[Alcophone]

Klipsch seems to be doing sales and deals quite regularly, so chances are that it's still going to be on sale for the original target price quite regularly, though probably not for a while.

 

[Level5]

I wouldn't be surprised if they drop it to the old price come BF.

 

[waveSounds]

Man, that was quite the read having stumbled upon this thread by chance!

I absolutely bought into Musiqlovr and what he set out to achieve. Those trying to bring him and the product down with tactless comments about profits were... unbelievable (euphemism). I'd have reacted the same way regardless of whether in a "professional" capacity or not; for a change it was a breath of fresh air to see some real passion from someone who clearly gives (or should it now be gave..) a crap about what they'd created, and not the usual droning corporate response devoid of emotion. These things were clearly the labour of love!

These were at the top of my future purchase list. They had it all for me; sumptuous design, fantastic specs, reasonable price, and most importantly, had been driven by the unrelenting ethos of a team to deliver something they were proud of. That they believed in.

They were.

Now that Musiqlovr has been despatched of, for sticking to his principles, Klipsch is now at the very top of another list, and it aint a good one

 

[XERO1]

I usually don't chime in on this kind of discussion, but this one just seems very odd to me.

To me, it makes absolutely no sense for Musiqlovr to have been let go because he insisted that the price remain at $999.

First of all, how do we even know if this is true. So far, it seems to be pure speculation.

Second, it makes little sense that someone would be willing to get fired over something that they have no real control over. And if the final price came out to be higher than originally projected, wouldn't it be acceptable to simply let the headphone communities know that in the first place? Klipsch could say something like 'instead of cutting corners, we chose to offer the best possible version of the headphone, which unfortunately exceeded the originally planned price point'. Sure, there would have been the usual grumbling about the cost of it's fancy packaging, but it would have hardly been a deal-breaker for most. And it would have been a lot less controversial than firing the project leader (and spokesperson) the same day that the headphone is launched.

So what I'm trying to say is that there must be more to this then we currently know, and until we hear from someone directly connected to the matter, simply speculating about it and then assuming that the speculation is true, isn't helpful at all.

 

[Beagle]

This debacle has left a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of potential buyers. Sad.

 

[Daemon Ursus]

I usually don't chime in on this kind of discussion, but this one just seems very odd to me.

To me, it makes absolutely no sense for Musiqlovr to have been let go because he insisted that the price remain at $999.

First of all, how do we even know if this is true. So far, it seems to be pure speculation.

Second, it makes little sense that someone would be willing to get fired over something that they have no real control over. And if the final price came out to be higher than originally projected, wouldn't it be acceptable to simply let the headphone communities know that in the first place? Klipsch could say something like 'instead of cutting corners, we chose to offer the best possible version of the headphone, which unfortunately exceeded the originally planned price point'. Sure, there would have been the usual grumbling about the cost of it's fancy packaging, but it would have hardly been a deal-breaker for most. And it would have been a lot less controversial than firing the project leader (and spokesperson) the same day that the headphone is launched.

So what I'm trying to say is that there must be more to this then we currently know, and until we hear from someone directly connected to the matter, simply speculating about it and then assuming that the speculation is true, isn't helpful at all.

The problem with your defending them, saying we haven't heard the whole story is this, they have had 3 weeks to put out some form of response. Aside from Musiqlovr, there were 2 other Klipsch employees involved in this thread at various points. The lack of timely response speaks loud and clear, they don't care about this thread, Musiqlovr cared, regardless of why he is gone, he is gone. Klipsch is a multi-million dollar company, they can speak for themselves, they don't need your protection. They bungled this situation, if they care, they can clean it up on their own.

 

[jude]

The problem with your defending them, saying we haven't heard the whole story is this, they have had 3 weeks to put out some form of response. Aside from Musiqlovr, there were 2 other Klipsch employees involved in this thread at various points. The lack of timely response speaks loud and clear, they don't care about this thread, Musiqlovr cared, regardless of why he is gone, he is gone. Klipsch is a multi-million dollar company, they can speak for themselves, they don't need your protection. They bungled this situation, if they care, they can clean it up on their own.

I agree with @XERO1 on this one. Even if we assume it's true that someone's no longer employed there doesn't mean we know the details behind it -- or that it's any of our business -- and I'm seeing a lot of speculation here. To suggest that a company should chime in on a public forum about anything having to do with why someone was hired or let go is probably not realistic or fair.

If you want to discuss (or complain about) the price change, the headphone, etc., that's fine. Assuming we know all sides of any of this other stuff is a big stretch, and I don't think we know enough to start kicking and screaming about that side of it.

Let's get this discussion back on the headphones.

 

[Daemon Ursus]

I agree with @XERO1 on this one. Even if we assume it's true that someone's no longer employed there doesn't mean we know the details behind it -- or that it's any of our business -- and I'm seeing a lot of speculation here. To suggest that a company should chime in on a public forum about anything having to do with why someone was hired or let go is probably not realistic or fair.

If you want to discuss (or complain about) the price change, the headphone, etc., that's fine. Assuming we know all sides of any of this other stuff is a big stretch, and I don't think we know enough to start kicking and screaming about that side of it.

Let's get this discussion back on the headphones.

You completely misinterpreted what I was saying. I did not ever say they should disclose why he was fired, nor do I even really care. My issue has always been that their representatives said one thing i.e. the price was going to be 999, head-fi members would get a shot at them before others, etc and that is not how it worked out, and despite this being an "official Klipsch thread" started by a member of their staff, they failed to communicate on multiple issues with us and in the time since the issues were first brought up we have heard nothing from them.

For all intents and purposes, Klipsch made this thread, Klipsch asked for our input. This was never a hp-3 review thread, or owners thread, or even an impressions thread, this was supposed to be a way for us to directly interact with Klipsch. The title of the thread is even "Klipsch High End Over Ear-your input appreciated" Here is my input, I was excited for these, I have participated in this thread for the better part of a year, I am no longer excited for these. Why? Klipsch failed to meet my expectations based on the comments made by their (at the time) official representative. If Klipsch has no desire to provide further direct interaction with members of this forum via this thread, I purpose the closure of this thread and the opening of an impressions or review thread with no direct connection to the manufacturer.

 

[cute]

I agree, time to close this thread. @Musiqlovr started this thread, now he is gone!

 

[XERO1]

The problem with your defending them, saying we haven't heard the whole story is this, they have had 3 weeks to put out some form of response. Aside from Musiqlovr, there were 2 other Klipsch employees involved in this thread at various points. The lack of timely response speaks loud and clear, they don't care about this thread, Musiqlovr cared, regardless of why he is gone, he is gone. Klipsch is a multi-million dollar company, they can speak for themselves, they don't need your protection. They bungled this situation, if they care, they can clean it up on their own.

I'm not defending Klipsch. If they fired Musiqlovr for some BS reason, then they deserve our ire. But my point is that we simply don't know what happened, and we may never know.

So just speculating about what we think may have happened doesn't help the matter.

 

[XERO1]

You completely misinterpreted what I was saying. I did not ever say they should disclose why he was fired, nor do I even really care. My issue has always been that their representatives said one thing i.e. the price was going to be 999, head-fi members would get a shot at them before others, etc and that is not how it worked out, and despite this being an "official Klipsch thread" started by a member of their staff, they failed to communicate on multiple issues with us and in the time since the issues were first brought up we have heard nothing from them.

For all intents and purposes, Klipsch made this thread, Klipsch asked for our input. This was never a hp-3 review thread, or owners thread, or even an impressions thread, this was supposed to be a way for us to directly interact with Klipsch. The title of the thread is even "Klipsch High End Over Ear-your input appreciated" Here is my input, I was excited for these, I have participated in this thread for the better part of a year, I am no longer excited for these. Why? Klipsch failed to meet my expectations based on the comments made by their (at the time) official representative. If Klipsch has no desire to provide further direct interaction with members of this forum via this thread, I purpose the closure of this thread and the opening of an impressions or review thread with no direct connection to the manufacturer.

Well, if there's one thing that I'm 100% certain about after all of this drama, it's that this will definitely be the last time Klipsch will ever try to get user feedback using a forum thread.

 

[Beagle]

If Klipsch has no desire to provide further direct interaction with members of this forum via this thread, I purpose the closure of this thread and the opening of an impressions or review thread with no direct connection to the manufacturer.

Well, if there's one thing that I'm 100% certain about after all of this drama, it's that this will definitely be the last time Klipsch will ever try to get user feedback using a forum thread.

I was never a firm believer that getting feedback from a headphone forum on how to shape your sound was a good idea. Your (Klipsch or whomever) headphone should be designed the way YOU would like it to sound based on what you felt was accurate when you designed your other components in the past.

 

[Musiqlovr]

Hello Head-Fi,

Ok, so I really didn't know if I would come back to this thread, but I felt like I need to address some things.

First and foremost, the love you guys have shown me is insane and I truly cherish it. THANK YOU!

On Sept 28th I got a call early in the morning (from my boss-CEO) that there was going to be a reduction in force. We had known that our parent company was looking for us to reduce overhead and spending. I was originally helping with the plan and at some point came off the team helping and I guess was added to the team leaving

I don't know the exact number of people who were let go, but I managed Product Dev, Program Management, Channel Marketing, Creative Services and Industrial Design, in total from those teams 4 of my team members were also let go

I don't know and don't want to know all the details, what I was told was that the company wanted to focus more on Passive speakers (Klipsch's core biz) and CI (custom integration).

When I joined 2 years ago, I was brought in to specifically build Klipsch a Digital, Streaming and Portable product solution. Which I feel our team did, we built some amazing stuff, we had been working on the HP3 design, driver choice, picking the factory we would use for about 10-11 months before I started this thread in like Oct...That's how we were able to go to CES with 3 samples (and samples of HP1 and HP2).

Since the company was kinda going back to its roots, there really wasn't a need for such a big team or really a separate division.

They did keep Vlad. Vlad is a good guy-as you can tell he isn't nearly as cool as me, he's kinda a dork (haha hope you read this Vladislav) . Just kidding-maybe

The HP-3 is a Great HP, please don't shy away from it because I am no longer at Klipsch.

I am actively engaged in new job search and while I am being kinda picky, I believe I should have a new position somewhat soon. There are about 6 companies I am talking to, some are in the HP space, some are not...so we'll see, I feel like I can design or sell anything with audio coming out of it...

My heart is full from all the kind words...

Steve

 

[RatFarm]

I wish you luck on your job hunt.

All the best,
Rat

 

[wnmnkh]

Hello Head-Fi,

Ok, so I really didn't know if I would come back to this thread, but I felt like I need to address some things.

First and foremost, the love you guys have shown me is insane and I truly cherish it. THANK YOU!

On Sept 28th I got a call early in the morning (from my boss-CEO) that there was going to be a reduction in force. We had known that our parent company was looking for us to reduce overhead and spending. I was originally helping with the plan and at some point came off the team helping and I guess was added to the team leaving

I don't know the exact number of people who were let go, but I managed Product Dev, Program Management, Channel Marketing, Creative Services and Industrial Design, in total from those teams 4 of my team members were also let go

I don't know and don't want to know all the details, what I was told was that the company wanted to focus more on Passive speakers (Klipsch's core biz) and CI (custom integration).

When I joined 2 years ago, I was brought in to specifically build Klipsch a Digital, Streaming and Portable product solution. Which I feel our team did, we built some amazing stuff, we had been working on the HP3 design, driver choice, picking the factory we would use for about 10-11 months before I started this thread in like Oct...That's how we were able to go to CES with 3 samples (and samples of HP1 and HP2).

Since the company was kinda going back to its roots, there really wasn't a need for such a big team or really a separate division.

They did keep Vlad. Vlad is a good guy-as you can tell he isn't nearly as cool as me, he's kinda a dork (haha hope you read this Vladislav) . Just kidding-maybe

The HP-3 is a Great HP, please don't shy away from it because I am no longer at Klipsch.

I am actively engaged in new job search and while I am being kinda picky, I believe I should have a new position somewhat soon. There are about 6 companies I am talking to, some are in the HP space, some are not...so we'll see, I feel like I can design or sell anything with audio coming out of it...

My heart is full from all the kind words...

Steve

Thank you so much for the clarification. I retract what I said in earlier in the thread.
HP-3 is definitely on my radar again, and I hope you will have better luck on your next job.