1. the tendency to not say something bad about a product that one buys doesn't at all have to do with some written or unwritten rule about manufacturers. it Has to do with the re-sale value of the product that the reviewer plans to sell. I'll admit that the original dac search of one particular head-fier interested me the most and I really did try to learn much from him. The problem became fixed as time went on.... every product was a day and night improvement over the last and there was rarely a real comparison between the components being retroactively pitted against each other. I can only roll my eyes at the recent "omega I" selling for near the price of an HE90 only because one person said it was better than the orpheus.. and that comment alone pushed its price beyond anything justifiable. The price of the modded/unmodded Melos amplifiers has been inflated through this very method. It simply don't buy this **** where a raving review is posted one minute and a month later it is being sold beyond purchase price.
2. The trend that is particularly bothering me is the Joining the chorus crowd. For example, to become part of the tomahawk and Hornet crowd a new member might post a new thread (it happens almost daily) detailing their journey, how wonderful the new amp is and pictures showing it's amazing craftsmanship. That is participation in a community... but not a real audio review and should not be taken as factual information. This self-esteem creating mob does no one any good.
3. A friend recently complained that selling on Head-fi is the selling of personalities. No longer can we market a chip or a new circut design... no no, it's about looking good, being friendly and buying into the cult of personality. While i don't think it's gone that far, i will say that the Meier thread does point to some disturbing realities. Why wasn't the Meier porta corda even considered?...instead we went for the FOTM, the headphonia and never realized what was going on for months.
4. There may be members who are too powerful. sorry about this big guys, but (even if it's a worthy product), i do feel uncertain about stuff that is being promoted from one big personality and turns into a fad. the recent zhaolu thing may be the best example of this, for a while we had true zhaolu believers challenging wadias and esoterics on the forum, like street mobs going on TV and asking the US army for a fight.
5. There is somehow this strange belief that we can't measure cables and power cords. It is simply wrong...there are measurements and those measurements do tell us something. it is important that we look at these and find cable companies willing to 1) publish the specs of their products, and 2) tell us what is in them.
6. I have to admit, that threads like this tend to look like bullying of younger or less experienced members by the big guys. I have to apologize, I've done this before myself. I think this is why we've had some bans... this overt characterization by high-rollers of low-fi people as ipod touting, portable amp loving, iem crazed kids. We really should stop and remember we were once new members ourselves.
7. I have a fear of falling into the same traps. Nearly all my dac reviews are done in A/b style and I go on listening to them until i am certain i know all the differences between the two components. But even then, it's very difficult sometimes. I have a fear that the Zana Deux may be over rated as an amplifier. after carrying it around to several meets, no one i've shown it to has actually bought one. Further, the fact that it hasn't sold on FS can either be indicative of 1) it actually being that good, or 2) we don't want to destroy the image of it being that good. Why do i feel it's over rated? well, because it doesn't carry the weight and clarity of most high end SE amps. And i'll admit to being a ZD fanboy.... i cringe whenever i see a person buy one and put it on a less than stellar source, makes me fear a bad impression could be derived from it because of that.
8. Overspending on the forum is somewhat rampant. I get a little shocked (but not surprised) whenever I see 300$ interconnects and 250$ power cords going into 500$ amps. Cables really should only cost a fraction of what the components cost. I really do believe that cables can make a difference and maybe this is the reason why so many here don't. there is only so much performance that can be sucked out of small components. So yea,..I'm no fan of the 300$ ipod cable.
9. Headphones really have to be taken in their context. Getting a great headphone first might be a wonderful idea of one is starting a rig, but it feels bad telling a guy that the headphone he just spent 1000$ on needs more than a cmoy to get it's full potential, especially if he doesn't plan on getting another amp. So yea, we shouldn't post great reviews of single components without talking about the other things in the chain.
10. Environment matters, it really does. Nothing can make a person take a more laid back view about his or her system than when comparing it to others. This is why the New York and Berkeley crowds push each other so much. if i came into Cal talking smack about my VDA-2, i'd be quickly shut up by the other great dacs around me. On the other side of the coin, i do pay close attention to whether a person doing the rave review is isolated or not, because it affects his/her audio perspectives.
