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Post by EmRR on Apr 29, 2019 8:28:53 GMT -6
The capsule is the largest variable, hands down. Read Klaus' reissue 67 review again if you haven't. The tube and transformer are pretty big too, with the transformer being the most consistent of the lot, that's a brand identity thing. Note Klaus had no issue whatsoever with the capacitors or resistors, nor even the transformer. capsule capsule capsule.
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Post by Martin John Butler on Apr 29, 2019 9:22:52 GMT -6
Thank you so much Joshua. I never felt any worry because I know you will make things right in the end. I’m sorry to hear of your difficulties with capsule issues, I know that’s one of the more difficult aspects of getting this done. I can feel certain things are very right with the SA67 already, the transient response feels right to me. When I was messing around with various capsules and transformers on a few other mics, the AMI BV series were outstanding, so I know the transformer is a great choice.
Despite the good reputation of Haufe transformers, I found the AMI/ Tab Funkenwerk transformers had much better detail.
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Post by mdmitch2 on Apr 29, 2019 10:06:10 GMT -6
Hi Martin I am happy to fix this for you and I am working on a solution for you. It is definitely a capsule related problem. All other parts have been auditioned to this microphone and they sound identical to the original and you have the original tube. Unfortunately Heiserman is not as consistent as we would hope with capsule manufacturing but I am working on several solutions and will send you a new mic with the best I can do. I even sent some capsules to Neumann experts and they were not impressed to say the lest. Does this mean the SA67 is no close or an identical copy to a U67? No, we can still match it with some secret tweaks and finding the right capsule. We have had over a 50% rejection rate on Heiserman capsules in the past year, either broken, bad frequency response or simply not good enough. I promise you I will send you a new mic and you can return this one to us after you get the other one that I am sure will make you much happier. Thanks Josh This is amusing to say the least — we recently told stam we wouldn’t be selling him any more capsules due to his consistently belligerent and unprofessional behavior. I was hoping he would take the high road and leave it at that, but now it seems he wants to throw us under the bus. It’s funny how just days ago on Gearslutz he was giving full credit to our capsules for the positive comments he received on the SA87, and now suddenly they’re no good at all. Here’s some stam quotes from March 2019: “We use a hand made Heiserman capsules in the US, it's a unique feature of the SA87 and probably the reason why it sounds identical to a Vintage Neumann.“ “You should always ask yourself where the capsule is made and who makes it, that is the ONLY thing you should care about when buying a mic. The rest is all the same, same circuit, same components, etc... etc..” Enough said.... but I will just add that it’s sad that in order to try to insult us, he’s bad mouthing his own mics that are in the possession of hundreds of happy clients. I just want everyone with a Stam mic that has a Heiserman capsule to know that we stand by our capsules and if you have any issues, please contact us directly and we’ll take care of you. And just so you know, we’ve had maybe one (of the hundred of mics shipped) come back to us due to a defective capsule. I’m not going to get into the weeds on this because I think the above speaks for itself, and it’s foolish to argue with someone that talks out of both sides of his mouth.
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 10:06:25 GMT -6
I agree
AMI BV series are the best sounding transformers on the 47 and 67 family!
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Post by Quint on Apr 29, 2019 10:17:31 GMT -6
Well it looks like no more Stam mics with Heiserman capsules will be made going forward.
I guess I need to figure out where to use my 50% discount instead of on the sa67 I had been hoping to use it on. Oh well.
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Post by brenta on Apr 29, 2019 10:32:59 GMT -6
This is getting interesting. One thing that has impressed me with Stam is that despite delays on parts from suppliers they have never outed those companies for their delays even as Stam gets publicly roasted. Part of the bad communication we have all experienced is probably that Josh doesn't want to tell us exactly which parts are causing the hold up with our orders because he doesn't want to burn bridges with his suppliers. Sounds like the Heiserman-Stam bridge has now been thoroughly burned. 50% reject rate on capsules sounds pretty high if that's true.
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 10:45:41 GMT -6
Well it looks like no more Stam mics with Heiserman capsules will be made going forward. I guess I need to figure out where to use my 50% discount instead of on the sa67 I had been hoping to use it on. Oh well. Don't worry We have something better. I can't say anything yet but if things go well you are in for a treat
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 10:53:07 GMT -6
This was brought up by a customer thus I felt I should respond and Martin is right that the problem on his SA67 is the capsule indeed. It is Stam Audio who decided to stop purchasing from your company. Not you. It is very difficult to take the high road and leave things as they are when your company owes me thousands of dollars in faulty returned products and denies me a refund 2 months after safely returning the product because it is a "custom order". I believe you make a good sounding capsule (or used to) when you could get it right. A 50% failure rate on a premium paid price is not acceptable. I am not aware of what changed in your production line but this is not the case anymore.I am happy to post frequency response charts of your previous capsules and current ones to back up our statement. It has caused me thousands of dollars in refunds because over and over and over I could never get a working capsule and my clients have suffered. I have taken the heat for it. I might be late with deliveries, suffer to comply with deadlines but I have never and will never refuse my clients to return their money. Josh
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Post by Martin John Butler on Apr 29, 2019 11:24:36 GMT -6
I realize capsules are a custom order, but I don’t understand why there would be no return or refund if defective.
I don’t pretend to know the inside of gear manufacturing, but it does seem unusual to me.
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Post by mdmitch2 on Apr 29, 2019 11:30:14 GMT -6
It is very difficult to take the high road and leave things as they are when your company owes me thousands of dollars in faulty returned products. I believe you make a good sounding capsule (or used to) when you could get it right. A 50% failure rate on a premium paid price is not acceptable. I might be late with deliveries, suffer to comply with deadlines but I have never and will never refuse my clients to return their money. Josh Since we're being publicly slandered, I feel compelled to defend Heiserman. Josh is mad because he returned 17 D7 capsules a couple months after they were delivered to him -- (among the ones we've tested, they're working perfectly). We offered to repair or replace the capsules at no cost, but Stam insisted on a refund. I'm not sure of any company that would refund custom made products several months after delivery. We've never had any such agreement with him, so we were shocked when he opened a paypal dispute, which he promptly lost... and then he opened another dispute, which he lost again. Simply put, Josh realized that our relationship was deteriorating and he tried to make a last minute cash grab.
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 11:33:43 GMT -6
I realize capsules are a custom order, but I don’t understand why there would be no return or refund if defective. I don’t pretend to know the inside of gear manufacturing, but it does seem unusual to me. Me neither I have made dozens of custom products for clients when I started six years ago If it was faulty I would offer to repair it or a refund. These capsules were returned over 2 months ago and it was completely ignored, I don't have any use for them now so I would think returning the funds is the only option but no, Heiserman has decided to keep the money. Not only that, I recently returned 12 bad HK87 capsules and asked to be sent replacements and they charged be 45 dollars more per capsule. The very same capsules I had already paid in full and shipping both ways.
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 11:42:50 GMT -6
It is very difficult to take the high road and leave things as they are when your company owes me thousands of dollars in faulty returned products. I believe you make a good sounding capsule (or used to) when you could get it right. A 50% failure rate on a premium paid price is not acceptable. I might be late with deliveries, suffer to comply with deadlines but I have never and will never refuse my clients to return their money. Josh Since we're being publicly slandered, I feel compelled to defend Heiserman. Josh is mad because he returned 17 D7 capsules a couple months after they were delivered to him -- (among the ones we've tested, they're working perfectly). We offered to repair or replace the capsules at no cost, but Stam insisted on a refund. I'm not sure of any company that would refund custom made products several months after delivery. We've never had any such agreement with him, so we were shocked when he opened a paypal dispute, which he promptly lost... and then he opened another dispute, which he lost again. Simply put, Josh realized that our relationship was deteriorating and he tried to make a last minute cash grab. This is quite a spin on how things happened. Of course I returned the months after they were delivered. I had to mount and test them one by one, this takes a long time. If you believe those capsule to be working perfectly then it just confirms the poor QC you have in place which explains the high rejection rates. They are all faulty. I don't have this problem with any other capsules provider. It is true that I lost the PayPal dispute. It was mysteriously closed without further investigation. I am still confident we will get our money back one day. For now we will continue our tests to find a better provider and better sounding capsule and I hope one day Eric Heiserman will do the right thing.
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Post by Quint on Apr 29, 2019 11:50:57 GMT -6
I realize capsules are a custom order, but I don’t understand why there would be no return or refund if defective. I don’t pretend to know the inside of gear manufacturing, but it does seem unusual to me. Me neither I have made dozens of custom products for clients when I started six years ago If it was faulty I would offer to repair it or a refund. These capsules were returned over 2 months ago and it was completely ignored, I don't have any use for them now so I would think returning the funds is the only option but no, Heiserman has decided to keep the money. Not only that, I recently returned 12 bad HK87 capsules and asked to be sent replacements and they charged be 45 dollars more per capsule. The very same capsules I had already paid in full and shipping both ways. You don't have any use for those 17 D7 capsules or those 17 D7 capsules that you sent back we're all defective? That sounds like two different scenarios and I was confused as to which one occurred. They were defective or you just didn't need them?
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Post by Quint on Apr 29, 2019 11:52:51 GMT -6
Well it looks like no more Stam mics with Heiserman capsules will be made going forward. I guess I need to figure out where to use my 50% discount instead of on the sa67 I had been hoping to use it on. Oh well. Don't worry We have something better. I can't say anything yet but if things go well you are in for a treat By something better, you mean a SA67 with a different capsule maker or a completely different mic?
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Post by mdmitch2 on Apr 29, 2019 11:53:21 GMT -6
I realize capsules are a custom order, but I don’t understand why there would be no return or refund if defective. I don’t pretend to know the inside of gear manufacturing, but it does seem unusual to me. We always take it with a grain of salt when Stam returns capsules -- more often then not, they have fingerprints, holes, and other damage that occurred after the capsules were in his possession. But it's true that we've had some rejects from time to time. In particular the hk87 capsule is very difficult to manufacture due to the isolated backplates (which is almost certainly why Neumann doesn't make them that way anymore). Probably about 2 years ago, one of the first batches of capsules we sent to Stam had a high reject rate due to issues with this design. We addressed the issue right away and improved the design to reduce failures that had occurred due to excessive vibration during transit to Chile, and since then there's been roughly a 5-10% reject rate... We've always been happy to repair or replace any failed capsules. The idea that there's an overall 50% rejection rate is laughable, and nothing has changed in the sound of the capsules since we started supplying them. If the frequency responses have changed, it's not because of the capsules -- more likely in the methods Stam is using to test his mics. I suspect Josh has found a cheaper capsule supplier and is throwing us under the bus so that when he switches suppliers, he can try to make it out to be a positive change. It's sad, but not unexpected given how he conducts his business.
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 11:58:02 GMT -6
They were defective hence they were returned. We never return functional products, we always have use for them Since we did not get them back we offered to some clients the Thiersch Blue Line as an alternative which sounds just as good.
I would like to say that the D7 made by Dany Bouchard who has partnered with Eric is an excellent capsule and Dany has no involvement on this, despite Eric claiming the opposite.
2 months later Heiserman Audio still has my money and the capsules.
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Post by brenta on Apr 29, 2019 12:04:42 GMT -6
So Heiserman makes the D7 for Dany Bouchard?
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Post by mdmitch2 on Apr 29, 2019 12:05:44 GMT -6
So Heiserman makes the D7 for Dany Bouchard? We've been skinning the D7's for Stam's mics. It's a great sounding capsule!
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 12:07:38 GMT -6
We have actually found a more expensive capsule than yours. People will decide for themselves which one sounds better or like the best. One thing is for sure, they are professional capsule makers that can get things right without a 50% failure rate.
Email from November 2017
Joshua Stam <stamaudio@gmail.com> Nov 3, 2017, 5:15 PM to Eric
"Hi Eric
Please send me an invoice for 25% of 60 D7's so we can get going on that
I will hold the deposit for the 87's until I know what I have or don't at the end of next week with all the capsules I am trying to repair
Out of the new 14 capsules 6 came in bad shape (low gain, noise, etc..), that is almost 50%.... and it is a small batch. This keeps happening.
I rather focus on the positive and see how many I can save now that adding a bit of glue fixes most of them.
Josh"
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 12:16:30 GMT -6
And another one, a month later:
" Joshua Stam <stamaudio@gmail.com> Fri, Dec 1, 2017, 9:16 AM to Heiserman
Hi Matt and Eric
We will need 30 more HK87 capsules
How soon can you deliver them?
The failure rate has been 40-50%, I am returning over 20 bad capsules (bad curve, low gain, noise, etc..)
Please make sure this 30 are tested, glued, curve and up to standards
Thanks"
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Post by geoff738 on Apr 29, 2019 12:22:30 GMT -6
Guys,
we get it.
can you take it to PM or PayPal or however you will try and resolve it?
a public forum doesn’t make either of you look good.
Thanks, Geoff
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 12:28:44 GMT -6
And another one 2 months later
Joshua Stam <stamaudio@gmail.com> Mon, Jan 28, 2:46 PM to Heiserman
By the way
I have tested 22 capsules so far and 9 are bad 40% failure
Also, please do not send me refurbished capsules again
I can tell which have been fixed and they failed again.
I fail to see how this is laughable.
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Apr 29, 2019 12:37:18 GMT -6
Since we're being publicly slandered, I feel compelled to defend Heiserman. Josh is mad because he returned 17 D7 capsules a couple months after they were delivered to him -- (among the ones we've tested, they're working perfectly). We offered to repair or replace the capsules at no cost, but Stam insisted on a refund. I'm not sure of any company that would refund custom made products several months after delivery. We've never had any such agreement with him, so we were shocked when he opened a paypal dispute, which he promptly lost... and then he opened another dispute, which he lost again. Simply put, Josh realized that our relationship was deteriorating and he tried to make a last minute cash grab. This is quite a spin on how things happened. Of course I returned the months after they were delivered. I had to mount and test them one by one, this takes a long time. If you believe those capsule to be working perfectly then it just confirms the poor QC you have in place which explains the high rejection rates. They are all faulty. I don't have this problem with any other capsules provider. It is true that I lost the PayPal dispute. It was mysteriously closed without further investigation. I am still confident we will get our money back one day. For now we will continue our tests to find a better provider and better sounding capsule and I hope one day Eric Heiserman will do the right thing. This is laughable, nobody takes custom OEM components back after 6 months unless it’s written into the contract, welcome to the world of business. If any experienced mic builder or other business was dealing with a supplier of expensive components with a high reject rate they would no to inspect upon receiving. This is why a thing called test rigs exist. Your business practices are as bad form as sharing private emails on a public forum. Even with the assumption that what you are saying about the reject rate of the capsules is true, it’s on you to practice in a responsible way and this ain’t it.
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Post by mdmitch2 on Apr 29, 2019 12:39:59 GMT -6
Guys, we get it. can you take it to PM or PayPal or however you will try and resolve it? a public forum doesn’t make either of you look good. Thanks, Geoff Agree completely -- just hard to ignore when someone is making slanderous statements that potentially affect our business. I'm going to leave it alone though -- I think most people know Stam's history well enough that I don't need to waste anymore time defending against ridiculous and unfounded claims.
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Post by stam on Apr 29, 2019 12:42:06 GMT -6
Guys, we get it. can you take it to PM or PayPal or however you will try and resolve it? a public forum doesn’t make either of you look good. Thanks, Geoff One of the problems has been that keeping it private hasn't solved anything and that publically it's us that ultimitaley gets blamed for delays on this mics.
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