I'm sure Jack and Ray know the real story here. Whether or not they can share any of it is a different matter

Mark Schifter, founder of av123, is now a partner of Craig Chase (craigsub) at Tweak City Audio

On a hopefully unrelated note, the av123 site seems to be DOA. I guess that's why we have had the pleasure of Jack's company so much lately

And we thought he just missed us. . .

Aha! Excellent detective work!

There has been some sort of relationship since Tweak City has started.

Considering the desingers for av123's subs and speakers have worked with Craig to help him design his stuff, it is not surprising. Also the Scamp subwoofer is being built in Cali(IIRC) like the MFW15 and av123's other speakers, if you were to not know you were on TCA's forum and not av123, I think you could mistake the TCA forum for the av123 community due to the number of same forum members and names being mentioned. It could be av123 is taking over TCA and using them as an even lower entry level speaker system as the ELT, XLS (Have I remembered this right Jack?) line ups appear to have disappeared.

The Scamp will not be built in Cali (the Uniaudio factory in Cali, Colombia). No TCA product will be produced in Cali. Mark said:

"When it was clear that Cali could not play a role in cost-effective manufacturing of goods – a new and even more exciting method of manufacturing was born."

In fact, if my memory serves, the only thing Cali will be producing for AV123 will be some MFW-15 subwoofers, and the LS9 line source loudspeaker.

AV123 in NOT taking over TCA. The company is owned by Craig Chase, but Mark will be Vice President and Design Engineer. Mark may, or may not, have a financial interest in TCA. I have no idea and it is none of my business.

Here's what Mark had to say regarding the difference between TCA and AV123:

"While av123 is going to continue to focus on a our strategy of a “digital convergence” - TCA on the other hand is the perfect venue for some of the more “lower cost strategies” that have been born of our work-product we’ve been gestating at av123.

That’s not to say that some are better than others – in fact NOTHING could be further from the truth. Just some don’t fit a “good - better – best” strategy that we are adhering to at av123. With TCA I’m able to flex my wings much more than at av123 [Mark has partners at AV123]. Craig is giving me this chance to prove out some of my own thought processes where I’m not encumbered by a specific product or market strategy"

The ELT line is still alive and well. The x series still has the x-sls, x-cs, and the MFW-15 and, last I knew, there were plans for a new x-ls bookshelf and a new x-sub designed by Mark.

As far as I know, the web site crash was caused by a technical problem at the hosting company. Nothing more, and unfortunately, nothing less. Nothing should be read into the situation beyond that.

Thanks for the update Jack. Now that you mention it, I do remember something mentioned on the av123 forum about the x series getting new renditions.

You're welcome, Jay.

I realize I neglected to address Tom's comment below.


While I plead guilty to suffering from a severe case of forum withdrawal and do seem to have a bit more free time, it is the caliber of this forum which draws me. Thankfully, I have some good friends here.

Now the temporary AV123 site is down. According to others, they are doing some work on it.