[Rockwell75]

Haha the guy is a joke. All of the other reviews and owner impressions must be null and void now Everyone are entitled to their opinion but he does love to bash a CA IEM so I'd bare that in mind ... I'd trust his reviews about as much as I'd trust Gary Glitter to babysit my kids. A funny read though! The hatred runs deeeep.

I must say in his defence that, in the right context and situations, he's actually one of the most knowledgable, perceptive and capable people out there with respect to writing about and conveying nuances of sound in a way that appeals equally to one's head and heart. I've enjoyed many of his posts and his perspectives and, when taken at face value, his honesty. It also helps that he's a gifted writer. All of that said the approach he takes only really works when one is as objective as possible and I happen to know from first hand experience that he is at the centre of a notable grudge against Campfire Audio that has emanated, to one degree or another from a certain corner of the online audio community since around time the Solaris was released. On account of this I have a hard time taking anything he says about their products at face value. If he ever gets over this (and one or two other things) it would serve his credibility very well in my eyes.

 

[Tristy]

I must say in his defence that, in the right context and situations, he's actually one of the most knowledgable, perceptive and capable people out there with respect to writing about and conveying nuances of sound in a way that appeals equally to one's head and heart. I've enjoyed many of his posts and his perspectives and, when taken at face value, his honesty. It also helps that he's a gifted writer. All of that said the approach he takes only really works when one is as objective as possible and I happen to know from first hand experience that he is at the centre of a notable grudge against Campfire Audio that has emanated, to one degree or another from a certain corner of the online audio community since around time the Solaris was released. On account of this I have a hard time taking anything he says about their products at face value. If he ever gets over this (and one or two other things) it would serve his credibility very well in my eyes.

It's one guys opinion at the end of the day and where his loyalties lie is glaringly obvious if anyone takes the time to peruse his "reviews". Entertaining either way.

 

[mashuto]

There is a good review of Dorado (and Vega) from Aminus:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ami...nd-reviews-stuff.911048/page-48#post-16080413

Hah, I follow his review thread on and off and actually enjoy it most of the time. Though he very purposefully chooses to be negative, I think its fine. But this review just missed the mark for me. Not so much because he doesn't like them, but because it seems to me like he is listening to a totally different IEM than I am in this case. The bass is big, sure, but I dont hear it as massively bloated. And I certainly dont know how he doesnt perceive any weight or impact to the bass because again thats just not how I hear it. Treble is fairly sharp, but I again dont hear it as tinny or sibilant. So really not sure on this one where the disconnect is.

Makes me wonder sometimes though when the things I hear are actually just completely objectively different to what I hear. It almost sounds like he just got a horrible fit with these as a bad seal might certainly make something sound like what he describes. But then again, he should be experienced enough to know when he does or doesnt have a good seal. Maybe its me? Who knows.

I did however have a feeling with the dorado that it likely wouldn't appeal to some of the reviewers who don't shy away from being more critical... still will be interesting to see what crin says. My guess is it will also not be too flattering.

 

[TjFont]

Yeah it's a really good synergy! To be honest with you, the SR25 seems to be consistently great with all CA IEM's I've tried it with.

Good to know! It does sound great with my Andromeda 2020, but my one quibble is that I wish I could make the volume a bit lower when I am working or chilling out before going to sleep. Since the Dorado has similar specs I presume that it would sound as loud.

 

[OhmsClaw]

Hah, I follow his review thread on and off and actually enjoy it most of the time. Though he very purposefully chooses to be negative, I think its fine. But this review just missed the mark for me. Not so much because he doesn't like them, but because it seems to me like he is listening to a totally different IEM than I am in this case. The bass is big, sure, but I dont hear it as massively bloated. And I certainly dont know how he doesnt perceive any weight or impact to the bass because again thats just not how I hear it. Treble is fairly sharp, but I again dont hear it as tinny or sibilant. So really not sure on this one where the disconnect is.

Makes me wonder sometimes though when the things I hear are actually just completely objectively different to what I hear. It almost sounds like he just got a horrible fit with these as a bad seal might certainly make something sound like what he describes. But then again, he should be experienced enough to know when he does or doesnt have a good seal. Maybe its me? Who knows.

I did however have a feeling with the dorado that it likely wouldn't appeal to some of the reviewers who don't shy away from being more critical... still will be interesting to see what crin says. My guess is it will also not be too flattering.

Meh.... Crin has lost most credibility reviewing CA or most western products in my eyes. He's more interested in promoting his collaborations and ChiFi to the masses. Even if there's quality products and the B2 Dusk is a good IEM his agenda is transparent.

 

[mashuto]

Meh.... Crin has lost most credibility reviewing CA or most western products in my eyes. He's more interested in promoting his collaborations and ChiFi to the masses. Even if there's quality products and the B2 Dusk is a good IEM his agenda is transparent.

Fair enough. Though he does seem to think favorably of a number of "western products" still. He seems to like a number of the 64 audio releases, has a few empire ears iems rated highly and does still have the andromeda ranked pretty high. But yes I do remember the whole drama with him and CA a while back. Honestly though, the whole thing was pretty stupid, but whether intentional or not, he does seem to have had a hand in at least changing some of the public perception towards CA for the worse. And that whole bellsing thing didnt help either.

Anyways, its a good idea in this hobby to never take a single persons thoughts/preferences as gospel, nor to let anyone elses like or dislike of something influence your own personal enjoyment of something. And going back to that animus review. Honestly, I am more confused than anything. I dont expect everyone to love the things I like, and had it just been his subjective opinion, I would get that. But some of the things he said were pretty objective and things that I just dont hear. These types of reviews make me question whether I just dont pick up on nearly as many things as others or whether everyone else is making things up. Kind of helps solidify my decision that its time to scale back a bit with this hobby. And my opinion of the dorado hasnt changed.

 

[Rockwell75]

Meh.... Crin has lost most credibility reviewing CA or most western products in my eyes. He's more interested in promoting his collaborations and ChiFi to the masses. Even if there's quality products and the B2 Dusk is a good IEM his agenda is transparent.

In the last couple years I have spent a considerable amount of time in most of the major online communities devoted to portable audio and it seems to me quite natural that western communities would be more focused on western companies, and Asian communities would be more centred on Asian audio companies. Thus when you're in a place you see a lot of talk about Campfire Audio, whwereas in some of the more popular discord servers related to portable audio it's not surprising that they're mostly hyping Asian companies like Hidition, Thieaudio, QDC, Moondrop and Linsoul, (with 64 Audio often included, seemingly as the "token white guy"). I think it's also fair to say that different companies tune their products to different cultural ideals-- thus many/most of the popular Asian brands tend to release IEMs that sound really really good with JPOP, KPOP etc...which may or may not translate well to western music and preferences. The Odin, in particular, seems to have been tuned to some extent with Asian pop in mind. I didn't know any of this at first and when I initially fell in love with the Solaris two years ago I was told by all sorts of people that the only reason I liked it was that I had limited experience and hadn't experienced many of the better products out there. I eventually got curious about this and a glance through my list of ex-IEMs should make it pretty clear whose ranking list I used as a guide when looking for other IEMs to try...however in all that I never did manage to find anything to one up the Solaris for me (until the Elysium came along). Anyway, I think all of this is fairly normal however it would be helpful for noobs if there were some more caveats spelled out in terms of individual preferences and less implying that there is one objective ranking system out there that applies to everyone, everywhere. All of that said yes, there has been, emanating from certain quarters a notable bias against CFA in particular since about the time Solaris first came out-- I've never fully understood it however for much of the last two years it's impossible to spend any amount of time on Discord without picking up on it. I don't understand it but I personally believe it's why the above review seems so disjointed from the perceptions of everyone I know who has heard the Dorado. Either way I'll find out for myself soon enough as I plan on making the Dorado my next big audio purchase.

 

[OhmsClaw]

Fair enough. Though he does seem to think favorably of a number of "western products" still. He seems to like a number of the 64 audio releases, has a few empire ears iems rated highly and does still have the andromeda ranked pretty high. But yes I do remember the whole drama with him and CA a while back. Honestly though, the whole thing was pretty stupid, but whether intentional or not, he does seem to have had a hand in at least changing some of the public perception towards CA for the worse. And that whole bellsing thing didnt help either.

Anyways, its a good idea in this hobby to never take a single persons thoughts/preferences as gospel, nor to let anyone elses like or dislike of something influence your own personal enjoyment of something. And going back to that animus review. Honestly, I am more confused than anything. I dont expect everyone to love the things I like, and had it just been his subjective opinion, I would get that. But some of the things he said were pretty objective and things that I just dont hear. These types of reviews make me question whether I just dont pick up on nearly as many things as others or whether everyone else is making things up. Kind of helps solidify my decision that its time to scale back a bit with this hobby. And my opinion of the dorado hasnt changed.

Praising the U12T and Trio while destroying the Fourté is not brave and largely value based criticism(gotta push those 150-300-700 chifi iems afterall). He clowns all the Andromeda re-releases and nothing is higher than the,OG or v2(whichever he owns) which also seems against his will to 1 star it due to overwhelming, historical, community praise.

His EE praise is lukewarm and only in favor of the Odin; all other EE reviews range between flavored crap and incoherent misadventures into driver tech.

My only actual and legitimate complaint is these Howard Stern style reviewers have a market impact like the days of old when a Robert Egert could bomb a box office prior to a film release or more recently Rotten Tomatoes destroying a movie yet the popcorn buckets over 80%.

Oh well, ordering the Dorado tomorrow.

 

[mashuto]

Praising the U12T and Trio while destroying the Fourté is not brave and largely value based criticism(gotta push those 150-300-700 chifi iems afterall). He clowns all the Andromeda re-releases and nothing is higher than the,OG or v2(whichever he owns) which also seems against his will to 1 star it due to overwhelming, historical, community praise.

His EE praise is lukewarm and only in favor of the Odin; all other EE reviews range between flavored crap and incoherent misadventures into driver tech.

My only actual and legitimate complaint is these Howard Stern style reviewers have a market impact like the days of old when a Robert Egert could bomb a box office prior to a film release or more recently Rotten Tomatoes destroying a movie yet the popcorn buckets over 80%.

Oh well, ordering the Dorado tomorrow.

I'll be looking forward to your impressions!

 

[crinacle]

Sigh.

No, I do not have any bias towards ChiFi. No, I do not hate Western products just because they are Western. Yes, I don't like a lot of Campfire IEMs because it is my opinion that a lot of them are tuned poorly.

I haven't even reviewed the new Dorado/Vega (yet, guess now I have the motivation to expedite that), that was a completely different reviewer. But I guess the whole "crinacle bad" train needs to start somewhere, and with some familiar passengers too.

 

[mashuto]

Sigh.

No, I do not have any bias towards ChiFi. No, I do not hate Western products just because they are Western. Yes, I don't like a lot of Campfire IEMs because it is my opinion that a lot of them are tuned poorly.

I haven't even reviewed the new Dorado/Vega (yet, guess now I have the motivation to expedite that), that was a completely different reviewer. But I guess the whole "crinacle bad" train needs to start somewhere, and with some familiar passengers too.

I'm not sure that the sentiment here was "crinacle bad", at least it definitely wasn't from me. I can't speak to others, but I thought the discussion, again at least from my end, was specifically about your opinions and where they lie or where they might lie for these products. Especially given your pretty well known opinions towards campfire. And yes we are aware that it wasn't you that reviewed them.

But you also should be well aware that your opinions carry a lot of influence in this hobby, and that influence can affect how companies are perceived whether it is your intention or not.

 

[JustJoseph]

This is hilarious. Crinacle hasn’t even reviewed an IEM yet, but people mistook a negative review for his and started bashing him. More people started going along with it and alleging that he has an “agenda” against Campfire.

 

[JustJoseph]

Meh.... Crin has lost most credibility reviewing CA or most western products in my eyes. He's more interested in promoting his collaborations and ChiFi to the masses. Even if there's quality products and the B2 Dusk is a good IEM his agenda is transparent.

Did you read the name of the reviewer?

 

[cadgers]

The reading comprehension is this thread is the real 2/10 here. Anyone have any measurements of the new Dorado?

 

[Tristy]

This is hilarious. Crinacle hasn’t even reviewed an IEM yet, but people mistook a negative review for his and started bashing him. More people started going along with it and alleging that he has an “agenda” against Campfire.

Thanks for the play-by-play people definitely wouldn’t have been able to piece that together without it....