What's interesting to me is that I posted evidence (to hopefully protect others) that Dennis was convicted for defrauding victims out of millions of dollars and you're complaining about my sharing it. Baffling.
Buyer Beware: Dennis Foley and Acoustic Fields
- Thread starter James Cohen
- Start date
Defrauded elderly folks out of almost $2 million: https://azcc.gov/Divisions/Securities/Enforcement/Orders/1994/Decision 58914.pdf
Recent judgment against him from a case in CA: https://unicourt.com/case/ca-la1-7101-n-miami-ave-llc-et-al-vs-dennis-foley-et-al-1870232
hard to deny the past and recent history.
maybe i am just fortunate but the design of my room does actually work, as attested by folks that have been in a lot of rooms, never heard of Dennis, and declared the room is one of the best they have ever heard. now it could be that enough truths were woven in like a true golden ratio, real diffusion and google scholar white papers on activated carbon sound absorption. in any case, i fortunately have absolutely no regrets on how the end product turned out. go figure…
maybe i am just fortunate but the design of my room does actually work, as attested by folks that have been in a lot of rooms, never heard of Dennis, and declared the room is one of the best they have ever heard. now it could be that enough truths were woven in like a true golden ratio, real diffusion and google scholar white papers on activated carbon sound absorption. in any case, i fortunately have absolutely no regrets on how the end product turned out. go figure…
I just began design with him last week. Mine is a DIY room project into a commercial space (room within a concrete/steel shell building) rather than a complete custom build by his team. Will inform the community of the outcome.
I think the OP was perfectly within his rights to post his interaction. Too many scams out there and yes I’ve been caught too. If it looks too good to be true it probably is.
I part paid for an item by a conman on a well known selling site. He wasn’t who he said he was. I just knew it would go belly up and it did. I remember telling my bank this doesn’t smell right. Should have trusted my instincts.
Not a huge amount lost but a huge lesson learned. Next time I bought remotely I did a FaceTime with the guy literally showing me the item ( a Meitner transport) working. Deal done, problem solved.
I part paid for an item by a conman on a well known selling site. He wasn’t who he said he was. I just knew it would go belly up and it did. I remember telling my bank this doesn’t smell right. Should have trusted my instincts.
Not a huge amount lost but a huge lesson learned. Next time I bought remotely I did a FaceTime with the guy literally showing me the item ( a Meitner transport) working. Deal done, problem solved.
I also can confirm that Dennis Foley is someone that you should be cautious with. I watched many of his YourTube videos and ended up buying some of his products and plans he sold on his website. Unfortunately, buying those products was a huge headache and left me wanting me to warn others.
1) After a number of helpful discussions with Dennis, I paid $3600 for 900 pounds of activated Carbon that I would need to construct the units he determined would be necessary for my room. Even though I wasn't ready to do the work, he told me he was short on supply and wouldn't be able to have a new batch of carbon made for "a long while". He assured me that he would hold on to the carbon and ship it to me whenever I was ready.
2) After approximately one year (admittedly, I dragged my feet on the project), I contacted Dennis asking for my carbon, he told me that didn't have any carbon available and he had no record of me paying for it. I had to prove that I made a wire transfer to him and finally agreed to the transaction after I produced the wire transfer info. He told me that I would have to wait until the next carbon order (a couple of months later).
3) After contacting him again in a couple of months (when the carbon order should have been ready), he again told me that he had no record of me paying for the carbon. I would have to prove to him that I paid for the carbon order. In spite of the fact that I forwarded the email thread showing his earlier correspondence, this was insufficient.
His response:
"Please forward the receipt for proof of purchase under separate email per my instructions. You have our requirements that must be met. It is not my responsibility to produce your receipt for proof of purchase. It is yours."
4) After a number of emails which resulted in my resending the same bank transfer info, he agreed to send the carbon but indicated I would have to send an additional amount of cash to cover the shipping. Not wanting to go through the same rollercoaster and sending more money to him, I decided to use the money I already paid and adjusted accordingly. I ended up paying $3600 for 500 pounds of carbon, a box of acoustic foam, and shipping charges.
In the end, I ended up with something though it was less than what I was promised. I am a believer in the diffuser and BDA products that he sells. I use both in my room and they've made a huge positive difference. The experience and frustration with Dennis left a bad taste in my mouth, however, and made me vow that I'd never do business with him again.
1) After a number of helpful discussions with Dennis, I paid $3600 for 900 pounds of activated Carbon that I would need to construct the units he determined would be necessary for my room. Even though I wasn't ready to do the work, he told me he was short on supply and wouldn't be able to have a new batch of carbon made for "a long while". He assured me that he would hold on to the carbon and ship it to me whenever I was ready.
2) After approximately one year (admittedly, I dragged my feet on the project), I contacted Dennis asking for my carbon, he told me that didn't have any carbon available and he had no record of me paying for it. I had to prove that I made a wire transfer to him and finally agreed to the transaction after I produced the wire transfer info. He told me that I would have to wait until the next carbon order (a couple of months later).
3) After contacting him again in a couple of months (when the carbon order should have been ready), he again told me that he had no record of me paying for the carbon. I would have to prove to him that I paid for the carbon order. In spite of the fact that I forwarded the email thread showing his earlier correspondence, this was insufficient.
His response:
"Please forward the receipt for proof of purchase under separate email per my instructions. You have our requirements that must be met. It is not my responsibility to produce your receipt for proof of purchase. It is yours."
4) After a number of emails which resulted in my resending the same bank transfer info, he agreed to send the carbon but indicated I would have to send an additional amount of cash to cover the shipping. Not wanting to go through the same rollercoaster and sending more money to him, I decided to use the money I already paid and adjusted accordingly. I ended up paying $3600 for 500 pounds of carbon, a box of acoustic foam, and shipping charges.
In the end, I ended up with something though it was less than what I was promised. I am a believer in the diffuser and BDA products that he sells. I use both in my room and they've made a huge positive difference. The experience and frustration with Dennis left a bad taste in my mouth, however, and made me vow that I'd never do business with him again.
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I saw the small claims court awarded the plaintiff 5k for his case.
My situation was very similar to squasher's post... although I lost $9k without getting any product. I decided to eat it!
My situation was very similar to squasher's post... although I lost $9k without getting any product. I decided to eat it!
Shoot the messenger or be PC. That is the question. I know I have very negative feelings about a dealer who sells tubes amongst other things audio. I understand both sides but, given my dreadful experience with said dealer (he flat out lied to me and other feedback is equally disparaging) and assuming OP's claims are accurate as well as others who support his findings, I think threads like this serve a healthy purpose.
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While I think the OP was okay with his post, and is good to know about someone in this hobby who might be less than scrupulous, the post did come off particularly snarky.
Rives used to be a respected company offering custom room design, but I lost a sizable deposit when they closed their doors. If blessed with a long life we all are bound to run into a scoundrel or two. Never hurts to have a heads-up. From there we make our decisions and deal with the consequences.
Hugh’s room looks amazing and the build was, no doubt, an all out approach. At least in that instance a good outcome.
Rives used to be a respected company offering custom room design, but I lost a sizable deposit when they closed their doors. If blessed with a long life we all are bound to run into a scoundrel or two. Never hurts to have a heads-up. From there we make our decisions and deal with the consequences.
Hugh’s room looks amazing and the build was, no doubt, an all out approach. At least in that instance a good outcome.
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What does this have to do with being politically correct? I don't get it.
What I left out in my explanation above is the amount of tooth-pulling that was required and the number of emails exchanged just trying to get Dennis to send the products I had paid for earlier.
What was particularly galling was the fact that he (reluctantly) agreed that I paid for the carbon order, told me me to wait an additional two months for it to be back in stock, and then forced me to go through the entire process again less than 2 months later!
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Fyi there is nothing special about the carbon. Its 5mm pellets. A quick google per pound varies but i saw about $4 or so per pound. I paid about that even through Dennis 2 years ago. Its gone up. Just source directly and build your own boxes if you believe in the treatment. Its a lot of work.
No way I could build the diffusers. Mine are cnc cut, i could not replicate that. And they very large and very heavy.
Again, Sad to hear about the dealings.
No way I could build the diffusers. Mine are cnc cut, i could not replicate that. And they very large and very heavy.
Again, Sad to hear about the dealings.
Did you receive the measurements of the impulse response of your completed room? Your last update on the room’s thread seemed to indicate that you had not.
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No
No that was frankly forgotten by me. I am scheduling my turntable guru to come over, he can do a sweep while here. Not sure what it will prove or disprove as i dont want the listening experienced changed at all but i will be happy to post the results.
What the impulse measurements will show is the performance of the room. This may seem trivial to you but from an acoustics perspective the measurements are an indication of the quality and performance that was delivered. While the room may be phenomenal to look at, the main objective was the acoustic performance and without the measurements you don’t know what was delivered by the contractor and what you have in terms of acoustic performance.
I can appreciate measurements but ultimately performance is what i like. A Tesla has performance but i dont want one. Will be interesting regardless.
It didn’t come off as snarky at all. The exact opposite Id say. He explained his concerns with back up for proof. Much was deleted by the mods. Sorry to disagree.
I think it’s a salutary lesson to any prospective purchaser of expensive or indeed any equipment and needs to be said time and again.
He posted his concerns so we could all take note and decide if we felt the same about this vendor.
No need to be sorry. I have no problem with people disagreeing with me, my wife does it all the time.
I read the original before the deletions. We agree on the message, disagree on the tone.
