Originally Posted by daouda /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Wow, i dont think guido is a biaised "joe fan", simply a very satisfied customer willing to share a very positive experience, but you Kunalraiker sure look like a zealous "joe hater" and your posts actually really ooze of ill blood & immaturity ! You're in australia and joe is in california, so he cant possibly have done any real-life personal thing that could warrant so much resentment... where does this bitterness come from? Why do you try so hard to steer any potential customer away from him?
Like i've said i've done my research before settling on joe's higher-end LOD, and i'm not the kind of guy spending money for meaningless improvements, i'm ALWAYS looking for the best value i can get (I really dont have money to burn on audiophile snake oil, most bang for my buck is my motto...)
Ive considered taking the DIY route, but i know i dont have the skills (2 left hands here), experience (zero in electronics, never soldered anything) and time to get the same result average_joe achieved after many months of trial & error, improvements in components selection, or, to put it in other words : Research and Development. Its not only about the cost of the components.
Quoting Clieos in the DIY LOD thread, "The point is, the choice of cap plays a role in the final sound as well as they all have different flavor of them own". Based on rock_scissor_paper LODs very positive feedback in that thread, (check for instance f4phantom2500 quick impressions here and woody's detailed review there ), I trust average_joe to have selected the best sounding caps for his better, more expensive LODs, and i suspect they can even have gotten better now with a few more months of experimenting with more, different components. Everybody seems to accept and recognise that R&D time and costs aren't free, so companies charge more for better products, right? Do parts for a RSA amp cost that much more than for a Fiio E7? Probably not, but are people up in arms about the cost of a RSA amp?
Like most people, Im willing to pay more for a better end result. What i dont like and avoid as much as i can is paying for inflated marketing and communication costs that do not contribute to the product's final quality.
Now its simple common sense to doubt that average_joe would so easily disclose what parts to use, since this information represents the end result of a year of experimenting and learning and as such, a legitimate trade secret.
About using neutrik plugs vs more expensive ones such as viablu, i'm even pretty sure average_joe has some good reason for that, other than cost. Now i know i'm coming out a little too enthusiatic and confident about my purchase, but I'm quite obsessive with researching before buying something, and if you take a look at average_joe post history, you'll see he comes out first as a real passionate portable hifi enthusiast, which is what makes me confident about the love and care he puts in designing his stuff.
Like i said before, i've done a LOT of research and comparisons between the different offers before deciding on which to drop my hard-earned cash, and the cheaper compicat LOD did grab my attention... but while i think compicatx LOD is fairly reasonably priced considering the components used, im not a big fan of the obvious typical cheap marketing tricks used in the product description :
"This cable is not the one you can find everytime. Hurry up!"...... But there are 27 left.
Here is another one : "When you use this cable, you will taste the warm of copper and the great details of silver together." Again, take a look a that thread to see what several people have to say about this misleading statement that, using a poster's words in this thread, have certainly helped ALO to make a lot of money :
And more.......
While its part of the selling game, I dislike when a seller tries to fool me with cheap used cars salesman tricks and always favor a honest, factual argumentation that shows some respect for my intelligence.
Also, I dont see how Kunal can recommend this one at 45$ while saying Joe's higher end one is overpriced at 80$. Here is a link to the caps compicat uses in his LOD : Elna RFS SilmicII- Silk fiber and foil electrolytic audio capacitor which are $0.50 for both. And you also have to consider what kind of solder is used... Tin solder to go with silver plated wire, which does not have the properties that are listed according to head-fi members? He's also using the same neutrik plugs used by rock_scissor_paper. Like I pointed earlier, the cable and caps are obviously of a much lesser quality, and I personally confidently suspect that average_joe has also put far much more time, thoughts and care in the overall design of his LOD for optimal sound quality.
I cant beleive i've written so much only to justify my purchase researches and choice, but i know average_joe is not allowed to post in this thread so i had to counter Kunalraider weird, embittered attacks. Now you have more information to make your own choice.
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