UPDATED: October 2024

I cannot believe this story…

One of my customers reached out the other day to boast about this incredible find. Chris is a customer I’ve personally guided from cheap plastic hi-fi gear to ownership of Accuphase amplifiers like an E-205 I serviced recently, and this E-303, in a matter of months.

It’s been a steep learning curve, but, like so many others I’ve helped, Chris has been rewarded with a transformation in his musical enjoyment, which is awesome, and he’s welcome. That’s the power of knowledge and the utility of our advisory service, and it’s something I genuinely enjoy doing.

Chris contacted me, effusing about something he needed to show me, something he’d “just found”. He popped over to my workshop with the pristine, and I mean perfect, almost unused Accuphase E-303 you are about to see, one of my favourite integrated amplifiers and a model we’d discussed and I’d recommended.

Chris told me he paid just $10 to the ‘tip guy’ selling it. Nuts right?! I told Chris I’d write a story about it as a bonus for him, mostly, and for my customers and readers. Naturally, I first verified all the key facts: “Chris, did you really pay $10 for this amplifier?” “Yes, Mike, I swear I paid $10 for this amplifier,” etc.

I even followed up with a phone call after writing the story to confirm I had the details right and just to make sure that if anything wasn’t quite right, we corrected it, stickler for the details that I am. Chris told me I had everything right and didn’t offer to correct anything. I’ve not heard a word from Chris since that phone call.

Update, October 2024: The Truth?

Unfortunately, all was not what it seemed with this story, despite my best attempts to verify the fact directly with my customer. I unfortunately only learned this from third parties after writing the article. Thank you to those individuals.

There are two ways to deal with something like this: a) pretend it never happened, or b) address it and let people know your position. There is no way I would allow a story like this to tarnish the trust people have for Liquid Audio, and so, for reasons of transparency, it remains, with these critical amendments:

• It seems I was not told the truth about who found this amplifier or what it cost.
• I’ve learned that it went elsewhere for work after I saw it, despite my being directly responsible for this individual knowing about Accuphase.
• Someone else contacted me, claiming he found and owns the amplifier rather than the customer who brought it to me. A hoaxer or someone from the Hall of Shame, like the tripper from case #16 perhaps? That guy had cancer, but even that is likely to be BS.
• Or perhaps two people independently found $10 E-303s at their local tips at the same time… 🙂

You see, when you are dealing with dishonest people, you never really know where you stand or what the truth is. I think most would agree, though, that my having to write this addendum is a sad indictment of all involved. Shocking that adults behave like this, yet some do!

The bigger question, of course, is why? Why waste the time, energy and goodwill of someone who’s helped so much? And I have to assume my colleague who subsequently worked on this E-303 had no idea of the real story or my involvement, or he’d have sent it back to me, of course…

All in all, it’s a very disappointing end to what was a great story. I hope it was worth it.

Accuphase E-303 Details (Original Story)

This one falls into my special New Gold Dream category of equipment finds. Naturally, I’ll be servicing this amplifier in the coming months and letting you know more about it then. It shows what’s possible when you are in the right place, at the right time, and armed with the right knowledge.

That’s right: ‘Accuphase E-303’, ‘rubbish tip’ and ‘$10’, words you rarely if ever find used together, yet here we are, at the great intersection of gold that brought my customer Chris this big upgrade over his Accuphase E-202 and E-205 integrated amplifiers.

Let’s look at a few images to see what he got here:

Regulars will know how highly I rate the Accuphase E-303. In terms of integrated amplifiers, there aren’t too many better choices than this and as a result, many of my customers have grabbed one over the years. That said, at this age (40 years) they can certainly start to show signs of age and need some overhaul work. Not this one though, at least nothing obvious yet!

The moral of this story? Get up out of the chair and head down to your local tip shop. Chris found this pristine Accuphase E-303 for $10. Can you imagine what else might be waiting for a new home?

Postscript

So what’s the REAL moral of this story, given the developments noted? Don’t trust people you’ve helped? Don’t expect loyalty and integrity from customers? I don’t know, but I refuse to let this slow me down or change the way I approach what I do.

Am I disappointed? Sure, I am. I could pull the article, but that lets those involved off the hook and completes the 100% waste of my time that I won’t allow this to become. The people involved owed me something in terms of doing the right thing. And I mean literally owed, so the story stays.

What matters is that most folks wouldn’t dream of doing something like this. I can’t pretend to understand it, but if I learn any additional details about what happened and why, I’ll let you know.

Thanks for visiting and my apologies that this positive story became something rather different 🙂

[Mike, October edit]