Kevin gets the

Wow, I am shocked at the ill will here. "Put clowns like this out of business"? C'mon.

I am certainly not seeing "a consensus in the comments" and certainly not a consensus that backs up claims with evidence.

How Kevin decides to conduct his business, price his products or spend his money is up to him. And we can then choose to do business with him or not. Pretty simple.

Upscale Audio is a successful dealership that obviously has staying power in a volatile industry.

Roscoeii, and others, there is almost never a "consensus" when audiophiles discuss any subject in these or any forums. But, there is an obvious tendency of the owner of Upscale Audio to allow his personality to become somewhat abrasive and less than courteous in his communication style, depending on his mood at the time. I am certain of that. That was my experience, and others have commented here and elsewhere.

There are also plenty of nice guys in audio who get written about frequently in the forums.

i have dealt with kevin many times on tubes and trading equipment and his service has always been first class.

I have a friend who asked Kevin what Cryo'ed tubes were. Boy, was that a mistake! After a complete talking down to, my friend ( who happens to be a Dr.) was left with such a bad taste in his mouth he took his biz elsewhere. To the tune of buying $50K in gear, LOL.
Kevin may understand tubes, BUT he sure does not understand how to communicate with a customer. I think the several posts above are plenty of proof of this. The question one could ask, is why does he have such a chip on his shoulder?? Attitude adjustment would go a long way. OTOH, IF you are succeeding in spite of yourself, I guess who cares!

I don't get it. Deal offers a good line of products and he stands behind what he sells. Bottom line, that all that really counts. You want warm and fuzzy, ego (yours) enhancing conversations from a merchant don't go there. You want product AND service, and know what you want, check Upscale out.

By contrast I'm the 'proud' owner of 2 amps (not sold by Deal, but made by the same parent company in the same factory under a different brand name/contract), which are still being manufactured. Both experienced identical failures which disabled the units within two weeks of each other. They are out of warranty though. I'm unable to get the warm and fuzzy distributor to either furnish me with the parts needed to repair, nor to take the amps in and fix them himself. Been 3 1/2 months. Lots of alibis, zero follow thru! To use these now I need a boat.

This kind of experience is why I have dealt with Deal in the past and will do so in the future. And yes, I have had a confrontation with him over an internet post I made about one of his products. He subsequently contacted my by phone and apologized for his rather intemperate response.

FWIW, IMHO, most who complain about Deal's conduct can trace this to his conclusion from their conversation that the caller is an uninformed tire kicker who is wasting his time. From all of the recommendations I see in this forum, and others as well, to folks about tubes to call Deal, I assume his phone was ringing off the hook by folks without a clue.

Give it a break, he is a merchant, not your buddy, not your priest, nor your mother.