Still waiting for Stam

Uh. Not good.

Stam Audio, delays, waiting times and everything related is something that will stick with us forever, even if everything is in stock one day. I have come to accept it (many years ago) and just try to do my best work daily so that it doesn't happen again in the future and most importantly to provide the absolute best sounding products I can.

A little background on me and Stam that might explain our "rocky road" as Ward said if you allow me.

The truth is I never intended so start an audio company. It wasn't planned. I had no experience, no employees, vision, office, storage nor the skills or experience to have a business. It pretty much happened over night. I remember when Greg Wells ordered and SA-2A from me and suddenly I had 500 emails from people around the world, it was very exciting as a young guy, it was an opportunity, I was happy but I wasn't prepared by any means and had no clue how to manage it all. At the time I was making only made 5-10 units a month and was already happy that I was selling a couple of pieces a month to afford bills. I stupidly decided to take all pre-orders in and that I would figure it out along the way and that everything would be OK.... and it wasn't. At least not until many years later.

Would I have known what I know now would I would have done things in an entirely different manner. What had started as an exciting venture quickly became a sad dealing. I failed miserably on my attempts to deliver stuff within promised deadlines and pissed a lot of people of. I deservedly had dozens of emails with insults and even threats every day, as well as people calling me a scammer all over the internet. It was no fun. Many times thought it would be best to stop Stam Audio and go back to med school and do something different with my life. No matter how strong you are that amount of negativity and hatred takes a toll on you, specially when you are young. The only thing that kept me going was the positive feedback from clients about how our units sounded and to clean up my name. I was no scammer and I couldn't allow that to be the end so I carried on despite all the negativity around my name and I am glad I did.

On top of the inexperience handling customer expectations I also didn't know the logistics of ordering parts in bulk for a company much less in Chile were things till this day can get stuck in customs for a month waiting inspection, I also didn't know there was this thing called an online persona and that my sense of humor (I am always joking) could translate into arrogance on a digital platform. I was pretty much ignorant all around.

I still thank my father to this day for lending me a little office at his clinic to calibrate each SA-2A in a room so small I could only fit myself, 2 units and a computer with an interface. It was a very humble beginning and it's not until this year that I can say we have a proper office and space to work. We moved 8 times in 8 years.

As time has gone by I have invested everything in finding competent people to manage Stam better than I ever could and in developing new engineering. There are many things I have kept secret that I think will come as a big surprise for most on here and I strongly believe will be a game changer in the audio business but that is a different story.

I understand some people will never like me or buy from us again. I have come to terms with it. Sometimes you only get one chance and if you piss people off that's that. It is a shame but it is what is is and the only person to blame is myself.

Anyways, apologies for my extended message. It's good to look back every now and then and remember how we got here. I hope the last lose ends will be fixed this year (like someone waiting on a 660 for 4 years) and there will be a clean start from next one.

Much love to everyone (including those of you that don't like me, it's all good!)

J

Interesting read! I was an early adopter of the SA2a. And you were out of this world helpful with it! Helping me get the right Kinetic T4 cell for it to match the response I needed. It sounds better than a Teletronix.

It's an amazing piece of gear! Lives on bass lately. IYKYK

P.S. I know of other boutique builders having a devil of a time trying to source certain parts for a 660 or 670 build. Most parts are unobtainium.
The choice is wait 3-5 years after ordering, or pay $280,000 and rising. It doesn't take a genius to work out that math.

My Stamchild MK2 was delivered in less than a year after deposit... Two-three weeks after paying the full amount.
Sometimes it works well. I'm sure that they do their absolute best.

All that said, I've just begun using the SA47 as may main mic, and damn, it's got that little something extra that gets called, mojo, magic, vibe, etc. I like mics that have a sound, I don't love perfectly clean and clear. The ELAM 251 has a sound, the original U47 has a sound as does a C-12 or an RCA ribbon mic. Only some new mics have a sound of their own. The whole Soyuz line, the Stam mics and Chandler come to mind. There are some others I haven't tried yet, so forgive me for not including them.

So despite earlier delivery issues, I really feel blessed that Stam was able to hang on long enough to make a mic that has a sound that doesn't bug me so much that I can only think of selling it and trying another one. I've tried some highly respected mics that just bothered me, no matter how "high end" the components were.

That's a brave and honest post you made there Joshua, thanks for that, and good luck with all things Stam.

I see he's now on version 3. Anyone know what the differences are between his various versions? It's a bit tempting.

Here is a quick review of my first Stam experience, the good and the not-so-good.

Just completed my first Stam rodeo with a 33609 Mk2. Sound quality is excellent, with build quality very good as well. Once the unit eventually shipped, it arrived quickly to the USA, and it was VERY well packaged. They make a solid product, and say what you will about anything else Stam-related - they will never be associated with poor product quality.

This will, however, mark my one and only time I pre-purchase anything from Stam. I put down my deposit in May of 2022 with an expected delivery date of December 2022 (which I figured would not happen). I realized it would take longer, and was happy to wait. I randomly would check in every few months via email, and I always received a very prompt and courteous reply, either from Josh or from Ivana.

A few things rubbed me the wrong way during the process, none of which had to do directly with the wait times, and perhaps these are things Stam will rectify in the future. After my initial deposit, I was told in January of 2023 that my unit would be shipping in February, and that Stam also wanted a voluntary secondary $400 deposit for transformers. The cost was to be deducted from the final price, so, there wasn’t any funny business there. I did decline the optional secondary deposit as the unit was already behind schedule, but Stam was totally fine with that decision. There was no pressure.

In early April, I was told my unit was ready to ship (in 20 business days) and that I needed to pay in full, which I promptly did. I figured on a mid-May ship date, at the latest. The unit eventually shipped the first week of August, and very much outside the 20 day window.

Like others have mentioned, I found this practice to be exceedingly discouraging. While Stam was communicative during this time, and informed me that they experienced some delays, I was under the assumption that my unit was basically packaged or at a minimum, it was ~100% built and ready to go. I believe during this time there were B-stock 33609s posted, as well as a custom 33609s posted on social media. Its not a good feeling to see other people get units or have famous clients get custom units when you’ve paid in full and waited your turn, and then waited months after that. This was probably the only time in the process where I felt something didn’t seem “right.” Something clearly didn’t align with what I was told.



I really never thought I would be without my money or my 33609, but the way it unfolded just turned me off to the Stam pre-purchase game. Its unfortunate, because I get what they are trying to do, and understand that there will be delays. But the way which this one played out, for me, means that Stam lost a pre-purchase customer.

I still would have no problem buying anything that was currently in stock, and I would certainly buy used Stam products. But I will not be pre-funding anything anymore. I wish them all the luck in the world, and sincerely hope to do in-stock business with them in the future.

Amen to that! I know when I started out about the best mic I could get was a Rode NT2! I couldn’t even imagine having the tools available today back then, it would’ve made life a lot easier 🤣

87t tube mics with mods shipped super fast! Impressed. Now I just need to open them up and test them as fast as Josh shipped them!

My stam gear sounds absolutely excellent. No compromise sonically. I’ve spent the better part of my career purchasing gear. To get gear that sounds as good as the Stam for the price he sells it for is a gift. There is an expectation today that we can have it quick, affordable, and of good quality. If I had to sacrifice one of those, obviously I’d sacrifice the time. I waited a long time for my mkI Stamchild. It was worth it, period. It competes and often outshines tube compressors that cost me much more. Thanks for the great gear Joshua

Could be wrong, but I think he was referring to the recent (3 months or so ago) 87t mike and 500 series stuff that was in stock when ordered ?

I saw Fb posts from happy clients, pleasantly surprised when the gear did ship as promised !

I've got a different experience with Stam, I bought through a disti or retailer so I've not had to experience the wait times despite being limited in what you can buy. However both the Stam-2A, SA-87 and SA-T69 all developed faults in the first six months. First it was minor things like VU cal, caps, tubes, knobs falling off etc. but now for example the IEC slips out of the SA-69 and only powers on when it feels like it. I've fixed bits on occasion but it's not ideal, you're not a cheap outfit especially through retail.

Don't get me wrong Stam isn't the only boutique dealer I've had issues with (and they were even more expensive) but I've generally found some sort of resolution quickly. The ironic thing is there's good sounding (and sometimes cheap) chinese equipment that I've had a decade plus without any sort of fault. Maybe I've been unlucky but add to the wait times for stuff I want like a Stam SA-800 I'm just not sure if I'm willing to risk it. The Sony C-80 for example is 500 and it will pretty much last me forever, it sounds good too..