John Wood Audio, a tale of woe

[Macca]

I think that he is only obliged to offer you a free repair under statutory warranty since as it is a custom build distance selling laws do not apply. He could give you a refund or replacement but he doesn't have to by law. Did that not come up in court?

[Eagle owl]

I think that he is only obliged to offer you a free repair under statutory warranty since as it is a custom build distance selling laws do not apply. He could give you a refund or replacement but he doesn't have to by law. Did that not come up in court?

Martin, he didn't supply the amplifier I ordered and paid for ie a new amplifier. The statement he submitted to the court stated he supplied me with a previously owned amplifier.

The following I've copied and pasted from my original email to him.

Hello John, further to our telephone conversation this afternoon, please build and supply one integrated valve amplifier with remote volume control and 75 watts rms per channel at the quoted price of £1,300.00 inclusive of the valves and delivery to my home in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

I'd hazard a guess that the amplifier I received hasn't the internal facility to enable remote control of the volume.

[Marco]

Does anyone else think that a bespoke-built (in the UK) valve amplifier, in a decent case, with hand-wound transformers, remote control and 75wpc, is just a tad ‘optimistically priced’ at £1300?

Which valves did it use, Geoff? Was it single-ended or push-pull?

I can’t help but get the feeling that there wasn’t enough profit in it for him, so he supplied you with an inferior amp he thought that he might get away with, and when that didn’t work, has simply lost interest/run out of money to build what he promised you, rectify the issues with the amp that he sent you, or even refund the money you’ve paid him…….

Some of these ‘one-man band’ type outfits are notorious for having poor cash flow and surviving somewhat hand-to-mouth.

Marco.

[Eagle owl]

Does anyone else think that a bespoke-built (in the UK) valve amplifier, in a decent case, with hand-wound transformers, remote control and 75wpc, is just a tad ‘optimistically priced’ at £1300?

Which valves did it use, Geoff? Was it single-ended or push-pull?

I can’t help but get the feeling that there wasn’t enough profit in it for him, so he supplied you with an inferior amp he thought that he might get away with, and when that didn’t work, has simply lost interest/run out of money to build what he promised you, rectify the issues with the amp that he sent you, or even refund the money you’ve paid him…….

Some of these ‘one-man band’ type outfits are notorious for having poor cash flow and surviving somewhat hand-to-mouth.

Marco.

I'll let you know tomorrow what the valves are Marco, I haven't a clue whether it's single-ended or push-pull as I've little knowledge about these things. When I first contacted him I mentioned an amplifier he'd supplied to a member on the HiFi Wigwam and he quoted a price to build me one for £1,200.00
I then said I would like a remote control and he said he could do one with remote control volume only and that would cost £1,300.00 and that's what I placed an order for. I did at the time reckon it was a very good deal.

[Rick E]

It'll be 75 watts push pull from 4x kt88, probably Sovtek. It's not unknown for John to build amps to this spec and for this price btw, as I know at least one other owner of the same amp with remote.
It's actually listening to that amp that got me back in to tubes in a big way. They are good, and as I said in my earlier post, his building skills are not in question as far as I'm concerned.

[Marco]

Hi Rick,

Fair enough, and noted.

However, I’m not questioning his building skills, but rather the profit margins he’s making, which given what I know about the costs involved, can't be that great (especially with hand-wound transformers in the equation) - and when you’re not making much money, the motivation to continue building to the same standard, or even having sufficient cash flow to pay for parts, is bound to be affected.

I could be wrong, but I’m just floating the idea as a possibility.

Marco.

[Eagle owl]

In contrast to the shabby treatment I received from Mr Wood, here's a tale of excellent customer service.
At about the time I was expecting delivery of my amplifier from Mr Wood, which didn't arrive, (end of December 2012) I bought a pair of pre-owned Tannoy Prestige Turnberrys (SE version) from Audio Emotion in Scotland, the speakers were delivered to me on December 21st 2012. When I unpacked them one had a damaged cabinet so I telephoned the company. They sent a brand new pair to me which arrived on December 24th 2012, the lorry driver then took the damaged pair back to Audio Emotion.

[Eagle owl]

Hi Rick,

Fair enough, and noted.

However, I’m not questioning his building skills, but rather the profit margins he’s making, which given what I know about the costs involved, can't be that great (especially with hand-wound transformers in the equation) - and when you’re not making much money, the motivation to continue building to the same standard, or even having sufficient cash flow to pay for parts, is bound to be affected.

I could be wrong, but I’m just floating the idea as a possibility.

Marco.

Hi Marco, I reckon from what you're saying that he does only make a small profit on some of his amplifiers. However, some are sold for considerably more money. Sometime earlier this year on one of the Hi-Fi forums, possibly the Wam, a guy was singing the praises of an amplifier Mr Wood sold him which cost £6,000.00

[Marco]

Interesting… I wonder what it was?

Anyway, just because he charged £6k for it doesn’t automatically mean that his profit margin was greater, especially if high-quality ‘boutique’ parts were used throughout, and of course whether or not he made decent money on that project has no bearing whatsoever on your situation.

Does anyone have a picture of one of his designs, particularly the £1300 KT88 amp in question? Geoff, do you still have the amp in your possession?

Marco.

[Rick E]