[AstronomerXI]

Remaining:
55 US/Canada
4 EU
10 UK
10 AUS
As of 9:15 EST

 

[Plautus001]

Zeos for headphone amps and headphones, Steve Guttenberg for speakers, preamps, and power amps.
I have yet to find a reviewer who shares my preferences in what a DAC should sound like.

I agree with your picks.

I really miss Steve written reviews and of course Innerfidelity.

I can jive with Zeos, but man it takes a lot of mental discipline to get the one minute of actual information from his reviews.

 

[corndog71]

Everyone talking about the Magni+ Heretic made me feel like I was being gaslit. I was sure it was Heresy. Or used to be.
Checked my pile of Schiit and sure enough.

 

[filthy mechanical]

I agree with your picks.

I really miss Steve written reviews and of course Innerfidelity.

I can jive with Zeos, but man it takes a lot of mental discipline to get the one minute of actual information from his reviews.

Biggest issue I have with Zeos, and why I stopped paying attention to him, is he must be deaf. There was a headphone-amp set he reviewed that I own and he claimed it barely got loud enough at full volume to be usable, and I am jamming away at 9 o'clock in low gain and turned the computer down to get the volume knob that high. Mindboggling.

Or I have protected my hearing even though I work in heavy industry - 0-10dBA loss on the hearing test, most in the 0-5 range.

 

[AstronomerXI]

Remaining:
55 US/Canada
4 EU
10 UK
10 AUS
As of 9:15 EST

As of 10:07,
35 USA/Canada
3 EU
10 UK
9 AUS

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I can jive with Zeos, but man it takes a lot of mental discipline to get the one minute of actual information from his reviews.

Biggest issue I have with Zeos, and why I stopped paying attention to him, is he must be deaf. There was a headphone-amp set he reviewed that I own and he claimed it barely got loud enough at full volume to be usable, and I am jamming away at 9 o'clock in low gain and turned the computer down to get the volume knob that high. Mindboggling.

Or I have protected my hearing even though I work in heavy industry - 0-10dBA loss on the hearing test, most in the 0-5 range.

Zeos is opinionated and overly verbose. Which applies to pretty much every reviewer ever.
He's also rather "loud," while I'm a relatively quiet guy myself—that makes it a bit difficult for me to watch his videos.
And that he decided that "all DACs sound the same" should be the hill he wants to die on is just laughably ridiculous to me.

But I don't need to be BFFs with the guy to appreciate that his taste especially in headphones is eerily similar to my own. Out of all the headphones I own, I disagree with his description on just two of them. No other reviewer comes even close to his "batting average."
As with all other reviewers, I don't actively follow him or watch any of his reviews as they come out. Instead, I approach this whole thing the other way around: If I come about a set of headphones that intrigue me, I check if he reviewed them in the past, and then I watch that review. Based on his description, I know by now that I can be reasonably certain whether I will end up liking them or not, without actually having heard them myself.
I have even passed on headphones that received rave reviews by many because he didn't like them, and when I finally had a chance to audition them myself, I always discovered that I didn't miss out on anything special.
So, he already helped me save a couple of thousand dollars in headphones alone. Whether he's a little bit abrasive or not, I guess he has earned my trust. That's worth a lot in this business.

He's also a big cat guy, which I appreciate. Long live Chewbacca!

Edit:
This is essentially also how I figured out which reviewers I align with. After having bought something, and after I have lived with a piece of gear for a little while, I went ahead and watched reviews about that particular piece of gear. That way, I relatively quickly figured out which reviewers tend to align with my own preferences, and which do not. I essentially reviewed the reviewers to distill out the "best" ones (for me).

 

[Hyde00]

I cave in, I hate you all.

Also shipping to Canada was terrible.

Nevertheless, I bought one.

EDIT: That being said, I read more into the backstory of this product. I'm one of the early users of Massdrop way back in the days. So I'm kind of glad I can support CEE TEE on this.

 

[filthy mechanical]

Zeos is opinionated and overly verbose. Which applies to pretty much every reviewer ever.
He's also rather "loud," while I'm a relatively quiet guy myself—that makes it a bit difficult for me to watch his videos.
And that he decided that "all DACs sound the same" should be the hill he wants to die on is just laughably ridiculous to me.

But I don't need to be BFFs with the guy to appreciate that his taste especially in headphones is eerily similar to my own. Out of all the headphones I own, I disagree with his description on just two of them. No other reviewer comes even close to his "batting average."
As with all other reviewers, I don't actively follow him or watch any of his reviews as they come out. Instead, I approach this whole thing the other way around: If I come about a set of headphones that intrigue me, I check if he reviewed them in the past, and then I watch that review. Based on his description, I know by now that I can be reasonably certain whether I will end up liking them or not, without actually having heard them myself.
I have even passed on headphones that received rave reviews by many because he didn't like them, and when I finally had a chance to audition them myself, I always discovered that I didn't miss out on anything special.
So, he already helped me save a couple of thousand dollars in headphones alone. Whether he's a little bit abrasive or not, I guess he has earned my trust. That's worth a lot in this business.

He's also a big cat guy, which I appreciate. Long live Chewbacca!

Edit:
This is essentially also how I figured out which reviewers I align with. After having bought something, and after I have lived with a piece of gear for a little while, I went ahead and watched reviews about that particular piece of gear. That way, I relatively quickly figured out which reviewers tend to align with my own preferences, and which do not. I essentially reviewed the reviewers to distill out the "best" ones (for me).

I have no issue with his presentation, the market is small and there are a lot of reviews so you need to find your niche. I just think he is deaf - not wrong in the results, just deaf.

 

[AnalogEuphoria]

I have no issue with his presentation, the market is small and there are a lot of reviews so you need to find your niche. I just think he is deaf - not wrong in the results, just deaf.

I mean hours upon hours of listening at high volumes on speakers and headphones is bound to have some detrimental effect, I myself used to listen far too loud for hours a day when I was younger and now I have mild tinnitus and some bass loss in my right ear ( I don't know why its only one) but it made me become more sensible with my listening as I got older and I want to enjoy what hearing I have left instead of just making it worse. Also the longer you listen the more likely you are to keep turning it up so I avoid the 4+ hour sessions these days.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I have no issue with his presentation, the market is small and there are a lot of reviews so you need to find your niche. I just think he is deaf - not wrong in the results, just deaf.

For headphone amp reviews, many of his usual go-to headphones are of ridiculously low sensitivity. Keep an eye out for what he uses when he reviews the headphone amps that you mentioned, I'm sure that you'll find that this is at least in part why he turned them up so much more than the 9am that you found comfortable.
But yes, he's maybe also a little bit deaf by now.

 

[LobalWarming]

I cave in, I hate you all.

Also shipping to Canada was terrible.

Nevertheless, I bought one.

EDIT: That being said, I read more into the backstory of this product. I'm one of the early users of Massdrop way back in the days. So I'm kind of glad I can support CEE TEE on this.

Good for you. PM me next month when you're ready to partially recoup the terrible shipping cost.

 

[Jimmyblues1959]

I cave in, I hate you all.

Also shipping to Canada was terrible.

Nevertheless, I bought one.

I caved in hours ago! lol Congrat's on your persistence. At the end of the day you're getting a great and limited production headphone amplifier for the price of a few meals at a fast food restaurant. And helping to support a new American audio company run by a class act! Yes, Cee Tee, you!

EDIT: That being said, I read more into the backstory of this product. I'm one of the early users of Massdrop way back in the days. So I'm kind of glad I can support CEE TEE on this.

Yes! And as of 11:30pm EST it looks like all of the Piety's have been sold! That's less than 12 hours from the time they went on sale.
Congrat's on an incredibly successful product launch Cee Tee!

 

[AstronomerXI]

1 Piety left for sale for USA/Canada at 11:25 PM ET

 

[AnalogEuphoria]

1 Piety left for sale for USA/Canada at 11:25 PM ET

 

[LobalWarming]

1 Piety left for sale for USA/Canada at 11:25 PM ET

The FOMO Express has left the station.