UPDATED: Mark L. Schifter, PLEADS GUILTY to suspicion of charity fraud

[nugga22]

Roughly when in 2008 did SAC stop making the Rockets?

 

[Chu Gai]

Schifter got no money to purchase anything.

Unless it was other people's money that is!

 

[Jed M]

Schifter got no money to purchase anything.

I am sure I could find some Russian Orphans who would disagree with you.

 

[gonk]

Plus some some car dealers and watch dealers who would just smile and nod their heads...

 

[NicolasKL]

The pro 10 thread at avs makes me want to stab kittens. And I love kittens.

 

[Tex-amp]

The pro 10 thread at avs makes me want to stab kittens. And I love kittens.

Is it really surprising that the same crowd that made AV123 is fawning over an un-vetted speaker from a charismatic personality?

 

[m-fine]

Is it really surprising that the same crowd that made AV123 is fawning over an un-vetted speaker from a charismatic personality?

He isn't anywhere near as charismatic as MLS, more of a psychotic jackass with massive mood swings. I think it is more of the connection to MLS and the community that is the draw. A sick form of nostalgia. I did hear the WAF-1's however and they were pretty decent speakers for the size and money. Blew away the ELT's by a very very large margin IMHO. Maybe the pro-10's are a decent value as well, it is possible.

 

[MinusTheBear]

It boggles my mind that people don't put as much stock into the research and development/testing/measurements, manufacturing facilities (quality control), resources/infrastructure that's behind the product/company that comes to market. Like with the case of AV123 there was a lot of hype but little to none in the ways of objective testing. There were products like the x-head I believe that did not even have any specifications posted on the website when they first started selling them?

 

[gonk]

There were products like the x-head I believe that did not even have any specifications posted on the website when they first started selling them?

If they had specs for the X-Head, they probably didn't want to publish them - from all accounts, it and the X-Amp had a whole lot of noise when they finally got production hardware on-hand. Specs might not have looked so good.

 

[Jed M]

x-head was just junk. That was the point, IMO, where they went from cutting corners to just selling any POS they could find from the few shady vendors that they hadn't burned bridges with, same thing with the HR upgrade which was about the same time.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Where there any x-heads in "deep storage". I do not recall any being listed at the dickensheet online auction?

 

[Stereodude]

Where there any x-heads in "deep storage". I do not recall any being listed at the dickensheet online auction?

If I recall correctly they bundled them with something else as a freebie in a sale to get rid of them. I tried one, and got my money back pronto. It had a nasty hum and hissed like an angry snake. Somewhere I had some pictures of the inside of it which showed how poor the circuit layout was, but I can't seem to find them.

 

[MinusTheBear]

They were advertising a sale packaging the HD555 headphones with the x-head a while back. Must have been a big hit.

 

[Stereodude]

Well, supposedly they fixed the x-head to eliminate the problems the first rev had. I never tried out a "fixed" one. The first one was so bad I didn't feel like giving it a 2nd chance.

The unshielded power transformer was right next to the outputs on the front and the output from the amp had to pass by it on the way to the front jacks. It had a single layer PCB with all through hole components. It used jumper wires at points to jump other traces. There were no ground planes or anything in it for shielding the signals. The only chip in it that was surface mount was the amplifier IC and it was on some adapter board that effectively made it a through hole component as well. I'm certainly no PCB layout / design expert (though I've done some PCB designs in my career), but I could immediately spot a variety of problems with the layout & design.

 

[doug goldberg]

As the designer of the XHead I can share that I was very upset when the first production run came in. They were nothing like the prototype in terms of pcb layout or construction. This was symptomatic of the issues with The Chinese production house that Mark used. The samples were fine but the production was spotty at best. I asked Mark to stop selling the XHead until it was redesigned to reflect the prototype performance. He did and the latter units were outstanding. I have no idea how many of what vintage were made or sold as the royalty payments and reporting were also spotty at best.

 

[Jed M]

As the designer of the XHead I can share that I was very upset when the first production run came in. They were nothing like the prototype in terms of pcb layout or construction. This was symptomatic of the issues with The Chinese production house that Mark used. The samples were fine but the production was spotty at best. I asked Mark to stop selling the XHead until it was redesigned to reflect the prototype performance. He did and the latter units were outstanding. I have no idea how many of what vintage were made or sold as the royalty payments and reporting were also spotty at best.

Doug, I asked for a refund instead of a replacement so I have no idea what the x-head was supposed to be like, but I don't blame you for being very upset at the first production run. I find it hard to believe that the royalty payments were not always on time and a little over.

 

[Stereodude]

I find it hard to believe that the royalty payments were not always on time and a little over.

Yeah, I just can't believe that either.

 

[Chu Gai]

I'm verklempt!

 

[Timeless Tech]

Well, no real surprise, but without changing the "date" (sound familiar?) the pertinent wording on their home page was changed from

Shortly we hope to be able to offer you more information about how to obtain MFW15 amplifiers should you require one. Please stay tuned to this page for updates. We hope to have this in place within the next few weeks.

to

For those of you interested in purchasing an MFW-15 amplifier please contact simply[edited]@msn.com for more information.

Personally--sight unseen--I think I and many others already know a better alternative, especially if it's on our own dime. If anyone knows otherwise, I'm listenin', but not holdin' my breath.

 

[Kevin R]

Well, no real surprise, but without changing the "date" (sound familiar?) the pertinent wording on their home page was changed from to

Personally--sight unseen--I think I and many others already know a better alternative, especially if it's on our own dime. If anyone knows otherwise, I'm listenin', but not holdin' my breath.

That some serious cojones. I hope others that are in need find Kevin's amp before they even consider getting something from him.

On a personal note, I've had a Moho voce, omni, and SLS's to go with my SB Statiks and MFW (first V2 amp) for a couple years now and not one problem with the veneer. Although I do live about 6k feet above sea level so not sure if that has helped. These were also bought all A stock and delivered within a couple of days of ordering (I never did participate in the vaporware only in-stock products). I'd prefer to sell them but unfortunately, they are selling pretty much for pennies on the dollar.

Although I've never been ripped off my the humbly bumbly one, I feel for the sake of others he gets everything he deserved. It's not only sad for those that have given to charities, it's sad for the audio community as a whole.