No problem!
I successfully sold the Conductor today, and found myself gladly, without being asked by the interested party, reducing the price even further to essentially what I would have gotten back in refund from Linsoul after their 35% "re-stocking" fee. Giving back to a Head-Fi'er, rather than throwing the money at a prohibitively restrictive retail model, made up entirely in my mood for the "loss" in re-sale. It felt more like a partial gift, and giving feels good, if one is fortunate enough to be in the position to do so.
But this experience with the Shuoer flagships, and the entirely justified anxiety of those having ordered the Conductor, or thinking about ordering it, and waiting for impressions from one or two other users, has given me a beehive of buzzing thoughts this afternoon. I'm getting on a soapbox here. I'm also new enough to the community that my thoughts will likely have occurred to most of you, but since I do have at least one possible avenue towards a community solution, I want to see the response.
First, my honest, personal impressions:
1. The Shuoer Conductor is in no way obviously inferior to the Shuoer EJ07. In fact, I am not even certain my own preference would have been for the EJ07 in the long run, despite the fact that I sold the Conductor. The Conductor is a damned good, state-of-the-art, beneficially unique device, and deserves a wide hearing.
2. I was given 7 days to return the Conductor to Linsoul, and that only at a 35% loss. This necessarily leads to me a.) being super cautious about which product I purchase and b.) extremely hasty in making a decision. These points exacerbate as the price tier goes up.
Now, some more general observations:
This model of IEM purchasing royally screws over consumers who cannot directly test the models (anyone purchasing in most U.S. cities, and I gather, anyone outside of the Eastern hemisphere cities).
It creates the, again, justifiable psychological reaction, especially in the more expensive models, of thinking in terms of "end game's" and there being objectively "better," or more to the point, "best" products out there, with the game being on making the "right" choice almost entirely blind.
Few people can afford to hang onto more than one or two TOTL IEM's at a time, and the heavy penalty of the "re-stocking" fee makes this equivalent with "making one or two purchases, period," again, unheard, based only off frequently useful, but unavoidably partial opinions of others, delivered in an entirely different medium (verbal, when this is audition we're talking about).
Meanwhile, those who are lucky enough to be happy with the IEM they get often only have knowledge of that kind, or a few others, and are left in a psychological limbo of needing to defend the "rightness" of that choice (without any context), and of simultaneously being tempted to doubt they made a good choice, and suspect every other user's good experience as possibly having proven their own choice dated or blinkered. In other words, wide "knowledge" of the options out there, the actual distinctions between them, and the ACCESS to them needed to really understand one's own preferences, is unacceptably hard to obtain.
Now, then, what kind of model for consumption puts the power in the consumers' hands?
Headphones.com shows the benefit of not having a re-stocking fee. And the year-long try-out is nice, but is "a year" really the point of flexibility worth fighting for?
I propose instead something like the eyeglass companies that send you four or five (often quite expensive) models to try in-home.
Get rid of the re-stocking fees by figuring out that a broad swath of the consumer base doesn't care about boxes, and hates stock tips and often stock cables, and knows deep down that commemorative medals and such are cheap insults.
Then, offer buyers a chance to try, in-home, a set of four or five IEM's, putting the money down only for the most expensive one, say, with an agreement to be charged for any models damaged or lost. It doesn't have to be for a year, like headphones.com. What's important is having access to a variety with which to A/B, even just for two or three weeks.
The "trial" box is sent with just the earphones, and maybe two or three cables, also a variety on a "trial" basis. Cheap-o tips should be available free, but most of us buying at earphones more than $100 have enough of those already.
The company can use the UV light devices that clean iphones to sanitize the earphones and cables (or something similar), once they realize there is (and I think there is) a majority of us who are serious about the hobby who are fine with that, providing everyone is following the rules of careful handling (and make them explicit!).
~
Now here's my question: for us Chi-fi'ers, what would it take to get Linsoul (let's just consider that for now) to implement something like this?
They have a discord, they have relations with customers and with major reviewers like BGGAR.
Get a plan typed up, some refinement of the one above, with the best additions or subtractions, find as many people as we can on Head-fi or elsewhere who have shown Linsoul they are serious about the hobby, by having been a paying customer (in their database), and sign it like a petition. What would probably be even more effective is if an intermediate step were taken, where the pressure of a lot of regular, paying customers then was used to put pressure on the reviewers that Linsoul sends free product to to also sign the petition. The reviewers depend on the company, but also, and I would say ultimately, upon us. The reviewers need to be with us on this, though (and I suspect, or hope, that BGGAR would be, if we did the work of getting enough commitments together).
I am basically suggesting something like a consumers' union here. Not just to "save money", but to open the full range of the hobby up to more people, and most of all, to increase the knowledge of the products, and tunings, and thereby better the market's winnowing of chaff. Purchases not made on fear or anxiety, but on knowledge, are better for everyone, and for trust among consumers, reviewers, retailers, and designers.
Whatcha' think? Am I crazy?
