Buyer Beware

[jrides]

The explosion of momentum is quite peculiar, I must say. I even noticed one post where Williams was touting the "sound" of the DA, however he later in the thread said, he hadn't gotten his yet. How can one talk about how something sounds, if they don't have it yet? Some odd events surrounding this increasingly popular brand. The conspiracy theorist in me, has to be held in check.

[Rev. Eslam]

I was considering buying a Martin product and hope this won't happen to me, especially considering I reside on the opposite side of the planet.

[Jim Williams]

I was very familiar with the sound of the Burrbrown 1792/4 DAC's as I have others here. They are also fitted with the same analog chips I had Ross install for me. The Ross Martin DAC sounds very much the same as my Burrbrown lab converter board.

I had no such problems with my unit nor with Ross. He kept me informed of the progress. He also issued me a refund on PayPal for the opamps I had provided myself, all without asking.

[Chrisc_o]

...also beware of users signing up and using their first post ever on a forum to spread the bad news.

Not saying that the OP is lying or wrong in any way, just sayin'...

[Deckdaddy]

I ordered one Dual Beast "gearslut" DAC (that's Jim's choice of OP amps) and one of the ADCs yesterday. I'm in Europe and I hope and believe everything will be OK. Ross answered my Q's in the emails.

On one of the Hi-Fi forums there was alao one guy mentioning that Ross units were crap and that he is a crook. That poster only has that single post on that forum, none before none after. Not saying that someone might have had a bad experience, but when others with hundreds of posts are satisfied with their purchase and u.l. pictures of their units etc. in that very thread I kind of believe that I'll be just fine. If he ruins his reputation he'll get no more customers and I think he understands that, especially if he stumble upon this thread.

Anyways, when I receive my units and they work as they should I'll post my opinions/experience in this very thread, so stay tuned.

[cuebism]

End of december 2011 I ordered a custom combination of two DACs and one ADC from Ross Martin Audio.

I was aware that being a one-man-one-wife-business it would take some time until it was done and ready, especially since I asked for those units to be fitted into a 19" enclosure.

To cut a long story short: yes it did take a long time. Close to five months to be precise. The reason being supply shortages, lots to do and the fact that it proved very difficult to fit everything into a 19" rack.
So in the end everything had to go into two of his standard-format boxes, not into a 19" rack, although he already had the metal work ready.
The reason it didn't work out was a minimal interference caused by the clocks or whatnot inside the box.

So what I got after the long wait was the following:

A custom made dual DAC with an additional headphone amp that I can switch between monitoring DAC1 and DAC2 (pre and post analogue loop).
The ADC which had an additional Coax output fitted in order to loop it back into the DAC2 for monitoring purpose.

The construction:
Remember this was my custom made order. The boxes do feel and look a bit shoddy, poor legending, very thin & tinny front/back plates, messy looking gutz etc.
The internal wordclock connection between PCB and plug was soldered wrongly, so after a long process of trouble-shooting during which Mr. Martin was very helpful in guiding me through it, I soldered the cable to the right connection (with trembling hands, afraid to damage anything).

Furthermore there was a humming problem which might be due to the fact that both units were powered of one single external PSU - for which he has promised to send me a second dedicated PSU in order to eliminate this.

The Sound
Beyond any doubt. I am absolutely 100% satisfied with my units soundwise! There just is no noise. anywhere!
What struck me most it's transient-response - the unit is so fast I almost jumped at some transients.
The headphone amp effortlessly powers my Sennheiser HD650 and Beyerdynamic DT Pro 990.
The analogue front end seems to be invisible and simply shows me what is there without adding any noise or distortion to the original signal.

my personal verdict
the problems and delays I experienced seem to stem from the fact that this still is a young and VERY small company going through a steep learning curve.
I was aware of this when I placed my order, so I was prepared for a longer wait.
Otherwise I would have had to pay four times as much in order to get a similar product from a more experienced company.

Actually I even got quite a discount and Mr. Martin kept me informed about the progress. Well sometimes when it went a bit quiet, I had to send an email to him for an update, but he always replied in time.

The reason for the poor legending and the wrongly soldered cable seems to be the unfortunate fact that he hurried things a little when he realized that it wouldn't work out with that 19" enclosure - so that I wouldn't have to wait yet even longer for my units.
Well, I would have preferred to rather wait even longer and receive a flawlessly working unit with clear and intuitive legending, thus saving me a lot of time trying to figure things out. (Since it was a custom order, there was no manual for the DACs, only a quick start guide for the ADC.)
These are though issues that I think a typical of these types of small private business that find themselves struggling to cope when demand suddenly rises beyond what they've expected.

For me personally it doesn't care if it looks fancy or shoddy, or if it arrives within 2 months or 5 months. As long as it delivers the sound or rather the transparency that I am looking for then I don't mind. Especially at such a ridiculously low price.

If you want mojo, bling factor or are in a hurry, then maybe this is not your cup of tea.

If you want transparent and clean, customization, have no hurry and even less money, then this is a great choice.

[P.A.O.]

This makes me curious because I've been researching this line and it seems like a GREAT deal. However, I've been unsuccessful at trying to reach the company through 2 emails in the last week. There's no # listed on the site to call with ?s. Does anyone know of any similarly priced offerings in the USA for both ADC and DAC?

[etcetera]

I'm not excited about spending my time and energy composing a lengthy explanation of events and then posting this message on a forum where I know it will affect another persons reputation negatively.

I was anxious to get this DAC and put it to use and since I parted with my money on March 12th I had been anticipating its arrival.

Now I would just appreciate communication and a resolution.

I don't believe Ross set out to take my money but as of today that's what has happened. Should he refund my money I will most assuredly update this post.

[Sanchez]

Why not try getting on the phone and talk to him? Mails, forums....imperfect science and lacking a bit resolution-wise in cases like these. Humans speaking to humans is a good thing...think more signal, less noise!

[fireberd]

"Why not try getting on the phone and talk to him"

The person two posts above yours stated "There's no # listed on the site to call with ?s."

[jrides]

The title of this thread was edited, and it has. been moved to a forum where it will probably have be less visible to potential customers.

Interesting

[Whitecat]

Originally Posted by jrides

The title of this thread was edited, and it has. been moved to a forum where it will probably have be less visible to potential customers.

Interesting

Why is it interesting? We have very strict rules governing this type of thread because as a forum with high traffic it's often abused.

The Moan Zone is where we put all these types of threads, and the rules (14) state that you cannot put the name of the company in the title of a thread like this. There's no conspiracy.

I would argue it's more likely to be seen here because threads fall off the front page on So Much Gear very rapidly...

[jrides]

Originally Posted by Whitecat

Why is it interesting? We have very strict rules governing this type of thread because as a forum with high traffic it's often abused.

The Moan Zone is where we put all these types of threads, and the rules (14) state that you cannot put the name of the company in the title of a thread like this. There's no conspiracy.

I would argue it's more likely to be seen here because threads fall off the front page on So Much Gear very rapidly...

I won't comment on the "strict" rules. You can refer to my earlier post in this thread to see why I find it interesting though. Don't think you can miss it. 2nd post.

I am suspicicious by nature. The fact that a mod is still monitoring this thread and has quickly responeded to my comment..... is even more interesting. Its not like this thread was completely out of control, or anything. In fact it was rather tame, for a thread of this nature. Hmmmmm....

[Whitecat]

Originally Posted by jrides

I won't comment on the "strict" rules. You can refer to my earlier post in this thread to see why I find it interesting though. Don't think you can miss it. 2nd post.

I am suspicicious by nature. The fact that a mod is still monitoring this thread and has quickly responeded to my comment..... is even more interesting. Its not like this thread was completely out of control, or anything. In fact it was rather tame, for a thread of this nature. Hmmmmm....

I'm not sure what that post is saying, if I'm honest.

There's not much I can say though that's going to make you want to remove your tinfoil hat!

[jrides]

Originally Posted by Whitecat

I'm not sure what that post is saying, if I'm honest.

There's not much I can say though that's going to make you want to remove your tinfoil hat!

TBH, I'm just screwing around. At this point, I have no beef with Ross Martin, the OP, J. Williams, you, or the people living inside my head (they like to sing sometimes).

I am going to subscribe to this ineteresting thread though.. and take my laptop out on the grassy knoll. (I wonder if they have wifi there?)

[Whitecat]

Originally Posted by jrides

... or the people living inside my head (they like to sing sometimes).

[etcetera]

Ross contacted me last night and after we exchanged a couple of emails, he refunded all my money via PayPal.

With respect to Gearslutz policy, it is my fault for not being more aware and for that error I do apologize.

Again, I don't believe Ross set out to do anything wrong but when he stopped communicating entirely, what did he imagine I would think? I believe if he can get himself better organized and become more customer friendly he could be very successful.

To reiterate: Ross Martin refunded all of my money and in the end he took care of the situation. Thank you for that, Ross.

[Deckdaddy]

Great! Shame it took so long tho'.

[Rev. Eslam]

It seems he needs to hire an offsider or two but obviously that would make his products more expensive...