And then there is always the truth....
Time rebuttal:
Seriously if you didn't have the respect of even the presence of mind to be onsite for our appointments, then how would you actually know how many times I stood there for hours waiting for you. Kyle, is there an apology in there somewhere???
Finished??? just what do you think we are doing here, you've been paid and still 6 years later I'm still trying to coerce you to finish your work!!
Marantz Rebuttal:
Yes, we all know there was an inherent TOC problem with the Marantz SA8260. The problem showed up immediately while you were first working on the mod and refused to do anything about it! After several months of complaining, you hand me another transport and tell me to replace it myself. So, I was forced to bring you here, in front of the world to humiliate you into fixing these problems. You signed an agreement to return it within 2 weeks and 5 weeks later instead of delivering it the Saturday as promised. You asked for an extension in which time you would update it. This $800 mod consisted of removing 24 capacitors, replacing the buffer stage and diodes with different parts.
When delivered, we both observed the sound to be closed down and rolled off on both ends, again you hand me parts so I can fix myself, some $2 bypass caps. You kept the removed parts I paid for to be re-purposed to your benefit, thank you very much. It now plays SADC's for the first time but now sounds like crap. I now have to pay someone else to finish your work, as you have gone into hiding.
Silver Rock Rebuttal:
Funny story here folks, this TVC was Kyle's personal Silver Rock he bought when he first joined Audio Consulting back in 2002 and repackaged it in the wood chassis for me. Now really folks, who uses something for years, sells it again for retail and then cries that he didn't make a dime???
Yes, Kyle there seems to be many discrepancies here. The problem was that I had given him the selector switch and WBT Pure Silver RCA jacks to add 2 more inputs as I had requested from the very start and after delivering and returning this twice in the past month, it still squawks like a duck!
I gave it to another tech for evaluation before sending to Switzerland for factory repairs. It turns out that this was way beyond Kyle's skill level and he actually had this switch wired backwards AND inside out to the primaries on the transformers. A $260 repair bill is why Kyle refuses to communicate further, with this level of incompetence of work performed, I can't afford his work anyway. Kyle referred this work as being worth $600 for HIS time alone. I think I'll pass....
AC Correction device rebuttal:
I feel that paying RAM $2900 certainly IS taking as much responsibility as a customer should, as this was sold a package deal, wired and installed in my house by Kyle and as usual he leaves work behind left unfinished. He promised to return with a wooded box to house these components.
UL approved?? I think not!
Carver Amp Rebuttal:
This one is my very favorite.
The very first thing Kyle did to resolve the open issues he left behind was to sign an agreement to deliver and take away that ridicules AMP, but insisted that he was paid the $905 owed to him. So, the refund less the $905 came to $2365.00 paid to me. Once again Kyle, there seems to be many discrepancies here. I have a signed agreement to prove this.
Kyle you wrote: The bottom line is that the price for the three items(Player, TVC, and amplifier) was as follows:
3550 for Marantz SA8260(custom chassis and silver rock mods)
2350 for Silver tvc and custom chassis, AC wooden knobs, Wbt
2400 for Carver( stock amp, mods and chassis)......actually $3270.00 Kyle, as per your signature.
I don't know about Kyle's math here but my trusty calculator tells me that this adds up to; $8300 not $9300 as reported. Now let's add the $11,500 for the speakers, the $2900 for mains correction and all the Pure Silver parts and $2000 of exotic wood that I provided and we have a completely different story than the one Kyle has painted for us to believe.
So, what we have here is a person named; Kyle Takenaga who represents himself as a Electronics business. "Reference Audio Mods" capable of performing work on electronics at his Mother's kitchen table, with no formal electronics education, absolutely no licenses to be found, who's website is still in his brother and ex-partner Craig's name, Terminated the business and relationship 6 years ago. Delivering defective workmanship over and over again. Modifications amounting to 10's of thousands of dollars and does not stand good for poor workmanship without coming to forums like this one. We even have a supporting victim and his cousin reporting similar horror stories of incompetent work and hiding from his customers for years on end, rather than face the issues and correct as any honorable businessman would as normal course of events. Who sometimes sells used/re purposed parts and components for retail and claims to barely broke even!!!!
The choice is your where to go for your modifications.
