Dreamwhisper

Discussion in 'Buyer and Seller Feedback (Negative)' started by Mr.Sneis, Mar 27, 2017.

  1. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    I purchased an Assemblage Dac 3.1 from Dreamwhisper and boy has it been a terrible experience.

    The DAC arrived to me in poor condition and did not work out of the box. Mod work on this thing was done by an older member named Sachu, you may see his name here and there; it was awful awful solder work.

    I have tried giving him the benefit of the doubt and waiting for replies but he has been NO help and does not seem at all remorseful in any of what little he has said back to me. Horrible response times too btw only adds to the frustration.

    I'm putting his name on blast in hopes no one sends this guy any money for anything. I of course paid him via money order so it's not like I can file a claim in paypal.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2019
  2. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

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    This behavior is not acceptable, especially when it comes to doing it to a member who has demonstrated his integrity in many deals here and throughout the hobby. Sorry this happened Sneis.

    @dreamwhisper is getting the boot.
     
  3. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  4. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

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    We've been comparing some of the Sachu for sale shots with the pictures you posted on HC... It's not easy to be 100% sure, but it looks like someone might have done more work after Sachu sold it?? There are a few caps on the top that don't appear to be the same in the Sachu for sale photos. Did someone do more work?
     
  5. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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  6. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    It is possible; just to list some of the craziness I saw...

    Not too big a deal stuff:
    - RCA jack wiring held on by maybe 1 or 2 of the conductors, burn marks around here on a few box film caps.
    - BNC jack was completely loose, upon further inspection the plastic threads were stripped so it is not structurally sound and needs to be replaced
    - Soda or coffee spill ended up mostly in the buttons area and top case
    - Outer case not in the best of shape, no feet, PCX serial number sticker looked like it got drenched

    Opened it up:
    - Bypasses across several opamps and caps. Electric tape used to avoid potential for shorting (man I hate that stuff).
    - Some oxidation or possibly spillover from the liquid on the bottom of the power board
    - I'm not sure the purpose of the caps but there are 4 lytics per output board that got relocated to the bottom of the boards and bypasses slapped on those, one or two of the joints weren't really complete IE super obvious cold joints. Very confused why they got relocated to the bottom, bypass caps could have just been soldered on the bottom of the board. Due to this arrangement more burn marks on box caps.
    - One of the 4 dexa regulators had its trace completely lifted and a white jumper wire used to compensate; I can only guess it's correct but it's a multilayer pcb and I don't have any schematic
    - That same dexa board had a through hole resistor held on by one of its two leads, it had come off lifting its trace. As far as I can tell these dexas are supposed to come with surface mount parts.

    I removed all the bypasses, cleaned the boards best I could along with reflowing in those spots. I threw in new spare caps for the ones placed underside. I replaced the dexa boards with off the shelf +5v and -5v regulators.

    With the help of another member I troubleshooted a bit, all the voltages I measured seemed OK but no output despite rock solid locking capability.

    Honestly a lot of this stuff was not a huge deal, I am not afraid of solder work or parts swapping. I could easily reverse the mods or whatever. The damn dac simply never worked from the start and obviously was not taken very good care of. Apparently Sachu has kind of a reputation for this kind of quality that I wasn't fully aware of.

    Dreamwhisper's far and few between responses to me never had any sort of apology or empathy (or diatribe) or helpful details other than that he previously used the optical input and "Its against my code of ethics to sell piece of gear that doesn't work" which is quite comical.

    This morning I shipped the DAC up to Canada to PCX.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  7. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    I'm looking at the original pics Sachu uploaded to head-fi in his for-sale classified. While I cannot see the bottom, the top does not show any burns and horrid issues as it currently does:

    [​IMG]

    The top definitively changed since then. One can click on the image to get a better (higher resolution) look. Feedback on Sachu's to @dreamwhisper transaction was stellar. Not so obviously from @dreamwhisper to @Mr.Sneis. Completely justifiably so.

    Again, I'm very sorry to hear about this @Mr.Sneis.

    Pictures are better than words:

    https://www.head-case.org/forums/topic/12885-an-assemblage-31-non-build/
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2017
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    So @dreamwhisper basically went skiddoo? What's this guy's real name?
     
  9. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    He signed into HF at some point today, not a peep of course :(

    My gut is not convinced that the super shoddy stuff was someone else.

    In the old pics you see the 4 lytic caps per board still topside, they were later relocated to the bottom of the board. This must have been when all of the bypasses were installed.

    What I do notice is the crookedness of the 2nd from the left dexa board; this is consistent with what I saw and it is this crooked board with the lifted pcb trace. Also notice the little red (prp) through hole metal film resistors on those dexa boards, the traces are surface mount.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2019
  10. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

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    I may be getting confused with some of the work you did.

    Are these caps you installed?
    after.JPG

    Because they were not there before...
    sachu.JPG
     
  11. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    Yep those caps were what I had spare
     
  12. shipsupt

    shipsupt Admin

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    Ok! Makes sense now... Well, it would be nice for Dreamguy to get back to you and at least talk about what happened.
     
  13. shredical

    shredical Friend

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    Hi Dude..

    i just happened to log in and see this.

    I dug up the pics I had taken during the time i did the mods from back in 2011
    This is all of them.

    I will confirm, the caps on the bottom were put in by me. and the electrical tape. Apologies for the shoddy work there.

    Never burned any of the box caps however.
    That jumper wire is not my handiwork.

    As for the Dexa regs, the through hole resistor is part of the circuit.
    The BNC input was never an issue. In fact, it was the only one I used exclusively with the D2D.
    The feet was busted from the beginning.
    The outer shell itself was in a 8/10 or better condition when it left my place.

    Never spilled any coffee or soda on it.

    I never had any issue with the DAC the entire time I had it.

    I remember seeing this pop back up on HF a while back from dream whisper and I for an instant wanted it back despite not having been into the audio world for many years. I just didn't log back in to follow through as the impulse moment had passed.
     

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  14. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    Good to see some more info Sachu. So it sounds like there was definitely something else going on between owners.

    This DAC has been at PCX ever since, they haven't had any positive updates in months sadly. Last I heard they did finally get schematics, the problem is isolated to the digital board somewhere around the pmd200.

    Pretty sure the DAC is a complete lost cause now outside of a digital board swap.

    Never heard anything else from DW. Following the history of his transactions, he seems to have sold everything off and this was likely his last remaining bit.
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2017
  15. shredical

    shredical Friend

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    Am sorry and saddened to hear that. This DAC was special to me and I mean it sincerely.
    I might have the schematics someplace in one of the boxes I've packed away since 2011 if it helps.
    Will just be a while for me to try and dig it up though. Let me know.

    If there is anyway I can help to make this better, i'd be happy to. I know its small comfort, but if you are interested in a vintage ortho, i can send one your way for my part in all this (and I can assure you, i've never modded this oath myself, so it won't arrive broken or hanging by the threads :p) . Just hit me up if you'd like to take m up on it. Rather see the headphones get use than languish in a box.
     
  16. Stonie

    Stonie New

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    As a means of introduction, I'm a UK expat here in Singapore and have been following your incident with this transaction and DW with interest... as such and if you're willing, I would be interested to know if you managed to resolve anything with DW and the current status with this DAC ?

    TIA, Phil.
     
  17. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    Dreamwhisper is twisting in the wind somewhere, supposedly with a firewood business in BC Canada. Hope he's having a great x-mas...

    The DAC is still at PCX; they haven't figured it out, something in the digital board is keeping it from switching a output relay last I heard. It's backburner status, I sent it in with the D2D-1 as a part of payment.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2019
  18. Stonie

    Stonie New

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    Hmm, interesting... hopefully I'll never have to deal with this type of guy. Anyway, even though technology has moved on since, I could be in the market for one of these particular DAC's at the right price... IF... I can find one going for sale somewhere... any suggestions ?
     
  19. Mr.Sneis

    Mr.Sneis Friend

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    If you had asked me a week ago about this DAC I would have told you it was emotionally and physically dead to me; a lost cause. Well it turns out PCX never forgot about the old guy and it seems it will be back in action for 2018! Pretty nutso story all said and done, can't wait to get this thing back in and thankful that PCX was there to help me out!!
     
  20. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Happy Ending!

    (Minus the small fortune you probably paid PCX)

    Can you let us know what was wrong and what they fixed?
     

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