Big TC Sounds fans should have a read...

[newusername 10+ year member]

I know there are a lot of us here who are already aware of these things, but perhaps this thread should be taken into consideration the next time people want to talk about how magnificent TC Sounds is (gets juicier about half way through, mostly on the second page).

http://caraudioforum.com/vbb3/showthread.php?t=266984

Click to read more...

 

[newusername 10+ year member]

Well, I know some people will be lazy, so...

I wouldn't be so quick to say that, either. The TC-9, 3HP, 4HP, etc. were all designs of an older gentleman (can't recall the name). The idea for LMT was designed and modeled by John Janowitz (of Stryke/Acoustic-Elegance fame) while he was working with them. Not so sure that Thilo has done the ground breaking himself.

 

[newusername 10+ year member]

More:

I would stay away from the drivers that TC is selling with my name on them. They are the single spider version that have an extremely high failure rate. That was the reason to the change for dual spiders on the MKII. I rejected the batch of them and they decided to sell them off and make some money off of my name.

In addition to that, there is no relationship between Stryke and TC anymore. I waited 9 months to receive drivers that were promised in 3 months. Repairs promised in 2 weeks sat for over 4 months and never did get repaired. TC does not have my permission to sell drivers with the Stryke name on them. This is highly illegal and I had considered taking the matter up in federal court, but due to the current financial situation of TC Sounds it was not worth my time.

As many of you know, Rockford Fosgate is no longer letting me use the Stryke name. They threatened to sue me for trademark infringement. TC is unwilling to take my name off the drivers, so I have turned the matter over to the lawyers for Rockford Fosgate. I'll let them deal with TC and I'm sure they will not be as nice to them as I would have been.

The fact is, the AV15's they sold will have about a 50% chance of failing. That has been the rate on that batch. They are not offering any kind of warranty on them.

I'll be building all drivers at my shop from now on. The AV series will continue but will be slightly improved upon. I'll also have an introductory series with around 18mm Xmax, an SQ series with a copper/aluminum faraday motor, and then a larger 3" coil driver with close to 40mm Xmax. Look for these starting in about a month.

John

 

[newusername 10+ year member]

Still More:

Wow, lots of talk going on here. I figure since I was mentioned I should clear a few things up. First of all regarding the LMT that TC uses, yes, I did some initial FEA and design concept that I sent to Thilo back when he was building woofers for me. I still have the initial email with concept saved from 10/21/02 and rest of the email exchange. Then about 2 yrs ago when Deon and I were talking about working together, Thilo had just started using this technology for Eclipse and they claimed to have invented it. Thilo was making an announcement and acknowledged that the LMT technology originally came from discussions between myself, Thilo, and Deon while he was at Klipsch. If you talk to Thilo he will tell you that he really doesn't know who specifically is responsible as we were all looking for a better way to do flat BL curves than the XBL^2 motor.
I since parted ways with TC for some obvious reasons. I paid for product I got nearly 9 months late. When I received the product, VC's were misaligned by 12mm so they would bottom out at 19mm instead of clearing 31mm. Cones came detached from VC's because the wrong glues were used. The clearcoat on cones was all cracked and peeling off. I was told "I'm sorry, we can't help you, we don't have any money to fix them." I paid out of pocket for parts to rebuild the drivers and did all the labor to get them back to people. Others I refunded out of my pocket. After we parted ways, Thilo went on to make the LMT a reality. I found some other options that I liked much better and haven't been able to initiate quite yet.

Regarding TC customers, I probably know too much. I have had several of their former customers come to me for woofers now, all telling me stories similar to my own experience. Yes, they lost Eclipse who was their biggest. They also lost SVS who came out of nothing to be a multi million dollar company in just a few short years. Personal problems and lack of business management skills really hurt TC. I honestly see no way they can recover.

Now, for the Lightning basket, Thilo originally tooled this frame years ago for Lightning Audio before Rockford bought them I believe. He used to build their drivers. He has the patent on that frame. It is the same deal with the Eclipse frame.

In Thilo's defense, look at what he did in the past. Back in I think 1997 he had built drivers that Tom Nousaine used in his "Subwoofer that Shook the World". These 15" drivers had 23mm Xmax back 10 yrs ago. That was completely unheard of. He also started doing underhung drivers back then. A few years later Audiomobile and Crystal came to him and had him do those drivers. But Thilo had done them for several years first and he designed them, not Overpeck as he would like to claim.

Someone else asked what I'm up to now. After everything with TC I had to figure out where to get woofers. I searched the world (literally) and couldn't find someone to do what I wanted the way I wanted. I couldn't find that, and so the quest began to figure out how to build them here. I did it the wrong way for awhile. Doing woofers in a dimly lit room without proper height benches, parts fitting poorly, additional steps that were too time consuming, etc. I learned a LOT though. I firmly believe God puts trials in our way for us to learn from them. I learned a LOT through those trials. I learned how not to do things and as a result how I should do things. I was struggling to get 10 woofers done in a day a lot of times.

I'm sort of a perfectionist when it comes to stuff and I don't always believe what people tell me because they say so. I want to know why. I spent months researching glues. When people say "use this it's the best" only to find out it doesn't work and they don't know why, I needed to know why even if the rep from their company didn't know. I knew I needed a machinist so I made sure to learn how to run a lathe myself first so I could know how and why to tell him to do things. So I got carried away and spent the better part of 2 years learning and figuring out everything possible I could about woofer design and manufacturing. I needed to eliminate the risk when sourcing parts and I needed to make sure we make reliable product. That's where I am today. I had a container of parts come in from china a month ago. On thursday I finally have 6 pallets of machined T-yokes and top plates heading to the plate shop. They'll be back a week later and I'll finally have woofers ready to go out the door.

So in a few weeks AE will be coming out of hiding. This time we won't need to disappear anymore. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

John

 

[its_bacon12 10+ year member]

interesting

 

[CrazedCat 10+ year member]

so MOver aided in pulling Eclipse as a TC client?

 

[ThomasG 5,000+ posts]

o man this is going to stir up some shit

 

[CrazedCat 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/naughty.gif.94359f346c0f1259df8038d60b41863e.gif

 

[newusername 10+ year member]

Honestly, there are a lot more posts out there from people in the "know", you just need to search for them.

 

[sue bee 10+ year member]

Submama drama.

 

[JonJT 10+ year member]

Mr Janowitz seems like a very honest man who was the victim of unfortunate circumstance and bas business practice by people he was associated with. I was never a TC sounds customer so I don't really care much for the demise of TC sounds. My feeling of apathy towards TC sounds holds true for Adire as well (eventhough I have a number of their products sitting right in front of me as I type this...//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif) but that is another thread.

I am very excited that AE speakers is finally on their feet though. I have always wanted an AV15. I remember years ago when I was probably in 8th or 9th grade when guys on hometheaterforum.com were raving about the value and performance of the AV line. Maybe I'll buy a AV12 and throw it in a box for the dorm setup.

In any case, I'm just glad to see Mr Janowitz didn't go the way of the dinosaur (or Adire) and leave a large hole in large spectrum of small woofer manufacturers. Competition is ALWAYS a good thing, as it fine product.

 

[ngsm13 5,000+ posts]

Read the entire thread.

Good read, you find all the good stuff Neil! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

nG

 

[AudioXtremes 10+ year member]

Yeah thilo and TC are crooked.

You should hear some of the things that happend with him and Mike ankney.

 

[CaliforniabOY5 10+ year member]

//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/eek.gif.771b7a90cf45cabdc554ff1121c21c4a.gif

 

[tmoney 10+ year member]

so r people going to bash tc sounds like they do ed.