[Danny Richie]

We experimented with different caps this summer and felt that the Mundorf silver & oil were the best sounding over all.

If your experimenting was on a pair of Paradox-3's then an oil filled cap is a good choice. The Focal tweeter can have a bit of a bite to it and the oil filled caps will soften and smooth it out some. But when it comes to choosing a cap that is the most like not having a cap in the signal path then the Sonicap Platinum is by far a favorite even as a by-pass cap.

Russell, Good points. I completely agree.

[prokennex]

As for paying upfront:
I paid over $11000 upfront for 4 implanted top front teeth. The surgeon placed the implants in the wrong position. This was susposed to be a 1 year project. After 6 surgeries and 3 years later, I finally have the 4 implanted teeth. I also have close to 1/2 inch of bone missing from the top of my mouth. It wasn't the wait that makes me angry, but missing close to 1/2 inch of gum and bone certainly does.
Trying to get any compensation from Doctors is like pulling teeth pardon the pun.

The point being; I'm sure everyone will receive their preamps and get what they were promised maybe more.
Just trying to put things in perspective.

Ray

[Gooch]

Unfortunately Danny it wasn't on the P3's I sold them> But I wish I could have tried it on them.
As for using balance in and out's I had an Electrocompaniet EC 4.7 pre I went balance out of my Mark levinson dac to the pre. Nordos Red dawn cables you could clearly the difference from balance to single end. May I suggest that you take a look at Nelson Pass Balance Line stage article? On passdiy.com O by the way I sold my EC 4.7 can you guest what I bought 

Regards

Dave

[gld]

Hey guys, looks like the post has gotten sidetracked somewhat from what was intended. But on the other hand it has gotten interesting and I would like to enlighten you even more. The post I made last evening was not intended to make anyone feel sorry for me, absolutely not. What has happened to me in the process of this project was totally my fault. No-one is to blame but myself. I chose to let someone else help to relieve my work load knowing that up until this project I had never done this before. I like doing everything myself. I learned very quickly who to eliminate so it does not happen again. Secondly Dodd Audio operates soley on customer money! I must (for now) presale new products to aquire enough money to get it into production. I have also learned that it does not always go as smoothly you would like it to. I graciously wlecome ANYONE  with the operating capitol I have available to bring a product of this caliber to market in much less time! During the process of this project I have managed to eliminate the problem areas and will be able to deliver new runs inside of 60 days. This is starting from scratch and building each one by hand as I have always done. All of the problems I have encountered along the way have been ironed out. Everything I posted last night is all of what I know is going on with the project to date. What I as Dodd Audio is about is being able to deliver a product that is very high in sonic abilities as well as a product that looks like art with a price that everyone can afford! And to this day this is what I have done, yes I would like to be able to just ship everything as it was ordered with no wait, and someday I will be able to do exactly that. Like most people say  Start up is a bitch. This year I have had several price increases of 40-60% on most all of the componets, and it's blamed on copper increases. Steel went up at the same time, my transformer costs for the amps have increased 60%. I have not passed this on to my customers.  Some of you think that going to china is a bad thing to do. Well let me tell you that more than 90% of all equipment out there is produced in china and it still costs a fortune. If you do your homework you will find that companies like myself can not make it in this business unless you have extremely high prices or a lot of money and you don't mind losing some of it. I refuse to be like all others and if I can get just my metal work and my wood products from Columbia then , and only then can I actually make some profit for myself. I love doing this, it is all I know and to this day I have not made a dime doing it, not enough to live comfortably on, and believe me I live very simply. I love what I do,ya think? My long lead times are  basically due to the lack of adequate funds to bring a product to market. As of this time nothing I do is made anywhere but right here in Texas. Also there are no dealer mark ups, I sell direct. Tweek geek  is selling the preamps and the balanced power supplies, but he is selling them for less than I will. He is doing this to promote the products. Mike knows himself that these products are very much worth the wait. Anyone know anyone else that would do this? Not in todays world! Everything revolves around the dollar the more the better. I and other small companies like myself who really CARE about what they do not worry about "how much can I make."  it's more like how much value can I offer at  this price point. I offer a lot!! Enough of that . Everyone has an opinion of what they think the best is, and most of the really best means high prices. When I design a new product I spend many many hours testing and listening, I also pay very close attention to the details most don't even think about and the end result has always been very good! In the past I had always liked the aluminum facepaltes with the wood sides. Last year at the RMAF I showed a midline preamp made out of Rosewood. I recieved much praise from this and many suggetstions to go that route, with that look. I did just what I have always done, give my customers what they want. When I came up with the new battery preamp done in wood, I then decided to give the customers their choice of wood, some woods were much more expensive than others. I did not pass these costs on to them. Regardless of wether I did 2 wood types or 20 wood types has had absolutely nothing to do with the time involved in the wood process, same time either way. Now really think about this how many other suppliers of audio equipment will do this? Answer, none, without adding cost! More value for your money than you think. When I ship my product I do have the customers pay the shipping, some think this is bad business. What you don't know is the cost of the shipping boxes, I cover that not the customer. Each preamp box costs me $55 in quantity of 50. I pay for that, oops more value. Trust me I love doing it and I make ZIP!! Some of you are saying go check out the Ultrapath battery preamp it's hundreds less. Yep , it is and I have nothing against Welbourne Labs or any one else for that matter. But I will say that aroud 10-12 years ago when the Ultrapath preamp came about I got excited and actually bought all of the parts and built it the way they intended. It cost around $700 and It turned out to be the worst  money I ever spent on such a product. I was very dissapointed in the sonics especially after all the hype about it. This new preamp is exactly the same with the exception of the tube which is from the early auto radios. Its a battery tube. And it requires separate filament batteries outside of the chassis. I wouldn't mind a comparison of these 2 preamps and sometime in the future it will probably happen. I don't believe, and in fact I know it doesn't take the most expensive resistors and foil and oil caps to make something the best ever and it certainly doesn't have to be balanced to be the best. The componets I have chosen in my preamp are not the finest available and they didn't have prices to reflect their quality, but what I chose sure work well for me and it didn't drive up the cost of my gear. The new resistors I use are PRP brand, they have been around for awhile, a lot of folks know about them. I just found out about them from Jeff @ Sonicraft. They are 80 cents each in qty. of 100 and not 5 cents apiece in 100 lots. They made a HUGE diference in the sonics of the premap. I used them in all of this first runf of pre's. Most of my customer don't even know about this upgrade. I did not pass this cost on either. It sounded much better (it was already vey good) so I used them. Oh, BTW I will be more than happy to post some inside pics of this new preamp as soon as I have some. You will see the quality of my work and all of the switching and battrey monitoring circuits. You will aslo see the 2 small audio modules, only thing you get to see is the top of the tube socket, as they are potted. Yes, I agree that all tube circuits have been around since the 30's even earlier than this. I will also admit that the circuit I used in this preamp is a basic gain stage, but there are 2 things that have never been used before in this design and I have protected it the best way I know how, POTTED modules, it will be destroyed if taken apart!  I have used Cardas products for years and when I introduced this new preamp some of my customers asked if I could use Vampire CCC wire and the new Vampire all copper rca's. I use all CCC wire and I also use Copper Vampire rca's on the CDinput as well as 1 of the outputs as standard on all units. I did not pass these costs on to the customer. I believe in giving my customer what they want and I'll always try and do this without adding cost.The largest cost in these preamps isthe cosmetics. The prices will increase, but I will not allow it to go beyond $3500.This will still be maybe not the best preamp ever ( really it possibly is) but it will certainly be the best value around for quite sometime. The preformance to cost factor will never be beat!! As I have said several times earlier I will DELIVER all of these preamps ASAP!! I have never promised any ship dates, just speculation on what information I had available to me at that time. I also apoligize for not communicating with you more, but you will learn that If I have nothing to say I keep quiet, ask Danny he knows me better than anyone else I can think of. Trust me these preamps will not only sound unbelievable but they will also be works of art for a small price!!!    I have a very high confidence in all of my products.             

[AB]

I am sorry if this offends Gary but I took the liberty of breaking his last post into paragraphs. No paragraphs = no read for me, at least.

My mind just can't do the stream of conciousness reading thing.


"

Hey guys,
 looks like the post has gotten sidetracked somewhat from what was intended. But on the other hand it has gotten interesting and I would like to enlighten you even more.

The post I made last evening was not intended to make anyone feel sorry for me, absolutely not. What has happened to me in the process of this project was totally my fault. No-one is to blame but myself. I chose to let someone else help to relieve my work load knowing that up until this project I had never done this before. I like doing everything myself. I learned very quickly who to eliminate so it does not happen again.

 Secondly Dodd Audio operates soley on customer money! I must (for now) presale new products to aquire enough money to get it into production. I have also learned that it does not always go as smoothly you would like it to. I graciously wlecome ANYONE  with the operating capitol I have available to bring a product of this caliber to market in much less time!

During the process of this project I have managed to eliminate the problem areas and will be able to deliver new runs inside of 60 days. This is starting from scratch and building each one by hand as I have always done. All of the problems I have encountered along the way have been ironed out. Everything I posted last night is all of what I know is going on with the project to date. What I as Dodd Audio is about is being able to deliver a product that is very high in sonic abilities as well as a product that looks like art with a price that everyone can afford! And to this day this is what I have done, yes I would like to be able to just ship everything as it was ordered with no wait, and someday I will be able to do exactly that. Like most people say  Start up is a bitch.

This year I have had several price increases of 40-60% on most all of the componets, and it's blamed on copper increases. Steel went up at the same time, my transformer costs for the amps have increased 60%. I have not passed this on to my customers.  Some of you think that going to china is a bad thing to do. Well let me tell you that more than 90% of all equipment out there is produced in china and it still costs a fortune. If you do your homework you will find that companies like myself can not make it in this business unless you have extremely high prices or a lot of money and you don't mind losing some of it. I refuse to be like all others and if I can get just my metal work and my wood products from Columbia then , and only then can I actually make some profit for myself.

I love doing this, it is all I know and to this day I have not made a dime doing it, not enough to live comfortably on, and believe me I live very simply. I love what I do,ya think? My long lead times are  basically due to the lack of adequate funds to bring a product to market. As of this time nothing I do is made anywhere but right here in Texas. Also there are no dealer mark ups, I sell direct. Tweek geek  is selling the preamps and the balanced power supplies, but he is selling them for less than I will. He is doing this to promote the products. Mike knows himself that these products are very much worth the wait. Anyone know anyone else that would do this? Not in todays world! Everything revolves around the dollar the more the better. I and other small companies like myself who really CARE about what they do not worry about "how much can I make."  it's more like how much value can I offer at  this price point. I offer a lot!! Enough of that .

Everyone has an opinion of what they think the best is, and most of the really best means high prices. When I design a new product I spend many many hours testing and listening, I also pay very close attention to the details most don't even think about and the end result has always been very good!

In the past I had always liked the aluminum facepaltes with the wood sides. Last year at the RMAF I showed a midline preamp made out of Rosewood. I recieved much praise from this and many suggetstions to go that route, with that look. I did just what I have always done, give my customers what they want.

When I came up with the new battery preamp done in wood, I then decided to give the customers their choice of wood, some woods were much more expensive than others. I did not pass these costs on to them. Regardless of wether I did 2 wood types or 20 wood types has had absolutely nothing to do with the time involved in the wood process, same time either way. Now really think about this how many other suppliers of audio equipment will do this? Answer, none, without adding cost! More value for your money than you think.

When I ship my product I do have the customers pay the shipping, some think this is bad business. What you don't know is the cost of the shipping boxes, I cover that not the customer. Each preamp box costs me $55 in quantity of 50. I pay for that, oops more value. Trust me I love doing it and I make ZIP!!

Some of you are saying go check out the Ultrapath battery preamp it's hundreds less. Yep , it is and I have nothing against Welbourne Labs or any one else for that matter. But I will say that aroud 10-12 years ago when the Ultrapath preamp came about I got excited and actually bought all of the parts and built it the way they intended. It cost around $700 and It turned out to be the worst  money I ever spent on such a product. I was very dissapointed in the sonics especially after all the hype about it.

This new preamp is exactly the same with the exception of the tube which is from the early auto radios. Its a battery tube. And it requires separate filament batteries outside of the chassis. I wouldn't mind a comparison of these 2 preamps and sometime in the future it will probably happen. I don't believe, and in fact I know it doesn't take the most expensive resistors and foil and oil caps to make something the best ever and it certainly doesn't have to be balanced to be the best. The componets I have chosen in my preamp are not the finest available and they didn't have prices to reflect their quality, but what I chose sure work well for me and it didn't drive up the cost of my gear. The new resistors I use are PRP brand, they have been around for awhile, a lot of folks know about them. I just found out about them from Jeff @ Sonicraft. They are 80 cents each in qty. of 100 and not 5 cents apiece in 100 lots. They made a HUGE diference in the sonics of the premap. I used them in all of this first runf of pre's. Most of my customer don't even know about this upgrade. I did not pass this cost on either. It sounded much better (it was already vey good) so I used them.

Oh, BTW I will be more than happy to post some inside pics of this new preamp as soon as I have some. You will see the quality of my work and all of the switching and battrey monitoring circuits. You will aslo see the 2 small audio modules, only thing you get to see is the top of the tube socket, as they are potted. Yes, I agree that all tube circuits have been around since the 30's even earlier than this. I will also admit that the circuit I used in this preamp is a basic gain stage, but there are 2 things that have never been used before in this design and I have protected it the best way I know how, POTTED modules, it will be destroyed if taken apart! 

I have used Cardas products for years and when I introduced this new preamp some of my customers asked if I could use Vampire CCC wire and the new Vampire all copper rca's. I use all CCC wire and I also use Copper Vampire rca's on the CDinput as well as 1 of the outputs as standard on all units. I did not pass these costs on to the customer. I believe in giving my customer what they want and I'll always try and do this without adding cost.

The largest cost in these preamps is the cosmetics. The prices will increase, but I will not allow it to go beyond $3500.This will still be maybe not the best preamp ever ( really it possibly is) but it will certainly be the best value around for quite sometime. The preformance to cost factor will never be beat!!

As I have said several times earlier I will DELIVER all of these preamps ASAP!! I have never promised any ship dates, just speculation on what information I had available to me at that time. I also apoligize for not communicating with you more, but you will learn that If I have nothing to say I keep quiet, ask Danny he knows me better than anyone else I can think of. Trust me these preamps will not only sound unbelievable but they will also be works of art for a small price!!!     I have a very high confidence in all of my products.             
"

[S Clark]

I just wanted to state again that I have had a chance to hear the prototype of this preamp in three different location, and with different speakers and amps.  In each case, this product delivers an incredibly clear sonic image, depth,  and detail.  I am by no means a golden ear (olden ear is closer), but I know when I hear clearly audible improvement. Curb your impatience. You will be rewarded.

[Marbles]

Curb your impatience. You will be rewarded.

If this is directed at me, if I can't be impatient after 10 months, after how much time can I be?  If I was told it would take a year to get it to me, then I would have no problems waiting.  As it was, they were hoping that it would be ready in every month since "maybe it will be ready by Christmas".

If I didn't think this was going to be the best pre-amp "cost no object" I wouldn't have ordered it in the first place.  I have a pretty damn good pre now.

This is to Gary...thank you for sharing your frustrations, hearing of them makes me feel much better. (There is no sacrasm in that statement)  Sensing your frustrations does make me feel like I'm not alone with the delays.

Again, best of luck with the role out. 

[ehider]

Gary, thank you for being so frank here about the details of the "behind the scenes" of the what and why this has taken so long. What a bitch of a roll-out for a new benchmark product. I, like Marbles have been patiently waiting for my pre which I also ordered 10 months ago. Now that we know the whole story I'm going to stop wondering about the "what and why" it has taken for such a long wait for my pre-amp. I have to agree with all here who think your latest pre will be the bomb ... a good "bomb" mind you

Sidenote; If the woodworker takes a vacation before he finishes his part I know some people here in Detroit  who will keep him "at bay" in his shop 

until he finishes all the woodwork needed to be done

[mono-tubeleosis]

Gary sent me a pic today.



All 20 units built on this production run are completed and awaiting the wood trim.

All wood trim is cut and in a sanding process. It looks like they are getting close.

Let me guess.  There are 19 units in this picture and the 20th one which is mine is the one missing from the stack having the granadil wood trim being put on as we speak------------Right!

[oscar]

All you Dodd preamp buyers have extraordinary patience.
[/ quote]
...I don't think I will be able to ship now until the 3rd week of Sept.. I was originally expecting to ship at the end of this month.
  Gary

If you can keep this ship date, it'll be just in time for my birthday . Try not to disappoint me.   

[AudioFanKJ]

If they do ship near the third week of September, that would work as an early birthday present for me as well (early October) ... although I usually don't by myself a birthday present 7 months in adavance!

Keep us posted, Gary!   

[S Clark]

  Wow!  :)That is just about right for me to give it to my wife for her birthday! Well, maybe not such a good idea after all 

[James Romeyn]

As a ModWright preamp owner, this thread was interesting.  The Dodd was marketed as a world beater months ago, & here we are waiting for it to appear.  The word vapor ware comes to mind.  As a function of increased cost, the $3500 Dodd must be 40% better than the $2500 MW to just equal its value.   

As a motorcycle enthusiast, the best analogy I can think of is the so-called resurection of the Norton marquee several years ago.  The sole proprietor/owner of the brand name, Kenny Dreer, promised years & years ago that delivery was very close of his all-new from the ground up bike, w/ cosmetic & mechanical tributes to the original Commando.  Color pictures of pre-production mules, & test rides by journalists, appeared steadily in the rags.  Each year it was promised to be right around the corner.  Several years went by, each year promising bikes to be delivered, & each year nothing.  Many anxious buyers, after seeing pictures & reading of the bike's promised performance, sent deposits to Mr. Dreer to finance construction.

A few months ago Norton closed shop.  I hope the deposits are returned, but I wouldn't hold my breath. 

I'm not saying the same thing is happening w/ the Dodd.  I don't know how much percent of the purchase price Dodd collected for deposits.  I know an electronic component is not equal to a construction trade contract.  But in the construction trade world, if the contractor requires full payment up front for the capital to complete the required job, that is a very high risk contract.  I am not a lawyer & am unsure of this, but CA law may even dissallow collection of 100% of funds for construction jobs before the job is started. 

I wish nothing but the best for all concerned & am anxious to read of the performance & reliability of the Dodd preamp once units are in the field, should that ever occur.

[zybar]

As a ModWright preamp owner, this thread was interesting.  The Dodd was marketed as a world beater months ago, & here we are waiting for it to appear.  The word vapor ware comes to mind.  As a function of increased cost, the $3500 Dodd must be 40% better than the $2500 MW to just equal its value.   

Jim,

We all nothing works like the simple equation like you listed above.   

At $2500 is the Modwright 100% better than preamps costing $1250? 

Probably not.

Does that mean it isn't an excellent performer and a very good value?  Of course not.

So I not really sure what you were trying to prove in your post.  One could concur that when such a seasoned audiophile makes such a post he is looking to stir up trouble.  Especially when you are talking about a competing product in a thread whose theme is a specific product.

So let's wait for the Dodd preamp to come out and let the buyers decided how well it performs and what they feel its value is.

George

[audionut101]

...As a function of increased cost, the $3500 Dodd must be 40% better than the $2500 MW to just equal its value....

With a statement like that, I think you have lost credibility with most people on this forum.  Name ANY product you sell and look at that same companies product line.  As their price increases to fill various price points, do you really believe you are getting that much more in sonic performance?   

Since you sell VMPS products, you MUST be familar with their products.  Using YOUR logic, since the RM40 (FST tweeter) is $4,999 and the RM30c /fst is $3195, that the  RM40 is 56% better?? 

Ok, how about this one- RM/x w/FST -$14,900.00, RM40 (FST Tweeter) -$4,999.00, RM30C w/FST -$3195.00.  So the RM/x is 366%!! better than the RM30 and 198% better than the RM40 huh?

I wonder what Big B would say with your pricing logic?

[Captain Humble]

Zybar and Audionut,
As my friend from OZ would say, "Good on ya mates"!

[tvad4]

Audio discussion forums often remind me of 9th grade study hall.

[gld]

Could'nt have said it better myself. Thanks Guys
Gary

[AudioFanKJ]

Hey Gary,

Any update?  Are we still on track to ship the end of this month? 

Please keep us posted.   

[gld]

I met with the finish guy and the engraver guy this evening. Pete (finsih guy) is very far along with the pieces that didn't require epoxying before finish coats. He has all of the pieces with thier final coat, waiting for it to cure out and it's ready for buffing and polishing, that is if all goes well with the laser engraving samples that we will have by this Friday. Pete says he see's no problems with it. Also we will get our sample of engraving into the epoxy, if that goes well then Pete will totally finish out all of the pieces. Bill (engraver guy) if I approve the samples, he is ready to go and he knows upfront how many pieces he needs to do. So as far as it looks to Pete and myself I will be able to start delivering some of these toward the end of this month, and that all depends on the engraved samples. He knows I need parts by around the 3rd week of this month. I must say that so far what I have seen that he has done is way better than I ever thought it would be. This stuff looks like glass! The depth is incredible! And it appears to be very hard like Pete said it was. I am impressed and thats not an easy task, I am very particular. You now know all that I do. I'll keep you posted as I get new information. As soon as I can get some pics of finished parts I will post them.
Gary