I watched this episode, hilariously terrible construction of what I’m sure was a thoughtfully designed amp.
The thing had pcbs stacked using plastic m2.5-like standoffs that had snapped. Apparently the product designer claimed Mark couldn’t fix it. Mend it Mark can fix anything that is fixable, truly a master repairman.
And my own experience working on the design of complex projects as an architect. A good job will still include stupid mistakes when designing a one-off project because there are always gaps in institutional knowledge and time and money constraints.
$25k is a lot of money to spend on home audio. It is not much income even for a side project. Never mind a manufacturing business with engineering and advertising overhead in addition to logistical and fabrication costs...and I think the devices in the video are manufactured in limited annual numbers so there's not even an economics of scale.
I love Mark's channel, but videos that embarrass non-celebrity individuals is not why. Youtube drama doesn't seem to be his strong suit, and while what happened isn't justified, it is not terribly surprising now that I've thought about it.
Anyway, it might have been someone who bought one of those amplifiers who filed the takedown. Because owners were also likely to be embarrassed by the video and also likely to have the wherewithal to file a takedown.
I don’t think the intent was directly to embarrass anyone, but the standoffs and loosely stacked pcbs really did seem unfortunate. It was dropped, Mark repaired it and it was quite likely just as good as new minus the enclosure damage.
Audio equipment definitely has this issue of extreme pricing for questionable things. In all likelihood the amp on a chip is the best designed amp for the money. Sure discrete stuff might have a better noise floor and reduced noise. I’d argue few people could tell the difference.
Sure I think Mark’s primary intent was to repair the device.
But Mark also took the opportunity to mock the builder and their customers.
(He does the same when he comes across other people’s repairs that are not as good as he is capable of). But this time the target was not an unknown person.
His comments weren’t just bouncing around his workshop walls. They were heard around the world and capable of putting people out of work for the sake of better YouTube analytics.
The time, space and cost of design, parts acquisition, manufacturing, testing, advertising, shipping and customer service come out of that revenue.
Despite the richness of Welsh culture and the wisdom of the Welsh people, the capital and technical knowledge required probably exceed that of the average Welsh salaryman.
The thing had pcbs stacked using plastic m2.5-like standoffs that had snapped. Apparently the product designer claimed Mark couldn’t fix it. Mend it Mark can fix anything that is fixable, truly a master repairman.