WARNING:

Steven may assemble a good Amplifier but I got a lemon.

I purchased the Draco 4 channel amp paid about $700.

I hooked it up and the CRACKING and POPPING almost blew a new set of Dynaudio’s 342

I turned the volume all the way down and tried again and again it POPPED.

I called Zed audio (Steven) he said to send it back so I did. It cost about $ $20

He told me when he got it back that there was only a slight modification that needed to be made and a few of them got out with the problem.  So he knew there was an issue and I still had to pay shipping.

So I waited and finally got it back again.  When I hooked it up it went straight to a fault and would not power up.  The Zed symbol just flashed.  I WAS PISSED!!!!

So I sent it back again for a refund.  He said that the feet or the brackets were not in there. I remember them making a noise in the box before I shipped it back thinking I should have taped them to the amp. So I waited and waited finally he said that the amp tested good when he tested it at some other facility.  So I waited for a refund for about 5 months I sent several e mails and made several calls. Finally the check came and he took $109 out for the lost feet.  I am leaving out many details but bottom line is I had a very bad experience with them and would not recommend them to anyone.

I am glad I finally got the check I thought I was out the $700 so I am grateful to Them for finally giving me back most of my Money BUT THE QUALITY CONTROLL SUCKS AND IT COST ME MONEY AND TIME AND FRUSTARATION!!!

Nick, lol, first off, you need to think before you shoot your mouth off, you have the manners of a goat,   pun intented, first examine your skills, do you know how to wire an amp? especially zed audio amps?

i believe you dont, and somewhere along the line you made an error on your installation. many say they know how to wire amps. do they? lets go back to the 80's and 90's as a matter of fact i wont even bother explaining myself to you about a man who brought life to the car audio world, i suggest you do some research on Zed audio amp's. start with the series 7 and series 8 amps. named hifonics.

here is a list, hifonics colossus, hifonics zeus, hifonics boltar (i have 2 of them) hifonics gemini, hifonics vulcan, hifonics pluto, hifonics aphrodite, hifonics cyclops, hifonics hurcules, i can go on, if you are to lazy to even do a research, go onto ebay and look at people selling his old amps, here is an example:

HERE WE HAVE A HIFONICS ZEUS YOU KNOW WHAT THE AMPS CAN DO. NEED I SAY NO MORE.  HAPPY BIDDING EVERYONE. not a whole lot of info right? because those who know zed audio dont need the info, and would sell in a heartbeat. listen no one is perfect, if Steve had screwed up, he woudnt screw you, Steve is a great man, polite, professional, great to talk to. as a matter of fact im purchasing 2 of his new amps, and sending my old hifonics gemini to him for an upgrade, in your case go buy the new hifonics amps made today (not by Stephen) you will love them, (not) you wont find anything cleaner then his amps, even his old amps are crystal clean. if you have any class,i dont know to what great of a despute you had with him, i believe you owe this man an appology, stand up be a man, do the right thing. AMEN!!  

I Chris of Saint Petersburg Florida have a "Minilith" and "The Deuce" that are awsome amplifiers...now with the 1 ohm situation of the minilith...who wants to really run their amplifier at 1 ohm anyways...2 ohms is the lowest I will ever go and I resectfully always liketo go with a 4 ohm load for SQ ...either way I do understand that since it is supposed to run at 1 ohm and some people expect that...either way the amplifiers (for home and car audio) have so many years of experiance behind them and his new leviathan and kronos just look so nice and have sooo many bells and whistles on them...now for my experiance..I have owned so many form the hifonics line to the US Acoustics, Planet Audio, ESX, Autotek, Lanzar, Alphasonik and others and always had awsome experiances with all of them unless I recieved them after an idot ran them in a wrong ohm load or something of the sort.

I just recently have sent my Minilith off to Steve b/c there was a handfull (now a handfull is not alot compared to how many were produced) that had a humming when in operation and this is the second time that it has been sent off b/c a nieghbor of mine bough both the deuce and minilith and he origonaly sent the minilith off the first time for the same reason and Mantz is looking into it for me and I know for his experiance since he just seems like a down to earth person...I know the Minilith will come back ok and not damaged and since it is a problem that is known of then I am sure it will be free of charge...if not I will update but I am sure it will be. Now for the Deuce...it as and will always work just fine..I am sure of it and am looking into getting the Leviathan and a Kronos for my wifes car...hopefully very soon once I see how the Minilith turns out....but if everyone gets a chance you should google "Steve Mantz Bio" and read about his past and you will see what knowledge he has in this field and I know for a fact of owning all of the zed amps I do and have owned in the past that he is one if not the best guy still making amplifiers still here in the USA...

Chris 

St.Petersburg, Florida

Zed Audio, The Best In The Business, PERIOD!! im 43 years old been a high end installer since 1987 , my first amps was the rockford fosgate punch 75 and 150 first gen , man was i impressed , thought the were the best i ran them for a year and a half , well i moved from ohio to nashville tenn , went to a local stereo shop and the owner set me in his truck and i seen these hifonics amps , never seen or heard of them before , i told him rockford was the best and he laughed , he played his system for me and i tell you first note i thought i was shot scared the s**+!!!!! out of me . man was i wrong i gave my rockford amps away and bought a hifonics zues and a gemini and four rockford fosgate spp pro 12s i got my install done i won 38 spl events before i got beat i hit 151.9 in 1989 , i beat the temple of boom he had 4- ppi 2300s and 16- 12s , i had 4 -12s and a zues ,he was no match for me!!! he has repaired a few amps for me that i bought off ebey that was doa he was very fair on the price and did an incredible job one amp didnt have any mounting feet he gave me some. steve you are the man , i ran nothing bud zed amps since 1989 they are tanks ill always be a old school amp guy , however his new amps reviews in car stereo mag was very impressive and i cant wait to own one with the burr brown I LOVE YOUR AMPS THEY ARE THE BEST THANKS JEFF washington court house, Ohio usa

nick, i can't beleive you wrote all of this, do you know who your talking about here? Steve Mantz is a god in the car audio world. you dont get the title "the man" easily. Steve did design and build your old harmon and kardon amps. he designed and built a wide assortment of the TOP brand names you could get for many many years.get a clue dude. ever heard of hifonics? they are not made by him now, but who do you sopose made them an every day name in car audio. Steve. planet audio. Steve. Autotek. Steve. Rodek. Steve. Alphasonik. Steve. ESX. Steve. Crunch. Steve. Nakamichi. Steve. and US Acoustics. Steve. thats ten of the best brands there have ever and will ever be. these old amps are not just the best, they are still to this day the most sought after amps ever produced. i actually collect the hifonics viii line and these amps are tanks. you practucally cannot break them. for you to say that the zed made (Steve "the man" Mantz) amps do not perform as well as advertized is just rediculous. if anything at all they perform better than advertized. Steven has never never over rated his products. actually its quite the other way around. his products have ALWAYS been grously under rated. Quote "I know a good bit about installing these types of units so I did it all myself." well how much do you really know about it? its not like hooking up the stereo in your moms living room man.you can't assume that you have hooked up a few surround systems and now you know every thing. car audio is nothing the same , its kind of complex. it not + + - - usually. do you know what an ohm is? Quote "After I got my refund through the credit card company I bought a nice set of Sony ES amps." the only thing i can do here is laugh..REALLY HARD... did you say nice sony amps....omg i give up try visiting the sounddomain forum , ask how good your sony amps aren't... this has got to be a joke steve. i think it is an ad plug from sony....no way he just said nice and sony in the same story, much less same sentence. keep doing what you have been doin for the past 40 years steve...you still are "the man" ZED AUDIO IS THE BEST MADE...

Gary Mc here. I visited your facility about five years ago primarily because I wanted to meet the audio legend that was responsible for so many hours of audio bliss I enjoyed in my younger years. I have several of your amps currently running in two trucks. I believe I am still listed in your testimonial section sharing my reaction after the install of my first system with your current generation of amps. I haven't visited your website in a long while for the simple reasons that I have been focusing on my own business and my amps haven't skipped a beat. The point of this e-mail is that when I did a search for your current web address, the first link that showed up was a ripoff report posting about you personally, and your amps. As someone that has had numerous old school amps repaired by you, and someone that continues to run your products with complete satisfaction, I can only say that anyone with a computer can crucify whomever they choose. From my experience, you and your staff, are top notch and beyond reproach. I don't understand how someone can blame you for heatsink damage after repairs. I have personally seen your repair results and your facilities. Just reading the posting leads me to believe that the complainant was, and is, inept at stereo installation. Manufacturing defects may have existed. I don't know, but I seriously doubt it. I saw first hand how you bench test EVERY amp before it gets shipped. What is obvious is that his installation methods were sloppy at best (can you say undersized power and ground wiring?) Butchery is propably more accurate. I have installed and used virtually every brand of car audio amplifier on the planet. I have dealt with the best and the worst in customer service. Zed Audio is, and remains in my mind, the best I know of in both areas. Nothing and no-one compares. Best regards Steve, and obviously, feel free to post this wherever you like. (((ROR redacted))) CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

ZED AUDIO CORPORATION 759 Cochran Street A & B, Simi Valley, CA 93065 Telephone (805) 526-5315 Fax (805) 526-8572 e-mail [email protected] Website at www.zedaudio.com From: Stephen Date: capernicus Junior Member Registered: Aug 2005 Posts: 6 First off I want to say that the Zed amps sounded good when they worked but were too big.Then why did you buy them in the first place? I had 2 Miniliths (one didnt work at all) and I had a Draconia with Burr Brown upgrade. The words I am about to say are all true. Prove it! I want people to know what my experience was with Zed Audio so they can form there own idea about buying from them or not. To my knowledge I belive Spelling error this is USA Really! where my words can be spoken or typed freely. If Zed has a problem with my post they can reply. And I am With that here is my Post. What do you people think about this? I bought a couple of there Minilith Great English amps found on Zeds website. They are rated at 600x1 in 1 ohm mono or 400x1. I had one Minilith connected to a 1 ohm subwoofer and it got so freakin hot it burnt the carpet around it! Mmm! That is funny since the thermal cut out is set at 70-75 degrees C and at this temperature carpets in a car cannot burn. The other never even worked. Funny when you returned it, it worked just fine, banged up a bit but electronically OK. Keep in mind that a professional installed this equipment. I sent them both back for warranty repair. They were fixed Only one was repaired as the other worked fine. but was returned all scratched! Yeah right on, we have a special workbench at the factory fitted with coarse sand paper, big hammers and wire brushes and before we send amplifiers to our customers we give them a workout on this bench making sure that we ding and scratch them. Amplifiers returned for repair we give a special workout with deluxe scratches and dings. week later I got a notice from Zed kinda like a recall letter about there Miniliths More fine English grammer getting way to hot at the 1 ohm. The letter suggested that we the buyers of Miniliths not use it in 1 ohm cause it would get too hot. They said it got like 5 times hotter I actually wrote 3 times not 5. Read my letter carefully than a 2 ohm load! They opologized Spelling issues and said they didnt realize this when they made the amp. Well, now I was almost forced to either buy a new subwoofer to use this amp in a 2 ohm setup and loose 200 watts or just try and resale it for alot cheaper! Great grammer here! I contacted Zed Audio about this problem with the Miniliths and requested a refund. I waited a week to get a response where as it only took 2 hours to get a response when i bought them. Zed Audio gave me as much run around as possible before they decided to let me send the 2 miniliths back. I then requested to send the Draconia back cause I was scared it might burn up my carpet also. The response was just a simple, "send them all back" They were nice enough to let me return them way after the 30 day return period Wow thanks for the kind words which was great but I wasnt returning them cause I didnt simply want them. I wanted a refund cause I was scared to have them! They also (in my opinion) falsely adverstised Spelling issues again the Minilith as a 600x1 amp. It seemed to me that they didnt fully test there amps before selling them to the public. Funny how some people know everything and sneak into our factory to watch our test procedures. When they saw people returning there minilith for warranty fixes Again this guy was spying on us and counting all returned amplifiersdue to overheating Wow you even know what faults the amplifiers have at 1 ohm loads they did tests of there own and sent out leters Tut tut spelling. to owners of the Minilith cause they found a problem they over looked. I didnt want there products in my car. I sent all the amps back. They recieve This is the last time I shall point out grammer or spelling errors the amps back and I waited for my refund. Weeks pass and no refund. No response to emails either. I replied to each of your emails. Eventually I got a email saying they will give me a refund (wouldnt telling me how much it would be) saying they will send a refund check minus a bunch of small charges! A few charges were for fuses not returned with the amp Where are the fuses and holders for the Draconia and the non working Minilith, how did they blow fuses? (which were already blown due to failure at 1 ohm) and plastic bags that I had to rip open to get the amp Well everyone has to rip open the plastic bags to get the amplifiers out duh the out were not included when I returnded the amps. Also I was charged for the replacment of the parts that they scratched See my earlier comment on how we scratch amps before shipment. when the amps were fixed under warranty. Oh and I got a couple free amps in seperate box. I didnt return those gift boxes so they decided to charge me for them as well. Read the terms of our return policy The total of parts they suppossedly and we did had to replace was almost as much as one amp! I ended up calling my credit card company and disputing the charges on all the amps. I got my refund back through the credit card company. I didnt take the refund Zed offered which was rediculous. Now, lets look at the refund policy that Zed includes with all there amps. It says 30 days. Also says something like if I send the amp back minus manual and stuff then the price for those parts will be deducted from the refund. I understood all that. But they agreed to give me a refund BEYOND the 30 days and didnt say anything about these extra charges. I sent you two emails and even copied and pasted the 30 day return policy in the first. They led me to belive Really! Then learn to read that if I send the amps back I would get a 100% refund Never offered a 100% refund I was always clear about our policy and I offered a refund after the 30 day money back period. because all the email said was "Send them all back" If this was within a 30 day guarantee? I can understand these charges. Well AFTER the 30 day I was not obliged to accept them back, makes sense does it not? But they went OVER and BEYOND that policy (There words in emails) and changed it just for me. I expected more customer service and better hospitality than this. Instead I got ripped! At least my Credit Card company helped me and ageed that I deserved my money back. What do you all think about this? Well Nathan you then made out like a bandit did you not? You got my refund cheque, cashed it, and all you money back from the CC company 09-26-2005 07:31 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged slickone Senior Member Registered: Nov 2000 Posts: 626 sounds to me that it was a bad experience. sorry although they did agree to refund them and let you send them back. reasons for credits were bogus to me in your side of the story, but they could have just said your sol too. did you contact him after the deductions to explain your side of the story? I can understand it somewhat if he didnt know, but for plastic bags and fuses to me is kinda petty Never charged for plastic bags only charged for damaged feet, no boxes and damaged heat sink and fuse holders 09-26-2005 08:35 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged capernicus Junior Member Registered: Aug 2005 Posts: 6 Oh yes I replied to all the emails. I asked about the petty charges and all they said was I was lucky I even got a refund at all! THIS IS A FLAT OUT LIE They kept quoting there return policy but they already said they went over and beyond it so the original policy YES WE DID was voided! They could have at least told me I was gonna be charged for the petty stuff before I sent the amps back but all they told me was send them all back! Seems they screwed up on the design of the Minilith and tried to get away with just a sorry in the letter without any partial refund or credit toward something else. YOU ASKED FOR US TO ACCEPT ALL THREE AMPLIFIERS BACK After All I paid money for a 600 watt amp. From what the letter says I can only use it at 400 watts! So what kind of credit to I get? A large $150 charge for returning the amps is what I got. Rediculous! 09-26-2005 09:39 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged Mr. Moleman Senior Member Registered: Jun 2004 Posts: 288 I think I heard something about this. Wasn't the issue because some subs have lower in impedance so if it went into 0.8 ohms or something it would cause this issue? I agree that it sounds like kind of a bad expierience but how was the Draconia with BB upgrade I am thinking of getting one. Did it sound nice? 09-26-2005 10:30 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged 3.5max6spd Ultimate Member Registered: Aug 2004 Posts: 1765 wow... __________________ CD8455*ARC XXK4150*XXK2500*XXK2500*Rainbow Cal27s*Peerless 2"domes* Morel H8.1's*Soundstream R-12SQ's 09-26-2005 10:34 PM Profile | Email | WWW | Edit | Quote IP: Logged capernicus Junior Member Registered: Aug 2005 Posts: 6 The thing about this is that when I buy a speaker, any speaker, I look at the wattage and impedance most of all. When the manual or box the speaker came with says 2 ohm, 1 ohm or whatever then I believe it! I dont have thousands of dollars worth of equipment to test each speaker to see if it will play at .8 ohms rather than 1 ohms! This amp should play at 1 ohm with NO problems. Unfortunately Zed made a mistake somewhere and they expected me to just look the other way. Hell no. Homey dont play dat! After I got my refund through the credit card company I bought a nice set of Sony ES amps. The old school XM-5046 and XM-3546. They play great with NO problems with the same speakers and same ohm loads. Why cant this Minilith do it especially when it is advertised to do so? The Draconia was a really nice sounding amp. But I had problems with ground noise NONESENSE BECAUSE THE PREAMPLIFIER HAS A FULLY FLOATING POWER SUPPLY SO GROUND LOOPS CANNOT OCCUR UNLESS YOUR PROFERSSIONAL INSTALLER GROUNDED THE RCA PLUGS TO THE CHASSIS OF THE CAR AT THE AMPLIFIER LOCATION. even after I removed all components trying to find the problem. The Sony Es amps I have connected now have NO noise and no ground noise at all. Although the Draconia was louder than the XM-3546 the Sony amp sounds better. GOODY GOODY The Draconia doesnt have a delay REALLY when it turned on and off HOW CAN IT HAVE A TURN ON DELAY WHEN IT TURNS OFF? because it caused popping noises through the speakers. Weird thing is when I turned it off it popped like 3 times each getting lower in volume and mostly in the right rear speaker. Needless to say I wont be buying anything from Zed again. GOOD And Stephan was not so wonderful through emails when I had warranty issues and wanted to get a refund. Miraculously he was like my best friend when I bought all these amps! Odd isnt it? YEAH RIGHT WE WENT TO THE MOVIES TOGETHER AND DOUBLE DATED 09-26-2005 11:34 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged fouarge Member Registered: Nov 2002 Posts: 240 Just FYI, I have 2 miniliths and 2 dracs. Currently I just have 1 drac(as I just pulled the other one this weekend) and 1 minilith installed on an idmax d2 wired to 4ohm which actually measured a little under 3ohms when I measured with my limited equipment. quote: ________________________________________ The Draconia doesnt have a delay when it turned on and off because it caused popping noises through the speakers. ________________________________________ Yes the drac does have some sort of built in time delay when turning off and on, YOU SEE MR. SLOANE THEY REALLY DO HAVE TURN ON DELAYS! same with the mini. From measuring voltages and such when trying to solve my problem with one of my dracs. quote: ________________________________________ Weird thing is when I turned it off it popped like 3 times each getting lower in volume and mostly in the right rear speaker. ________________________________________ Was this channel 3 on the drac? Cause I have the same problem, with one of my two dracs. Though it only happens when I start the car and drive around a bit(so the amp gets more than 12v). Sounds great at 12v and has no turn off/on noise at 12v. THE AMPLIFIER DOES NOT CARE IF IT HAS 12 OR 14 VOLTS AS FAR AS TURN ON/OFF NOISES ARE CONCERNED UNPLUG ALL RCA PLUGS FROM THE DRACONIA AND REPEAT THE TEST FOR NOISES. IF THEERE ARE NO NOISES IT IS NOT THE AMPLIFIER. IF THE NOISE PERSISTS, THEN ZED WILL TAKE CAR OF IT. THIS IS THE FIRST I HAVE HEARD. From what I have researched we are the only two people that have seen this issue. I have very little doubt as soon as I contact Zed about my issue they will take care AND IT WILL of it quickly. I will of course update this thread with my experience. 09-27-2005 12:05 AM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged sponger Ultimate Member Registered: Oct 2002 Posts: 4614 I don't want to join the zed bashing bandwagon, but I did have a less than desirable experience after purchasing a refurbed usx 2080 from zed a couple of years ago. When first installed, there was a very audible power supply noise that zed immediately fixed after I had sent it back to them. Well, a couple of months later, I decided to bridge it to a sub and see what that advertised 24db/octave low-pass could do. It didn't do anything. I contemplated sending it back, but I figured "there are too many highs in my lows" was too subjective of an argument. It's not like I'm some kind of expert on the effects of varying slopes on a signal. But, I've never had such a problem with a low-pass on any other amp, and I concluded that I should've known better than to expect a true 4th order slope from an amp costing me $45. THEN WHY ARE YOU JOINING IT? 09-27-2005 12:13 AM Profile | Email | WWW | Edit | Quote IP: Logged capernicus Junior Member Registered: Aug 2005 Posts: 6 Yes! the 3rd channel was the one popping like crazy when I would turn it off. They all kinda did it but that channel was the worst. Adn like you said, the amp sounded great when it was on after a while. But the ground noise was horrible. I only had a chance tolisten to it real good without road noise when the car was off. Good luck fixing it. And the Minilith can handle 3 ohms no problem. Its 1 ohm that I was worried about. Also I want to say that this wasnt meant to be a Zed Audio Bashing post. YOU COULD HAVE FOOLED ME All I am trying to do is post my experience with there products, let you people formulate your own opinion from what I post and learn from my experiences with this company. I would however like people who have had or currently have problems with Miniliths and any other Zed Audio product to come forward with there story so we can maybe get some kind of picture as to what is going on with this company and figure out if its the manufacturing or personnel that is causing such a problem with there products. After just a few posts I can see there is definitely a trend with the Draconia's popping. No doubt the Minilith is problematic just by reading the letter I got and was also by reading Mr. Molemans' post that he too has heard about it being problematic. Id also like to know if they sale d**n GRAMMER AGAIN ANY good products? What is the model? What year was it made. It would make me feel a little better to know that this batch of products they made recently is NOT typical of what they usually produce. 09-27-2005 12:30 AM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged chadillac3 Ultimate Member Registered: Jul 2000 Posts: 5041 Hmm, maybe there's more than just ugly cosmetics that's driving the lack of popularity for these amps. kinda surprising considering pricing really isn't that great with them being factory direct. Registered: Aug 2004 Posts: 1765 I wish people would've not waited until now to put these issues out there. there are others anxiously awaiting new product. If they couldn't get these simple designs unflawed, i'm curious to see how the bigger projects will fare.. __________________ CD8455*ARC XXK4150*XXK2500*XXK2500*Rainbow Cal27s*Peerless 2"domes* Morel H8.1's*Soundstream R-12SQ's 09-27-2005 02:00 PM Profile | Email | WWW | Edit | Quote IP: Logged BryanH69 Junior Member Registered: Sep 2004 Posts: 31 Glad I went with the monitor1 stuff instead. 09-27-2005 02:49 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged stangme01 Ultimate Member Registered: Aug 2003 Posts: 2995 quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by 3.5max6spd I wish people would've not waited until now to put these issues out there. there are others anxiously awaiting new product. If they couldn't get these simple designs unflawed, i'm curious to see how the bigger projects will fare. ________________________________________ why is Zed making the 6-channel now? I haven't been around for a while. I know they had plans for a VERY powerful 4-channel and then later the 6-channel. 09-27-2005 04:08 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged stangme01 Ultimate Member Registered: Aug 2003 Posts: 2995 I think the thing that concerns me the most, is not the customer service as it wasn't "aweful" but certainly not "great", but the fact that Zed didn't even bother to test these amps in real world. I mean its like a car manufacturer designing and building a car, throwing it on a dyno to see what power it makes and then mass producing it and selling it to the public. I mean for the price these should have been fully tested on real speakers, in a real car for a long while before releasing them. Thats pretty bad. Oh and talk about high factory direct prices. TRU ring a bell? those guys are charging WAY too much for their amps 09-27-2005 04:28 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged BobG Moderator Registered: Sep 1999 Posts: 3399 quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by stangme01 Oh and talk about high factory direct prices....TRU ring a bell? those guys are charging WAY too much for their amps ________________________________________ They're no longer factory direct. Unless there are no dealers in your area. __________________ "Nice!" -Copyright 2002, Beef316. Void where prohibited. 09-27-2005 04:49 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged chadillac3 Ultimate Member Registered: Jul 2000 Posts: 5041 quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by BobG quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by stangme01 Oh and talk about high factory direct prices....TRU ring a bell? those guys are charging WAY too much for their amps ________________________________________ They're no longer factory direct. Unless there are no dealers in your area. ________________________________________ Is TRU still selling products? Talk about a company falling off the face of the internet. 09-27-2005 05:07 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged bassfromspace Member Registered: Jan 2004 Posts: 221 quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by chadillac3 quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by BobG quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by stangme01 Oh and talk about high factory direct prices. TRU ring a bell? those guys are charging WAY too much for their amps ________________________________________ They're no longer factory direct. Unless there are no dealers in your area. ________________________________________ Is TRU still selling products? Talk about a company falling off the face of the internet. ________________________________________ no more e-thugs to shove it down your throat. 09-27-2005 05:18 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged chadillac3 Ultimate Member Registered: Jul 2000 Posts: 5041 I didn't find too many people e-thugs using TRU. hell, I used the T series a couple times with great results. Just haven't heard much from 'em in like a year. 09-27-2005 05:23 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged ARCDSUV Member Registered: Mar 2005 Posts: 121 Ive got a couple of new Zed amps i might install this week,as im wondering about this turn on/off pop myself.I havent heard that one yet.Ill let u guys know how they do as i wouldnt want to jump the gun just yet. 09-27-2005 05:29 PM Profile | Email | Edit | Quote IP: Logged dual700 Ultimate Member Registered: Jul 2001 Posts: 4789 I've dealt with Zed since 1999 or so? No problems whatsoever. Great company, great guy. I really doubt he'd do such things, IMO __________________ I hate hyprocritical, power tripping people BobG Moderator Registered: Sep 1999 Posts: 3399 quote: ________________________________________ Originally posted by bassfromspace no more e-thugs to shove it down your throat. ________________________________________ Wow, you're nearly cool. Grow up. Chad, yes they're still selling product. How much? Dunno. __________________ "Nice!" -Copyright 2002, Beef316. Void where prohibited. ZED AUDIO CORPORATION 759 Cochran Street A & B, Simi Valley, CA 93065 Telephone (805) 526-5315 Fax (805) 526-8572 e-mail [email protected] Website at www.zedaudio.com From: Stephen Date: 10th October, 2005 Billing dispute re: Nathan Sloane Case # 1004849329 $254.41 Dear Sir/Madam, All our products carry a 30 day money back guarantee with certain provisions. Below is the page from our owner's manual which I have pasted. Mr. Sloane contacted me via email well after the 30 day period and informed me that one of the Minilith amplifiers was faulty and the other Minilith did not work out of the box and that the box/amplifier was also damaged on this supposed DOA unit. This supposed damage was NEVER reported to me when he received the amplifiers from UPS. If I had been informed I would have put in a claim from UPS which is standard procedure. I was informed about the damage when he contacted me about the faulty amplifier. I instructed Mr. Sloane to send them in and that we would repair them for him. When we received the amplifiers, I personally opened the package. The amplifiers had BOTH been packed in a single box which was never designed to accept two of these amplifiers. This box was from the larger Draconia amplifier which was the third purchase which he made. Standard procedure is that we examine returned product for mechanical damage and inform the customer, which I did. I repaired the one Minilith amplifier and found the second supposed DOA amplifier to be in perfect working order. I informed Mr. Sloane about this and returned the amplifiers to him. He disputed the mechanical damage and told me that we at Zed Audio had purposely damaged the amplifiers. I informed him with tongue in cheek that we have a special team of people whose job is too damage all amplifiers before they are shipped as so as annoy all customers! Why would we damage a customer's product in order to alienate them? He damaged them as the bottom mounting plates were all scratched up the corner legs had been damaged and the one Minilith's heat sink had a gouge in it. I also asked him why the corner mounting legs were loose from the main chassis and he told me that this was us. This is typical of someone trying to cover their tracks. My company had put out a letter regarding the load impedance which the Minilth amplifiers were capable of driving. I was honest enough to inform our customers who had purchased this type of amplifier. I had one previous failure due to this 1 ohm impedance issue and I felt it was the correct thing to do. Since then we have made changes to this Minilith amplifier to prevent further failures and this is also covered under our disclaimer shown below. After Mr. Sloane had received the two Miniliths, he informed me that he wanted to return all three amplifiers for a refund. Under the terms of our warranty we are not obliged to do this but to make this customer happy I agreed to accept them back BUT that the cost of refurbishing them to an as new condition would be deducted from his refund cheque. This is covered quite clearly in our 30 day money back guarantee. He disputed that we were entitled to deduct any money and that he should be refunded in full. I refused and sent him a refund cheque in the amount of $809.25 cheque # 21575. I now quote from the forms which we received from Master Card. Merchandise could cause fire to the house it was in and injure the people in the immediate area of the merchandise Some observations and comments: 1) These are car stereo amplifiers and are installed in a car so how could they cause the house to catch fire, if indeed they could? 2) The materials used to construct the chassis of the amplifier are aluminium (melting point 660 degrees Celsius (1220 degrees Fahrenheit) for the entire chassis and gold plated hardened steel bolts. The main printed circuit card (PCB) is made from FR-4 94VO fiberglass. 3) The FR-4 material used is subject to temperatures of 260 to 315 degrees Celsius (500 to 600 degrees Fahrenheit) when the PCB is being flow soldered. 4) FR-4A NEMA grade of Flame-Retardent industrial laminate having a substrate of woven-glass fabric and resin binder of epoxy. FR-4is the most common dielectric material used in the construction of PCBs in the USA. 5) All the semiconductors can operate quite happily at 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit) and melt at 1410 degrees Celsius (2570 degrees Fahrenheit). The connectors are made from brass, Teflon and high temperature nylon and typically these are never in any danger of EVER catching fire. The surface mount resistors and capacitors used on the PCB are surface mount types and these if overloaded simply disintegrate as they are very small and have no ability to catch fire. They operate from -55 to 125 degrees Celsius. The electrolytic capacitors used are rated at either 85 or 105 degrees Celsius (185 or 221 degrees Fahrenheit) and these parts if they do fail simply stop working. If they do have a bad failure (which none did in the one amplifier I repaired) they will burst their top cans and the electrolyte will simply come out. It is non flammable. 6) Last but not least each and every amplifier has a thermal cut out which will shut off the amplifier when the heat sink temperature reaches 75 degrees Celsius and this temperature CANNOT set anything on fire. All the parts used in our amplifier have melting points in excess of this 75 deg C. (If in fact such parts could melt!) 7) So Mr. Sloane's or his representative's claim that it could make the house catch on fire is ludicrous. 8) I have the two Miniliths and am happy to show them to a representative of Master Card so that they may see that there was NEVER any fire in or on the amplifiers. Mr. Sloane admitted to me that he was happy with the performance of the Draconia amplifier. I repeat that we were well within our rights to refuse any refund especially on the Draconia. You may contact me at the above phone number (Mon-Thurs) or email address and if you wish to see what the product actually looks like, then please visit our web site at the above web address. Below is the copy from our manual: Yours truly, Stephen Mantz (Pres) For Zed Audio Corporation