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The John Westlake/Lakewest MDAC/FDAC, VFET and Detox

Darren said:
I'm fortunate in that my solicitor is also a long standing customer. Over the years I've consulted him several times regarding litigation. His reply is always the same:
"Go away, lick your wounds, dont make the same mistake again and don't be so eager to throw good money after bad"
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Sadly that’s the advice he give me.
 
Years and years ago, young and innocent, my girlfriend and I hitchhiked through Europe living on bread and ham and sleeping out and in Naples we met a guy who offered to change some money for us at a fantastic exchange rate. Wide eyed we watched as he counted out a pile of lire and rolled them up and, although slightly distracted by a guy passing with a parrot, we exchanged our precious cash for his roll of lire. He vanished, we opened up our roll of money to find inside it was just newspaper. We had been had. Sleight of hand, greed, naïveté, distraction, impossible promises. You live and learn. Watch out for the guy with the parrot.
 
AndyU said:
Years and years ago, young and innocent, my girlfriend and I hitchhiked through Europe living on bread and ham and sleeping out and in Naples we met a guy who offered to change some money for us at a fantastic exchange rate. Wide eyed we watched as he counted out a pile of lire and rolled them up and, although slightly distracted by a guy passing with a parrot, we exchanged our precious cash for his roll of lire. He vanished, we opened up our roll of money to find inside it was just newspaper. We had been had. Sleight of hand, greed, naïveté, distraction, impossible promises. You live and learn. Watch out for the guy with the parrot.
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Been there, done that in Prague 1983. Not newspaper, but tenners rather than 100 Korun notes.

And again in 2014, it seems. I must have blinked.
 
JohnW said:
No new projects just MDAC2 is now better defined and the design is progressing well.

The idea is to have MDAC2 PP before Munich and I'l be upgrading the units during the show (well during the evenings).
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JohnW, Dec 20, 2016
#121

John Westlake, Lakewest Audio
(adding this so it gets bumped in the google rankings and ties his name/business rather than just his online alias to this horrendously mis-managed mess)
 
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“So what's Next?

Rather than dedicating months upon months painstakingly laboring on upgrades applied to the existing M-DAC Mainboard, arguably the time would be better spent to prepare a new version of the M-DAC PCB with all the modifications already in place.”

*giggle*
 
JohnW said:
With the MDAC2 design now clearly defined into simplified production / logistics stages nothing but mass project sponsor uproar and discontent well prevent the MDAC2 being available for upgrade by me personally at Munich -so I kindly ask for your further patience - and you never know, as I mentioned maybe pending Detox sales will allow a swifter resolution :)

One things for sure, generating a very public discontent is not going to make it easy to give others faith in me once the upgrade PCBs are available - so your shooting yourself in your foot with your current actions - although I do clearly hear and understand your unhappiness – and I can only apologise for my failings on timescales.

Last night I posted the finalized MDAC2 configurations’ (Stages) – this is the now fasttrack development path we are working to :)

Next Gen PCB
JohnW, Dec 21, 2016
#135
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John Westlake, Lakewest Audio
(adding this so it gets bumped in the google rankings and ties his name/business rather than just his online alias to this horrendously mis-managed mess)
 
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Is it fair to say the JW "project" suffered scope creep, and wasn't manage to meet targets for time/cost/quality?
 
Any update on the amps at all? That has to be simple, everything needed to make a really great amp with V-FETs is in the public domain (e.g. Nelson Pass freely distributes schematics) and he’s either got the rare FETs, or he hasn’t. There is absolutely zero excuse for something that basic not being delivered or refunded. There is zero excuse for the DAC, but that at least has a design aspect to it. Amplification is the most mature technology in audio.
 
Neil P said:
Is it fair to say the JW "project" suffered scope creep, and wasn't manage to meet targets for time/cost/quality?
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It became fraud. John Westlake would explain himself if we were able to, but look at the mess all his stories got him in to - hence he did a runner.

John said (as if his word has value) that the order of production was Detox > MDAC2 > FDAC > VFETs... So good luck victims!
 
Sibbers said:
It became fraud. John Westlake would explain himself if we were able to, but look at the mess all his stories got him in to - hence he did a runner.

John said (as if his word has value) that the order of production was Detox > MDAC2 > FDAC > VFETs... So good luck victims!
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And the Detox was simple and should have been a quick win.... Apparently its now been shelved as a product by John.
 
AndyU said:
The Detox has been released as part of the Stack Audio Link II, which has 1 USB Detox input, and can either be used as a network bridge or as a USB-USB “detox” box.

https://stackaudio.co.uk/link2/
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?!

Never offered us the detox at cost he promised and we all paid John Westlake/Lakewest audio for.
Feeling WAY out of the loop here!

** edit - quick google and you are right... Stack Audio Link II designed by John Westlake.
https://hifipig.com/stack-audio-link-ii-streamer/
Looking at the insides it even looks like the prototypes for the detox/streamers etc that john was showing ages ago.

With more google digging most of the products we paid towards have been delivered in some shape or form to other companies, which makes this situation all the worse... He could have fulfilled his promise and delivered something to the group here and drawn a line under it.
Yes his websites all now say 'no promise of delivery', 'best efforts' etc etc but that was all added after many of us joined, it feels like the products have been designed (or something closely derived from it) but those who sponsored the development with the promise to get 'at cost' have been hung out to dry.

Really poor show!
 
sam_cat said:
?!

Never offered as the detox at cost he promised and we all John Westlake/Lakewest audio for.
Feeling WAY out of the loop here!

** edit - quick google and you are right... Stack Audio Link II designed by John Westlake.
https://hifipig.com/stack-audio-link-ii-streamer/
Looking at the insides it even looks like the prototypes for the detox/streamers etc that john was showing ages ago.

With more google digging most of the products we paid towards have been delivered in some shape or form to other companies, which makes this situation all the worse... He could have fulfilled his promise and delivered something to the group here and drawn a line under it.
Yes his websites all now say 'no promise of delivery', 'best efforts' etc etc but that was all added after many of us joined, it feels like the products have been designed (or something closely derived from it) but those who sponsored the development with the promise to get 'at cost' have been hung out to dry.

Really poor show!
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I am pretty sure that previous versions of the Stack Audio website went into more details about, and made more of, the USB Detox aspects of the design, including pictures of treated and untreated USB outputs that bore, iirc, a remarkable similarity to pictures that Westlake posted on pfm in the murky depths of time when he was trying to drum up money. I remember because I considered coughing up. You can see these commented on in this post:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...link-by-stack-audio-and-signal-detoxing.7578/

But now the “detox” aspects of the Link are less prominent on the StackAudio website.

If I had put £100 in Bitcoin in 2014 I would have £60,000 today. Alas I didn’t do that either.
 
I thought that is was well understood we funded a load of commercial outcomes that John was able to profit from instead of deliver on his promises that had no financial potential remaining, hence it became fraud. Jarek had a good go at standing up for his mate (that he could no longer work with, but wouldn't disclose why) but using carefully chosen non-committal terms.
AndyU said:
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...link-by-stack-audio-and-signal-detoxing.7578/

But now the “detox” aspects of the Link are less prominent on the StackAudio website.
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LOL at the comment from Keith in that thread - "I wouldn’t touch anything that Westlake has designed with Thomas".
 
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