Ottoman Amplifiers aka Soundgate.net YOU NOW HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!!!


I had a parallel single ended 2A3 built by Ken Uesugi at Ottoman, aka Soundgate, and received it in January 2019.  I paid $4000 for the very best components he had. It was supposed to be modeled after the Kondo Niero.  He didn't even follow the schematic that he sent to me via email.  I also paid $400 to have it shipped from Japan.  Upon receipt I realized that something was loose in the amp and opened it up to find a nightmare. I took the amp to a technician to fix it and had to spend another $500 just to get it to work. The workmanship was absolutely the opposite you would expect from a Japanese amp builder, the soldering joints were so bad that capacitors were falling off. Nothing was secured. The technician and an amp builder both said that they would not even plug it in for fear of an electrical fire. I have some friends that build amps and they thought it was shameful. Another friend bought a 50 tube amp from him and only paid $1400 for a SET amp.  Same issues. Could not get it to work, had to spend money to fix it.  Meanwhile I spoke to PayPal and they suggested I try to work it out with him. So I tried that with no success because he kept telling me to try other tubes. Nothing worked. So he offered to fix the amp if I paid the shipping back to Japan, another $400. I did not want the amp to be fixed because of how bad the soldering and layout was. I tried to compromise with him, but no success there as well. I have a very long email string documenting everything as well as photos. Let the buyer beware. If you buy his amps, you will for sure receive an inferior attempt. The transformers were Tango, but everything else was just average parts.  Be careful out there.
tropicaldiver

Showing 1 response by ebm

You got ripped off big time.I think you should kick ass and take names ASAP!!Why would you go to Japan to buy an amp as there are so many good ones from reputable people in the USA??Sorry for your problems.