Onkyo Testimonials

Unsolicited Testimonials sent to David J. Schulte and The Upgrade Company LLC

Every client has paid The Upgrade Company LLC in full.   No kickbacks, no commissions, no fees of any kind for recommending our products and services.

February 2012

The following letter is unsolicited and is written to David Schulte, founder of The Upgrade Company, out of the sheer joy of now having a system that has restored music to my home.  As a retired college professor turned businessman, my time is limited and the available leisure I fill with music.

For the last forty minutes, I have been seated in front of my stereo system listening to Rossini overtures.  This was one of the first SACDs I purchased when SACD first hit the market.  Frankly, I never liked the way it sounded.  No sound stage, little differentiation between instruments—everything seemed to run together.  Now, on the system that The Upgrade Company has fundamentally built for me, the disk sounds glorious with a great soundstage and wonderful differentiation between instruments.  What depth, what tonality, what precision. 

For some time, I had contemplated upgrading my system.  My dedicated SACD player was Sony’s first, and while it was an outstanding piece of equipment in its time, it created a soundstage that was less than satisfying. Reviews of more recent Sony products and products by others told me, now is the time to step up.  Furthermore, my Sony blu ray player was an entry level machine and while good, was not great.  Then I came across a review of the Oppo 95.  I spent time on the web reading reviews of the Oppo and also talking to folks from a couple of independent A/V stores who of course did not sell the Oppo but had solid opinions based on years of experience in the industry.  Everything pointed to replacing my two pieces with the Oppo 95.  My only concern was not its delivery of blu ray material but its ability to deliver high quality audio for my extensive SACD collection.  Well, I purchased the Oppo, and was delighted but still desired more.

One of the web sites that I read that helped convince me to purchase the Oppo was The Upgrade Company.  This site also talked about turning the Oppo into a machine that could rival the reproduction of music of machines costing $70,000.  Wow.  Bold statement. But was it a reckless statement?  Was this snake oil or the real McCoy?  A couple of reviews of The Upgrade Company accused its founder, David Schulte, of being a charlatan.  There was only one way to learn for myself:  I called The Upgrade Company and spoke to Schulte directly.

What I learned after numerous conversations with Schulte—and does this guy make himself available—is that he knows his industry, he knows the equipment he sells and upgrades intimately—who needs the manual when you have Schulte--and, most important, that he is a person of integrity.  When a small but rare problem occurred to my Onkyo 5508,  before I could finish describing the problem to him, he told me that he was shipping me a fresh 5508 and that he would cover the cost of shipping the new one to me and the cost of returning the damaged one to him.  That deserves another Wow.  Schulte does business the way I do—quality before profit.  With Schulte, you not only get his outstanding upgraded equipment—the Onyko and the Oppo are what he said they would be after his upgrade--but also his guarantee.  It is as if his personal integrity is found in every box that that he sends to you.

One last point before I give Schulte a swelled head.  I also purchased TimePortal power cords, speaker cables and interconnects.  What a difference these make, truly make.  I had good cables before, but TimePortals are truly as good as the most costly cords on the market today.  These make a huge difference even if you do nothing more to your present equipment.

Sincerely,
Alfred Balitzer, Ph.D.

A brief bio on Dr. Balitzer can be found on Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Balitzer

August 2011

Onkyo TX-NR5008 A/V receiver "Signature Edition" upgrade

Onkyo Pro 5508 processor & Pioneer Bluray player upgrade

Hi David,

I've been a customer of yours for a couple of years, and I've been quietly enjoying my upgrades.  I think it's time for me to provide you with an honest history - both the good and the bad - which will hopefully help others who may be considering The Upgrade Company.

Once upon a time...
I was extremely happy with my expensive Arcam AV8 processor and Arcam DV27A DVD player, until Blu Ray and HDMI arrived on the scene.  At that time, my local dealer felt the Pioneer Elite BDP-05FD Blu Ray player would work well for my system.  It had good video for the component outputs, which I needed for my beloved Pioneer Elite tubed rear projection TV, which lacked HDMI inputs but puts out a fabulous picture.  I soon learned that the Pioneer BDP-F05's audio/video performance was not as good as my much more expensive Arcam DV27A player.  Unfortunately, my dealer had to close down, after being in business for 20 years.  I was ready to scrap the whole Blu Ray idea and just stick with my Arcam equipment and purchase DVD's - if anything, it would be less expensive.  I went looking for any online forums discussing Pioneer Blu Ray players to see what other folks thought of theirs. That's when I found out that some folks had their Pioneer players successfully upgraded by The Upgrade Company.

I then looked for posts about The Upgrade Company.  I found mostly good ones and a couple of negatives.  The negatives were just anonymous posts who put down the upgrades out of pure speculation and lack of measurement data, having never even seen or heard your work.  I called you and found out all about your upgrades and decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, the Pioneer did not perform as well as I would have liked.  You mentioned that something must have become damaged in shipping so I sent it back per your request.  It did get damaged during shipping, so you quickly replaced it with a brand new unit with your SE upgrade.  I knew about Upgrade Company's "100% Satisfaction Guarantee", but I was quite surprised when you mentioned that you would quickly be sending me a brand new upgraded Pioneer BDP-F05 - after all, I had sent in a used unit I'd purchased from my local dealer.  The new unit took some time to settle in being brand new with no burn-in time, but WOW, what a difference.  I then compared it to my Arcam DV27A, and I was very happy with the picture improvements the new Pioneer showed.  The sound had also improved over the Arcam player.  The less expensive upgraded Pioneer player performs much better on everything including regular DVD's, CD's, and of course Bluray's over the much more expensive Arcam.

As time went on, I wondered if I should get a more updated processor - one with HDMI.  At that time, you had an upgraded Marantz AV8003 processor for sale, so I bought it.  I'm very picky and have desired a highly refined sound and with burn-in, it got there.

During this time, I was considering some consolidation by going the receiver route, so I wanted to try the Arcam AVR600 and bought one.  I absolutely loved this receiver and I thought that it's better than several of the pre/pro configurations I've had in my system.  Kudos to Arcam.  However, the fan was noisy and came on a lot, so I decided not to go that route.  The Marantz processor was clearer than the new Arcam, and even though it was not bright or brittle, I liked the Arcam AVR600 bass and midbass quality a little better when used as a prepro.  I called you to discuss this, and you mentioned that the Onkyo PR-SC5508 processor would be perfect for my preferences, in part due to Onkyo's over built transformer based power supplies the Marantz AV-7005 and AV-8003 are weak on.  You indicated that in your experience when directly A-B'g upgraded Onkyo Pro 5508's against a wide variety of highest cost prepro's that are out now, that it held it's own for pennies on the dollar.  No point in spending more on a prepro.

Well, I've had some time with this processor, and WOW (again) - this one is definitely a home run!  It's like I have all the great qualities of the expensive Arcam AVR-888 prepro (which I've had in my system) combined with the great qualities of the upgraded Marantz AV8003, with all the latest features and HDMI 1.4.

For a price that's about 1/3 the cost of the Arcam AVR888 processor.

You had always mentioned that with the Onkyo Pro 5508 in my system, I would then need to focus on the other weak parts of the system to witness what it can truly deliver- and you were right.  Every time I make a improvement to cabling or isolation or another component, I can immediately tell the difference.  For me, the sound is the most important thing, and this processor has the bass, midbass, detail/clarity, black background, refinement/smoothness, musicality, ease - everything I've been looking for.

The bottom line David is that I'm very satisfied and very happy with the products that I've purchased from you.  Your customer support and customer service are top notch - in fact, I don't know of anyone that does as much for their customers as you do.  Thanks for making my home theater journey a great experience. It's really nice to go home from work and be excited to sit down with my family and enjoy our home theater system - it's a lot of fun! 

I was very hesitant to jump in and do these upgrades, but I can now say that I'm really glad that I did.

Thanks again,
David Prazak

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

July 2011

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

March 2010

David,

The Upgrade Company´s products and services are truly a "Best Buy" in the High-End Audio market. Especially today when so much of the advertising and reviews of products is just pure magazine or chat forum hype.

Your products and upgrades speak for themselves. Prepro's especially. Your guarrantee? What can I say "It's the best you can get". It's a win-win scenario.

Rick and I are thrilled with the actual quality of your Signature Edition upgrade to our Onkyo prepro's.