Matt The Funk Firm and Houdini the latest offering from Funk.

[CageyH]

Not many things in this hobby are worth the cost as far as “Material sense” in concerned.

[WullieD20]

Not many things in this hobby are worth the cost as far as “Material sense” in concerned.

However, I can live with 'time to develop', 'manufacturing costs', 'distribution', 'dealer stock holding', 'free loans of equipment with no charge,. . . . etc etc (over and above material costs)....... Nature of the beast!!

[matodono1]

I recently bought and fitted a Houdini to my Oracle Delphi and I've got to say first impressions were not good. One spare plastic screw, a cheap screwdriver and a basic bike instruction sheet and a low rent paper box.
I was left thinking to myself "where did my £300 go to?) I sat down to listen to it after sorting out the alignment and tracking weight. OK I heard more stuff coming from the speakers especially sounds or voices in the background became a little more pronounced and clearer. The bass sounded similar to before but had a slightly better texture being more plump and fruity. To my ears there has been no change to the high frequencies that I've heard so far. I would say that although the sound is quite lively, it still remains easy to listen too but I was just not getting what other users said they were getting.
The differences were very subtle and not instantly recognisable and in my own opinion not much better than the Origin Live Cartridge Enabler at £25. Do i feel short changed at £300? Yep I sure do so I'll be honouring the money back pledge and putting my enabler back on.
I would be dissapointed if I'd paid £100 for this so £300 is way OTT for a very slight difference in sound quality.
Being brutally honest if you can easily afford it then go ahead buy one, it makes a small difference, but if you are strapped for cash and baulk at the price, don't get it, you will be kicking yourself and end up trying to convince yourself that has changed your sound for the better.
I always thought the claims were too good to be true.

Marco has asked me to comment on this guy.

First of all his name is not Tony he is in fact named Raymond,

Secondly, if in my capacity as a representative of Funk I were to have poor relations with any one of you I promise you I would not seek to denigrate any one of you online either here or anywhere else so I am going to spare you all of actual gorey details of our interaction with this individual.

That said we have to defend ourselves and our product to at least some extent.

So here is the VERY shortform...

This guy was on our Facebook group "The Funk Firm" it is a private group that you have to apply to be a member. This guy showed some interest but immediately started trolling mainly about the price.
I personally spent two hours in consultation with this individual answering many of his questions and explaining what he could expect from Houdini and other Funk products.

However he continued to troll and was very critical of the method we were marketing Houdini and how we were presenting it. Including criticising other members of the group.
I warned him to cease and decist otherwise he would be removed, after a very rude and personal response he was removed.

What followed was very bizarre...

What is more bizarre is that while I was always the bad guy, Raymond was always and is to this day absolutely cordial in his interactions with Arthur.

So all I will say is that whilst he pretended to be someone else to buy the Houdini from elsewhere as we didn't want to deal with him. He got his Houdini with the sole intention of trying to denigrate it and even publishing his evil online, but even more bizzarrely is simultaniously emailing Arthur telling him how good it is, also enquiring about other products.

So we are about as confused as this poor individual seems to be. We will leave it to you to decide.

Matt... The Funk Firm.

[matodono1]

However, I can live with 'time to develop', 'manufacturing costs', 'distribution', 'dealer stock holding', 'free loans of equipment with no charge,. . . . etc etc (over and above material costs)....... Nature of the beast!!

Very very astute, it has been very much like that.

For sure launching a new product is not an easy undertaking. I am very pleased to see that you are enjoying yours and thank you for the very supportive posts.

Matt.

[matodono1]

So at long last the Houdini is here and has now been fitted! So does it do the business? Bet your ass it does! I'm quite frankly amazed at the the difference it has made. From top to bottom everything is cleaner to the point that without it, everything just sounds coloured!

It's like going from a 22" black and white TV to a 65" 4k TV!

Now this is in the context of my system (which isn't too shabby) and I don't know if it would make a difference with a super high end tonearm but to me it makes my whole system sound like it has been upgraded.

I've been wanting to upgrade my croft to a 25R spec, which I think is about £400 and if i had and heard this difference, I'd say that was money well spent!

Nuff said, back to listening to records!

Hi Darren,

I'm sorry I didn't get back you earlier on your PM.

I see that you have recieved and are enjoying your Houdini. So all is well that ends well. I am very pleased for you.

Also I am a personal friend of Glenn's so if there is anything you need in order to facillitate your Series 25 to R spec then please let me know.

I'll happy to assist.

Just for your interest I sent Glenn one of the very first Houdini's to put on his Dias. To this day I don't think he has gotten around to fitting it. He's always too busy. Gotta love that guy!



kind regards, Matt.

[kininigin]

Hi Darren,

I'm sorry I didn't get back you earlier on your PM.

I see that you have recieved and are enjoying your Houdini. So all is well that ends well. I am very pleased for you.

Also I am a personal friend of Glenn's so if there is anything you need in order to facillitate your Series 25 to R spec then please let me know.

I'll happy to assist.

Just for your interest I sent Glenn one of the very first Houdini's to put on his Dias. To this day I don't think he has gotten around to fitting it. He's always too busy. Gotta love that guy!



kind regards, Matt.

No worries Matt and I'm very much so enjoying the Houdini. Regarding the Croft upgrade don't really need anything from you. Just need to contact Glen and get it sorted. Hopefully I can get it done before the year is out. Thinking of selling one of my SUT's to fund it as I don't think I can justify it now the Houdini has put the cat amongst the pigeons!

[tim_bissell]

Hi all,

Just adding another voice to the choir; I initially fitted my Houdini to my Tarantella/FXR2/Goldring 1042 in the home office system, as it is connected to an Edirol ADC... it sounded a little sweeter, but the near-field speaker setup was not going to yield many revelations. Listening to a couple of with/without recordings at 96KHz/24 bits over headphone I could not hear much difference, but was reminded that a noticeable amount of analogue 'magic' is lost in the digitisation.

I swapped the cartridge over to my main system -- Vectored PT / FX3, TAG McLaren electronics, ATC SCM40s and tried the with/without again with just my ears... wow! The sweetness I noticed before came across as the whole sound being more 'relaxed'. Vocals sounded less strained, more natural. More texture to drum sounds, the sound stage maybe a smidge larger, but more space and separation between the instruments. Tried swapping back... nah, it is staying!

I can only compare against stuff I know, but the delta in sound improvement sounded to me to be close to the step change from a PT TOO/RB 300 to a Saffire/FXR2 demonstrator (which sold me the arm along with my Vector upgrade!) and more than I noticed swapping from a Goldring D1012 stylus to a D1042.

So to me (and others, it would seem), a proper hifi upgrade. I don't know in any detail how it works, but I am happy to pay for Arthur for the inspiration plus decades of experience which lead to the idea, plus the hard work of turning it into a product. For not much more than my car service and MOT, it seems like good value to me.

-- Tim

[alcarmichael]

OK. I’m intrigued. Email sent....

[bosa]

Seems like others are having more luck with communication than me.

Oh well...

[alcarmichael]

I have been in email correspondence with Arthur. I’m just waiting for someone else to send me out my invoice.

I have learned though that the extended offer to AoS members has now ended.