Buyer Beware: Core Audio Technology is Rip-Off!

LarryMagoo

LarryMagoo

Enthusiast
Wanted everyone to know to not patronize Core Audio Technology. The owner Ryan Mintz is a total Ripoff for Power Supplies. He will not give you want, no matter how much he charges you.

Ryan built a Power Supply for me that has now cost me $2500 for two power rails and it does not even work!! Worse yet he continued to lie to me through the entire process!!!

He no longer even replies to my E-Mails....telling me he is in the middle of a move...Oh really I have been battling him and his ripoff company since early spring!!!

I'll be happy to provide all the details to anyone who cares...but the message is do not do business with this individual!!!

My next stop? the BBB to file a claim and also try to prevent others from getting ripped off!
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Wanted everyone to know to not patronize Core Audio Technology. The owner Ryan Mintz is a total Ripoff for Power Supplies. He will not give you want, no matter how much he charges you.

Ryan built a Power Supply for me that has now cost me $2500 for two power rails and it does not even work!! Worse yet he continued to lie to me through the entire process!!!

He no longer even replies to my E-Mails....telling me he is in the middle of a move...Oh really I have been battling him and his ripoff company since early spring!!!

I'll be happy to provide all the details to anyone who cares...but the message is do not do business with this individual!!!

My next stop? the BBB to file a claim and also try to prevent others from getting ripped off!
I have to ask, what did you "need" his P/S for?

Were you upgrading the P/S in something? I think more details would be appreciated by our members here.

Looking at his website, I would be very hesitant to believe that most of his products give you an audible improvement.

If you are really out $2500, and you have everything documented, then you may want to go a bit farther than the BBB--like discuss the problem with a lawyer.
 
LarryMagoo

LarryMagoo

Enthusiast
Hey Slippery,

I somehow got into how a separate PS for my MAC mini would drop the noise floor on Streaming my music. I bought a Power Supply from him and during the process I lost my wife of 38 years to cancer. As you can imagine my audio hobby went ignored for almost three years. I finally installed his Power Supply and it did not work. I sent it back for him to examine. He said he does not stand behind something that was almost 3 years old. I should have just moved on but. The PS was untouched for that time period...I never even removed it from the box!

Anyway while he had the power supply he asked me for another $900 and like a total idiot I paid it. Then I ask him how much for a second rail to power my Mini DSP DDRC-88A. He told me $400....after weeks went by I had to call PayPal to stop the charge because he failed to ship it back to me. This guy is a real piece of work! and all I did was add fuel to the fire.

I finally got the PS back and there was a terrible hum in the circuit....he told me it was my equipment. when with out his PS in the circuit, there was zero Hum. My MAC mini failed to work from an insufficient voltage. So Back I sent the PS for him to rectify ..pun intended. Got the PS back now after paying shipping back and forth from CA to North Carolina and now into to this thing for $2500. Now the first rail actually works on my MAC mini....with no hum....wow can you imagine that...one rail finally works as promised....but now the second rails will not power my 88A...insufficient voltage again....how could he possibly return ship it to me knowing the second rail is not outputting what I need ( I needed 12 volts DC and that second rail output 8 something volts...)

That is where I stand today....and he fails to reply to my many E-Mails. This guy is a huge POS in my book and he should never be allowed to do business in his current capacity.

As far a a Lawyer goes...it be hard to come out ahead seeing how much I'm out to say nothing of the 3000 miles between us....
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Well, digital circuits are much more immune to noise than analog circuits, so updating a Mac Mini P/S may be a dubious task to begin with.

That being said, I will likely build my own regulated P/S for my RPi streamer at some point in the future. It likely won't make any audible difference, and it may or may not make any measurable improvements either. But, I already have most of the parts so no big deal.

Audio P/S are not rocket science, not incredibly difficult to build at all.

Looking at their website, this statement throws a HUGE red-flag to a reasonable technical person:
Digital faces the same problem! Digital isn't just ones and zeros folks, it's a square wave, which is an analog representation of a digital signal. A computer is made up of billions of transistors all switching on and off to that square voltage created by the power supply. Any noise on that power supply does the same exact thing to digital as it does to analog, except much worse. So do your self a favor, examine the power quality entering your system and experience what a good linear power supply can do for your sound.
 
WaynePflughaupt

WaynePflughaupt

Audioholic Samurai

It’s a pretty brave (or foolish) business that tries to screw people over in the age of the Internet…

Sure, it was technically your fault for not verifying that the thing worked when you got it (assuming he would have fixed it if it didn’t!), but you’d think a small business would be more apt to make allowances for a customer’s extenuating circumstances.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
WaynePflughaupt

WaynePflughaupt

Audioholic Samurai

BTW, if the U.S. Postal Service had anything to do with any of the deliveries, you may have a valid federal mail fraud claim.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
LarryMagoo

LarryMagoo

Enthusiast
BTW, if the U.S. Postal Service had anything to do with any of the deliveries, you may have a valid federal mail fraud claim.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
Wayne,

Thanks for your reply!

I ask him one more time via E-Mail if he would make the PS workable or I would go to all the Audio forums and let people know how I was treated ...he still did not answer....I know I'd rather have no reputation than have a bad one....this guy is the worst business owner i have ever dealt with...he actual does not give a damn that he has ripped me off ....

Unfortunately it was handled by Fed-Ex...it certainly not their fault!

Cheers,
Larry
 
M

Methodical

Audioholic
Wanted everyone to know to not patronize Core Audio Technology. The owner Ryan Mintz is a total Ripoff for Power Supplies. He will not give you want, no matter how much he charges you.

Ryan built a Power Supply for me that has now cost me $2500 for two power rails and it does not even work!! Worse yet he continued to lie to me through the entire process!!!

He no longer even replies to my E-Mails....telling me he is in the middle of a move...Oh really I have been battling him and his ripoff company since early spring!!!

I'll be happy to provide all the details to anyone who cares...but the message is do not do business with this individual!!!

My next stop? the BBB to file a claim and also try to prevent others from getting ripped off!
Go to your credit card company and use them to get some satisfaction. You did use a credit card?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Buyer beware indeed....who would buy this stuff in the first place?
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Buyer beware indeed....who would buy this stuff in the first place?
Right, that's what I was saying. The products are already mostly snake oil and/or borderline ripoff, so I'm not surprised someone with that business model would dip their toe into the full-blown ripoff scheme every now and then too.
 
LarryMagoo

LarryMagoo

Enthusiast
If you stream your music from a Computer based source, you'd be surprised how much an outboard Power Supply can lower the noise floor and add great dynamics to listening....especially through some quality Headphones. A lot of fine electronics put their power supply in separate boxes....
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
If you stream your music from a Computer based source, you'd be surprised how much an outboard Power Supply can lower the noise floor and add great dynamics to listening....especially through some quality Headphones. A lot of fine electronics put their power supply in separate boxes....
R-I-G-H-T

1) Is the improvement measurable?
2) Is the improvement audible, with normal double blind testing protocol. If not DBT, then human bias is at work (ie "I spent this much $ so I expect it to sound better, thus it sounds better").

I do agree that for using a computer for streaming, I prefer to get the signal outside of the computer chassis in the digital domain, then do my D/A conversion--again this is simply because digital is orders of magnitude more immune to noise than analog signals (and inside a computer chassis is a noisy environment). I will make a couple side-notes here--I avoid audio over USB connections if at all possible as it is a lousy connection all around, and the entire "Asynchronous Streaming and Jitter" mumbo jumbo is purely marketing.

What I'm telling you is that most of what I'm seeing from that company is very dubious to actually yield audible improvements. Furthermore, there is a lot of "information" on his website that is absolutely questionable. If you can't convince them with facts, then confuse them with technical jargon.

If that is how you want to spend your $, then that is your decision. But, for my $, I would instead take that $ and spend it on BETTER SPEAKERS or Room Acoustic Treatments--areas where that $ is GUARANTEED to get a significant audible improvement.

I know a thing or 2 about building electronics and putting beastly power supplies in a separate enclosure

Exhibit A, be sure to go to page 2 and posts #24 and #25
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/new-chipamp-project-thread.92513/

And, I know a thing or 2 about audio streaming.

Exhibit B
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/raspberry-pi-audiophile-streamer-kodi-streamer-arcade-cabinet-etc.103967/

If I think I want a hot-rod power supply (want being the key word, not necessarily need), then I go the DIY route.

EDIT:
I'm re-posting this comment taken from their website. This is 100% false! That is a huge red flag to move along and not give them any of my $.

A computer is made up of billions of transistors all switching on and off to that square voltage created by the power supply. Any noise on that power supply does the same exact thing to digital as it does to analog, except much worse

Better info on digi signals:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A86.JyTCEpFXjFcAS4cnnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTE0NXE2Z2I4BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDRkZVSTJDMV8xBHNlYwNzYw--?qid=20080212230537AAkuE2c&p=what are the advantages of digital signals over analog signals
 
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lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
If you stream your music from a Computer based source, you'd be surprised how much an outboard Power Supply can lower the noise floor and add great dynamics to listening....especially through some quality Headphones. A lot of fine electronics put their power supply in separate boxes....
But what makes this particular power supply worth the $$ or their claims provable? How does the resulting digital streamed signal affect the sound reproduction in the renderer?
 
C

class a

Junior Audioholic
Check out the 2012 Ripoff Report. A very scathing review from an unhappy customer. The way he was treated is very similar to your experience.
 
LarryMagoo

LarryMagoo

Enthusiast
Class A,

Thanks for telling me about that site ....I have made a formal complaint to the BBB. That 2012 RipOff Report details the same type experiences that I have had with Ryan Mintz....he is a steaming POS!!! :mad:

He cannot deny that my P/S simply does not work as detailed with two DC outputs that I paid for. He constantly makes excuses for why he cannot make things right. At one put he told me ..."Hey I'm moving my business and will be off line for over two weeks"....You're problem can just wait" But when I ask PayPal to suspend his account payment from me he said "hey holding back $1500 on my PayPal account is no way to do business with me" Oh Really??? But he can tell me to just piss off cause he's moving...and that's OK with him.

As far as measurements go, I do not have the equipment that can measure that type of improvement...anyway it's somewhat similar to the argument that of high-end cables....they don't measure any different but that cannot explain why they sound different. Another controversy is does Equipment and Cables require break-in? You have to have some Tin Ears if you don't think that equipment and Cables take a break in period....Same argument...

Cheers,
Larry
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
Class A,

Thanks for telling me about that site ....I have made a formal complaint to the BBB. That 2012 RipOff Report details the same type experiences that I have had with Ryan Mintz....he is a steaming POS!!! :mad:

He cannot deny that my P/S simply does not work as detailed with two DC outputs that I paid for. He constantly makes excuses for why he cannot make things right. At one put he told me ..."Hey I'm moving my business and will be off line for over two weeks"....You're problem can just wait" But when I ask PayPal to suspend his account payment from me he said "hey holding back $1500 on my PayPal account is no way to do business with me" Oh Really??? But he can tell me to just piss off cause he's moving...and that's OK with him.

As far as measurements go, I do not have the equipment that can measure that type of improvement...anyway it's somewhat similar to the argument that of high-end cables....they don't measure any different but that cannot explain why they sound different. Another controversy is does Equipment and Cables require break-in? You have to have some Tin Ears if you don't think that equipment and Cables take a break in period....Same argument...

Cheers,
Larry
You're on the wrong forum to get many contributors to agree with you on the topics of wires and breakin periods.

If a change or improvement is audible, then it will certainly be measurable. Electronics lab instrumentation is many orders of magnitude more sensitive than the human ear.

We tend to rely on hard science and hard objective data on this forum. If it can't be measured than the entire premise is very suspect.
 
LarryMagoo

LarryMagoo

Enthusiast
As I guess I am ....you probably think mp3's sound the same as high res files...and that SACD and DVD Audio are also a waste of money...thanks for the heads up!

Heck if you are still wasting time on Vinyl I know I am in the wrong place...
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
As I guess I am ....you probably think mp3's sound the same as high res files...and that SACD and DVD Audio are also a waste of money...thanks for the heads up!

Heck if you are still wasting time on Vinyl I know I am in the wrong place...
Nope, not at all.

I will tell you now, the mastering tends to have more to do with the final sound quality than the medium, though.

There are instances where the vinyl sounds better than the CD, and the CD better than a Hi-Res download. But, not due to media, only due to the mastering in the studio.

I don't consider vinyl a waste of time, I sometimes enjoy flipping through stacks of records at the store. I don't really listen to vinyl a whole lot any more, just out of convenience of streaming.

Besides, "collecting vinyl" is a hobby, you just sound like a fool when you say "my hobby is collecting hi-res audio" :rolleyes::D
 
LarryMagoo

LarryMagoo

Enthusiast
I collected Vinyl decades ago. 20+ years ago I had a $3500 Table and $2000 arm and a $500 cartridge...a lot of money back 20 years. But you know what... I got sick of the poor dynamic range as compared to CD's that had a complete silent background as opposed to Pops and Clicks. Most of my disposable income was spent on Mobile Fidelity pressings....yea I had the entire Beatle carfolog on MoFi! I also had a record cleaner that spun the album like a real TT, cleaned with a alcohol solution then vacuumed them dry. I spent ridiculous money for every album I could afford. I am also aware it's who does the mastering....Some labels sounded great others sounded strident and compressed cause the recording engineers did not give a $hit. The Mastering/Label differences can still be heard on digital files....So yes I used to like to buy a new album, go home a read from album cover to cover and collect that medium. I sold my entire collection!

There are so many more things to like about digital files as far as organization, convenience and variety that vinyl just cannot complete with. No matter how nice a TT is you still have to worry about how many times you can play an album before the grooves are worn out and/or the stylus is toast. Digital files never wear out. So I collect Music not files....Also I used to listen to an entire side of an album in the vinyl days...now it's rare unless I just bought the album, that I listen to more than once song from the same artist. Plus another benny is digital files travel well to the car...where old cassette tapes would continue to degrade.

All in all, digital is the future for Music reproduction and vinyl is not...it's just a current gimmick as was 3D TV viewing is/was. So just who is the fool??? if you are gonna quote me...please be accurate as I never said that was my digital files are my "Hobby"!!!
 
slipperybidness

slipperybidness

Audioholic Warlord
I collected Vinyl decades ago. 20+ years ago I had a $3500 Table and $2000 arm and a $500 cartridge...a lot of money back 20 years. But you know what... I got sick of the poor dynamic range as compared to CD's that had a complete silent background as opposed to Pops and Clicks. Most of my disposable income was spent on Mobile Fidelity pressings....yea I had the entire Beatle carfolog on MoFi! I also had a record cleaner that spun the album like a real TT, cleaned with a alcohol solution then vacuumed them dry. I spent ridiculous money for every album I could afford. I am also aware it's who does the mastering....Some labels sounded great others sounded strident and compressed cause the recording engineers did not give a $hit. The Mastering/Label differences can still be heard on digital files....So yes I used to like to buy a new album, go home a read from album cover to cover and collect that medium. I sold my entire collection!

There are so many more things to like about digital files as far as organization, convenience and variety that vinyl just cannot complete with. No matter how nice a TT is you still have to worry about how many times you can play an album before the grooves are worn out and/or the stylus is toast. Digital files never wear out. So I collect Music not files....Also I used to listen to an entire side of an album in the vinyl days...now it's rare unless I just bought the album, that I listen to more than once song from the same artist. Plus another benny is digital files travel well to the car...where old cassette tapes would continue to degrade.

All in all, digital is the future for Music reproduction and vinyl is not...it's just a current gimmick as was 3D TV viewing is/was. So just who is the fool??? if you are gonna quote me...please be accurate as I never said that was my digital files are my "Hobby"!!!
Yup, and I never quoted you either.;)

I tend to agree with what you say in THIS post about digi files and the advantages.

You know, that is one of the real shames in the digi age--not listening to the entire album. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to entire albums and found some real gems in there that I otherwise would have never even heard.

But, if you treat your records well and your TT is set up correctly, vinyl can last for decades.
 
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