[BS5711]

well then my apologies. As a fellow sarcastic sardonic person, yours was too subtle for me and I missed it by a mile. I'll have to re-evaluate my linguistic senses sometime this weekend, before having a couple beers.

Cheers, maybe do it over a few beers instead of before

 

[PixelSquish]

Cheers, maybe do it over a few beers instead of before

I don't drink on school nights (work nights) unless I have a social outing. Which was not tonight. Tonight I voiced support for ranked choice voting in my city hall for a group I'm in.

 

[BS5711]

I don't drink on school nights (work nights) unless I have a social outing. Which was not tonight. Tonight I voiced support for ranked choice voting in my city hall for a group I'm in.

Sounds eminently sensible.

I live in a small town that pretty much depends on its numerous wineries for its existence and I feel a certain responsibility to do my part for the economy so I will have a glass of red or two. I work from home but I do wait until I am off the clock

 

[bukumurah]

If you are referring me me as "that person" you missed my earlier reply to you as well as missing my point entirely .... see copy and pated see below.


You completely misread the intent of my comment, I was essentially agreeing with your earlier sentiment.

I was being somewhat critical that the thread really only is about very expensive TOTL gear and that isn't what the title suggests but it was obviously like that from day one.

It really quite obviously is a boys club for certain budget level boys. That is fine except that it should be called something that suggests that.

I am not going to get much engagement talking about my lowly $150 to $800 stuff, I might get a flicker of interest if I talked about my Solaris except it is old hat now.

But, like I said, at least it isn't a paid advertisement "in exchange for an honest review" that many threads are.

There is actually another highly popular portable audio forum where they talk mostly about entry level gears.. it is the complete opposite over there where questions about high-end gears will hardly get any response..

Coincidentally, that forum was also founded by the archnemesis of this thread's founder.. LMAOOO

A few of the industry blokes here are also quite active in that forum

 

[Steranko]

Certainly .... but I don't think somebody wanting to talk about a $150 S12 and what he should upgrade to at $300 isn't going to get much engagement here, they will probably be directed to the Discovery Thread.

And that is OK to, I just think the name is all wrong, you wouldn't have a car forum that the Porsche and Ferrari guys chat about their cars, their lifestyle and their new driving gloves and describe it as a place for general banter.

Anyway, I had no point to make, my few comments started as what I thought was an innocuous simple reply to a comment that was in a similar vain.

I think with the word Watercooler in the title. I assumed it literally means anything goes in this thread and even non music related

 

[Hypops]

There is actually another highly popular portable audio forum where they talk mostly about entry level gears.. it is the complete opposite over there where questions about high-end gears will hardly get any response..

Coincidentally, that forum was also founded by the archnemesis of this thread's founder.. LMAOOO

A few of the industry blokes here are also quite active in that forum

IMO the other forums you're referring to have a bias against expensive gear, not a preference for lower cost gear. It's an important difference. I feel like there's more than enough positive conversation across the price spectrum here to match anyone's budget. Said otherwise, I have yet to see anyone here pass judgment on someone else for their financial limits. Said other-otherwise, we all spend too much on audio gear.

 

[Rockwell75]

I think with the word Watercooler in the title. I assumed it literally means anything goes in this thread and even non music related

This thread is 3 years old this month. When it first started one of the aims was actually to create a space more focused on the mid-fi tier that I tend to operate on as a compliment to the Flink thread, which was at the time the dominant hub of TOTL discussion, and the myriad other places which were focused on more budget oriented sets. It just sort of naturally evolved to be fixated mostly on higher priced gear because the need was there and there really, to this day even, isn't anywhere else in the English speaking world that is so focused and properly curated. However as the title and opening post indicate the aim has always been for this to be a place of banter and fellowship with nothing off the table so long as people are sincere and stick to the norms of healthy polite discourse. 8 million views and nearly 6 thousand pages later I think it's been quite a ride and has flourished in ways I could never have imagined 3 years ago. I think the thread title and description is apt-- all are welcome here and there have only been a couple times where people have complained about the focus of the conversation and in those instances I would argue it was more the mindset of the people in question than anything coming from the community itself.

 

[emdeevee]

Certainly .... but I don't think somebody wanting to talk about a $150 S12 and what he should upgrade to at $300 isn't going to get much engagement here, they will probably be directed to the Discovery Thread.

And that is OK to, I just think the name is all wrong, you wouldn't have a car forum that the Porsche and Ferrari guys chat about their cars, their lifestyle and their new driving gloves and describe it as a place for general banter.

Anyway, I had no point to make, my few comments started as what I thought was an innocuous simple reply to a comment that was in a similar vain.

It's now a mature thread as you can see by the page and post count. The founder has often said that his original intent for the thread grew into something more than he expected.

How do I know this? Because I read through it before making posts like yours.

 

[maegnificant]

Guys... YOU make the Watercooler what it is. Just talk about the stuff you wanna talk about. If there is a (hopefully friendly) response, you got something going. If there is no response, maybe your topic just was not interesting to the rest of the people that have read it. If you make your topic of conversation interesting, people will start talking more about it. You cannot force people to talk about what they don't want to talk about, surely that's not what you want either. A social circle of this size is always transforming, evolving. We all are part of these changes and responsible for their occurence. Take this responsibilty with pride and vigor and go, don't complain and moan about it. Respect has to earned through some kind of credibility, however small it is. Your values and morals, your helpfulness and support, your manners and treatment of others, your knowledge and willing to provide for the group etc. I believe most people have something to offer for this group and most people can learn a thing or two from somebody else. I have my better and worse days, too. But it's best not to get or take it too personal, especially on the internet. Just take it a little more easy, forget about your daily life and problems for a bit. Don't try to change people into something you want out of them. The most important things, almost everybody already inherits, if you look for it.

That post ended up longer than I intended. Sorry.

 

[Steranko]

This thread is 3 years old this month. When it first started one of the aims was actually to create a space more focused on the mid-fi tier that I tend to operate on as a compliment to the Flink thread, which was at the time the dominant hub of TOTL discussion, and the myriad other places which were focused on more budget oriented sets. It just sort of naturally evolved to be fixated mostly on higher priced gear because there really, to this day even, isn't anywhere else that is so focused. However as the title and opening post indicate the aim has always been for this to be a place of banter and fellowship with nothing off the table so long as people are sincere and stick to the norms of healthy polite discourse. 8 million views and nearly 6 thousand pages later I think it's been quite a ride and has flourished in ways I could never have imagined 3 years ago. I think the thread title and description is apt-- all are welcome here and there have only been a couple times where people have complained about the focus of the conversation and in those instances I would argue it was more the mindset of the people in question than anything coming from the community itself.

Well done and good to know the background. I like this thread and feel I can talk about anything here even if there is little light banter but all in good spirit.

 

[thaslaya]

Just enjoying my music.

I don't think you can without plugging them in first

 

[Steranko]

I don't think you can without plugging them in first

I have a bit of OCD. When the IEM is not in my ears, I hate seeing the 4.4 connector plugged in and sticking out.

 

[warrenpchi]

If you are still giving badges for past can jam. I attended last year in NYC. Had a great time

Thanks, and you're all set!

Of course but one kinda needs to move in the high end gear circles to become part of the "club" don't they.

I don't think that's true at all. While there are some here who have a lot of experience with higher end models, I've never personally felt left out of conversations because of that. On the contrary, I tend to get happy for people when they find something that makes them happy, even if that thing is not necessarily for me due to one reason or another, but I'm digressing.

To illustrate my point above, two of the most anticipated models here are the Pilgrim and Pilgrim:Noir, sitting at $399 and $799 respectively. @Rockwell75, the founder of this thread, is quite smitten with the Pilgrim at the moment:

Of all the excitement and reports from SG this past weekend I'm super stoked for the Pilgrim Noir. I loved the OG in NYC-- it was a show highlight for me-- but more as a specialist. Noir sounds right up my alley...can't wait to hear it.

Speaking for myself, I find the Bellos X4 that @Deezel177 just reviewed to be one of the finest IEMs I've yet heard in over a decade of being in this hobby. It's not necessarily bombastic, or ethereal, and in many way it doesn't stand out at all. But for me, it excels at being balanced and even keeled, adeptly straddling that fine line between being accurate and enjoyable. As one who pretty much listens to any/every genre, I appreciate that keen sense of balance. And even in custom form, it's under a kilobuck:

This is my review of Bellos Audio's X4, written from the perspective of a musician and audio engineer. It's the first review I've written in over a year, and I have to admit it was really fun; both getting back in the saddle and doing it from a different POV. I don't know how much you guys can glean from it as enthusiasts. But, who knows? Maybe it'll help shed some light on how differently an audiophile and an engineer can view the exact same product.

Bellos Audio X4: An Engineer's Perspective - A Custom In-Ear Monitor Review

Will everybody's mileage vary? Of course, and that's a good thing. After all, how boring would this thread - or any thread - be if we all thought and felt exactly the same thing? Granted that an echo chamber slant might help some people with purchasing decisions, but it would make for terribly dull and uninspiring conversation.

Now here's something a little more off-beat. I recently satisfied a curiosity itch by ordering a Dioko ($99). Okay, I won't lie, part of it was to see what a purple IEM would look like with my purple Effect Audio Code 24C Limited cable ($500). But since anything fun goes in this thread, I'm totally allowed to get into all kinds of silliness like that.

And while I was going down that road, I decided to satisfy another itch by picking up a handful of very budget minded "giant killers" to try out:

• 7Hz Salnotes Zero
• CCA CRA
• Kiwi Ears Cadenza
• KZ EDX PRO
• Moondrop CHU II
• TANGZU Wan’er

My friend Jason Lucas used to run a FB group called "ChiFi Audio Reviews" where a bunch of people would often cite these ~$20 models as punching well above their weight, with some even venturing so far as to suggest that they could compete with multi-kilobuck units. I'm skeptical of that (obviously) so I decided to pick them up and try them out.

And when I post about all of the above here, I can assure you that nobody, nobody here is going to give me grief about doing that.

Between Daniel and @warrenpchi , they're really working overtime to sell me on the X4.

Wish I could send you mine for a demo, but it's custom so that's not gonna work. No need to rush out and get it though! Based on it's strengths, I can foresee it being in Bellos's line-up for quite some time, so you'll probably get a chance to demo it long before it's discontinued.

Are the mods asleep again

lol, I don't think we're there yet. There have been some opposing viewpoints sure, but not gotten nasty.

 

[emdeevee]

lol, I don't think we're there yet. There have been some opposing viewpoints sure, but not gotten nasty.

I would always defer to you, but I don't like hearing anyone in this group described as rich "boys" because not only is it untrue, it's also downright offensive.

The "boys" you demean are some of the most accomplished, smartest MEN you could meet. Please do not speak of that which you do not know.

 

[warrenpchi]

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