protected. it is also fully legal to clone a patented design for personal or educational use, as long as you do not commercialize it. (correction: not legal in many jurisdictions but pointless to sue against as there is no significant financial damage).
@@johanneswerner1140 fair use is far more restricted in te UK than the USA.
Thank God we have people like Louis Rossmann around!!
100% 👍🙂
Nobody's like Rossmann.
Couldn't agree any harder, I've watched Louis for years, and Mark since he pretty much started, Mark is such a lovely knowledgeable guy who dispenses information in an easy to understand manor, I'm so ready for Louis to take these to the cleaners and thank him wholeheartedly for taking this on
But, but, but that capacitor is supposed to only be replaced with a rare new old stock germanium capacitor looted by english soldiers from a german train that was hidden inside a mountain cave for 60 years. Only they contain the audiophile quality 'magic smoke'.
Magic smoke is real though. I’ve tried letting it out of capacitors, and they don’t work after that…
Tantlums are about as reliable as the average piece of German electronics
@@thomasstroem All electronic components contains smoke, the thing is to keep the smoke inside 8-)
Resistors made from the bones of Saint Cecilia.
60 years not 80 years? Than it was a socialist DDR train, everyone knows those are no good.
That preamp looks like something from a high school electronics class . Somebody is pissed because their gravy train got exposed .
Honestly, hell of a thing to want to protect. At least make it easy on yourself and don't design seventeen boards with components you have to hand-solder and file.
Webcam is a Tom Evans employee
I've had it with these damn Tomcams!
You could call it a peeping Tom.
It had an allergic reaction to stupidity. :]
Tomcat Evans
Big Clive has been drawing schematics and taking photos of printed circuit boards for years!! 👌🤣🤣🤣 😎🇬🇧
Never heard of Tom Evans, and now that I have will avoid them like the plague!
My wallet already avoids him.
I'm eternally partial to klipsch and denon
Nobody heard of him - except the poor bastard who bought his products 🥲
Tom Evans never heard of the Streisand Effect, I guess.
Well, he's about to find out...😂
Or UHC
it should now be known as the tom evans effect
Well done, Tom Evans. There are articles about this on German IT and HiFi news sites now. Nice move to ruin your reputation.
They are everywhere 😂
I watched the original mend it Mark video on this and I was as impressed as everyone else at Mark's technical Skills. At the time I didn't know that the customer had sent this to Tom Evans and that it had got damaged in transport and was quoted such a price for the repair. I think it shows how good Mark is that he was able to repair it.
I was so mad at the Tom Evans Company that I tried to write to him but could not find any contact details. I wrote to one of his agents in wales instead saying how pathetic his attempts were at "Making the right of repair" very difficult.
It's very good of you Louis to support Mark in this way. Subscribed.
It should have been easy for Tom to fix it for well under £1k.
@@G-ra-ha-m 1K for a capcitor and plastic stand offs .........hahahaha.( plus labour ...........)
I watched the original video. I am always impressed with Marks repair videos. I thought he was way nicer about the build quality than I would have been lol
@@frankgeeraerts6243 Well, and the top of the case :)
For Sure I enjoy Mark's Channel !!
A solicitor is a non-barred lawyer, who can deal with matters that don't involve going to court (in contrast with a barrister, who is a barred lawyer that deals with matters with the court).
They handle the administrative matters, such as writing contracts and cease-and-desist letters.
BAR = British Accreditation Register.
*Thank you. Both are British terms I often heard but never bothered to look up.*
The legal term "bar" comes from the railing traditionally used to separate the area of the courtroom that lawyers are allowed into from the public area. Thus when you pass the appropriate law exams you are "admitted to the bar". It's not just a British term, it seems to be used in other countries as well.
@@gcewing The 'bar' is also board the ship. Admiralty Law, Justitia etc.
You can be a member of the bAR, and people have to cross the bar, to submit to jurisdiction of the court, whichever jurisdiction they chose.
Tom Evans is committing corporate seppuku.
DCS screwed up when they threatened to sue a youtube reveiwer for giving a so so review to tbeir uber expensive DAC
Like I said in a comment on Louis' previous video on this: they have to. Tom Evans Audio's game is over if they can't suppress that Mend-it-Mark video and they know it, so I predict they will fight till the end, which probably means wiping out their own company.
There's simply no way they can keep on pretending that that thing is worth 20 or 30,000 dollars when it does exactly the same as a "normal" competently built phono stage that costs maybe 300 dollars, especially when you see the build-quality, or rather the lack thereof.
@@tjroelsma exactly.. ppl don't realize the level of greed of these scammers. if that (edit:) ) would have spent a modest but reasonable amount of $ to develop and produce a remotely proper device, things would be different... but as is, his only option is to "die" trying to hide how cheap And stupid that product really is.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. The segment of the audiophile market that buy this stuff don't watch videos like this. They're also very good at convincing themselves or being convinced of voodoo magic occurring in their electronics.
@@jondu-sud274 They did go and apologize profusely though. I think dCS is quite snake oily with their pricing, but they did make a good effort to mend relationships over what they claimed was a personal issue of one of their former middle management.
I've been servicing electronics for decades. Every once in a while we run across overpriced junk like that preamp.
The gentleman in the video was much more charitable than I'd be.
It just looks unprofessional. he even did one with a clear top, so you could see the insides!! Doh!
I think the original designer was just embarrassed that his mid-level schematic design , and skimpy mechanical mounts were exposed for all the world to see...
And the ridiculous PSU..
@@G-ra-ha-m YES! Great point.
What a heated over-kill!
I think they (ignorantly) ground off the tops of the IC's and regulators because they didn't want anyone to "discover" that very low-noise op-amps, and Linear regulators have existed for over 25 years now!
They think their competition is stuck in the 80's using LM7805's and 741's in their modern designs this century!
@@joeteejoetee Also a pursuit of low noise for a 60dB S/N source is pointless.
It's like his pants fell down and he is ashamed of his equipment.
@@G-ra-ha-m In a way it does matter, as the transducers (cartridges) have such low output, especially MC types that you need typically over 40 dB gain in the amp, sometimes up to 60 dB, PLUS the RIAA EQ being an additional +20 dB at 20 Hz. So yeah, you need a somewhat quiet amp for phono, despite its own SN being < 70 dB, but it's not so over-the-top that a 5532 wouldn't be enough.
The problem is Tom Evans (like many of these snake oil companies) cannot admit what they make is standard off-the-shelf parts in fancy boxes.
@@fluphybunny930 You can make standard off the shelf parts do some amazing things. That’s what most board-level circuit design is about. It takes knowledge to make a great design. But that particular preamp was just run of the mill thing. Nothing innovative, no new approaches.
The box itself I thought was probably one of the ugliest designs for a piece of audio equipment though.
@absurdengineering It literally looked like it would have been a prototype..
When I saw the OG video, my first thought was wow you can just have put all that shit on to 2 boards?
And I all lost lost it when the power supply was in a nother huge ass box. 😂
@@hingeslevers No doubt. At a pace of 10 a year anyone dexterous can sit down with a vise and a piece of aluminum bar stock and hand-cut the grooves in those columns, then drill all the holes in a basic drill press or even hand-drill, cut the metal sheets with a handsaw, and make a similar but bulletproof (almost literally) aluminum case. No expensive tools needed. It would be at least worthy of the handmade claim lol.
@@Mr_Meowingtons It was a huge ass-box too. Certainly looked like ass.
A lot of audiophile stuff is "magic".
No, I swear I can hear the oxygen free copper!
@@fricki1997 The only thing that would even really effect is resistance xD
The most it would even do, is ever EVER so slightly shift the cutoff frequencies of any filters, but infinitesimally less than the manufacturing tolerances of the components themselves lol
The circuit might also draw a negligibly larger current.
the cables make a difference xd
because Aliens apparently, literally
You misspelled "snake oil"
MIM is great - a genuine positive person who is happy to share everything he can. Thanks for supporting him!
Louis is the only video I don't have to speed up.
I have to slow it down.
I still watch on 2x
Lol, true, but I speed him up anyway. I’m a little worried that I’m ruining my impression of creators by always listening to them at 2x speed.
That's the NYC in him.
I vividly remember calling in an order to one of the New York City photography equipment vendors, back when a phone call was the normal way to do that. Long distance phone calls were expensive and billed by the minute. Less than 60 seconds later my order had been taken, including address and credit card number. I don't think there was even a half second of silence.. order done, hang up. No "thank you for calling X", "would you also like..". You knew who you were calling, they knew you were ordering a product, no point in any extra words or talking slowly.
Right? Literally fucking everybody speaks so slow. It's infuriating.
Not only is a repair not subject to a patent... He's not even taking away business from this Tom Evans Audio thievery conglomerate;
A. They told him the repair cannot be done at a reasonable price...
B. Then agree to send it to a repair technician ("he will fail. Just wait and see")...
C. Contents of patents are publically viewable
Additionally:
Nobody signed an NDA.
What can they even sue him for?
This feels like one of those SLAPP Suits... (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation)... meant to censor undesirable criticism, and intimidate the people doing the criticizing in question..
In the UK, electronic circuits have broad copyright protection.
@@jonathanbuzzard1376 that will change when UK will be the 51st of US😁
@@jonathanbuzzard1376 From my understanding, this means you cannot utilise the circuit in a design without permission. There should not be any restriction on reverse-engineering the circuit. Think about it! If you can't reverse-engineer or publish a circuit due to copyright, how do you know what is protected by copyright. There has to be a published schematic somewhere.
@@tonycooper5599@tonycooper5599 You are applying US notions of copyright to something that took place in the UK, which has very different intellectual property laws. The fact that it exists means it is covered by copyright in most places outside the USA, particularly in the UK. Consequently, you know it's protected by copyright by the sheer fact that it exists. Stop thinking the rest of the world is like the USA.
I watched Mark's video when he uploaded it, it's a great video I love the way he explains everything.. They are trying to silence him because the video shows that the internals or the amp are almost thrown together....plastic stand off's....crappy ground planes...it looks a bit of a home brew design NOT a top end bit of kit.
For the price those standoffs should be gold(as in actual gold 14k)
Louis! You are awesome for exposing this! Thank you so much.
What in Evans name was Tom thinking !!... 🙄😂
Given how poorly packaged it must have been, from the damaged state it arrived in at Mark's workshop, I wonder if Tom was trying to prevent a videoed repair before it even happened?
That they couldn't fix it for less than a few thousand pounds must be greatly humiliating, given the exposed simplicity of the cheap capacitor that was swiftly replaced.
Tom Evans deserves whatever exposure this brings and Mark wasn't even disrespectful of his product in the original video.
As I posted in Mark's comments, every cloud has a silver lining as until now his amazing channel has been way under subscribed, for the content delivered.
@@matthewjenkins1161 Oh I’m sure Tom would have had no problem fixing it. He just wasn’t gonna bother for less than the price he demanded. As is his right of course. But the customers also have a right to make informed purchasing decisions.
From what I understand the unit was allready broken from shipment when it arrived at tom's.
@@BrainHurricanes Could have been but I don't recall from the now removed content. I'll have another look at the fresh upload.
You appear to have not listened to this video.
Ive watched MIM. He does a good job of showing how he diagnoses and fixes issues with electronic devices. Screw Tom evans audio. Theyre just bullies. I like how you dared them to copyright strike you too. Daring them to take the piss. Keep up the good videos!
Agreed, Mark and Louis spend time educating people, Tom files off part numbers and gets educational videos removed..
>>Daring them to take the piss
@@iatsd That use is fine. Perhaps you didn't understand it.
@@iatsdWhat exactly did your comment add to the discussion?
@@tr3vk4m I disagree. It is contextually wrong IMO. It reads like an American trying to use a foreign phrase they don't quite understand.
An audiophile and his money are soon parted - and I should know, I am one.
But Tom Evans will never get a single penny from me.
Mend it Mark should chat to the Black Belt Barrister.
Good call.
Looks like we all frequent the same channels. 👍
He needs to talk to a solicitor that is familiar with patent law.
Tom Evans should chat to the Black Belt Barrister. His need is greater.
@@ro63rto This has nothing to do with patents. Patents are public knowledge - you have to define what you are patenting. Patent law is about preventing others profiting from an original idea without contributing to the patent holder. It doesn't apply here as MiM isn't selling anything. And AIUI, there is no patent for this design.
Just a thought: if Tom Evans does try to sue you, start a crowdfunding campaign to cover all the costs. We'd all love to donate to it to watch Angry Repair Man go to town on them.
We should have a Tom Evans audio circuit drawing contest. Winner gets nothing but the pride of winning. Also I subscribed to Mend it Marks channel as it combines multiple topics I enjoy.
Yes
Not sure I have enough crayons and drool to participate...
Agreed! As much different devices of his as possible have to be entered into the contest.
It's very clear that Mark's video showed a lack of quality in the construction of the amp. Tom is not happy about that being exposed. End of story.
This whole thing is so braindead. Who is making these calls? How have these people not heard of the streisand effect? But i guess scammers arent really that smart.
whos effect??
@@mos8541 *"Streisand Effect" is a very real phenomenon. Google it.*
@@mos8541 Streisand.
@mos8541 Barbara Streisand owned a house that appeared in a photo somewhere obscure online. Her legal team tried to have the photo removed from the site (allegedly , Streisand herself didn't know or care about it). The removal attempt got LOTS of media attention. As a result, many more people saw the photo of this house than ever would have had it been left alone. Someone coined that phenomenon after her.
The same this is going on here. The video will be seen by many more people because of the removal attempt than would have seen it had the video been left alone.
Just google it bro if you don't know it
So instead of Tom Evans Audio simply reaching out to Mark to have a discussion about it, they lay siege to his channel? I can only imagine them side-eyeing in surprise at the sudden army, led by General Rossman, that has just surrounded them.🤣
MiM has been a favorite channel for a long time. I watched the video in question the day it was uploaded. I remember thinking, "Tom Evans isn't going to like this." It's not even like Mark was bashing the guy, but just showing it like it is.
I saw it too, and thought the same! Looked like things I used to knock together from a bag of parts from RS Components (circa 1989!)
Yep I watched the video too,Mark was a true gentleman.
As a recently retired U.K. based PenTester that partly specialised in hardware reverse engineering: I’m pleased to report that EU and U.K. law does allow reverse engineering hardware designs, if it's done for a legitimate purpose; such as to correct errors in a lawfully acquired product or to understand the structure and function of a product to undertake repairs - acknowledging that such work may have an impact on any warranty.
At this point I would just upload the entire reverse-engineered repair manual as a FU.
I wonder how hard it would be to figure out all the scratched off part numbers and post those too.
Had an IC with a sanded--off marking in a competitor's product I was reverse engineering many years ago. It was clearly a quad op-amp and didn't need to be anything special so just for fun I removed it and did a few tests. It was clearly an LM324, which would have been what I would have used in the circuit..
@@Graham_Langleydid you replace it with a proper lm324? One that was not damaged and had the part number on it?
@@bertblankenstein3738 I was tracing out the cct to see if the competitor had done anything clever, not to repair it. The part was fully working and went back in.
@Graham_Langley Haha, all good. I was joking. I would've looked in the parts bin and put one in with the part number on it, just to spite the competitor, even if it were never to be looked at again. :)
@@bertblankenstein3738 Ah, with you. I did wonder.
OH, I'M READY FOR THIS! Usually, I browse TH-cam in my home office, but for this one, I'm taking it to my living room couch, on the big screen. Feet up, comfy pillows, head rest, cold drinks, and popcorn!
I am a subscriber of Mend It Mark and I watched the phono amp repair video before it was deleted. It was wonderful how it called bullshit on the price.
TH-cam will always take the complainants view and pull a video as it is the easy no risk way.
Great for you reposting and showing Evans some real teeth.
You couldn't make this up..............Manufacturer sends amp on to EE who is well known for his electronics repairs on TH-cam, then has a fit when said EE publishes a TH-cam video about it!!
Would love to see this go to court, the cross examination would be something wondrous!
I'm following this topic with great interest too as this could obviously apply to my channel or any other TH-cam fixer/educator. Oh and FYI Attorney is american for Solicitor 😆
Solicitor is also old-timey American for prostitute. I guess either works.
LOL !
Way to go Mr. Rossmann! It's refreshing to see someone stand up for what's right. I know you do it a lot, but you get extra credit for helping Mend It Mark who's objectively one of the kindest people to host a TH-cam channel. It really tears me up inside to see that abusive bully descend on such a fine gentleman.
As some hailing from that side of The Pond, I had never heard of Tom Evans audio. Now I do. Good job Mr Evans 👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻.... 👏🏻..... 👏🏻 🤦🏻♂️
Classic 'Streisand Effect'.
Exactly. It was unlikely I would have been a customer but now it is a racing certainty I will not.
I never heard of them either.. now I can understand why. Hope I never see or hear of a Toms Evans product again.
Also, I hope someone will warn us when the company rebrands. Bc that's what corporations like to do.. nothing like a little bit of rebranding to try and outrun the bad name you made for yourself and evade accountability; am I right?
Thank you for all of: standing up for Mark, introducing me to his channel, standing up to Tom Evans audio, and alerting me to the fact that I should never buy anything from them. Also... I'm _really_ looking forward to watching this play out.
I LOVE that the customer had them send it directly to Mark.
Mend It Mark's channel has been busy, since this I've been binge watching his videos, very informative and a lovely bloke.
Thank You Louis!!!
I don't like this, make a crap product, looks like a High School project, charge 100X, and then wrap it in lawyers. Feel really sad for others who were scammed.
It's true, that preamp was Tom's high school project.
I have watched your channel for years and have always loved your integrity and passion
Mend it Mark also gives me much joy and I'm so happy you're willing to back him.
Grouping together to take down these corporate shit-whistles is just what we need.
Waiting to watch Mend it Marks original video again
Cheers mate
"He is very kind, cordial, professional and mild-mannered man.
.
.
.
we are not the same" ;-)
Many years ago I built a clone of a well respected audio power amplifier. Some years later I worked for a defence electronics contractor where they had also built clones of the same amplifier as an internal staff project. In both cases we had access to the original, I now own two genuine ones, because they are nicely built. With this pre-amplifier the video does not give me enough information to build a clone, however the poor build quality is exposed for everyone to see. If I was the manufacturer I would want to censor the video, it shames them on a number of levels. Ironically it is only the maker's greed with the repair cost that drove the owner to send it to "Mend it Mark".
Considering at the amateur construction, half-assed shielding and ground routing, the circuit design is likely worse than anything you can find in a decent appnote.
@@artforz for that price using cheap plastic stands off is the real ripoff.
I love your default setting Louis. Never change
Definitely. Not all heroes wear capes.
@@freejulianassange537 BUT SOME DO DESERVE THEM!
Hopefully the Black Belt Barrister, or another English TH-camr/lawyer will step up to support Mark!
And that kids, is why Louis Rossman is pretty awesome.
Tom Evans might as well change his name to Tom Streisand 😂 I get it that he's upset about someone slagging-off his creation, which he's clearly very proud of, but these "home-made" boutique audio brands are so "not me". Poor build quality paired with insane pricing. No thanks. Assuming the unit is operating correctly, it doesn't even seem like it's a particularly good design. If I were designing a mega-bucks phono amp, it would be battery -powered, with the AC charging the batteries when the unit is off, and completely disconnected from the mains when in use. Anyway...I'm not designing one...cos I, too, am not a fan of vinyl!
Tom might not be an absolute jerk, but he's certainly behaving like one at the moment. He's certainly achieving The Streisand Effect with his tantrum.
Thank you for taking this on. Mark’s channel is one of the most interesting on TH-cam and does not deserve to have this manufacturer make such a situation over the video just because his ‘circuitry’ has been made available for the world to see.
I recaped and upgraded my old Marantz audio setup, it was a breeze. I downloaded super detailed schematics and a part list from the manufacturer, I even reached them via customer service with some questions. They promptly responded with more information than I asked.
It was a pleasant and enjoyable weekend "garage" project. That was completely the opposite of this Horror story.
I did the same with some other component swaps (Schotty diodes on the PSU side) on my UK made Musical Fidelity A1 Amp. Did not have to contact the manufacturer as the circuit drawings are already on the net.
*Somewhere, Sol Marantz is smiling in pride and agreement.*
@@MadAntz970 I needed some voltage levels and other data not specified in the schematics.
Thanks for standing for the right thing!
When a professional builds electronics (or anything else) they pay attention to doing everything right even if it's hidden deep inside and it's unlikely the customer will ever see it. Two reasons for this, firstly someone sooner or later may have a reason to look inside and see the truth, and (more importantly) as a professional you take a pride in doing things right.
Agreed, for me it's got to look neat and pretty inside too, everything must be 'right'.
I've even taken that attitude for the software I've written that drives a user interface. I don't care if the customer can't see my source code behind the visuals. *I* know what it looks like, and I like it neat, readable, and 'quality' for when the next programmer comes to modify it.
@@johnwellbelove148 Creating something neat and tidy, is part of the creative process. I am the same.
Louis, I love you and how you handled the situation.
Congrats, I wish there were more of you in the world ❤
A large difference of older and modern high end audio is definitely how consumer-friendly they were. Some older equipment even shipped with a schematic right in the owner's manual, without needing to acquire a service manual.
When my Arcam CD player broke I emailed them asking for a service manual and they sent it to me.
My GE stove from 1990 has a one sheet schematic safely tucked away inside it. It'll probably outlast me (OK, rip mechanical clock).
*Agreed. Props to Denon, Sony and Trio/Kenwood to name but three.*
See my top level comment about the point at 01:35 that everyone has missed. You're about to find, I expect, that the manufacturer's/designer's sole *design right* to make those documents, rather than some third party making a full 12-page *design document* diagramming even the physical board layout, splashing the designer's name all over it, and leafing through it page by page in a TH-cam video, is exactly what this is all about.
@@JdeBP I would guess that not everyone missed that point. That is likely the exact reason he is so upset. From a consumer's standpoint though, if the product can be freely sold/traded/distributed, is the internal composition also not able to be fully owned by the consumer? If Tom Evans decides to not make available the documentation to repair such an expensive product, it should be up to the owner or a third party to be able to produce the necessary documentation to repair said product.
As someone who repairs audio equipment, if the manufacturer refuses to send a schematic, it still does not change the fact that I am the one who is supposed to be repairing the product.
I designed my circuits like Tom Evans, and they looked like his. It was hobby, I was a teenager and left it there. As an electronics aficionado layman, when I saw Mark opening that case, I bursted out in laugh. Eventually, it's another great Streisand effect example. The type of justice happening here is what the internet is really good for.
Louis, thanks for standing up and supporting Mark.
I hope other TH-camrs take inspiration from what you do. Lots of big channels say "oh this TH-cam policy hurts small creators" and then do nothing about it. It takes a lot of integrity to actually take some risk and potential lawsuits on to actually help them though. Tons of respect for this.
Gotta love this man. Standing up for good people ❤❤❤
Louis, I honestly can say I have no idea what you're talking about (I often don't...) but I've been struggling mentally a lot recently (finals season plus the cold weather), and these videos are a nice comfort for me, especially when I'm away from home. So I'm glad you updated :)
Hope you feel better soon, the world does have good people and nice places: focus on those :)
Sounds like you need a little dose of Ren. Start with "Hi Ren" 😊
I was already a subscriber to Mark, so I saw the video a while ago. It was great indeed. And not even judgmental. Great to have big Louis protecting this humble gentleman! I love both your work!
LOL! Louis's cat giving the feline equivalent of a "HOORAH!" during the "I fscking dare you!" speech was the icing on the cake 🎂🤣
Hey Lewis, I just wanted to say that you've brightened up my day immeasurably knowing that you are prepared to take on a bully with such glee. Keep doing what you're doing, the world needs more people like you.
I sow the original video. It was great. And the assembly and chassis of the amp is like children’s project from Chinese school.
He should at least upload those parts again so the internet cannot forget how crap Toms dodgy 'Hifi' rubbish is
keen for a copy
@@stephenw2992 *The Internet Archive never forgets...*
@@stephenw2992 Its over on R mble.
He's a very kind, cordial, professional, and mild-mannered man....we are not the same. That long pause was great!
I have seen the video from Mark about the Tom Evans phono pre amp. If this pre amp was build by an electronics hobbyist to be used by him or her self then I can respect the effort put in to it but not if it's build by a supposedly professional manufacturer and certainly not for £ 25000,-. Mister Evans should be ashamed of himself. After seen Mark's video I looked on Tom Evans Audio Design website to see wat the specifications should be but none to be find except pseudo science bladiebladiebla. Mister Evans deserve it to have this whole story back fired straight in his face.
I also was shocked that no specifications are listed on his website.
Probably doesn't know himself or it is so bad it not worth the money.
@@ploed If an audio manufacturer doesn't provide proper spec-sheets than it is most likely that their products are worthless. Certainly if the component type number are scraped off.
Yes Louis. You're right. We call Lawyers/Attorneys "Solicitors".
Love what you do mate 👊🏼🙏🏼
Personally i think we should create an opensource audiofool preamp based on reffference circuits and release it under creative commons, call it the jester25k and do all we can to to make the bom be no more than 250, then side by side test them and brag about our human design and psu not requiring interdimensional resonances caused by the ripple for an unparrelled response at 500KHz (because we all know audiofools hearing put bats to shame 🧐)
NwAvGuy tried something similar about 13 years ago with his O2 headphone amp and ODAC converter (he put everything in the public domain, including the thoroughly documented design process and heaps of measurements), and every single audiofool in the universe piled up on him (he also made some honest comments about products by equivalents of Tom Evans from those days). He remained anonymous and disappeared from the internet in 2012 (although his blogspot page is still there, so I assume somebody is paying for it to not be removed)
@AleksandarDavidović-r2n there's no talking to audiofools, they just like buying luxury products and spewing marketing nonsense buying goldplated toslink cables...
The quality and appearance of Tom Evans website pretty much shows what you can expect in terms of products and services by Tom Evans.
Yeah not very professional that one
Especially the grammar.
His products don't even have specifications.
But as he says he does get sent pre production IC samples to play with - and presumably grind off the markings!!!
Rip'm a new one Louis. I will enjoy rewatching Mark's video when you put it up. I was in shock the first time - at the horrific build quality for the price.
Sounds like the average British audio product. Low spec, high price.
I loved the slips of paper to pad out the corners. What a joke.
I am 100% here for this. Popcorn purchased. Thanks Louis: because of you I discovered Mend It Mark and am enjoying his videos.
one day i hope to have half the balls of Louis
So, 3?
I think Louis would like to keep his set intact...
Maybe, if you get a job with Apple or Tom Evans Audio, he'll let you gargle them.
PAUSE
@6yjjk 😂😂😂
Just had to watch this twice. The maniac expression on your face, daring Tom Evans to do a copyright claim is epic!! 😂😂
Great job Louis and Mark. 👍
The Louis and Mark expedition.
This is like being sued by Chevrolet for drawing a picture of a Corvette.
"Several thousand pounds"......that's one expensive tantalum cap, lmao at TE's stupidity at quoting so high for a machine that HE BUILT.
Be fair, Mark did have to replace some plastic standoffs as well, ho, ho.
@@ralphj4012 Lol, oh yes I forgot the standoffs, thanks for the correction. Did Mark replace the cooked nylon screw and nut on the 3 pin regulator too lol ?.
Tom Evans is a crook.
Being as it's so expensive (and high quality!), I would have thought that repairs would be done for free.
His profit margin would surely cover it.
Louis, you have my greatest respect. I just hope that you don't get tired of it. Keep up the great work for our society.
So they shot themselves in the foot,and thought,hmmm,how can we make this worse? I know,the Streisand Effect has worked out to well for other s,we want in on that.I've subscribed to Mend it Mark,and watched quite a few videos,thanks for the tip
Is anybody else chanting ... "Louis, Louis....". Now, where did I put that damn popcorn bucket.
I'm not even into audio, but I'm 100% with you and MiM on this one, have at it!
Trump and Qarden Token partnership confirmed on twitter!! ICO almost sold out at $54m
This is the video I wanted to see. People like Evans need exposing and have a lesson taught. Mark seems like a really nice, mild mannered chap who goes the extra mile on all the repairs I have seen him doing. Tom Evans could have done the damage to the phono stage himself when he realised the owner didn't want to pay thousands for the diagnosis and repair. Even at $200 an hour 5k would pay for 25hr labor plus $0.40 for a tantalum cap. Nice work if you can get it.😮😢
Trump is expected to mention Qarden Token this week and the ICO is already almost sold out
Fifth! YES! Mend it Mark has an AWESOME Channel. Keep fighting the good fight Louis.
Dude you got FIRST! Stop doubting your abilities.
This Tom figure pisses me off so much I am willing to donate money to Mark or Louis for legal fees.
If all followers of these two channels would do that, this pathetic Tom figure wouldn’t have a change, cause he is bullshitting and bluffing all the way.
He will spend his last penny on legal counseling to prove his point. But there is nothing to prove here. The law is clear.
The only winners in that situation are the lawyers and other legal counselors.
Negative publicity will kill Tom’s scam brand sooner or later.
Let us unite and get rid of greedy scammers!
YAAAAAAAAAS! Your FU energy has me PUMPED! 😁
Well done Louis! You’re absolutely spot-on! Mark is a genuine, super-competent engineer. A real gentleman. This Evans character, however…
…. Judging by his product build quality and his actions in this matter, he seems quite the opposite.
Fight for the right to repair!
I too have started a fix it channel and I've watched MendItMark a lot. I was astounded that this got taken down. There's certainly no wizardry in this thing, just very carefully selected components. Right-to-repair I'm passionate about and we shouldn't be held to ransom for it. Filing off part numbers is a big no no in my book.
Has that company been living under a rock? We all know how this is going to end for them. It's only a couple eggs on their face but looks like they are going for an omelet
Vengeance for Mark! Thanks, Mr. Rossman.
Louis is scary if you're a bad person.
That's a good thing.
I'm amazed that, in 2024 and all the knowledge in the world just one-click away, some people still haven't heard about the Streisand effect.
Excellent Louis!
I'm totally loving this. I watched Mark's original video, but I'm going to watch it again when you upload it. Has anyone asked Tom Evans for an interview? That would be fun.
What more can you expect from these weird audiophile companies
It sucks the way these companies are going. Once these monopolistic companies realise that they have so much reign over the market, they can do as much scummy crap as they want because they know nothing will happen to them
mmm.. mahh mahh no... pole is stick
while in general you are right - tom evans is just a smalltime scammer, not one of the big players
like... the guy seems to build these things completely by hand... and it shows in the build quality... and he overcharges like crazy for them
but as usual with scammers - he only needs to occasionally find a mark and he wins... if he only sells one of these per year that makes him 25k pounds... for some people thats around their yearly salary... and he only needs a couple days maybe weeks of work to get there
and the components he uses are likely less than 100 quid in total
Well thousands of people pay through the nose for Gucci sneakers, and they're made in the same factory as Nike's or any other meh brand, except they're 3 times as expensive?!
Some folk see a big price and that's all they need to be convinced....
Apple are making quite the success out of this sort of crap nowadays.
@@SharienGaming I realized that later in the video, this is the first comment so this is the thing that I quickly came up with
called them and told them copyright abuse is a crime lmao, bri’ish bloke was not pleased
old mate didn't like his email either
Will give old Tom a call ☎️ to voice my displeasure.