I understand your perspective and what I write is in no way intended to disparage your thoughts on this matter. I'd only like to bring some additional insight.
The posts by Jed and DOJ reminds me of how good a value so many of the products from AV123 were. This is in no way a defense of MLS or the company but I see a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking from people who weren't involved in the early days and can't believe anyone would buy into the BS. The truth is they had some very good quality products and very good price points. I know people will say that is because they were ripping suppliers off but no one back then knew this. Others will say if it looks to good to be true... but they managed to ship these products for a long time and kept the quality up.
It's unfortunate but understandable that suppliers that were ripped off and chose to remain silent. We've all heard about Mr. Pu being taken to the tune of 7 figures. Some of us have heard about private individuals who were taken in with personal loans to MLS including loans that were touted as investments promising great returns in the Colombian Uniaudio operation. One thing we haven't heard of is how Hong Bo Yao of HiVi (Swan speakers) also experienced financial losses. Now that was pretty much back in the beginning of the formation of AV451 and before they came out with the Rocket line of speakers. You can fund the appearance of a fairly healthy and successful operation when you have such an ongoing series of cash infusions.
IMO, the matter of high quality bears another look. While you and others may have had entirely satisfactory experiences, quality needs to be looked at in terms of the whole picture. Further, when MLS and others encourage that matters be resolved privately rather than publicly (understandable in most cases) problems never see the light of day. In fact, they may be seen isolated instances rather than more severe. So, I'd like to just touch on a few matters.
Cabinets
Even during the Rocket era, it was noted that cabinets had what may be called 'nail pops' which raised the veneer. Veneer issues were also noted such as checking, cracking, delamination, improper adhesion, and so forth. With a large cash surplus, one can afford to do the right thing and swap the speakers out. Now that cash is tighter than MLS's posterior facing incarceration, folks get offered a coupon, discount on future purchases, and if they're lucky maybe $100 credited to their card. Veneer issues became more problematic as time went on with probably the Uniaudio operation becoming infamous for producing outright junk.
Drivers
These seemed to be less problematical but there still were reports of the wrong drivers in speakers, missing and rusted screws, missing gasket material, drivers failing, drivers exhibiting deformation where they're attached to the voice coil, and so forth. Curtis has recounted the story of two sets of speakers that sounded decidedly different from each other. Longmont looked to attribute that to break-in however any number of more likely reasons such as drivers and/or crossovers and/or assembly problems were more likely candidates.
Crossovers
There was no way to tell, and most users tend to overestimate their discrimination ability, if the crossover was phucked. Examples include miswiring, the use of the wrong value and type of parts, etc. I first got clued into this when reading Richard Pierce's writings on USENET - now known as Google Groups - when around the time of the Rocket introduction he was b!tching about how the Chinese suppliers he was dealing with could not get it through their skulls that there was a specific reason for spec'ing things like non-inductive resistors, and the right sort of inductors and capacitors. That gave me pause to think that if Longmont was not careful, this would be happening to them.
Now, many have read the UltimateAV review of the Rocket speakers and found that the measurements indicated internal problems. I have since spoken to a couple of folks who've done reviews and measurements of speakers from Longmont and they also found that in order to review the speaker, they'd have to rework the crossovers themselves. One in particular was so flummoxed by his experience that he'll likely never review another speaker from them. This is one of the reasons why the crossover upgrades were so popular in most cases with some users saying they totally transformed their speakers. You were buying crossovers that were competently assembled using the correct parts with specifications that didn't tend toward the bottom of acceptability. Some of course noted little difference when upgrading suggesting their existing crossovers were acceptable.
The down fall was their electronics (just about all were failures from sub amps to R-DES and the EMO Pre/Pro) and the move from Chinese (SAC to be precise) exclusive products to Columbia and other Chinese factories. I personally saw the company start to slip during the nasty EMO intro both gonk and myself along with others asked some very difficult questions over there which I'm sure made them uncomfortable.
No arguments from me that electronics problems, especially with their subs, was instrumental. They had to shut the forums down, then the raffle thing came to light, and the only supplier he had left to screw, sh!tty as he was, was Santiago from Uniaudio and in the end he got screwed too. Hardly anybody that's reputable will do business with MLS directly. No one will extend him any more terms either. People are looking to collect and collect they will.
Now for my own examples. I have owned close to thirty AV123 products. With the exception of the MFWs I believe they are all SAC products. In all that time I've had two what I would call minor issues. A crossover in one of my RS1000s came loose during shipment and one of of the MFWs had a slight hum which I corrected by rerouting the internal cabling... they sent a replacement amp that is still in the box unused.
No cracked veneers.
Six working sub amps. (2ea RS1Ks, Minis, and MFWs)
No driver issues. (I did a quick count in my head but gave up tabulating when I got to 76)
In short SAC built some incredible products. To be fair the MFW is also a very nicely designed subwoofer and if you got in the early batch even the amps appear to be OK.
Unfortunately, the many problems with AV451 has greatly diminished the value of your products and you'll have to rely upon replacements being somewhere in deep storage should you have problems. But hey, I recognize that your particular situation was positive. On the whole though, not so good.
In my reading of late I've been struck that the company is some how still forging forward. I don't know whether sending out replacement amps after all the issues is ludicrous or good customer service. One thing I do know is if it hadn't been for the raffles and supplier issues coming to light I'm pretty sure there would be lots of folks touting the great AV123 support now instead of watching the surreal circus that it has now become.
Again this is in no way a defense of the company but rather an explanation has to how so many drank the Kool Aide without a second thought.
Well, I assume they still have some cash on hand. They've also been able to generate some additional cash by defaulting on both their primary and secondary mortgages which is a dangerous game to play hoping you can use that cash to make more cash and then pay off your arrears. He's also been selling stuff off on craigslist and possibly privately. I would not want to be in his shoes though.
