Go to this website: www.dak.com/Reviews/2020Story.cfm & scroll down the website to find before & after because it tells how scratches & bumps on records are usually heard!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI
Dak Industries
- Thread starter AM Matt
- Start date
- Status
Now that I'm at a computer, I can respond more.
Their main shtick back in the 70s and 80s was their own formulation of pure chromium dioxide cassette recording tapes. While the tapes certainly didn't sound bad (my deck has bias and Dolby level adjustments), they simply didn't last. A few plays, and they were done. One tape actually broke off at the hub. With the others, the tape began curling towards the center and based on the sound, they were likely shedding oxide as well. I admit I could be hard on tapes, but I have numerous TDK D or SA blanks, or Sony UCX-S, that still work perfectly to this day, some having lived in a car or tossed on a bookcase with not much thought about their well-being.
Anyway, my first computer was a portable, circa 1985 or 1986, bought through their catalog. The computer was about average for a clone--it was DOS based and did what pretty much all the others did. The included monitor though, didn't work when it arrive. Numerous phone calls later never resulted in anyone even picking up the phone in technical support; I ended up opening the case and finding a broken solder joint. Easy fix, but the company should have responded. There were a handful of other minor products purchased over the years. Most had the page-long sales pitch, and all were the best that bargain-basement mediocrity could buy. And only one of those I purchased myself is still usable (or was a decade ago, last time I had it plugged in).
The "shyster" part: any good, legitimate product never needs an entire page of technobabble (or in DAK's case, just babble) to sell it. These were like infomercials. These were products you really didn't need or want, but the page of marketing babble first created that demand, created a need for it, then told you how his product, and his alone, best fulfilled that need better than anyone else's. Either that or his product was always far cheaper, yet was a "giant killer," that (in his opinion alone) should be purchased over a name brand. He was essentially an importer hawking dirt-cheap items with a crazy markup.
Their main shtick back in the 70s and 80s was their own formulation of pure chromium dioxide cassette recording tapes. While the tapes certainly didn't sound bad (my deck has bias and Dolby level adjustments), they simply didn't last. A few plays, and they were done. One tape actually broke off at the hub. With the others, the tape began curling towards the center and based on the sound, they were likely shedding oxide as well. I admit I could be hard on tapes, but I have numerous TDK D or SA blanks, or Sony UCX-S, that still work perfectly to this day, some having lived in a car or tossed on a bookcase with not much thought about their well-being.
Anyway, my first computer was a portable, circa 1985 or 1986, bought through their catalog. The computer was about average for a clone--it was DOS based and did what pretty much all the others did. The included monitor though, didn't work when it arrive. Numerous phone calls later never resulted in anyone even picking up the phone in technical support; I ended up opening the case and finding a broken solder joint. Easy fix, but the company should have responded. There were a handful of other minor products purchased over the years. Most had the page-long sales pitch, and all were the best that bargain-basement mediocrity could buy. And only one of those I purchased myself is still usable (or was a decade ago, last time I had it plugged in).
The "shyster" part: any good, legitimate product never needs an entire page of technobabble (or in DAK's case, just babble) to sell it. These were like infomercials. These were products you really didn't need or want, but the page of marketing babble first created that demand, created a need for it, then told you how his product, and his alone, best fulfilled that need better than anyone else's. Either that or his product was always far cheaper, yet was a "giant killer," that (in his opinion alone) should be purchased over a name brand. He was essentially an importer hawking dirt-cheap items with a crazy markup.
I remember the DAK catalogs. They did make for some interesting time killer, and this was back in the '70s. I think I, or a buddy, bought something from them - possibly some reel-to-reel blank tape. It probably was crap.
But you're right. Every product got a page or two write-up - even if it was just a flashlight. They were indeed like mini-infomercials on paper.
Harry
But you're right. Every product got a page or two write-up - even if it was just a flashlight. They were indeed like mini-infomercials on paper.
Harry
DeeInKY
Well-Known Member
Thank heaven for small favorsI think he is semi-retired now.
I am getting my check back in the mail which was $ 80.99!! Matt Clark Sanford, MI
Most of those "all in one" software deals to clean up vinyl are crap. I've heard a few needle drops in the past year or two that sounded really bad, many the results of these types of programs.
Don't waste the money.
If I still did needle drops, I would just leave them as-is, untampered with. If there were a really bad pop, I could edit it out manually. I do have professional pop/click filters (from the Waves group of filters) but find that they damage the music in subtle ways. All filters do. Noise reduction filters are the worst, even the so-called professional filters like CEDAR and NoNoise. They suck the life and detail out of music. There was even a recent example posted elsewhere in one of our forums last week...the end result sounds like total crap.
Don't waste the money.
If I still did needle drops, I would just leave them as-is, untampered with. If there were a really bad pop, I could edit it out manually. I do have professional pop/click filters (from the Waves group of filters) but find that they damage the music in subtle ways. All filters do. Noise reduction filters are the worst, even the so-called professional filters like CEDAR and NoNoise. They suck the life and detail out of music. There was even a recent example posted elsewhere in one of our forums last week...the end result sounds like total crap.
Then again, it might sound better than this: http://www.amcorner.com/forum/threads/crystal-illusions-remastered.14547/... 
KentTeffeteller
Well-Known Member
Dave
Well-Known Member
Right, which is how Dak is the ham's brand name (what I'd perceived this thread to have had to do with--or maybe there was a Baja Marimba Band FRESH AIR bent to it) as opposed to the Digital-Analog (what's the "K" stand for?) of which, hence, DAK, the acronym is based... 
Now that we're on the right DAK-trak!
-- Dave
Now that we're on the right DAK-trak!
-- Dave
Bobberman
Well-Known Member
I used to get DAK catalogs back in the late 80s/early 90s thankfully i never bought anything from them. I admit there were a few nice looking audio mics and a big write up on how a famous group were using them on stage but my gut feeling told me " Hold out for what you really want" although it was not until 2005 when i purchased an electrovoice 635a microphone and despite its small size it sounded wonderful and still does and a few months ago EV Reissued the longer 635L mic after being discontinued since the late 90s ( which i was really wanting all along and finally now i have 5 of them for my home studio.) Im really glad i never bought into "THE DAK PROPAGANDA"!
- Status
