esoteric high end gear aka: SSL APi Neve Pultec Sontec Urei

[tonymite]

What do you guys make of this ?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll ... 0229059787

apparnently he does major custom work.

[Ausrock]

OK Tony, I'm going to call you on this......................vojamite/Malkjos is a relation of yours if I recall correctly (possibly a cousin?).

He's also majorly pissed off the Prodigy DIY community due to .........1) a lack of ethics as to where he's sourced his designs and 2) at least in the past, shoddy workmanship, something which has probably not changed.

;-)

[Sammas]

Yeah... They are cousins.

Sadly though, Tonymite's attempt at spam is probably the best executed part of the whole operation. Lets just say, its one skirt you don't want to look under.

[TimS]

Hmmm... sounds like one of these is on order..

[Aearth]

Must think we are dumb folk around here....you lost your credibility with me mate if this is true. Lets please be more upfront around here please...... this is not GS.

nIC

[heathen]

I saw these comps quite a while back now and they looked so dodgy I thought no way.

[Thirteen]

I have seen posts from that guy on Prodigy, not good at all. He tried to blackmail Joe Malone too. I have just reported him to Ebay for keyword spamming, would anybody else care to do the same? Just click on the "Report this item" link at the bottom of the page of his Ebay listing and tick the boxes. Ebay do not allow the mentioning of other items and brands in a listing title to harvest search hits.

[astrovic]

I make of it that I could build one of those GSSL units in less than a day for about a third of the asking price.

Oh wait, I already have. And mine isn't for sale because Gyraf made the design available on the basis that people using it wouldn't offer built units for sale.

[Ausrock]

Unfortunately, there's little that can be done to stop either of these scumbags from continuing their games, as has happened before these comps will turn up again under another Ebay username. There's been a couple of times that I almost thought Tony and Malkjos were one and the same.

[no-fi]

heh.

oops!

[rob]

Baffling....

Taking everything here that others have written at face value ( which is always skating on thin ice )

I think the only mistake Tony made was not to mention straight up that Malkjos was his cousin. If he'd only done that then i couldn't see a problem with Tony's post. Perhaps it should also then been in the for sale section!

Regarding Malkjos' units themselves. Do we know that he is using the pcbs available through the lab?
If he is then i don't understand why he'd go to all the considerable effort with the shmick front panels and artwork and knobs etc etc and not bother to layout out his own pcbs. Eyecandy is one thing, a great piece of electronics is another .... i know only too well how difficult it can be to achieve both in the one product!

If he is laying out his own pcbs then I don't see the problem. He's not the first to use the SSL buss compressor design in a new product. Al Smart was the first of many...gee there are probably more SSL clones out there then any other copied product.

You see the problem is you can't copyright a circuit diagram. But you can copyright a pcb layout. It is this quirk that allows the DIY community to freely copy other peoples work.
It is also why some manufacturers dump their circuits inside a lump of epoxy or rub all the IC part numbers off the ICs...it's an attempt to protect their designs.

If he is using gyraf's pcbs then i can only assume that it would be reasonable for gyraf to stop selling them to him. So if this was the case, maybe these 3 units we see on evilbay or the only ones that Malkjos has and will ever make. This will then die a natural death, unless .... he makes his own pcbs...then good luck to him.

So....has anyone looked inside one of these to see exactly what he is doing?

as to the "thrust" circuit....crikey...it's just a ferking sidechain filter...a great idea, but you think he could at least come up with an original name. I mean there really aren't many people on the planet who can come up with an original electronic design, but any two year old can come up with a name.

baffling...and a bit sad

Rob

[walding]

Yeah... They are cousins.

Sadly though, Tonymite's attempt at spam is probably the best executed part of the whole operation. Lets just say, its one skirt you don't want to look under.

Bad wiring eh :D

[Ausrock]

Rob,

The Malkjos "history" goes back quite some ways at the Prodigy forums and right the way along, Tony seems to have been hand in hand with his cousin.........there's never been any mistakes in his actions!!! Actually, I seem to recall there was an instance of them "knocking off" something of JLM's as well.................must go search Prodigy sometime.

[astrovic]

You see the problem is you can't copyright a circuit diagram. But you can copyright a pcb layout. It is this quirk that allows the DIY community to freely copy other peoples work.
It is also why some manufacturers dump their circuits inside a lump of epoxy or rub all the IC part numbers off the ICs...it's an attempt to protect their designs.

If he is using gyraf's pcbs then i can only assume that it would be reasonable for gyraf to stop selling them to him. So if this was the case, maybe these 3 units we see on evilbay or the only ones that Malkjos has and will ever make. This will then die a natural death, unless .... he makes his own pcbs...then good luck to him.

So....has anyone looked inside one of these to see exactly what he is doing?

Rob, Gyraf doesn't sell PCB's (others on the Lab do), but rather he has made his PCB layout freely available on the proviso that people using it do so solely for non-commercial purposes (ie build a unit for your own use, but don't mass produce them to sell on eBay).

I'd be surprised if Maljkos is buying his PCB's from anyone on the Lab (e.g Gustav). Rather, it's more likely that he takes Gyraf's layout to his local PCB maker, or one of the internet PCB making mobs (like PCB Express) and gets batches of them done that way.

And I doubt anyone has been prepared to pay the 1,100 euros or whatever he's asking for one of these things to open it up and see what is going on. Which does leave room for the possibility that he has come up with his own layout. But the fact that he has recently introduced a thrust filter circuit not long after that addition started making its way around the Lab suggests to me that originality is not his strong suit.

Just my $0.02, and a whole lotta cynicism but notta lotts hard facts.

[David W]

I'm sure the SSL Tech Turbo mod will appear soon.

Actualy now that I think of it the boards may not be purchaced by himself. They may always take a round trip to Macedonia from Australia ;-)

[tonymite]

sorry guys,

I was merely doing a bit of psycholoigal experimenting. I didn't mean to create such a stir ... my-lordie-wordie-yess-indeed ... we have some emotional people out there.

In all honesty ... I couldn't give a flying f*#k about the compressors - I had a spare few minutes trolling the internet and put the link up without even giving it much thought ( probably no thought - as if I did so just as I am now so ... that part called " the mind " might have taken over and overrode the initial impulse ). In order to stop static build up in my system, I had to post it out.

Again ... my most sincerest appologies.

Just don't go increasing cortisol levels too much - it ain't worth it.

[Ausrock]

sorry guys,

I was merely doing a bit of psycholoigal experimenting. I didn't mean to create such a stir ... my-lordie-wordie-yess-indeed ... we have some emotional people out there.

In all honesty ... I couldn't give a flying f*#k about the compressors - I had a spare few minutes trolling the internet and put the link up without even giving it much thought ( probably no thought - as if I did so just as I am now so ... that part called " the mind " might have taken over and overrode the initial impulse ). In order to stop static build up in my system, I had to post it out.

Again ... my most sincerest appologies.

Just don't go increasing cortisol levels too much - it ain't worth it.

ROFLMAO

[tunetown]

Wow.........!!!!!!!!!

[Kris]

Is the ebay seller related to you Tony?

[tonymite]

I think Rob is right on the money!

[rick]

i cannot see the problem here
tony asked what you guys thought about his cousin ..
you have told him and some
lets move along
we are all cyberfriends here right ..?

[Ausrock]

<--------Decides to be wisely silent and wanders off contemplating a sheared crankshaft bolt.

;-)

[Aearth]

Sorry Tony.

nIC

[David W]

Did someone mention John Oram.????

Ooops sory.

Must have been the other most hated audio guy in cyber world :-)

This would be where Fletcher would usualy step in with some inapropriate rant which for some unknown reason cyber junkies tend to love.

[TimS]

Thank goodness this ISNT Gearslutz...

[Chinagraf]

YMMV hehehe

[tonymite]

I love Fletcher

Fletcher's me hero

[Sammas]

Baffling....

Taking everything here that others have written at face value ( which is always skating on thin ice )

I think the only mistake Tony made was not to mention straight up that Malkjos was his cousin. If he'd only done that then i couldn't see a problem with Tony's post. Perhaps it should also then been in the for sale section!

Rob

It is probably even more incriminating to admit you actually know Malkjos.

You can see his handy work... and his fabulous business ethics in this thread @ the lab:

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewto ... 84&start=0

The guy is pathetic...

[Bent my VU]

I can't believe he tried to blackmail JLM Audio

Something I find interesting is that he is selling on US ebay now but wants payment in Oz dollars.......even though he claims to be from Macedonia.

[walding]

Baffling....

Taking everything here that others have written at face value ( which is always skating on thin ice )

I think the only mistake Tony made was not to mention straight up that Malkjos was his cousin. If he'd only done that then i couldn't see a problem with Tony's post. Perhaps it should also then been in the for sale section!

Rob

It is probably even more incriminating to admit you actually know Malkjos.

You can see his handy work... and his fabulous business ethics in this thread @ the lab:

http://www.prodigy-pro.com/forum/viewto ... 84&start=0

The guy is pathetic...

That is disturbing to say the least.

Thanks for that.