Tom Evans audio proves that their $30,000 audio preamp is garbage by filing a bogus copyright claim
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- Channel: Louis Rossmann
- Video: Tom Evans audio proves that their $30,000 audio preamp is garbage by filing a bogus copyright claim
- Date: 2024-12-09
- Description:
Junk: https://audiodesign.co.uk/styled-23/styled-27/index.html
Original video: https://archive.org/details/the-gbp-25-000-pre-amp-that-went-wrong-tom-evans-mastergroove-sr-mk-iii-rjbp-fsfzi-i
followup video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPIrCaeVtvI
DCS saga:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QNMVMlx48E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d37BG0O0mFk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsXxN3iyV2M
AI Disclaimer[edit | edit source]
The Summary and Transcription below were generated using artificial intelligence (AI). While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy and coherence, the following points should be noted:
- The transcript is machine-generated and is likely to contain inaccuracies, omissions, or misinterpretations due to the limitations of automated transcription technology.
- The summary, created using AI, is derived from this transcript and will likely not capture the nuances, tone, and context of the original content.
- Users should exercise caution and verify the information, considering the compounded limitations of two layers of AI processing.
AI Summary[edit | edit source]
This video by Louis Rossmann discusses how Tom Evans Audio's $30,000 audio preamp is garbage due to a bogus copyright claim filed against a YouTube reviewer, Mend It Mark. The video highlights the importance of transparency and accountability in business, particularly when it comes to online reputation management.
Online Reputation Management[edit | edit source]
Louis Rossmann emphasizes that you cannot delete content from the internet, and attempting to do so can lead to more harm than good. He shares his own experiences with cringe-worthy early videos on his channel, but notes that owning up to mistakes and being honest with people can help mitigate damage.
Copyright Abuse[edit | edit source]
The video focuses on a specific case where Tom Evans Audio filed a bogus copyright claim against Mend It Mark's review of their $20,000+ audio preamp. Louis Rossmann argues that this is an example of copyright abuse, as the reviewer had done nothing wrong by sharing his honest opinion and repair process.
Product Quality[edit | edit source]
Louis Rossmann critiques the quality of Tom Evans Audio's product, highlighting its use of standard off-the-shelf components, poor design choices, and overpriced nature. He contrasts this with Mend It Mark's review, which provided a detailed analysis of the product's flaws.
Importance of Transparency[edit | edit source]
The video emphasizes the importance of transparency in business, particularly when it comes to online reputation management. Louis Rossmann argues that companies should be accountable for their actions and not try to silence critics through copyright claims or other means.
YouTube's Role[edit | edit source]
Louis Rossmann criticizes YouTube's handling of the situation, suggesting that they prioritize big creators over small ones and don't care about creators' well-being. He notes that this is a problem that will continue as long as Google exists.
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
The video concludes by encouraging viewers to be cautious when buying products from companies that engage in copyright abuse or other questionable practices. Louis Rossmann emphasizes the importance of supporting businesses that prioritize transparency and accountability.
AI Transcription[edit | edit source]
hey everybody how's it going hope you're
having a lovely day welcome to today's
episode of how to ruin your reputation 5
minutes or less I'm your host LS Rossman
this is something that many people don't
seem to learn even though it is the mid
2020s you cannot delete [__] from the
internet it doesn't go away you can
respond to criticism on the internet and
you can own your mistakes and if you do
that it doesn't matter how big your
mistake is sometimes you will be able to
uh to get out of it by just being honest
with people because your people that are
watching your mistakes and listening to
what you say they are humans just like
you and they're going to have sympathy
and empathy and and at least more of it
than they are if you try to delete
people's [__] whether we're talking
about DCS batteries Who Deep Cycle
Systems who is suing small YouTubers
that opens their batteries and provided
them with honest reviews who make
batteries that are not my opinion
objectively speaking some of the
shittiest stuff that money can buy the
Australian government spent millions of
dollars testing all these different
batteries and you can tell without even
looking at the legend which one is the
company that tried to to sue people to
get their reviews taken down whether or
not you think the taxpayers should be
spending millions of dollars testing
random batteries is not my business I
don't live in Australia but moving on
this this graph of their capacity could
be overlaid a graph of their online
reputation and it will be completely
accurate what happens when you try to
delete content from the Internet is this
it doesn't work all of the top results
on Google are one star reviews Reddit
Facebook posts YouTube posts about how
people are getting sued the good the bad
the ugly this doesn't work it doesn't
work when you delete something people
assume that it is because you have
something horrible to hide erasing stuff
off the internet doesn't work whether we
are talking about somebody who makes
batteries that are trash or we're
talking about somebody that almost kills
kids by driving over 90 M an hour in a
[__] school
zone not just for the Apple interview
you prick this is something that I know
about my own channel when I look back at
my old videos I cringe they are horrible
Not only was I not comfortable talking
into a camera I wasn't comfortable doing
repairs on camera I would get nervous
because I knew people were watching and
I would do [__] that was horribly stupid
and frankly some of that stuff is just
we're going to raise it we're going to
raise it to four vaults and set
[Music]
yeah like again this video not my best
repair video but I can't delete it this
over here I'll just let this speak for
itself needless to say this was made
before my company could afford a PC 3000
or offered lab level data
recovery no I'm not putting out so we're
doing an SSD to SSD transfer here and
the only USB caddy that will work in the
entire store is this one but it's for a
desktop drive and it's going from USB
caddy to SSD caddy to SSD with as you
can see with zoom with absolutely no
screw so the way we're keeping this up
we can't put it against here because
this is metal and there's circuitry on
the other side of this board so we're
using a magnet over here uh to keep this
spatula here so that the wooden portion
of the spatula will hold up the SSD
which will hold up the caddy which is
going to the computer that is on top of
another MacBook Air so that we can
finish the
uh data
transfer I know firsthand that you
cannot delete stuff from the internet
and if I were to Google something like
hard drive data recovery Austin without
actually paying for any S-E-O my S-E-O
budget is zero my AdWords budget is zero
my company shows up with good reviews
and it also shows up as one of the first
companies the reason for this is that
even with something like that if you own
it it is it is a joke it is uh something
from the early days of my business
it's better than if you delete it
because if I delete that people are
going to go wait a second what is he
hiding if I take my video that used to
be my main Channel video Rossman rewind
where there was a motherboard that
actually went on fire in the beginning
and I delete that in the middle of the
stream people are going to wonder is
this something where I I planned to tell
the customer you have to buy a new board
after I set it on fire am I lying about
my skills do I do that to every board
but if I just go whoops okay let's
figure it out and fix it and I do it
properly on camera people will assume
okay you know I fixed over 60 ,000
devices at this business I made one
mistake everybody makes mistakes he took
accountability responsibility and he
owned it and then you're good but there
are people that don't understand that
there are people that think that you can
actually erase something off the
internet if you make a mistake and that
it will not come back to bite you in the
ass and the problem is that it doesn't
matter it always will this is not 1964
anymore we don't live in a world where
people have no communication outside
their friend and cooworker circle of
maybe Max 40 people they where they get
their information on what to buy from a
Magazine advertisement a television ad
one or two newspapers and a billboard
people go onto forums people talk to
have the ability to talk to people who
are experts in their field who are
trusted Community Elders where they were
talking about gar fun hydrogen audio
being able to explain the difference
between the zif standard build of OG
vorbis versus the GT3 build of AG vorbis
or we're talking about you know somebody
like uh Tim Herman or Jess A Jones
talking about border pair and that type
of equipment people like going to forums
they like going to these corners of the
internet IRC channels anywhere else
where they can really understand from
smart people that really know their [__]
that are trusted in the field what it is
they should and should not buy and one
of the people that has done an excellent
job of this is a gentleman named mendan
Mark he reviewed this product over here
I'm not going to tell you the price of
the product yet I'm simply going to show
you a picture of it and I will allow you
to guess how much this thing costs you
can see that this is a phono preamp it
has what looks like a standard design
inside this box it is using what looks
like nylon headers over here instead of
setad of metal which means that in
shipping there's a good chance of that
PC board thing that's holding that up
cracking cuz this is
just I'll let you decide uh what you
think this is worth so this company
decided they were going to do something
to M amended Mark's videos you can see
that this is a 40 minute repair video
where he goes over how to fix this
product he draws his own schematic of
the product and the reason this video is
on archive.org rather than his YouTube
channel is because it is not on his
YouTube channel anymore because that
video has been uh erased it is gone he
went over this in this video here the 25
PB preamp repair and the copyright
strike I am not going to do an exact
conversion here but that's over $20,000
it's way over $20,000 for a phono preamp
he has a great Channel over here where
he goes over how to fix all different
types of audio gear from new audio gear
to 1979 tape deex his videos are
anywhere from a half hour to an hour and
a half in length and he goes through
everything in detail so that you
understand exactly what he's doing so
that you learned something from his
repair videos and so that you could
replicate what he did learn something
learn the underlying
thought processes behind what he does so
that you could fix your own [__]
yourself using that type of equipment
it's a very good educational Channel and
as a result of all the good will he's
put out there from all these hundreds of
videos going over how to fix these
products that he makes available to
everybody for free he is somebody who's
trusted within that Community he's
earned that trust and that is the type
of person where people are going to
listen to when it comes to making their
buying decisions and it's not like
everybody in the world is going to say
I'm not going to buy this amended Mark
doesn't like it but this is the type of
place where your average consumer is
going to have more trust in him than in
some random billboard or magazine
ad his video got removed now let's talk
about what he did in this video what he
did in this video is he took the product
apart and he discussed its construction
he went over how it was using tanum
capacitors which as I've gone over on my
channel whether we're talking about
audio file gear or MacBook stuff is not
exactly always the best way to go for
every application these capacitors can
fail they can short very easy and they
can cause whether whether it causes your
MacBook to not turn on properly when you
um when it's cold or whether we're
talking about an audio device can be an
issue he was talking about these lovely
headers that you see over here that
would cause very very easy and obvious
damage in shipping to this device he was
talking about the port packaging of the
device he was talking about how and one
of the best things here is how many of
the audio chips and all many of The
Regulators in there actually had the
part numbers scraped off of it because
again if you're producing a device
that's made like [__] that cost over
$20,000 you don't want people to know
that you're using cheap ass [__] in
there you don't want people to know that
your console that costs over half a
million dollars has any 55 32 opamps in
it that as Jim Williams would say are
are so limited that when you put a bell
tree through them it just doesn't come
out the other
end he went over this and he made his
own schematic for it because he didn't
have one this isn't like my channel
where I am showing you Apple schematics
or on the bottom right of it it says do
not reproduce Do Not Duplicate do not
show people he literally took the time
in a 40-minute video to write his own
schematic on paper using as he says his
own hand he measured this thing to see
show you how garbage the power supply
was in it and how much Ripple there was
on it with his own equipment this is the
Ripple on the power supply of a 20 plus
th000 piece of audio gear and you can
imagine that this has less to do with
copyright and more to do with somebody
who is selling a very very very
overpriced piece of [__] doing
everything they can to hide the fact
that it is an overpriced piece of [__]
the thing is on the Internet is that you
cannot delete something that you have
posted and you most certainly cannot
delete what somebody else has posted
without everybody hearing about it I
don't look at phono preamps I'm going to
say something I'm not supposed to say
here I don't like vinyl very much I I
don't I don't like the little
distortions in the background when a
piano note is ending I just I like good
digital I like good analog you know if
stter aa27 or 800 great u v consumer
vinyl ew I just I don't like it but I I
wouldn't I wouldn't have known about
this the only reason I even know about
this is because the jackass that this
product who believes that he is making
alien technology I'm not [__] kidding
there was stupid enough to try and have
this YouTube video deleted I didn't even
know his company existed but now I know
that his company exists and makes
garbage when you take a look at their
website this is where it just gets
funnier and funnier and this is where
you kind of understand why a lot of the
audio file stuff can be [__] I'm an
audio file I like high-end audio I like
my Hi-Fi I like listening to stuff in a
nice acoustically treated room I am an
audio file but I am not an audio fool as
you can tell if you read my guide over
here where I'm talking about setting a
good high-fi in addition to how to
self-manage and self-host your
everything from your own email system
home theater system uh phone system you
can easily get amazing quality from a
used set of axm M3 speakers the $80
amplifier that I have from eBay and the
wire that I used that I got at Helm
Depot to connect my bike's motor
controller to my bike motor that that is
what is connecting my my speakers but
I'm an audio file I'm not an audio fool
and this is the type of [__] over here
that just makes the entire concept of
the audio file ridiculous because there
are people that will read this and
actually buy this let's go over it
Master Groove SRM Mark
II only 10 of these are made every
year so what like so what let's say I
said I only do 10 repairs every year
does that mean I'm the best repairment
on earth does that mean that I'm so bad
at what I do that it takes me a month to
figure out a single repair does that
mean that I like I spend the rest of my
year in Barbados like what is the the
problem there it's a such as the
overwhelming complexity and workload of
hand measuring and perect perfectly
matching every component of this
ultimate phono stage this limited
edition model is only available at rate
of 10 units per year uh the reality is
that this actually uses very standard
off-the-shelf components like LM 7815
Regulators which again to be clear
nothing wrong with it it's not the worst
thing in the world it's just really you
only make 10 a year because it's so
[__] esoteric gargo my balls when you
look at what's inside this thing no it
uses standard crap one of the things
that you that you deal with when you
deal with Analog Devices or bur Brown a
Texas instrument when you're buying
chips from them they will provide you
with a data sheet and that data sheet
will often have a suggested sample
circuit Design This is not as esoteric
as he claims this over here is an
example of a reference circuit for a
Macbook chip I searched LP 8550 data
sheet and you'll see something called
typical application where the
manufacturer will show you how to
utilize their chip inside of a product
and there's nothing wrong with using
something that looks similar to the
manufacturers reference circuit Texas
Instruments bur Brown Analog Devices
they have Smart engineers and they make
decent products so they tell you here's
how you can implemented and when you
take a look at the design of this
gentleman's 20 plus th000 product you'll
see that it actually is very close to
the Bur Brown reference design in their
data sheets from over 30 years ago which
again there's nothing wrong with that
it's a competent design but like
overwhelming complexity only makes 10
units a year worth $220,000 plus again
like gargo my balls we continue to read
this website I'm I'm I'm going to leave
the best part of this piece of [__] for
last cuz it just this leave The Best For
Last you got a custom case with fully
balanced XLR output circuit as well as a
single-ended RCA phono output and again
when you're talking about a custom case
he's not lying to you there this is a
very custom case because I can imagine
that anybody Who develops cases
professionally for a living is not going
to use these garbage standoffs here for
something that is being shipped from one
location to another all around the world
particularly when it's a $20,000 device
a case that is this shitty could only be
custom because nobody who's making cases
that's making them in an assembly line
environment would ever be able to stay
in business if this is what they were
producing nobody would pay for it our
most sophisticated internal power supply
design with a far more complex front
gain end stage has over 50% less
Distortion than the already referenced
Master Groove model this provides the
greatest dynamic range of any phono
stage in the world by an incredible
margin and when you again when you
actually take a look at the video that
he had taken down it becomes very
obvious why he had this video taken down
this is a this is mended Mark
demonstrating the quality of that power
supply there and you can see this has
more Ripple than a koi fish pond with
over 30,000 gallons per hour of pumps
moving it through an not just one but
two ultimate two filters and a waterfall
with four metalis sheets and all
seriousness this yeah to be clear is
this the worst thing in the world if
this thing cost 100 bucks no for over
$20,000 only 10 of them made a year this
is pretty bad particularly when we when
we're discussing the fact that this
thing uh implements and incorporates
alien technology no I'm not [__]
kidding this is actually on this audio
file hit website it says over here the
very ethos of this is the resolution of
more detail I said measurements in such
Advanced uh set of measurements so in
advance of the competition that it will
be more akin to testing an advanced
alien technology than measuring an
electronic device the only thing that is
alien to me is how anybody in their
right mind would spend over 20,000
[__] dollars on this after watching
menend at Mark's
review alien technology are you [__]
kidding me this thing is even worse than
the S old SSL J G9 g4000 or j9000
consoles I forget that use any 55 32
opamps that as Jim Williams would say
you can't put a bell tree through it's
just and to be clear when it comes to
phono preamps you know I'm not into the
audio file full [__] but you're
going to hear a difference in different
qualities of audio uh of phonal preamps
just because of the nature of what it is
we're not talking about a line level
signal that is coming out of a DVD audio
or a super audio CD player which is
usually low noise and line level we're
talking about a phono PRM for a record
player the signal coming out of it is
very very low which means when you boost
it it's going to be subject to a lot of
noise there's already a lot of noise in
there because it's vinyl and I as I may
have said already I I don't like vinyl I
hate it like I like I shouldn't say hate
you intensely like Sam Fields used to
tell me you you hate nothing you
intensely dislike it I don't like vinyl
when you hit a note in a piano and you
hear the decay of it and you hear it on
that versus anything else it's just ew
like good analog stud a 800 absolutely
stud a27 yes
vinyl did you design
888 no like good did good analog and
vinyl to me is not it but point being
because this is a vinyl preamp you
probably are going to be able to tell
the difference in an ABX blind test
between a cheap $50 piece of [__] and a
$500 one in the way that you just are
not going to with a competently designed
line level
preamp does that mean this is worth over
20,000 bucks not even
close not even close there are devices
that cost less than $1,000 dollar that
are infinitely better designed than this
which is why when menend at Mark did an
excellent video on it it got taken down
I think that this video should be put
back on his channel I think he should be
allowed to put it back on his channel in
fact I actually asked him right over
here because I think this would be funny
with your permission I'd like to
re-upload the video to my channel then
if a fraudulent copyright claim is filed
on my channel I would fight it to the
fix inent of the law to the point that a
lesson is learned to never do this again
you do good work I respect it and I want
to help send a message to companies that
do this type of [__] that it doesn't
[__] work
these companies get away with this
because they assume that people don't
have the time the energy or the money to
fight back and as long as that continues
to be the case you'll see more of this
the fact that companies in 2024 actually
feel confident enough to do this is the
part that scares me it's not even that
YouTube Took the video down YouTube
system sucks it has sucked for over 15
years it's going to continue to suck
into the next 15 years as long as Google
exists because they don't care they
don't care about small creators they
don't care about creators in general you
get have 10 million subscribers and they
still treat people like [__] but
it what gets me is that they actually
think that this is something that works
they think it's important to demonstrate
that it doesn't work and I personally
speaking if I were to reupload this
video because I got permission from
menend at Mark to do so and I got a
copyright claim on it this guy might
actually have an excuse to sell
something with a
$24,950 profit margin because he would
need it to deal with the legal fees that
he would have if he if he fraudulently
get [__] removed from my channel I
[__] did dare you that would be a lot
of
fun that's it for today and as always I
hope you learned something something
tells me the sales of the Tom Evans
Master Grove Mark III are probably going
to go down over the next few months
which I think is a great thing Even If
This Were the best designed product in
the world even if this had the audio
quality of something from the 80s from
Nelson pass Labs or Nelson pass because
I think he started that company after he
qu quit out ofcom any doesn't matter
this is not the way to do business even
if you made a better product I would not
want to support a company that goes out
of their way to silence others who
provide them with honest criticism above
all I don't want to support a company
that breaks the law in this way this is
some sort of breaking the law for Robin
Hood reasons where you're breaking the
law but you're really doing it to help
the little guy this is a case of you are
breaking the law by filing a fraudulent
copyright claim there is nothing
fraudulent about a man who makes his own
schematics he made his own schematics
for your product because you didn't
offer the schematic he wrote it he did
what he was supposed to do he reverse
engineered it and you struck him anyway
[__] you that's it for today and as
always I hope you learned something are
you going to buy a Tom Evans audio
design preamp that costs over 20,000
bucks when it's put together like
that I wouldn't see you in the next one
bye now