Curious observation about the DBA-02

It's simple really. They are marketed towards a niche market outside of Russia. I believe in Russia they have some stores that have Fischer Audio products but I do not know what the market in Russia is like so I may be wrong. You don't hear DBA-02 or many Fischer Audio products outside of forums such as this is because they are not widely available since FA is a very small company with limited resources and can't provide as much stock as some large companies may be able to provide.  Outside of forums like this I can't imagine there being any information on them.

Well there is information out on them in other forums especially the Russian ones if you can read that. One thing you have to understand is that head-fi is probably the largest headphone and earphone forum on the internet. There's more information on many earphones here than other earphone related forums.

yep, rawrster basically got it right. The two main reasons are (1) they are harder to come by outside of Russia (but you can easily pick them up in many big superstore in the Russian cities). I mean, there are only like 5~6 dealers in the whole world, and out of them the one that do international shipping are mostly 1~5 persons based companies that have another day job of their own. (2) FA is itself a small, regional-oriented company. They never thought of selling outside of Russia before they approached Head-fi less than a year ago. In fact, all they wanted to do is to get some review done in order to promote the brand in Russia. It is the interest we generated here that make them decide to sell their products internationally. For a company that has less than a year experience on international market, I'll say they are doing alright. They would have been better if they can manufacture faster, but they probably don't want to risk too much money in one hand of poker.

No advertising on the US airwaves = wont be purchased by 99.99% of the others who are interested in buying headphones.  Fischer Audio does not advertise at all on TV or Radio like Bose and Monster do.  

Its a good thing, because if they did and had a sudden massive influx of pre orders or buyers interested in the DBA02 for example, you'd have to wait months perhaps years longer just to get yours

The reseller in scandinavia don't have them on their website and didn't even bother to answer my mail when I wanted to purchase the DBA-02 2 months ago. With this kind of attitude it won't be any easier. 

The DBA-02 is popular because it is new.  Every new product gets its couple months of fame before it settles down into its place in the mix.

What's unique to Fischer being a small company is that they have little overhead and little added cost to their products.  Pricing is automatically competitive even at their retail versus other companies street pricing.  This makes Fischer's products very attractive.  It certainly helps that they have a few good products in their lineup as well.  The Eterna and Silver Bullet are great budget level products and the DBA-02 is a very competitive dual BA driver IEM.  A good sound at a good price is always a hit.

I may or may not call the DBA-02 the most popular, but there is certainly a lot of interest in the earphone.  I think the HJE900 is the more popular one these days.  The DBA-02 is the most intriguing though.  People won't really have a good understanding of what it offers until there is a sizable level of group information on the product.  Right now there are only a small group of people who own one and only a small portion of that group writing any reviews.  It's hard for a person to understand how it sounds until enough people provide enough information.  For example, it took quite some time to amass enough info from enough people for me to even get an understanding of what the SM3 had to offer and if it was or was not what I might be intersted in trying.  It'll be the same with the DBA-02.

First off, I'm not sure the DBAs are really THAT popular.  Considering the short supply and relatively few owners I think a lot of discussion is about ordering, supply stock and tip selection since they are finicky.  The other consideration is that the DBAs really are that good for those that are able to hear them as such.  When an IEM is able to convert so many dynamic driver fans and so many whatever driver fans, that's worth considering.  This is the only BA IEM left in my inventory for a reason.    

There are owners in Singapore courtesy of Treeo

and I may be the first one to own here in Philippines, satisfied owner i.e.

Quote:

Originally Posted by joesuburb 

It's because this website gets a paycheck from them. Same reason the site hates monster.

Where did you get this information? I can safely say (as an FA dealer) that nobody involved with FA has ever sent money to anyone involved with administrating this forum.

Samples have been sent to some forum members not affiliated with Head-Fi's management or with the forum at all. That's the extent of any incentives that have been given. I'll also add that there's never been any pressure from myself or FA on the reviewers to provide good reviews.

If you're asking for my personal opinion, I'm actually one who does not believe in buying your way out on this forum - I've experienced first hand what 'corruption' occurs from it and I want no part in it whatsoever.

As for Monster hatred - I beg to differ. The Turbine Pro series has been very well regarded here, even by Jude, who would be the first person affected by any paychecks from companies (which I suppose would include Monster). It's just some of their other work some people don't find too hot. And the whole HDMI cable thing - readers of this forum are generally more tech savvy and know to go to the dollar store for their HDMI cables.

Their website is a disaster...

64 headphones in 10 categories with NO DESCRIPTIONS

I can only imagine how many customers they are losing because the product listing is so unintelligible

Quote:

Originally Posted by jarrett 

Their website is a disaster...

 

64 headphones in 10 categories with NO DESCRIPTIONS

 

I can only imagine how many customers they are losing because the product listing is so unintelligible

They do have the descriptions on the Russian site, and seeing as Russia is their primary market, probably not a huge number.