EEVblog #671 – White Van Speaker Scam Teardown

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Dave exposes the global White Van Speaker Scam and tears down a Marc Vincent Surround Sound Receiver, one of the items sold in Australia through this scam.
How crap is it?, watch and find out!
Also a 3D Optics HD-8500 projector that is also sold as part of the scam that involves the absolute cheapest quality parts sold under fake brands at grossly inflated prices from literally the back of a van.

A Current Affair Exposé of the scam in Australia, and the Marc Vincent brand in particular:

Not to be confused with the real Mark Vincent (note the spelling) who won Australia's Got Talent.
The same scam in the UK:

3D Optics HD-8500 datasheet:

Datasheets:
TDA2030 Power amplifier:

Nuvoton 8051:

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57 Comments on “EEVblog #671 – White Van Speaker Scam Teardown”

  1. That’s pretty typical of the cheap ‘n’ chunky ebay projectors. Their main redeeming feature is that they use a fairly common metal halide lamp that lasts thousands of hours and is very cheap to replace.

    1. +BloodySword
      german wikipedia says they use digital light processing (DLP) in professional application.

    2. Yes, i noticed the (probably 70w or 150w) metal halide lamp, which i know can be brought for £14-£30 each. Thats much nicer than the typical bulbs for projectors, that ofter have their own reflector and sometimes some other optics attached and that sell for £130-£400

  2. those capacitors prolly are genuine, i dont think they would go through the trouble of faking the name brands on the insides. they are prolly just like 20 years old and stripped out of electronics scrap by workers in china.

    1. in 3 years late, but if you look at the Elna cap on the right it appears there is remnants of old adhesive from a different assembly. Scavenged junk. Edit – just saw he covered that.. lol.

    2. those capacitors look like they have some type of old glue on ‘the wrong sides’ to hold them in place in this project so they indeed look like they were pulled from some other much older equipment… also who would stock 2 different makes of capacitors… usually you just buy a few 100000 of the same make at a time

    3. Rinoa Super-Genius oh yes they would I mean they fake Microsoft mice to point where they almost look genuine unless u know what to look for so yes….yes they would…..

    4. You prolly never heard of the capacitor crisis back then? Or now, this very moment what G-STAR is going through? They can’t even guarantee the official G-STAR shops are selling genuine clothes, since the fake business got mixed with the real.

  3. From my understanding some of these companies can be extremely successful, in fact I think one of the biggest scam companies was recently sold to Apple for like $4 billion or something, think it was called Beats or something.

  4. I cringed at the bar graph display…. It was clearly designed to operate in the opposite direction with eh red indicators at the top, yet the bars are going in reverse…..what an oversight!!!

  5. Marc Vincent sounds quite similar to Mark Levinson minus the “Le” from the Levinson.

  6. I’m sorry mate I couldn’t watch the whole video.. I had to turn you off, way to much talking to get to the point of the matter, and then there is your voice!!!! I’m just saying!

    1. add996 True…He needs to learn this thing called, “editing.” Doesn’t have to be just cuts (frame to frame) it can be cross fades. But I hate these types of videos where it takes the person 10 minutes in a 16 minute video to get to their point.

    2. “I don’t like his style. All channels should be tailored to my ADD riddled brain.”

      Well, stfu and go to another channel then.

    1. RalphyPlague yep because if they go back to the office their boss will just keep it, but they wont take a free $50 they need the $100 or they will just give it to thier boss

    2. GB even has a web site. The nerve of these thieves publicly presenting themselves and legitimate AV companies. Of course, their main photo shows a system they don’t sell because it’s a stock image for interior design, and all their contact and social media links reload the page you’re on. How are they not in jail?

    1. meowmeow I’m sorry to say you may have missed the part of the product being no way near Australian compliant. Only thing the Salvos could do is throw it in the bin.

    2. It was a serious fire hazard. Would you like to wake up in a house full of smoke bc you forgot to turn off the radio? He could kill the person (and their family – and neighbors if an apartment complex) he donated it to. That’s why, by law, it is trash.

    3. as always,we have to wait for some poor sod to suffer or death before anything is done…..instead of the other way round.

    4. +karlo šmehil If that’s what you think is annoying, you haven’t heard the absolute dog pits of Australia. They make his manchild voice sound like Barry White in comparison.

  7. They got my mother in a parking lot and talked her into buying two pairs of “high end” speakers that were “over-purchased” a few years back. I tracked them down within a couple of hors tailed them to their warehouse and I actually got her money back! I suppose it helped that I knew the owner of the building they were using as a warehouse/staging area.
    I called that one a WIN. Even if it cost some time and gas, it was SATISFYING. Truly satisfying. . . yep
    I am gonna go and gloat for a while

    1. Advertisements are essentially an insult to human intelligence in general. But then… humans prove its not much of an insult… cuz it’s true

    2. MidnightMarrow.

      Uhm, yeah, Dre was the advert here and the costs wheren 3.2billion dollars. So yeah, still all goes to advertisements. Even apple, that never advertises, advertises via their customers. Never been a better time for a salesman than now, people have money and are dead stupid.

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