The Upgrade Company

Kal Rubinson

Well-Known Member
May 4, 2010
2,360
697
1,700
NYC
www.stereophile.com
David was fired as a customer for being rude, breaking all the rules, trying to solder on his own player, playing it with the top cover removed, voiding the warranty etc.
Fired as a customer.....? That is one of the most eccentric statements I have heard in a long time.
 
I'm on a proxy sever because I do U.S. Defense level classified work. The U.S. Gov't takes security very seriously.
I cannot divulge details so don't ask....

For some it's hard to believe our claims without witnessing the A-B comparisons live. Since we do not advertse, our business is generated by word of mouth referrals and by those who understand the value of testimonials and our 100% Buy Back Gaurantee.
 
Last edited:

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I'm on a proxy sever because I do U.S. Defense level classified work.


Hmm I thought Amir was responding to member "Ben" in his post.

David, all of us are awaiting your response to Amir's post #79. You have also chosen to ignore my simple question as to your background more so now inasmuch as you now state that you do U.S. Defense level classified work :confused:
 

RUR

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
647
3
0
SoCal
The "blue goop" you refer to damages nothing. It is designed to be applied to circuit boards....It's called AVM fliud.

It's really more of an EMI/RFI absorber then a vibration dampening compound......
I can find no mention on the Anti Vibration Magic (AVM) website which claims any EMI/RFI properties.

Purpose To dampen and absorb undesirable and harmful mechanical vibrations, which generate audible or visible Microphonic distortions in any high-end audio, or video system.
http://www.antivibrationmagic.ca/index.php?page=about

On another page, properties and benefits are listed as follows:

* to dampen undesirable mechanical vibrations in audio equipments (sic), which generate audible microphonic distortions harmful to the sound quality of any high-end sound system
*Video quality also greatly improved
*Sound Greatly improved in terms of musicality, refinement, and nuance, transient clarity, inter-transient silence, "black" sonic background, precise extended sound staging, solid three dim-ensional (sic) imaging, vital pacek, thythm, and timing, powerful dynamic contrasts, absence of aggressiveness or fatiguing "hot" sound quality.
http://www.antivibrationmagic.ca/index.php

Surely, if there were an additional EMI/RFI benefit, the manufacturer would add it to the list of incredible properties shown above.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
For others who have either a higher IQ or more money

this is almost as eccentric a statement as your "fired as a customer " statement........

Personally, David I don't know of you or your company but even if I were remotely interested in modding one of my components (and I do have both the money and the IQ) in all honesty your arrogance and demeaning style would make me think twice about ever doing business with you even if all of your claims are accurate

Just my simple $0.02 of course ;)
 
Steve, I am an inventor as well as owner of The Upgrade Company. Some of my inventons are nuclear. You will not be able to look anything up on them. I cannot go into more detail. On a consumer level, we're working directly with defense contractors to manufacture a brand new type of electricity generator. The design is totally cutting edge and being patented world wide right now. The first prototype has been CAD/CAM designed and is now being machined, other parts are being cast. The design converts Helium 3 gas directly to electricity in a small unit the size of a shoebox. It's cutting edge technology that will change the world once we have it fine tuned and into production. This small device will put out enough electricity to power a car or house. Not science fiction at all. Lookup Helium 3 fusion on Wikipedia. 3 grams of Helium-3 can directly convert to 456 megawatts of electricity with no emission, very little heat, safely. All someone had to do is figure out a way to get it hot enough. That's all I can tell you at this time.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Steve, I am an inventor as well as owner of The Upgrade Company. Some of my inventons are nuclear. You will not be able to look anything up on them. I cannot go into more detail. On a consumer level, we're working directly with defense contractors to manufacture a brand new type of electricity generator. The design is totally cutting edge and being patented world wide right now. The first prototype has been CAD/CAM designed and is now being machined, other parts are being cast. The design converts Helium 3 gas directly to electricity in a small unit the size of a shoebox. It's cutting edge technology that will change the world once we have it fine tuned and into production. This small device will put out enough electricity to power a car or house. Not science fiction at all. Lookup Helium 3 fusion on Wikipedia. 3 grams of Helium-3 can directly convert to 456 megawatts of electricity with no emission, very little heat, safely. All someone had to do is figure out a way to get it hot enough. That's all I can tell you at this time.

all very fascinating ....good luck in your endeavors
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
BTW David I have no problems with your claims of being an inventor. This for me should involve brains and an entrepreneurial attitude. I am certain that you probably have both but surely to goodness you must understand that your comments such as the ones you have made show you more as arrogant and demeaning. This IMO serves no purpose other than to give my readers a dim view of you and your business.

As to the science now, Amir has asked you a question about HDMI and video which for me goes to the heart of some of your proclaimed results. A simple answer to his question in post #79 would be helpful for me and others to understand your claims
 

RUR

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
647
3
0
SoCal
The Upgrade Company has a long very positive history of honoring the warranty. Once a unit is upgraded, we warranty it. The unit must come back to us, not to the "For Profit" manufacturer who will simply swap in a stock circuit board full of low-cost generic parts and no shielding.
During the AVS thread, MacIntosh advised me via email (when pointed to your website) that they categorically would not honor their warranty on your modified product i.e. anyone who purchased one of the units advertised on your site would have no recourse but to send it back to you for repair. I wouldn't be surprised if other manufacturers took the same position.

You keep using "for profit" as a seemingly pejorative descriptor of CE's, yet you've not responded to my question in post #45.
 

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member
Apr 25, 2010
7,006
512
1,740
Snohomish, WA
www.pugetsoundstudios.com
The Upgrade Company has a long very positive history of honoring the warranty. Once a unit is upgraded, we warranty it. The unit must come back to us, not to the "For Profit" manufacturer who will simply swap in a stock circuit board full of low-cost generic parts and no shielding.

You're in the wrong business David. You should have been a politician. I love how you skirt the issues!
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
The Upgrade Company has a long very positive history of honoring the warranty. Once a unit is upgraded, we warranty it. The unit must come back to us, not to the "For Profit" manufacturer who will simply swap in a stock circuit board full of low-cost generic parts and no shielding.
So I ask again. My SoC is shot in my Oppo player you modify. How do you diagnose and source that part?
 

preale

Well-Known Member
Feb 27, 2011
14
0
76
81
Southern California
www.minotaurz.com
Although I was a bit player in this drama, I sure am enjoying the show as a member of the audience. I would have to pay $5.99 and find a good movie on my satellite provider to get this much entertainment. The appearance of modders in the last ten years or so makes sense when you think you could buy a $5000 turntable and keep it for your whole life. I plan on keeping my McIntosh MR78 tuner forever. However, in the world of digital haze, you can spend $50,000 and that money is "lost" when the new model comes out six months later. I remember spending $25000 on an SGI Indigo 2 computer as part of software development on the unix platform. Today these machines can be had for $$25.00. One of the recent posts suggested that upgrading "vintage equipment" might make sense. In the digital universe, anything 2 years old or more might as well be 20 years old. One last thing: good tweaks are often expensive. I beta tested the $4200 Bybee Golden Goddess speaker bullets and found them to be terrific: would I spend four grand for them? Maybe, if I were Kobe Bryant getting $60,000,000. Look at the low original prices of the old Marantz and McIntosh equipment from the 60's: this stuff is still musical, and with a little modding, competitive. As part of my park, I have a computer museum (site is online), and I have been constantly amazed how the old computers seemed to be built to work for decades, which made refurbishing them a snap. We are now living in a disposable culture, and even in the world of high end audio it is OK to design a $100,000 boat anchor.
 
You're still attempting to find fault with us in any way you can. We're A+ BBB rated and growing.

Nothing to find fault with, the upgrades are phenomenal.

The Nationwide Better Business Bureau alogorythm has rated us higher then any manufacturer or other modification firm. That says it all!

You've simply got to witness an A-B comparison to check out our upgrades. Talking won't solve your lack of understanding.

That's really all there is to it. Nothing to lose with our 100% Buy Back Gaurantee.
 

amirm

Banned
Apr 2, 2010
15,813
37
0
Seattle, WA
I'm on a proxy sever because I do U.S. Defense level classified work.
Well, please take "classified" work elsewhere. I looked up your information and it matches that of Bob. And that of another user. For someone doing classified work, your knowledge of computer systems is exceptionally limited.

You are currently violating TOS #14: http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?1207-Terms-Of-Service

We will huddle to see what action we want to take regrading this violation. I strongly suggest that your next posts be very informative as anything else, is going to not leave us any reason to have you stay around much longer.
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
I have noticed the same Amir when verifying IP addresses

As for claims of Helium3 I have noticed that little lies on earth and most on the moon

Well, please take "classified" work elsewhere. I looked up your information and it matches that of Bob. And that of another user. For someone doing classified work, your knowledge of computer systems is exceptionally limited.

You are currently violating TOS #14: http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?1207-Terms-Of-Service

We will huddle to see what action we want to take regrading this violation. I strongly suggest that your next posts be very informative as anything else, is going to not leave us any reason to have you stay around much longer.
 

vinylphilemag

WBF Founding Member
Apr 30, 2010
810
1
328
56
Kelowna, BC
www.vinylphilemag.com
The unit must come back to us, not to the "For Profit" manufacturer who will simply swap in a stock circuit board full of low-cost generic parts and no shielding.

Your use of "For Profit" in quotation marks, and the context in which you use it, implies that the OEMs deliberately cut corners to make more profit. Yet you have said several times that The Upgrade Company is profitable; does this not mean that TUC is one of those "For Profit" companies?

BTW, and I admit my biases are showing here, but I find it hard to believe that any digital player will best a well set up Clearaudio Master turntable, regardless of how the former was modified or even if it was blessed by the Pope.
 

audioguy

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
2,794
73
1,635
Near Atlanta, GA but not too near!
Amazing. He will not answer any direct questions, even after repeated requests, the answer to which would apparently give away the fact that maybe, just maybe, he has no clue?

Every request for response is answered by "our BBB rating is the best" or "we have a guarantee".

He continues to dig the hole deeper ( but apparently he will fill it with helium:confused:)

What a joke!
 

Steve Williams

Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Amazing. He will not answer any direct questions, even after repeated requests, the answer to which would apparently give away the fact that maybe, just maybe, he has no clue?

Every request for response is answered by "our BBB rating is the best" or "we have a guarantee".

He continues to dig the hole deeper ( but apparently he will fill it with helium:confused:)

What a joke!

as the saying goes, "open mouth, insert foot"
 

About us

  • What’s Best Forum is THE forum for high end audio, product reviews, advice and sharing experiences on the best of everything else. This is THE place where audiophiles and audio companies discuss vintage, contemporary and new audio products, music servers, music streamers, computer audio, digital-to-analog converters, turntables, phono stages, cartridges, reel-to-reel tape machines, speakers, headphones and tube and solid-state amplification. Founded in 2010 What’s Best Forum invites intelligent and courteous people of all interests and backgrounds to describe and discuss the best of everything. From beginners to life-long hobbyists to industry professionals, we enjoy learning about new things and meeting new people, and participating in spirited debates.

Quick Navigation

User Menu

Steve Williams
Site Founder | Site Owner | Administrator
Ron Resnick
Site Co-Owner | Administrator
Julian (The Fixer)
Website Build | Marketing Managersing