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RE: Mystery has an end, in this case, enough is enough

Yo Dennis and Forum Members,

A number of years ago, Dennis sent me three shots of an early Serious Stereo 2A3 amp ( we had been friends for two decades at that point ), so I could see / study his execution as I built a DC 2A3 amp for myself.

On the Forum, maybe 6-7 years ago, I made email friends with a audiophile batchelor in California named Grant S. Handley, an interesting guy. When Grant wanted to build a DC 2A3 amp, I tried to assist him, as best as I knew back then ( this was early in my Dennis Fraker amp experience, and there were gaps in my understanding ).

With certain errors on my part, Grant and I made up a parts list, and, ON A TOTALLY CONFIDENTIAL BASIS THAT GRANT UNDERSTOOD, I sent him that photo.

Unknowns would not steal a photo from Dennis in his RMAF demo room.

I gave the photo to Grant, with one provision - he always kept it to himself.

Grant is capable, intelligent, and he tried to design an amp with a parts layout that would have as little wire lengths in it as possible. I liked it from what I saw, unheard. He did a very "fresh" approach to layout, and posted it on line, this Forum, under his moniker " Satan Patiently " Look it up !!

The problem was, Grant didn't apply the budget to select the best parts, and he SERIOUSLY had gaps in his amps' execution. A botch job. Missing were at least half of the film bypass caps in various key places. He wouldn't or couldn't spend the money on them, and I didn't know enough to correct him then.

A second area of total goof-up was in his use of wire. I told him that silver needed to be used from the RCA Jack to the driver's grid pin, and between the direct couple, and that he needed to use a heavy AC cord, like 10 AWG. I asked him to wire the B+ runs, and grounds with multiple TCSS, ( something I did at that time as a budget alternative to Siltech which I can't afford ), the "big stuff " in the amp's underside picture.

GSH took it upon himself to take the cheap ( ACME wire, sourced from Lowes Hardware stores, which I gave him for AC cord wire ) and wire the amp's B+ and Ground runs with that, a wire I told him was for AC cord use only !!!

About three years later, I "discovered" by A-Bing, that I was WRONG to have an inch of that ACME wire in ANY AC cord, it was "shredded and ultra-strident sounding" as an AC cord. ( I now use Fulton FMI Brown 10 AWG as my AC cord. Very quiet, love it .)

Well folks, poor GSH had :

(1) the amp wired with this shredded / strident sounding wire, and

(2) he had HUGE HOLES in the amp's response, due to his cheapo half baked bypassing, which takes LOTSA $$$$ to do right !!!

So Grant was sitting with a botch job, and I did not know what to do for him long distance, to fix his execution. He got frustrated with me I suppose, although we have remained neutral to each other, and without my knowledge, on his own , sent the botched amp to Tre Perry for "evaluation ".

For the life of me, I have no idea what Grant means when he writes above I have " broken promises" to him, as a justification to post this photo, given in total confidence to him. If I did break a promise, tell me about that, and I am sorry for that !! But we all know, two wrongs don't make a right.

These are the facts as well as I can say them. It is up to others to judge GSH / Satin Patiently AND ME, for ever releasing the photo on a confidential basis.

The most interesting thing of all is , that GSH has never been to a RMAF show, or Montana, to HEAR Dennis' amps, and they somewhat THINK the botched job that GSH executed is what Dennis' sounds like!!!!!! Not so at all, thats not the truth,...... one can hear the truth easily.

This fallacy has been going-on, with this Forum, for maybe five years now.

So the facts remain : (1) they never heard a a Serious Stereo amp, neither of the people, and how well it plays and (2) Dennis has taken the basic amp to a new and even higher performing level with his latest implementations, same circuit, better implementation, the best possible !!

Dennis, I apologize sincerely, but I am hoping we will have a new opportunity to discuss audio up here, by those seriously looking to improve performance, with this recent turn of events.

Grant, I think you need a wife or close friend, to bounce things off of, before you act!

Sincerely,

Jeff Medwin



Edits: 11/17/14

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