The Watercooler -- Impressions, philosophical discussion and general banter. Index on first page. All welcome.

[NJoyzAudio]

Cross-posting from the Eletech thread:


Hi everyone. I saw the above message from @dpeterfy32, clicked the link, paid him and now realize I made my biggest classifieds buying mistake to-date and wanted to warn everyone against dealing with this crook.

I paid this active head fier $1600 for his Ode To Laura cable through the classifieds after seeing the above post. He claimed he would send by EMS from Hungary to USA and $100 of the the price was for that. I specifically requested tracking which EMS, at $100, should provide. At the outset, based on our initial conversation, his feedback and his time on Head Fi, I made the unforgivable error of paying F&F via PayPal, something I will certainly not do again. So, just saying upfront, I accept the responsibility for how this will end, it's my bad.

Three days later, Feb 13, he said he sent the cable through Hungarian post (?) and that once the package was in the USA, I would receive an email with tracking info (?). I asked him for a receipt, tracking or any other proof of post, which he claimed he didn't have. I asked how we could track this without such but he was annoyed by the question, essentially telling me to be patient. I usually am, but proof of posting had been requested from the beginning without any substantive response.

So I waited and, considering he'd been an active member here, I tried not to worry. Well, a couple of weeks passed and I heard and received nothing. I DM'd him about this, and lucky him, he said he was on a 2 month vacation (!), but when he was back, he would check ! I responded that wasn't acceptable.

I again told him he needed to provide me some proof of post with which I could verify shipment and follow up. He said he didn't have anything, was on vacation and couldn't do anything. To which I replied, "I can't wait for 2 months, get me that proof or refund my money". He said "I'm not a store, I don't give refunds" and "once I shipped the risk was on you". I replied "only if you can provide some proof that you actually shipped the cable".

Fast forward to today where I again reiterated my request for proof of post or a refund and told him his handling of the situation wasn't acceptable or reasonable. He responded that he had communicated with his post office and that the package was lost in transit but they were trying to locate it. He finished by saying that since Hungarian post lost it, he still does not owe me a refund. Again, I told him that was not true without proof of actual shipment. He never even sent a pic of the box, label, no receipt, nothing.

I will get, and deserve, castigstion for paying F&F. Stupid, I know, lesson learned! I just didn't think it would happen here! Anyway, I think it goes without saying, this user @dpeterfy32 is not to be trusted, has clearly been dishonest and should be banned from making any further sales on Head Fi unless and until he resolves this situation.

Always 2 sides to a story, but my and his DMs will prove mine and I am happy to show them to anyone interested.

Any other suggestions on what to do here? I won't die over this but it really shakes my faith in our community.

emdeevee

Man I'm sorry you have to deal with this!
Thanks for keeping us updated about a seller like this!

 

[Aetherhole]

Cross-posting from the Eletech thread:


Hi everyone. I saw the above message from @dpeterfy32, clicked the link, paid him and now realize I made my biggest classifieds buying mistake to-date and wanted to warn everyone against dealing with this crook.

I paid this active head fier $1600 for his Ode To Laura cable through the classifieds after seeing the above post. He claimed he would send by EMS from Hungary to USA and $100 of the the price was for that. I specifically requested tracking which EMS, at $100, should provide. At the outset, based on our initial conversation, his feedback and his time on Head Fi, I made the unforgivable error of paying F&F via PayPal, something I will certainly not do again. So, just saying upfront, I accept the responsibility for how this will end, it's my bad.

Three days later, Feb 13, he said he sent the cable through Hungarian post (?) and that once the package was in the USA, I would receive an email with tracking info (?). I asked him for a receipt, tracking or any other proof of post, which he claimed he didn't have. I asked how we could track this without such but he was annoyed by the question, essentially telling me to be patient. I usually am, but proof of posting had been requested from the beginning without any substantive response.

So I waited and, considering he'd been an active member here, I tried not to worry. Well, a couple of weeks passed and I heard and received nothing. I DM'd him about this, and lucky him, he said he was on a 2 month vacation (!), but when he was back, he would check ! I responded that wasn't acceptable.

I again told him he needed to provide me some proof of post with which I could verify shipment and follow up. He said he didn't have anything, was on vacation and couldn't do anything. To which I replied, "I can't wait for 2 months, get me that proof or refund my money". He said "I'm not a store, I don't give refunds" and "once I shipped the risk was on you". I replied "only if you can provide some proof that you actually shipped the cable".

Fast forward to today where I again reiterated my request for proof of post or a refund and told him his handling of the situation wasn't acceptable or reasonable. He responded that he had communicated with his post office and that the package was lost in transit but they were trying to locate it. He finished by saying that since Hungarian post lost it, he still does not owe me a refund. Again, I told him that was not true without proof of actual shipment. He never even sent a pic of the box, label, no receipt, nothing.

I will get, and deserve, castigstion for paying F&F. Stupid, I know, lesson learned! I just didn't think it would happen here! Anyway, I think it goes without saying, this user @dpeterfy32 is not to be trusted, has clearly been dishonest and should be banned from making any further sales on Head Fi unless and until he resolves this situation.

Always 2 sides to a story, but my and his DMs will prove mine and I am happy to show them to anyone interested.

Any other suggestions on what to do here? I won't die over this but it really shakes my faith in our community.

So sorry you have to deal with this. Saddens me to see such dishonesty…

Part of what I love about this place is the people, but there certainly are those who slip through the cracks and try to take advantage of the great community.

Really, really hoping this ends more in your favor…

 

[Emvo]

Looks awesome! Purple is my favorite color; need to get that purple GT2 case

Got my first purple audio gear today.
Edit: Not first; Volur, UM Max and others were purple

I was actually just looking into those!

Purple is one of my favorite colors and figured it would pair well with the Fei Wan.

Also came across this limited wire from eletech on musicteck's site with that blue 8w and love that color scheme too...

Side Note:

I know everyone has their opinions of wirefi and since I'm new to all this wanted to just test a bunch out...

Ordered an Eletech Eclipse and Penon OCC849 to play around with.

My curioustiy wanted to test to see if I heard any differences and noticed between the OCC and eclipse that the area of sounds are different.

OCC I feel I had more of an encompassing feeling while with the eclispe is in a precise range.

The OCC helps me increase the Fei Wan volume would out making the upper notes too harsh, but the Eclipse would get a bit spicy when increasing for the same experience at a higher volume.

My current issues I'm facing with my FW is sibilance or track qualities giving me this illusion of sibilance. I'm not sure what I'm experiencing in some of my old edm tracks. It just sounds poorly that it turns me off to listening on the FW ha.

So for 100$ trial I'm enjoying this process of playing around.

@emdeevee sorry to hear what happened. Honestly I think with FF its pretty much all is lost as iirc there is no protection just pure trust between parties. Maybe if you paid with CC then attempt a card dispute there, but not sure how they would handle that either.

 

[theveterans]

@emdeevee Sorry to hear this sad news I believe in karma so I hope you'll get better unexpected rewards in the future and the scammer an even more bad luck for him.

Maybe if you paid with CC then attempt a card dispute there, but not sure how they would handle that either.

I don't think PP FF allows you to use a CC to make a transaction

 

[emdeevee]

@emdeevee Sorry to hear this sad news I believe in karma so I hope you'll get better unexpected rewards in the future and the scammer an even more bad luck for him.


I don't think PP FF allows you to use a CC to make a transaction

PayPal does allow this, and that's how I did it, so I'm also trying to dispute thru the credit card as well as PayPal, but I don't hold out much hope!

Unfortunately, head fi removed my post in the ET thread, but thankfully left my Watercooler cross post!

 

[TheMiddleSky]

I am trying not to write a review:

Heard many good iems (storm, fugaku, apx se, valhalla, annhi, macbeth the list goes on etc..........).

The Moses is on another level, to my ears this passes every test track and I find almost no flaws with it. Everything I love about music and find missing is simply in this iem.
1) thunderous bass with details and slight warmth. Not bleeding to mids.
2) killer mids. It's forward and it sings details, vocal techniques and every breath taken, every swallowing action are tastefully done. In fact the best vocals I have heard to date. No preference for lower mids or upper mids vocals. It just does both so damn well.
3) treble that give you goosebumps. No sibilance and it really goes all the way and touches the end of the horizon.
4) W-shaped at its best. To do all three regions so well is a feat. Normally all W-shaped iems are well done only in bass-mid or mid-treble, but this iem does it so well that I find no flaws with it. Thus far, I really cannot think of any W-shaped that sound like it.
5) wide sound stage, with great separation. So this is the magic of balancing the W so that they don't cluster together and sound congested, everything well placed and have its place and in the right amount.
6) add-on for great customer service

Comparison
The perfection for me is the flaw for others: some hate bass, some hate forward vocals, some hate details, some hate tastefully done treble. Basically, if you hate W-shaped and only like V-shaped/L-shaped (e.g., Durandal for V or EE Evo for L) you can skip this iem. No matter how you cable roll, dap roll or use an amp, Moses will remain a W shaped iem.

a) Those that hate good bass quantity can go straight to macbeth. Not that macbeth lacks bass quality, it just does not have enough quantity for me. Vocals are more mid-upper focused. Mainly if you love bass, you will go straight to Moses. If you are bass okay, you go straight to Macbeth. If you are bass-shy, I don't want to know you.

b) Those that hate forward vocals and lots of bass quantity, yet crave details can go Storm. Storm has vocals and bass not forward, but full of details. It has a lesser quantity of bass. It's a very unique iem which many love (except me). I want to say it's technical but it's also musical, but I want to say it's musical, it's not really that musical. I find myself having an IEM identity crisis when I listen to the storm, and that's for me only (I don't want to be gunned down by storm lovers). Basically if you love good amount of bass and forward vocals, just go Moses. If you like the vocals a bit backwards, and much lesser quantity of bass, go storm. If you wonder why I never mention treble, in short, Moses is better for me in terms of treble, but Storm is not far off.

c) Those that want good bass and good vocals but treble shy can go Valhalla. Valhalla is treble safe, yet not shabbily done treble (yes yes there is sparkles and air but it's not to the extreme best). Vocals are lower-mid focused for Valhalla. For vocals with A5 and E5 range, you will not hear the magic in Valhalla but Moses soars and roars. One good thing about Valhalla is that it's cable sensitive, and the sound changes quite a lot depending on the cable you use (I went as far to buy a cable just for Valhalla to get the sound I want). For Moses, I never explored cable roll as it's already at its best with stock cable.

d) And how does it compare to the king of iems, the apx se, which is the top place for many watercoolers. For the bass, I previously mentioned that apx se lacks some details when hearing from the lower register of the bass guitar to the higher register (actually this is source dependent). Vocals are lower-mid focused and sound better with vocals in the lower-mid range. Treble is spicy for some, but is already tuned down way more as compared to amber version, to me, treble for apx se is okay and not sure where the spice comes from. Moses is also source dependent on a brief dap rolling based on the daps I owned. The greatest difference I think is both iems handle bass. Both have great amount of sub-bass. Moses has better bass separation and details for bass guitars (it's a pleasure listening to it during live tracks), with the same test track on APX SE, I cannot hear the details when the bassist runs down the riff to the upper registers of the bass guitar. APX SE has way way better bass thumb/slam than Moses, especially on EDM/hiphop (Moses owners might beg to differ, but nope). Vocals depend on what you prefer, Moses is way forward and does well for both lower-mid and upper-mid vocals. Moses wins in treble (cos APX SE plays it safe).

e) Fugaku. It's like an aged wine with an acquired taste. I like fugaku and on many levels it's different from Moses. It's like warm but sliding in details. Organic and natural but a bit too much. Reminds me of listening to vinyl through a headphone. It does everything well but not to the best. It has slightly less bass, it has less forward vocals, Moses has better treble, but the tuning for fugaku treble complements the creamy sound it produces. Like I say, an aged wine for the acquired taste.

Sidenote
*If I want to nit-pick on Moses, the bass can have even more texture but that is nit-picking for an already awesome bass presentation.
* The ultimate flaw of W-shaped iems is having the bass, mids, and treble presented to you at the same time. While the great sound stage/seperation from Moses helps relieve the fatigue, it actually works better with some daps in long term listening (e.g., nippo n2, sp3kt, dx340) and does not work well with N6iii.

Conclusion
The greatest compliment I can give an iem. "To me and my picky ears, there is Moses, and there are others, at least for now."

Thanks for the detailed impression. Next week I will have chance to try Moses, and will compare it againts Macbeth and Fugaku.

Currently my biggest curiosity for now is Moses against Forte Ears prototype. Have to wait for Canjam SG to compare them.

Two people have lost big sums of money and they must view classifieds differently now, could we nominate a well liked Head Fi'er to send contributions to ($10, $20, or whatever folk can afford?) so even if they get half their money back it's something, and more importantly gives them a good feeling again when they think of Head-Fi classifieds.

Great idea!

Cross-posting from the Eletech thread:


Hi everyone. I saw the above message from @dpeterfy32, clicked the link, paid him and now realize I made my biggest classifieds buying mistake to-date and wanted to warn everyone against dealing with this crook.

I paid this active head fier $1600 for his Ode To Laura cable through the classifieds after seeing the above post. He claimed he would send by EMS from Hungary to USA and $100 of the the price was for that. I specifically requested tracking which EMS, at $100, should provide. At the outset, based on our initial conversation, his feedback and his time on Head Fi, I made the unforgivable error of paying F&F via PayPal, something I will certainly not do again. So, just saying upfront, I accept the responsibility for how this will end, it's my bad.

Three days later, Feb 13, he said he sent the cable through Hungarian post (?) and that once the package was in the USA, I would receive an email with tracking info (?). I asked him for a receipt, tracking or any other proof of post, which he claimed he didn't have. I asked how we could track this without such but he was annoyed by the question, essentially telling me to be patient. I usually am, but proof of posting had been requested from the beginning without any substantive response.

So I waited and, considering he'd been an active member here, I tried not to worry. Well, a couple of weeks passed and I heard and received nothing. I DM'd him about this, and lucky him, he said he was on a 2 month vacation (!), but when he was back, he would check ! I responded that wasn't acceptable.

I again told him he needed to provide me some proof of post with which I could verify shipment and follow up. He said he didn't have anything, was on vacation and couldn't do anything. To which I replied, "I can't wait for 2 months, get me that proof or refund my money". He said "I'm not a store, I don't give refunds" and "once I shipped the risk was on you". I replied "only if you can provide some proof that you actually shipped the cable".

Fast forward to today where I again reiterated my request for proof of post or a refund and told him his handling of the situation wasn't acceptable or reasonable. He responded that he had communicated with his post office and that the package was lost in transit but they were trying to locate it. He finished by saying that since Hungarian post lost it, he still does not owe me a refund. Again, I told him that was not true without proof of actual shipment. He never even sent a pic of the box, label, no receipt, nothing.

I will get, and deserve, castigstion for paying F&F. Stupid, I know, lesson learned! I just didn't think it would happen here! Anyway, I think it goes without saying, this user @dpeterfy32 is not to be trusted, has clearly been dishonest and should be banned from making any further sales on Head Fi unless and until he resolves this situation.

Always 2 sides to a story, but my and his DMs will prove mine and I am happy to show them to anyone interested.

Any other suggestions on what to do here? I won't die over this but it really shakes my faith in our community.

So sorry to hear that man. Few months ago I also got scammed, and lost around $2500. Definitely felt terrible, but life goes on anyways.

 

[BORUSSIA]

Could be even worse, I got scammed here for $4600

With no chance of getting my money back…..

Hard lesson learned

Holy crap, that’s a hard pill to swallow. Can I ask what happened? That’s why I like to deal with people I know and who I can trust..

 

[Emvo]

PayPal does allow this, and that's how I did it, so I'm also trying to dispute thru the credit card as well as PayPal, but I don't hold out much hope!

Unfortunately, head fi removed my post in the ET thread, but thankfully left my Watercooler cross post!

Great I'm glad you have one safety net and hopefully your CC company helps out.

 

[skcheng]

Thanks for the detailed impression. Next week I will have chance to try Moses, and will compare it againts Macbeth and Fugaku.

Currently my biggest curiosity for now is Moses against Forte Ears prototype. Have to wait for Canjam SG to compare them.


Great idea!


So sorry to hear that man. Few months ago I also got scammed, and lost around $2500. Definitely felt terrible, but life goes on anyways.

I liked Ricardo's proto tentatively named Faust. One of the highlights of CanJam NYC for me. Less forward tuning than MacBeth and more to my tastes. So Forte will have legitimate options kinda like Aroma with the Jewel and Fei Wan.

 

[Ike1985]

I think the current economic and political climate has put a big damper on audio, well on everything.

 

[wolfstar76]

Cross-posting from the Eletech thread:


Hi everyone. I saw the above message from @dpeterfy32, clicked the link, paid him and now realize I made my biggest classifieds buying mistake to-date and wanted to warn everyone against dealing with this crook.

I paid this active head fier $1600 for his Ode To Laura cable through the classifieds after seeing the above post. He claimed he would send by EMS from Hungary to USA and $100 of the the price was for that. I specifically requested tracking which EMS, at $100, should provide. At the outset, based on our initial conversation, his feedback and his time on Head Fi, I made the unforgivable error of paying F&F via PayPal, something I will certainly not do again. So, just saying upfront, I accept the responsibility for how this will end, it's my bad.

Three days later, Feb 13, he said he sent the cable through Hungarian post (?) and that once the package was in the USA, I would receive an email with tracking info (?). I asked him for a receipt, tracking or any other proof of post, which he claimed he didn't have. I asked how we could track this without such but he was annoyed by the question, essentially telling me to be patient. I usually am, but proof of posting had been requested from the beginning without any substantive response.

So I waited and, considering he'd been an active member here, I tried not to worry. Well, a couple of weeks passed and I heard and received nothing. I DM'd him about this, and lucky him, he said he was on a 2 month vacation (!), but when he was back, he would check ! I responded that wasn't acceptable.

I again told him he needed to provide me some proof of post with which I could verify shipment and follow up. He said he didn't have anything, was on vacation and couldn't do anything. To which I replied, "I can't wait for 2 months, get me that proof or refund my money". He said "I'm not a store, I don't give refunds" and "once I shipped the risk was on you". I replied "only if you can provide some proof that you actually shipped the cable".

Fast forward to today where I again reiterated my request for proof of post or a refund and told him his handling of the situation wasn't acceptable or reasonable. He responded that he had communicated with his post office and that the package was lost in transit but they were trying to locate it. He finished by saying that since Hungarian post lost it, he still does not owe me a refund. Again, I told him that was not true without proof of actual shipment. He never even sent a pic of the box, label, no receipt, nothing.

I will get, and deserve, castigstion for paying F&F. Stupid, I know, lesson learned! I just didn't think it would happen here! Anyway, I think it goes without saying, this user @dpeterfy32 is not to be trusted, has clearly been dishonest and should be banned from making any further sales on Head Fi unless and until he resolves this situation.

Always 2 sides to a story, but my and his DMs will prove mine and I am happy to show them to anyone interested.

Any other suggestions on what to do here? I won't die over this but it really shakes my faith in our community.

Sorry to hear this. I actually saw the same link he posted, and I actually also followed the link only to find the cable is sold. For some reason, I also had the wrong impression that this scammer is active and also presented in one of the European meet (correct me if I am wrong). I could have trusted him if I were you.

However, I will probably paid the difference and ask for G&S. I paid with F&F once to a truly reputable head-fier (he is active in watercooler thread and doing reviews frequently). But I guess unless I personally know someone, I will always use G&S.

For all others, I strongly suggest you do the same, if a seller suggest F&F, you can pay the fee to use G&S instead, in this way, if the seller refuse, it will be very fishy.

 

[skcheng]

 

[goldwerger]

Sorry to hear this. I actually saw the same link he posted, and I actually also followed the link only to find the cable is sold. For some reason, I also had the wrong impression that this scammer is active and also presented in one of the European meet (correct me if I am wrong). I could have trusted him if I were you.

However, I will probably paid the difference and ask for G&S. I paid with F&F once to a truly reputable head-fier (he is active in watercooler thread and doing reviews frequently). But I guess unless I personally know someone, I will always use G&S.

For all others, I strongly suggest you do the same, if a seller suggest F&F, you can pay the fee to use G&S instead, in this way, if the seller refuse, it will be very fishy.

+1 on that

I recently purcahsed a Decware Taboo Mk4 amp (I got lucky and snatched a brand new one off a buyer who waited nearly 3 years to get it built and got another amp by the time it shipped). Anyway, we connected for a video call for me to check authenticity he showed me the amp and he checked out in other way and was clearly very legit and reliable. But I politely asked if I could pay him the extra to cover a G&S sale. I've simply learned in the past to dislike the pit in my stomach that occures between sending F&F and praying the judgment call of blind trust would prove right. I reserve F&F to... friends and family

 

[mikaik]

I'm often very nervous when buying from Classifieds. So far everyone was good and fair. And I've only recently understood why some sellers would only sell to people with good ratings.
When I sold my sp2000t I was scared to sell to someone with no rating, so I've sold it on Ebay eventually. Probably to the same guy
I feel much better when I buy/sell from/to the same guy twice.

 

[pfurey89]

As a seller here, I won’t sell to a new account or someone not active here. I ship products the day a payment clears and communicate instantly and well. I expect good service if I am giving you thousands of dollars in general. Otherwise you need to set expectations before the sale.