White Van speakers, help me if you can.

[Danny Richie]

Hey guys, I need your help.

There is a news team in the Dallas area that has contacted me and is wanting to do a story on the White Van speaker scams. They have had a lot of people contact them within the last few days that have fallen victim to this scam. They want to do a story on this right away and put out a warning on them.

They contacted me after seeing information on the Dahlton speakers that we posted on our web site.

http://www.gr-research.com/dahlton.htm

They are looking for anyone in the Dallas area, or within a couple of hundred miles, that might have some fallen for this scam, might have purchased some of these speakers or that might have some of these speakers. They would like to bring a pair over for me to measure and test for them so that they can better document the true value of these products.

If you have a pair or know of anyone that does it will be very helpful if they can be loaned to this news team.

Shoot me an e-mail if you can help. info@gr-research.com

Thanks,
Danny Richie

 

[dobyblue]

That is totally awesome. I hope someone helps you out with speakers and the story is run nationally.

 

[Mark Seaton]

Hi Danny,

Also check the Triad website as they helped out with a similar story for a Seattle based news team. It would lend further credit to the story.

While I'm guessing there are a few copy-cats out there now, the scarry part is that this is the actual business model for these operations.

If you want to do a really funny sound quality example that anyone could hear, even through the TV, would be to record a wav file of the speaker playing back a very short clip of some commonly known music or material. Now play the recording back through the speaker and record the output. Three re-generations is often enough to make a decent speaker sound so-so, and a bad one horrid. Just tell them it basically magnifies the differences by 3 times so you can easily compare through even your TV or computer speakers.

Roast 'em!

 

[twisted3]

a friend of mine called me last week, who lives in Seattle, to ask if I ever heard of Da Vinci speakers. I told him no and he then proceeded about getting a great deal off someone who was selling a whole 5.1, with a piano gloss, package including a receiver. He bought it for $500 and the system is worth $2500. He saw the ad in a magazine and the paperwork. He got the same lines as, "we got overstocked and the boss doesn't know about it." He bought them right before he went in to work. I haven't talked to him since I been pretty busy, but I am still curious as to what were his impressions.

 

[j_garcia]

OT, but kind of related... The other day, I was getting a tire fixed and in walks a direct marketer selling some crappy rechargable flashlights.... LOL, I was going to ask her if she had any speakers too, because they use the same business model and similar sale tactics. The guy in the shop bought 2 (2 for 1) and while I was sitting there, I noticed they had one exactly like that sitting out in the shop and I pointed it out to him. He says "That one doesn't work." OK, so why did you buy 2 more of them?? He says, "I got 2 for the price of 1 this time; they'll probably break too."

 

[supervij]

Slightly OT as well, hope no one minds. I've noticed that the white van speakers have moved on to Craig's List. In the electronics section of the Toronto sub-site, there were numerous posts from someone trying to sell DiVinci speakers. And there was some guy who kept posting that these speakers were of the white-van variety, and saying it was a big scam. For some reason, I felt compelled to join him, and added my own posts saying that the speakers are garbage. Seemed to work, cos the white van speakers haven't shown up on the Toronto section of Craig's List for maybe a week or so.

I went to the DiVinci website, and found that they sell more than just speakers. I was curious about their receivers, and here's one curiousity I found: their flagship reciever ($2400 US if I remember correctly) had no component video inputs (just S-video and composite) and absolutely no digital audio inputs! Heck, a $200 receiver at Future Shop can out-perform that! And one of the subwoofers listed on DiVinci's site goes down to only 50 Hz!

There was another speaker "brand" called TR Theater Research. I googled them and found a page from the "Fair Business Association of America" citing TR as having a find credibility report, when, in fact, the FBAA is a scam organization itself!

Sadly, those darn white vans are everywhere, it seems. Even on the 'net.

cheers,
supervij

 

[j_garcia]

Yep, I've seen them on the web and I saw an even better one at my last job. They have an internal classified web page where people can throw stuff up for everyone to see, sort of a intra-mini-craigslist kinda thing. Some guy clearly got ripped off with these speakers and after realizing it, he tried to pawn them off to some other unsuspecting coworker...and he was still asking a ridiculous price. What a Jerk.

 

[dpnaugle]

Little short on simpathy.

With all do respect to the folks that have been scammed, I don't get it. Who falls for this?

I was about 12 when I first saw a van selling speakers and new it was a bad deal.

Made in China? you have got to be kidding

 

[mytzen]

A few years ago a friend told me he bought some speakers from some guy in his one of his classes and the whole thing seemed a little sketchy. Turns out they were white van speakers, Digital Pro Audio, and he ended up giving them to me for free when he graduated.

Just did a Google search on them and a bunch of scam websites came up. I also found some people selling them on Craigslist.
http://www.craigslist.org/cgi-bin/search?areaID=1&subAreaID=&query="digital+pro+audio"&catAbbreviation=sss
These are the exact ones that I had (gave them away for free earlier this year) and I cant believe this one person says MSRP of $1195 when I would never pay to take them back.

 

[JeffD2.]

With all do respect to the folks that have been scammed, I don't get it. Who falls for this?

I was about 12 when I first saw a van selling speakers and new it was a bad deal.

Made in China? you have got to be kidding

The average working Joe who knows nothing about audio but wants a HT system because he's heard one in the stores is the one who falls for it.

One of my wife's client's husband bought a "theater research" system in a parking lot. He thought he got a $3400 system for $250 bucks. Guess who got the call to set it up.

This guy raved about the sound quality and the great deal he got. I just couldn't burst his bubble. After all, one of the tenants of audio is to choose the system that sounds good to YOU. He was happy, I just did the setup and let it be.

 

[cyberbri]

Be sure to let them know about these brands being sold on ebay (and Craig's List) now as well. They even take out ads in stereo/HT magazines, with MSRPs listed, to bolster their claims.