Actually, now Mark is touting that some of the "vibrations" or weird noises that are heard from the MFW-15 subs have to do with the butt joints. In a few months (ahem ... I mean years), they will be implementing the use of a special router bit for the joints creating more surface area for the glue to adhere to.
Any bets that this never gets implemented? It seems that through his advertising of this "better" joint is also an admission of the sub-par assembly process of the MFW-15, to date. Plenty of other companies have used regular butt joints for their subs and they're not experiencing any weird vibration noises. Hmm ...
Can you point to where this was said by Mark? But let's run with this thought.
When all the problems with VA321 happened, orders virtually dried up. Until the amp situation was resolved with respect to self-euthanizing themselves, Schifter not only had an inventory of subs he couldn't sell, he couldn't buy anymore. The UniAudio operation in Colombia was heavily geared to making cabinets for subs. Only a small fraction of their efforts was geared to making X series speakers. Hence, for all intents and purposes, UniAudio was shut down and workers were let go. VA321 was their only customer. Not only was UniAudio shut down but they too suffered financial losses and the need to repay lines of credit. Keep in mind here, that UniAudio was projecting certain sales and were buying inventory in anticipation of these sales. So, if a call came in to send 200 cabinets, they already had these cabinets on hand. Some finished, some in various states of completion as well as stockpiles of veneer, MDF (Trupan), and everything else needed to build future orders. But the orders stopped.
Now, let's fast forward to the time when the new amp modules came. After some hiccups, customers with affected product started receiving their replacements. When that was pretty much taken care of the subs in the warehouse were all retrofitted with the amp modules. Now, while they weren't blowing up, the did have problems. So, the sales of subs starts picking up. Eventually, Schifter has to order more subs. So what does he do? He calls his buddy Santiago at UniAudio and says hey, I need some subs. Santiago says, well sure Mark but everyone that used to work here with the exception of a couple are all gone. Now Mark knows Santiago has to get rid of the inventory. Better to sell it rather than take a total loss. Mark also knows that he's got Santiago in the rock and hard place area. So while Santiago wants X dollars per sub, Schifter offers him less. There's some negotiating but in the end Santiago sells for less than he was used to getting and also gets Schifter to buy the rest of the X-stuff that was in production.
So, now the stuff has to be finished. But the former workers who had some skills and were developing them are gone. So Santiago hires a few people, maybe a couple from the old days. He's pissed that he's got to accept less. He's pissed he's not making the LS's. So, he's determined that if he has to take less, he'll find a way to not take so much of a hit. So the veneer is of lesser quality, the routing on the cabinets is just a bit tight and that's why the amps fit so tightly, the cuts aren't so precise, the workers aren't as skilled, the glue is put on quickly, the drying times are less and if the finish isn't so good that there are subsurface scratches, who the phuck cares?
Hence, if there are indeed problems due to whatever Mark is spinning, can you see why there are? I sure can.
