Reverse costings ............. (Oct 13th)
A customer asked me to explain why he could buy a pair of 12" two way boxes for less than £200 a pair including vat when our cheapest were more than three times the price - here's how (click here)!

Foam Fronts; more ............. (Oct 1st)
We've received three calls in the past fortnight; two asking to purchase new Shermann foams whilst the third was expecting to get them for nothing.
I guess expectation must be held responsible for a lot of life's little let-downs.

Shermann Foam Fronts ............. (Sept 6th)
Once again a seller has made claims about SHERMANN foam fronts being available to all and sundry - they're not.
We do not sell SHERMANN foam fronts as an accessory, we only supply them on brand new or factory refurbished cabs ......... no matter how bad they may look in the picture.

Much enthusiasm on Ebay ............. (Sept 6th)
More cabs on Ebay and on this occasion the seller claims they've been removed from an install.
Judging by the state of the items it would appear that the uninstallers first demolished the building then removed the cabinets.
As for these cabs being legendary - hmmm; too much enthusiasm can often be embarrassing!
Age of boxes - built January 1996 - most spares still available.

Note: If you feel inclined to make a complaint to ebay don't waste your time.
If you enter "how do I complain" or even the word "complain" in ebay's help zone you'll get the following message - "Sorry. No topics were found".
Now there's a surprise!

Getting Close ............. (June 27th)
Question concerning Shermann GL710 - ebay.
Bearing in mind the listing's heading clearly states the following - SHERMANN GL710 cabs. Loaded with new B&C drivers, PAIR - we've just had a request for further information where the questioner wanted to know if that meant 2 cabinets.
Using maximum self restraint I replied .................................................................................................... "YES".
Now I understand why virtually all other ebay speaker box sellers advertise them individually.

Forced listing removal ........... (June 16th)
Duly noted and added to the list !!!!
(Explanation - some limp-brained looney reported us to the ebay police for stating in our listing that some cabs we were flogging were also available elsewhere and that we reserved the right to remove the listing whenever we wished. It would appear that ebay get a little miffed by such statements and duly removed the listing although they did refund the charges)

IP Theft Imprisonment ................... (May 26th)
Whilst not connected to the audio industry a recent court case in the States ended with an ex-employee of Coco-Cola being imprisoned for eight years.
The charge was described as Theft of Intellectual Property but the actual details of the case are very complex and maybe worth finding even though on this occasion it was an across-the-pond ruling.
The theft of intellectual property wherever it might occur is a serious business and often occurs through greed and jealousy - childishly ridiculous as that may appear to the innocent, hard working business owner.
Often the pathetic perpetrator will lack the courage or ability to develop his/her own ideas, enjoy little or no abilities in the creative or design realms and as a result feel compelled to leach on the hard work of others.

Son of Dorks' Day on ebay .................. (April 12th)
I've seen some utter dross written in speaker listings on ebay in recent years but the current advert for a pair really PRO speakers just about takes the biscuit.
The heading states 'Made By Shermann' which loosely and unfortunately is true and yes they're loaded with KILLERMACKS drivers (not the worlds most wonderful 15" unit) but that definitely wasn't my decision - customer is always right as they say (yeh right!)
As we all know, some of the things you do to make a crust will always come back to haunt and this is one instance however, in this case it's the listing rather than the listed which enhances the cringe factor.

I have to ask myself - do loudspeaker boxes really have to be portrayed in the following manner?
 "THESE ARE NOT KIDS TOYS" - I doubt anyone searching for speakers is expecting to see Tweenies Speaker Cabs for sale even though this listing appears to be written in their mother tongue.
 "THEY ARE SERIOUS PA SPEAKERS CAPABLE OF SOME REAL ACTION" - I would however agree that these boxes are capable of some "real action" although quite what the seller has in mind is questionable; hopefully it's not an arrestable offence.
 "CAN DAMAGE EARS BIG TIME" - Yes, a pair of these boxes may damage your hearing if worn as headphones or earrings.
(Instructions: mount a cabinet each side of head and crank up level to +10 for immediate irreversible damage).

Q: Is it Shermann or not? .................. (March 28th)
The answer was of course NO! (March 30th)
To his credit the vendor cooperated and removed the offending listing.
It would appear that some of our customers took issue with the heading of the vendor's listing and reported the matter to Trading Standards.

Dorks' Day on ebay .................. (March 4th)
Having advertised the Klark-Teknik DN9848 on ebay last week a snotty message was received (via ebay) from some deranged member (ebay type member that is) claiming that the DN9848 advert/listing was his - after the item had been sold.
Quite how this pathetic individual came to this conclusion is beyond comprehension however, the message did include a link which requested insertion of our ebay password to go further.
To save any future stupidity here's our password for all such idiots - GFAM.

Bouncing (wooden) boxes and dancing glasses .................. (Feb 15th 2007)
It's come to my attention that an ebay seller has made a comparison with Shermann cabs whilst trying to flog some empty but massive horn loaded sub boxes.
Apparently his cabs were famed for making beer glasses (full or empty?) dance about when placed on top of his cabs whereas, placing glasses on some adjacent Shermann subs did not have the same effect.
Oddly enough this strange effect was discussed many moons ago with the owner of a home-made rig who boasted about the same phenomenon.
In this earlier instance the boaster's massive bass boxes leapt around the floor not because they were efficiently loud in the LF region but due to the obvious fact that they were poorly designed and badly built.
The hard pressed bass drivers were simply ragging themselves to pieces and I'm quite certain that these cabs would also have passed the current ebay seller's test for the beer glass moving trick.
Coincidently, the current bouncing box seller is trying to flog four 18" JBL drivers on ebay - - - all of which need reconing!

"this is not rubbish" & "...would make your ears bleed..." (December 3rd 2006)
Part 2 - Further investigation within our database has drawn a blank for the pair of cabs which may or may not be purchased today on ebay.
Not suggesting for a moment they weren't once a Shermann built box however, we have no record of any crossover rebuild to work with the drivers the sellers claims are in these boxes right now.
Let's just say they appear to be about as far from being original as you can get without being a copy!
Approx' cost to make them genuine Shermann boxes again - around £650.00 + vat.
Some folk seem to forget who owns the copyright to the designs - silly!

"this is not rubbish" & "...would make your ears bleed..." (November 27th 2006)
Part 1 - Oh dear, more Shermann on Ebay
Does the seller really think he (or she) will impress potential buyers of professional audio gear with those quotes?

Danger; Warning; Code Red - Another EuP Directive - (July 29th)
 It appears that our "friends" in Brussels are about to organise yet another big shafting stick - and use it from 2007 onwards.
Right now the Directive seems to lack any clear direction although it will likely be targeted at European manufacturers as they're much easier to police.
A small but significant part of this directive is involved with a product's "life cycle" which for much currently imported garbage is measured in weeks rather than years.
On that basis alone the likes of Shermann, Martin Audio, Turbosound, Funktion-One and many other UK builders who find their earlier boxes still in use into their second and third decades rather than years of useful life should be rewarded and not penalised.

Bouncy Plastic Boxes blown sky high! - (July 14th)
Last night's episode of Emmerdale on ITV1 accomplished a great service for the Pro-Audio sector.
I'm reliably informed that a pair of Bouncy Plastic Boxes were demolished in a massively impressive explosion where a number of the cast were also hastily despatched to oblivion.
I wonder if the producers have any slow-mo footage of these boxes as they made their undignified but fully justified trip into audio obscurity?