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 2 responses by voorafphile

To add more, when I was removing the components and use for my new rebuild.. Gosh.. The soldering quality is very bad. Many are not solder correctly, "cold solder".. Components can be removed with slight pull or few movement..
How safe is that.. 
I had the same exact experienced as you faced.. 
I ordered pair of monos 300b PSE at about 3k.. I fabricated my own top plate and added some components and sent to him.
When I got the system back in Jan 2019, it was a total dissapointing. 
Hooked them up, and there was sound and no noise.. That's a bit relief..
However the workmanship and material used is totally bad. The placement of components is rather scattered.
So I decided to rebuild the unit.. I tried to get schematic from him but he provided not accurate and many missing info. 
He even condemned me not to do anything if I'm not familiar. 
Yes, I'm not familiar with tube amp design but I'm good at electronics and DIY stuff.. Then he was not cooperative..
I then started to draft the schematic from the system. I asked many stupid question from others and friends.. 
And I'm almost done with them now.. And prayed and hope it will be good..

I then tried to find info on this Ken from various search.. 
I find out that he is Vietnamese lives in Japan, that's trigger me why he does speak like a Jap in his email. 
He collect old audio system, recondition them and sell. He also collect tone arms and sell them. These items are good to buy with careful clarification and know what u are getting.
On the tube amps he build are just based on clone and some own modifications. Workmanship sucks. And totally not recommended to consider.