Auction fever?

Holy flip, a TDA1541A S2 double crown sold on ebay yesterday for £363.00!

You could probably buy a whole CD player with a double crown in it for that!

Or buy 20 TDA1541A chips and the select the best sounding one for yourself!

Wow.

 

I wonder if the seller will actually get that money, it might have been a typo by the bidder!

It is a nice sounding chip though, I remember hearing Robs Meridian that used it and it was immediately enjoyable and snappy.

 

Meridian 206 and still got it.
Very good player and built like a tank.

 

The price went up incrementally so I think it was a bidding war and not a typo.

I hope it's a genuine chip they're getting and not one of the many remarked fakes coming out of China (it did look genuine).

No wonder there are so many fakes being produced if that's what they go for nowadays.

 

Perhaps I should remove the chips from my Meridian and sell them.
Probably worth far more than the complete working player!

 

There is another double crown chip on ebay now.

The difference is I'm pretty sure this one is fake/re-marked because the serial number has the wrong typeface which is usually a dead give away.

I sent a very polite message to the seller advising him of this. Unsurprisingly I haven't had a response.

I hope nobody pays silly money for it.

 

Yes and it would be difficult to file a claim via Paypal since proving the difference via their 'resolution centre' isn't going to be easy. If it's a standard working chip that's been rebadged that's a hellish thing to demonstrate to someone non technical.

 

I got a reply from the seller:

Hi Thanks for your message, I have compared the chip with a genuine TDA1541A-S1 and the S2 does sound nicer but could be my ears playing tricks on me. I see what you're saying about the typeface and you may well be correct about the chip being a re-marked chip.
I'm not trying to rip anyone off as I was told it was genuine but will see what happens in the auction.
Thanks again,
regards,
Chas

The chip is now at £150. Someone is going to get seriously ripped off.

 

That's a good business for someone not worried about being naughty! Buy old CD players at the boot fair and re-badge the chips. No no.. I mustn't!

 

They're all at it!

There is now a someone selling a complete DAC board from a Philips CDP complete with a TDA1541 S1 chip.

Not only is the typeface on the chip completely wrong but there is also the small matter that the TDA1541 S1 never existed. The S1 and S2 grades were only introduced with the TDA1541A. There is no such thing as an S1 non 'A'.