crixnet
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2015
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I hear you, although Leica was a very established player with beaucoup bucks from their hand-built business before partnering up with Panasonic. And Apple never built any of their stuff; it was alway manufactured overseas.
I'd bet real money Audeze won't go this route. The EL-8 has been their first foray away from their original business model, and it has proved to be far less than a resounding success.
It's a little too early to say whether the EL-8 has "proved to be far less than a resounding success". There was a lot of stupid early hype about them being potentially better than the LCD series (what purpose would that serve Audeze?), which did them no favours. They are a competent, aesthetically pleasing planar that have been executed to sound good off an Ipod or any decent DAP (which they do) while not crushing your vertebrae. They sound & feel better to me than similarly priced planars like the HE-500 and the HE-560 for this purpose.
If Audeze can fix their QC issues, these should enjoy some success.
I grant you that you might have a different definition for a resounding success, but I stand by my remarks. I've owned the EL-8 and returned it precisely because of the sonic flaws that many here and elsewhere have experienced. The fact is that some products have a smooth rollout and subsequent adoption success, and some don't. You might disagree, and that's perfectly A-OK with me, but my experiences and impressions remain unchanged.
In another post, I said that Audeze has a proven track record of squashing bugs and evolving their products in ways that please many people. I don't doubt they'll do it again with the EL-8, assuming they keep the model in their lineup.