[Click]

That's a real nice gesture. Leather wallet with a hand written note too.

Yeah I wasn't expecting anything in mail and was a bit surprised when I got this.

Penon didn't have to do this but they did anyway because they appreciate their customers.

 

[PeacockObscura]

If you are reviewing and getting free items, you certainly qualify for the title lol.

It is a really nice looking set, but it just doesn’t look great for the company when this stuff isn’t disclosed, and you have people here pushing the recommendation anywhere they can.

I will be disclosing in my review! As I said I bought the OD200 and my fancy pants cable I have waxed lyrical over many iems and cables bought with my own money and when I get stuff to review it's no different I mention in review that they are samples I've only got to keep KZ review samples so there's no incentive to give great reviews. I'm a hobbiest doing this for fun not a pro reviewer.
Edit
Thinking about it I've reviewed Effect Audio cables on review tours then bought the cables so it's cost me money doing reviews lol

 

[Ace Bee]

@kaeswiss, did you have both the EA1000 and the OD200?
If so, I'm curious how they compare.
I am just getting to test EA1000 and really, really like what I'm hearing!

Hold on. I'll be able to make that comparison this week.

 

[theintention]

I will be disclosing in my review! As I said I bought the OD200 and my fancy pants cable I have waxed lyrical over many iems and cables bought with my own money and when I get stuff to review it's no different I mention in review that they are samples I've only got to keep KZ review samples so there's no incentive to give great reviews. I'm a hobbiest doing this for fun not a pro reviewer.
Edit
Thinking about it I've reviewed Effect Audio cables on review tours then bought the cables so it's cost me money doing reviews lol

I was speaking in generalities to the whole thread in question. Not once is it mentioned in those two pages that items were sent for free, and if you are recommending it, it’s truly so simple as to say “Oriveti sent me this and it’s great”.

I’m not saying you aren’t a hobbyist, but what is the line if you are reviewing and accepting free promo items?…

 

[PeacockObscura]

I was speaking in generalities to the whole thread in question. Not once is it mentioned in those two pages that items were sent for free, and if you are recommending it, it’s truly so simple as to say “Oriveti sent me this and it’s great”.

I’m not saying you aren’t a hobbyist, but what is the line if you are reviewing and accepting free promo items?…

"free" has no relevance to me recommending anything. I really like something I've borrowed off a mate I recommend it and probably then buy it. I get a review sample I don't like it I say it's pants where the iem comes from or how I get it as zero relevance to whether I like it or not. But at the end of the day you can scroll on and make your own judgement. I have people who I think have similar tastes to me and listen to their recommendations and others I just scroll past. It's all a choice.
I'm an enthusiastic guy who loves sharing my enjoyment no agendas no paymasters. This hobby is swamped with choice of all flavours, you choose what to like and dislike. It's all opinions we share, yours is as relevant as mine.

 

[theintention]

I'm an enthusiastic guy who loves sharing my enjoyment no agendas no paymasters.

"free" has no relevance to me recommending anything.

This is the problem though. It does to the people you are recommending. People will listen to your recommendations BECAUSE of that enthusiasm, hell the only reason we are even HAVING this conversation is because of the OD700 pics you took, I thought they looked great but the way the company is discussed in these forums threw me off. It’s not a good look.

 

[PeacockObscura]

This is the problem though. It does to the people you are recommending. People will listen to your recommendations BECAUSE of that enthusiasm, hell the only reason we are even HAVING this conversation is because of the OD700 pics you took, I thought they looked great but the way the company is discussed in these forums threw me off. It’s not a good look.

I'm a professional photographer shoot me

 

[theintention]

I'm a professional photographer shoot me

that has nothing to do with what I am talking about.

And you are quite the photographer! Amazing pics.

 

[BCool]

"free" has no relevance to me recommending anything.

I'm an enthusiastic guy who loves sharing my enjoyment no agendas no paymasters. This hobby is swamped with choice of all flavours, you choose what to like and dislike. It's all opinions we share, yours is as relevant as mine.

I mean we're all random people on the internet. Are we just supposed to trust someone when they say that they aren't biased by price?

You may very well be a bastion of bias-free reviewing, but it's always good to have the information so that the reader can use their own judgement. There's really no good reason to hide when you've gotten something for free unless you (not you specifically, I'm talking in general) have an agenda.

 

[cobrabucket]

Dang. I bought quite a few IEMs from @Penon this year including the Dome recently and didn't receive a wallet.
EDIT: PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE...

 

[kaeswiss]

This is the problem though. It does to the people you are recommending. People will listen to your recommendations BECAUSE of that enthusiasm, hell the only reason we are even HAVING this conversation is because of the OD700 pics you took, I thought they looked great but the way the company is discussed in these forums threw me off. It’s not a good look.

I don't really fault anyone for not providing details on how they received their IEMs when it's an impressions post in this thread or other threads like the Orivetti one. I appreciate it when they do though if it's a free or demo unit. We have people who've purchased IEMs and post their impressions all the time. Impression posts in threads like these get lost after a while unless you're a master at using the forum search functions.

I think that kind of disclaimer (free unit for review/temporary demo/discounted purchase/full purchase) should be given when submitting an actual review in the Showcase section. Those reviews are stuck there and easy for others to find. They show up easily when searching on Google as well so it makes sense to have a disclaimer in the showcase reviews. https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/

 

[theintention]

I don't really fault anyone for not providing details on how they received their IEMs when it's an impressions post in this thread or other threads like the Orivetti one. I appreciate it when they do though if it's a free or demo unit. We have people who've purchased IEMs and post their impressions all the time. Impression posts in threads like these get lost after a while unless you're a master at using the forum search functions.

I think that kind of disclaimer (free unit for review/temporary demo/discounted purchase/full purchase) should be given when submitting an actual review in the Showcase section. Those reviews are stuck there and easy for others to find. They show up easily when searching on Google as well so it makes sense to have a disclaimer in the showcase reviews. https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/

Meh, easy enough to ignore people who do that then. It’s kinda ridiculous how much I have seen that name in this forum and zero mentions of it.

Just look at all the mail posts featuring their boxes over the last 2 weeks. How simple is it to type “look what oriveti sent over!”

I did it just then and I didn’t even get a free set, dang I am missing out.

 

[pradiptacr7]

Let's see where it stands..!!
The most discussed AFUL MagicOne came for review.

 

[cobrabucket]

First full day with the EA1000.
Really digging the detail retrieval of this set.
Sounds great with the album "Sylva" by Snarky Puppy with Metropole Orkest.
I think these are especially well suited for orchestral and jazz.
The texture of the bass is top notch!

 

[nraymond]

"free" has no relevance to me recommending anything. I really like something I've borrowed off a mate I recommend it and probably then buy it. I get a review sample I don't like it I say it's pants where the iem comes from or how I get it as zero relevance to whether I like it or not. But at the end of the day you can scroll on and make your own judgement. I have people who I think have similar tastes to me and listen to their recommendations and others I just scroll past. It's all a choice.
I'm an enthusiastic guy who loves sharing my enjoyment no agendas no paymasters. This hobby is swamped with choice of all flavours, you choose what to like and dislike. It's all opinions we share, yours is as relevant as mine.

People say, "I'm just a hobbyist", but I think that's a fuzzy distinction that means different things to different people. I don't use the term hobbyist reviewer for myself because it's not clear to me what it is. It's not like someone can go to school or get a license to become a "pro" reviewer. Even in the "pro" publications like Stereophile my understanding is that not all the reviewers there do reviewing as their full-time job. There are also very different types of "pro" reviewing outfits. There are the commercial ones where most of the money comes in from ads (often from the companies making some of the products being reviewed) and that ad money is a significant revenue stream for the publication, which can influence (intentionally or unintentionally, consciously or unconsciously) the objectivity of the reviews. Sometimes this can be as subtle as receiving review samples direct from the companies which are "golden samples", having gone through additional Q&A checks and/or tweaking to achieve a higher performance target that isn't representative of the retail product. On the other end of the spectrum are the non-profit organizations like Consumer Reports which have (by design) no ad money coming from companies and go out of their way to acquire (sometimes multiple) retail units, posing as regular customers, to make sure what they are reviewing is representative of what everyday people experience, and also combine that with reader surveys to gather real-world data on product performance and reliability in the field and then independently publish those results.

To the people who use the term "hobbyist reviewer" online, maybe they mean "casual reviewer", and mean to imply they are somehow being more objective than the pros because it is just a hobby? However if a "hobbyist reviewer" is receiving a review sample direct from the manufacturer nobody but the manufacturer knows if that's a golden sample, and getting free review items creates at minimum a subconscious effect on the reviewer (and the associated pressure either implicit or explicit regarding a positive review likely feeding into receiving more review items at a later date and/or page views and traffic, because correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the main page of head-fi.org features negative reviews). And for hobbyist reviewers who buy audio gear with their own money, unless they are within a retail return window or have unlimited finances, they are dis-incentivized from giving too negative a review that could tank the aftermarket value of the item (since they're less likely to get as much selling it if they try and recoup some of their costs). I think there can be a lot of work involved in being objective, and not a lot of incentive to do that work for the hobbyist. And to say to the reader, "make your own judgement", well, that judgement can only be as good as the info the reader has available, which is often pretty incomplete.