Actually a very thoughtful and reasonable response. Allow me to oblige the same:This is an interesting topic and one I've tried to navigate with varying degrees of success over the years. Firstly I do think there are, broadly speaking, different regional tuning preferences. "Western" companies tend to be more fixated on a foundation of solid bass (Audeze, Fir, Campfire, Empire Ears), European manufacturers tend to be more focused on the midrange (Sennheiser, Custom Art, Vision Ears, Lime Ears etc.) and Asian companies are more likely to fixate on upper mids and air & sparkle in the highs (Hifiman, Elysian etc.). Now this is hardly an absolute, either across companies or across people, however I think there is just enough to it to make it an interesting thing to ponder. In a way it's no different than different geographic/cultural regions having different preferences around food and flavor-- which is certainly non-controversial. And it doesn't really matter where you live-- I live in western Canada, am as white as they come, and yet all my favorite food is Asian. The second part of comment there was simply pointing out that it's perfectly natural for different communities to be more aware or focused on companies that are local to them. Thus in Asian audio communities there may be more of a focus on Asian brands, and in American communities on American brands. I don't think there's anything particularly contentious about this.
Regarding you and Crinacle specifically going out of your way to hype Asian brands and denigrate non-Asian brands-- no I have never made that claim in the past and I would not make it now, however...
I do feel that you have a strong bias against Campfire Audio specifically. The first time I ever heard your name was in Crinacle's Discord sometime in late 2019 or early 2020 and you were being called out by one of the mods (Leneo I think) for, over the course of like a year, obsessively doing everything you could to trash Campfire and damage their reputation as a brand. It had gotten so bad and so obvious that the mods of the server had to step in and warn you about it because, in their eyes, it was having a deleterious effect on the community. It is for this reason that, as much as I have admired and acknowledged your writing and knowledge in the past (notably in this post right above the one you linked to) I have never been able to take much of your commentary (specifcally but not exclusively around CFA stuff) at face value or as much more than an advanced form of trolling.
For what it's worth, I don't disagree with the inherent idea that peoples' music preferences inevitable shape their audio preferences. I don't think it's limited to that either; I strongly suspect that genetic differences in ear and skull shape and different listening levels (this is one that no one talks about but I think plays a huge role) also affect what gear one ultimately likes. In fact, I'd go so far to say that I absolutely agree with the idea that a lot of actual Kpop and Jpop listeners do love their upper mids, and that I couldn't disagree more with the kind of shriek that these people acclimate themselves to. I think the idea of Asians disliking Western IEMs precisely because of this reason is ridiculous though; I can't speak for others but all my music listening is classical music, as such I'm more than happy to admit that absolute correctness in the midrange and timbre are of greater importance to me than anyone else. Many of my best audio friends are also Asian, but have very similar preferences to mine despite mostly listening to pop (not K/Jpop) and jazz music. The one thing we do have in common is our listening volume, which is on the louder side. Make of that what you will.
As for Campfire themselves, one must understand that during that era of 2019-2020 it was trendy to poopoo on them for the Solaris unit variance incident and the "shady Singaporeans" drama. Leneo (who I am friends with IRL, by the way) stepping in regarding drawing a line with me was probably because I was a major figurehead of that server during that time period. It's not a sign that I specifically was some sort of major detractor of Campfire and needed to be stopped, it was more that the entire server culture had always been against Campfire, even long before I joined, and he was essentially making an example out of me to try to put a hard stop to that as it was, like you mentioned, detrimental to both their brand and the reputation of the server. Of course, I haven't been in that server since, what, 2020, so I couldn't tell you what it's like in there anymore.
If you want my honest opinion on Campfire, I think their marketing and brand image can be really cringeworthy, but I try not to let that get in the way of what I actually think of a given product. If I genuinely like something they make, which was the case with the Andromeda 2020 back when it came out (not anymore, unfortunately) and to a lesser degree the Supermoon, I'm more than happy to give them credit where it's due. But if something is bad, then it's well, bad. I can't window dress that. I legitimately dislike all 3 of their new product releases; what would you rather I do, pretend I don't?
As for the trolling, people can interpret my writing however they want, it's never mattered to me. Some see it as entertainment, others see it as useful and informative, and some obviously think I devote hours of my personal time and energy to screaming into the void about how virtually every audio product sucks. The answer is probably somewhere in between all 3, as it tends to be for these sorts of things. I would rather not navel-gaze and provide explanations no one wants for the psychology behind my current writing style.
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