First, welcome to head-fi, Spleen!
But in second place, unfortunately, i must disagree (nothing personal, in fact this is more a reflexion about what i'm reading lately on the thread). What you (and some other users in some late posts) say about early birds is reasonable, but not exact considering what has been said on this thread during these months. We've been thinking all this summer, precisely because Bob has said it different times, that the sale prices wouldn't end until there were reviews for the Masters. Many users (as me) have been waiting for that reviews and following daily this thread because of that promise. If not i would have avoided reading 6200 posts during 4 months and, as my economy doesn't let me buying only by hopes and expectations, make a decision after the release. So what was said has changed. Not tragic, but not expected. Now some decide to buy and some others not.
That said, i consider perfectly fair offering a prize for the risks taken by the early birds. In fact i consider it a generous offer. It's just that some terms have been lost on the road. Of course Trinity Audio is a private business and none of us has the right to reclaim anything to Bob about the way he drives his project, i perfectly understand that he needs to arrive to an end and begin shipping his products after all the work he's shared with us. But, although i trust completely on his products (i've bought four of them until now for me and my people) and hope the Masters to be great, i want to know what they are before pulling the trigger. And nobody knows it right now. In my opinion impatience is kidnapping the climate of the thread taking it away from more sensible topics, and the recommendations of different users based just on personal wishes, as
@peter123 warned, don't look fair for the new users that arrive to the forum misinformed. It's understandable, that's what we do when we buy, buy promises and wishes in a pure libidinous act that exceeds the characteristics of the product. But that should be a personal act for avoiding confusions: we must be clear about what we know, that's the sense of this kind of forums. If not we'll be buying promises that Bob, more cautious than his potential buyers, never sold.
Anyway we all have filters to read opinions and, what the hell, all this unrestrained enthusiasm expressed on the forum feeds us while we wait for the next big thing in the dreamy headphone world, so my apologies if anyone feels criticized by this deliberations.
