CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

Spanky Ham · Joined: 22 Mar 2006 Posts: 5643 Location: Comedy Central

I wondered why he didn't just go to a friend's house unless there was a problem with his wagon. Very Happy

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10187 Location: kamloops BC

tommo2 · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 226 Location: Ireland

Hey, and I dont wanna get slaughtered here or anythin, but here goes..

I bought stuff from Gary, mostly due to what I read here, and from the newsletters Kal sent, sayin how great he was.

Okay, I did experience a small few delays, but I was thinking he was a big HT company. I actually found it quite refreshing how he used to talk openly about problems, instead of spouting crap like big companies usually do.

I'm not for one minute defending his actions, by the way. I think it sucks the way he treated dracoskeeper, and a lot of other people aswell.

But, I just wanna throw this out here:

How many times have u dealt with a big company, who fob u off with bull****, and never return emails. I was waitin around 3 weeks for Gary to send me my SDI modded DVD player, but whenever I emailed him I always got a response very quickly. And the way he addressed the situation he always appeared honest. I mean most big company's spout obvious bull**** at you, but Gary's excuses seemed so unusual, that I obviously believed them.

I got my DVD player and it was fine. The coaxial cable for the surround sound was faulty, but he sent a replacement with no probs. I remember thinking to myself that most big company's would want me to post it back to the USA (from Ireland) at my expense for testing before telling me that it was damaged or lost in transit, so I could get lost. Gary (in fairness to the guy) said no probs, I'll send a replacement straight away.

Don't take this the wrong way or anything, but he was portrayed here for a long time (by Curt and Kal) as a cool guy, with a great HT company. Recently he has gone to the dogs, but it sucks when I hear Curt or Kal slating his soldering skills. Dammit, I bought one of his SDI modded DVD players on the back of the glowing reviews he got on a curtpalme newsletter (which I still have). Does this mean my DVD player is probably on the brink of failure???

Maybe i feel a bit pissed coz it now seems that I bought a dvd player from a small time tinkerer, but i payed a lot of money for it.

It just amazes me how quick people are to slate his abilities when they see this. Fair enough, his business ethics suck, he makes excuses, but he done great work to my dvd player and no-one can argue with that. He done a terrible injustice to dracoskeeper, and tried to cover it up. He's an ******* for that. But why do people here say he doesn't know what he's doing with a soldering iron aswell, when he was portrayed here as someone who has modded loads of dvd players over the years with great results?

I feel like I was ripped off now, by a guy who claimed to be an expert. But this site told me he was great at the time.

Hey, and before I get booted (please don't go down the same road as the avs moderators), I have a great load of respect for Curt and Kal and all the contributors here. That's why I took their advice and bought from Gary, AKA custom-HT

Okay, let the abuse start, Person 99 will probably be first

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:26 am Post subject:

Tommo,

I don't think anybody here has suggested that everything Gary has every touched is sh*t, or that anybody he's ever dealt with got screwed. To the contrary, there are several people in this thread (yourself included) that have obviously (to Gary's credit) completed successful transactions. I think he must have done quite a few Panasonic and Oppo players - there seem to be quite a few people around that have them. OTOH, the expression "even a stopped clock is right twice a day" comes to mind. In other words, he's bound to get some right once in awhile!

As for your modded player, it's probably fine. Some mods are easy and require little soldering, some are more difficult in nature and require much more skill and knowledge to execute, test and troubleshoot correctly. I think in the case of dracos already-modded Denon, it was just beyond his capabilities; he was out of his depth. Throw some legitimate personal issues on top (we all have them), a dose of realizing he was in too deep with a very expensive player, perhaps a shortage of integrity, and you have the makings of a BAD situation.

Good to hear your player is fine and everything went well in your dealing with Gary. Obviously, some people's experience has been similar to yours, while others clearly haven't been so lucky.

SC

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:52 am Post subject:

FWIW, I have never dealt with Gary and his products. He ripped me off, but I won't get into that in this thread.

I personally have virtually nothing to do with the 'third party' products here. It may seem like I personally promote each and every item, but I don't. Kal and I do talk about what gets put on the site, and as long as the seller seems reasonable, it goes on the site. We don't deal with snake oil or things like expensive cables, although I'm sure I could make some money off it if I did. Kal however does most of the sourcing of the third party items, and there is also a disclaimer on each and every third party product in red that says I have nothing to do with them.

Right about the time that Gary sent me the pix of his balanced power unit, I emailed Kal saying I was really skeptical about Gary and his work, and what it did. Shortly thereafter we blew him off the site as far as his products went, but he remained a member here on the forum. Since then, we've blown him off as a member here, the last time now was permanent.

Someone posted a couple of pages back that its seems that Gary has good intentions for the most part, but when times are tight, he makes excuses or points fingers towards other people, and can get into electronics that is way over his head. I'd say that's about an accurate assessment. Right now he claims he's super busy and is making great money. Why he can't correct the Denon issue then is beyond me.

tommo2 · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 226 Location: Ireland

Curt, I agree with everythin u said. I know why he was booted outta here. Spare parts he borrowed, cannot ship them...meet u near the border... along those lines.

U were right to boot him. Hes an idiot. Im not takin it out on u, im just tryin to be fair to the guy. I had a fair and honest transaction with him. Everything was cool. Everyone here was cool. Everyone said he was great.

Now, a couple years down the line he is a total mess, and everyone is sayin hes a con-man. I dont think its fair.

I hate him 4 what he did to dracoskeeper, i hope draco sues his a$$ off. But why are people so quick to say things bad about him. I cannot say a bad word about our transaction. He was so cool. He ripped draco off big time, but i cannot bring myself to start slating all his work over it.

I bought stuff from u aswell curt, and have no complaints. If u turn into an idiot like Gary in the morning, I still will say u were a pleasure to deal with in the past.

Too many people here want to jump on the bandwagon, is all

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10187 Location: kamloops BC

Tommo it is great to hear that you and Gary had no problems and I don't think you are in a unique minority. Gary has had complaints and problems in the past and I don't think you would need to dig too deep to realize he has a limited skill set that has worked very well for him. You will also find that he has made some total bull**** claims and exaggerations, that he does not take criticism well and does not seem to have good problem solving skills. I do not recall anyone on this site singing his praise( other than Gary!) so I don't know how you feel that the forum betrayed you. Moome is famous for slow response time but nobody faults the forum when they have to wait a few extra weeks...
some of the calibration products sold here are far better than other listed products, and early Fury products had some known problems but I don't think anyone else believed that Curt, Kal or the forum had made an unqualified endorsement by linking to these vendors or products.

Caveat emptor

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:51 am Post subject:

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:01 am Post subject:

For anyone questioning the above. note that all of the AC terminal strips are glued into place, there's not a single screw on the one on the left...

F16wes · Joined: 29 Jan 2009 Posts: 24 Location: Orlando, Florida

If that were to somehow catch fire what would happen home insurance wise for someone since thats obviously not UL listed and couldn't Gary be held legally responsible. If so I would hate to be in his shoes.

ecrabb · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:43 am Post subject:

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

This brings up an interesting question to anyone who modifies a CRT projector or buys ANYTHING without a UL listing ? Moome,Kim,MP or others. Never trust insurance company's or lawyers. My question is how many of the devices sold here have UL testing in advance of release ?

By the way that power supply looks like a real cluster fu$k !

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:09 pm Post subject:

Lack of UL (ULC in Canada) listing is a real issue with some stuff. There was a massive nightclub distribution place here in Vancouver called Disco Warehouse (look, it started in the 70s, OK?), that sold large amounts of lighting effects. None of it was safety inspected, unless the club paid for it when they b ought it. I think it was something like $100 for the first device, $15 for each one after that. Guess how many fixtures got inspected? Hardly any. MOst of their stuff came from Italy and was well built, never had an issue being inspected, but I've seen some stuff out of China about 20 years ago that was scary. 110 volt exposed terminals on the side of the effect and controller, nothing covering it, etc. I once refused to install it, which really pissed off a customer, but I didn't want to be associated with it.

lexx21 · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Posts: 119

Hey Stefuel... I'm all for talking about porn now dude...lol

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:26 pm Post subject:

Ah don' like them thar porn-o-graphic girlies that come from Kehntucky.

They remind me of my fambly reunion!

**kal** · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:02 pm Post subject:

lexx21 · Joined: 10 Oct 2008 Posts: 119

Yeah but Curt, them thar Kin-tucky women are big girls. Strap a harness on 'em and they can pull your truck out of the mud.... ROFLMAO. Nuthin like a woman with a full set of teeth I always say.

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:03 pm Post subject:

Gawd, I thought you were going somewhere completely different with a strap on harness... I'm outta there! Very Happy

stefuel · Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:17 pm Post subject:

jask · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10187 Location: kamloops BC