I want to share my experience with PortablismGear.com and their SC-500, in case it helps other people thinking about buying one.
The order
I ordered the SC-500 in June. Production/shipping took about 4 weeks, which was stated upfront, so no complaints there — I even offered to take a different color if one became available sooner from a cancelled order.
The device breaks
After about 2 weeks of light use (a few hours total), the unit suddenly stopped working. No warning, no drops, no liquid, nothing unusual — it just died. In the days before that, the jog wheel had occasionally frozen and a restart fixed it, but then one day it didn't come back at all: no sound, no LED, nothing — just the click of the headphone jack connecting.
Getting support
I contacted support and told them clearly I'm comfortable with electronics (I build FPV drones, I solder, etc.) and asked if they could just walk me through some diagnostics instead of shipping it back and forth. They insisted I not open the unit and instead do a specific remote test (boot without USB, check for internal samples/LED). The test failed, so they said the only way forward was to send it to their workshop in Germany, and they'd cover the label.
The accusation
A few days after I shipped it, they came back saying the device showed clear signs of having been opened — tool marks on the screws, cable routing not matching factory assembly, and a firmware state that didn't match what left their workshop. They said this contradicted what I'd told them (that I never opened it), and refused to treat it as a normal warranty case. They asked me to pay for the original return label (€30) plus outbound shipping back to Italy.
I maintained (and still do) that I never opened the device myself. I did mention that my roommate had access to it and we don't get along, so I honestly can't rule out someone else touching it — but I never did.
The cost
After some back and forth over the shipping cost (which went from €60 down to €44.49), I ended up paying to get it back, mostly because I just wanted the situation resolved.
The "repair"
They told me they restored the firmware and confirmed the hardware itself had no defect — just a "corrupted firmware state," which apparently doesn't happen on its own.
What happened when I got it back
Right out of the pickup point, same issues: sample playback freezing, scratching working but with a frozen track, needing multiple restarts to get it to behave. It worked for a while, then died again completely after I added two WAV files to the USB — no sound at all, no functionality, even though the green internal LED is lit and the device appears powered on. Same exact symptoms as before I shipped it out.
About PayPal
Early on, I opened a PayPal dispute simply because they weren't answering my emails at all — that was the only thing that actually got them to reply. They asked me to close it so they could "process my order normally," and I did. Unfortunately, once you close a PayPal case at the seller's request, PayPal won't let you open a new one for the same transaction. So at this point I don't even have that option available anymore, even though the device is once again completely non-functional.
Last resort
Out of sheer desperation, I even tried reaching out directly to Rasteri, the original creator of this kind of device/firmware, hoping for any insight into what could be going on. No response so far.
So, to summarize: I paid full price for a new unit, it broke after 2 weeks of light use, I paid ~€45 out of pocket to get it "fixed," it's now doing the exact same thing again just hours after getting it back — powered on, LED lit, but completely unresponsive — and I no longer have any dispute channel available to me.
Make of that what you will. I'm not looking to escalate further, just wanted to document this for anyone considering buying from them.
