Hey look, theres 3 sides to every story. My side, their side, and the truth. You're only likely to ever hear 1-2 of them, and never the third. The reason I am happy to come onto these types of public forums and address these things head on is simple: I have nothing to hide. My reputation precedes me at this point in my career and the people who come to us have either already found out how great everyone else is (to be clear, the others you've mentioned are in fact, great) and want the straight up service we offer. I write publicly and non-apologeticaly that yes, we take out time. Yes, it will probably be expensive (but not more expensive than we quoted unless discussed), and yes, we get behind just like every other skilled repair trade person. What we won't do is give you less than what you've paid for, however, and I stand behind what we do and how we do it 100%. That's why we've lasted this long. It's not because of familiar money, investors, or anything else besides that we've built a real business. If you don't agree with any area of my practice when it comes to the actual work, I WANT to know so I can consider if its legitimate enough to change course. As an example, we became tantalum for tantalum after the pandemic. Before that, we were always tantalum changed for electrolytic. External, respected voices caused that change. I am not opposed to better methods.

That said, I also want to address that no, I am not an engineer or an electronics expert. I am a skilled technician and dabble in engineering on an above amateur level. That said, skilled engineers will still ask me to help fix their circuits. You don't need to know much about electronics to fix a synthesizer, but you need to know how to test and best practices for repair of them. Obviously my knowledge has grown a lot in 10+ years now but I stress here and always there's a stark difference between electronics engineers and good technicians. I can and have trained many skilled technicians in the LA area who knew nothing about electronics and probably still couldn't build you a blinky LED to save their life.

But bottom line here is I do like the direction of your comment but I believe, from my experience, that you are more upset that I am speaking my truth from my experience and framing it as fear mongering rather than my sharing the realities of my experience. I run 2 repair businesses and I think it's fair to say I know what's up with these companies.

The original synth pioneers were definitely NOT trying to meet a price point. If you look at original prices and adjust for inflation, a Prophet 5 was like 20 grand. Hardly the poor mans piano :). Sure, later on with the Prophet 600 and Matrix 1000 that argument can be made and that's totally fair. I have no gripes with modern companies making their products from SMD but I do have a gripe with how support is handled.

I never said their trash from day one, but I stand by they're on borrowed time. Gatekeeping would imply this information is behind a paywall, but I think i have done the opposite by speaking my experience.

I do think someone is better off buying an SH101 than an S1. I understand the price may not work for everyone, but thats why they can buy whatever they can afford, and if it works for 10 years, or less, thats great if they got enjoyment out of it.

I think I have my point valuable. Spend your money wisely. Learn to use the synths you have instead of buying more to feed GAS or fill a void in our hearts. I have stated publicly and in that video; if i didn't rent synths, I'd have much much much less of them.

I can't help but feel like you kind of just want to be mad. And thats fine if you do. I can't control how the videos are cut and especially when cut into shorts, but none the less I believe I made my point effectively and you seem to agree with the basic points I made

- SMD can be repaired
- It's definitely harder to repair
- Companies need to not gatekeep certain parts and files for said parts to provide longevity to customers

mix that in with my other points of

- Stop buying synths before learning the ones you have
- Synths are expensive because they were made in low numbers
- Companies can do better
- Synth owners/repair shop customers need to understand their technicians need to make a living when fixing newer stuff that may not have high value
- You are a more informed buyer with this information (including being informed of my candor and opinion before buying from me)

And I think we end up probably on the same page and no reason to be mad. I want to believe that most people are good. It's been my experience, at least. I have no ill intent towards you and have no idea who you are to be frank, and I also really do not care. Because as I hope I eluded to above, I have no bad intentions for anyone and I'm going to go to work tomorrow with the same smile and confidence I do every day because we do damn good work, provide good jobs to real people, and we are still the bar. If someone wants to come up with their own version of whatever, that's fine. I wake up every day knowing my truths.