[IEMusic]

I look for fellow users that I generally agree with and see what they are saying about various things.

People like you....meant in a very nice and positive way by the way.

Thank you. I fully agree with you. There are definitely certain members that I trust, and read their posts, and weigh the information they provide differently from other posts.

 

[F700]

Thank you for the complement and the vote of confidence. I like posting impressions of products that I’ve had an opportunity to listen to, but I haven‘t had the patience to write full, detailed reviews. I take such undertakings seriously, and would have to invest more time and effort than I should (definitely in my wife‘s opinion). I also find it quite difficult to describe some of what I hear, and it is challenging to keep all of the different IEMs straight, in order to truly differentiate them from one another. In the process of posting brief product reviews on various store websites, I found myself being repetitive, and not specific enough. Those experiences made me gain a new appreciation for the talent of the truly good reviewers. I prefer to peruse the threads and try my best to answer questions, to help out other members.

I respect these words. I felt the same years ago. Maybe, once will come the time/need to write your impressions. For the time being, enjoy your sound and being one of us. It's good to chat around here.

 

[cscales]

I think it was worse 2 - 3 years ago. I might be wrong, though. It’s just my feeling. And I see reviews with the disclaimer « ...againt my honest opinion » or something in that vein starting being much more critical and giving 3 or 3.5 stars. Still, it is not forbidden to like something that was offered against impressions. Now, if « reviewers » seem to find excuses to like almost everything they get for free, one should think a bit about their sincerity and move away. No no no, no name dropping!!

I remember a time (now I sound old) when a reviewer (think Stereophile, Absolute Sound, Inner Fidelity) would 90% of the time preface a review with "this review unit is on loan and will be returned when the review is finished".

When did that change?

 

[mrconfuse]

When social media and word of mouth became a bigger hype machine than the magazines. As someone already mentioned before, send out the new product to as many hype man as possible to generate buzz.

There will never be a true independent review unless the product was purchased by the company's/reviewers doing the review. The problem with this is you will not get pre-release units. So by the time your review comes out everyone has already read or watch a ton of other reviews. And then there is the cost issue, if you don't have enough people subscribing to your magazine or watch your channel you are literally going to lose money fast. It's not going to be sustainable.

 

[robstah]

I remember a time (now I sound old) when a reviewer (think Stereophile, Absolute Sound, Inner Fidelity) would 90% of the time preface a review with "this review unit is on loan and will be returned when the review is finished".

When did that change?

It changed when China has the ability to make products for next to nothing. They have the ability to send free units because they are so cheap, which can not be compared to businesses and people who invest the time and money in making something good. It's much easier to reverse engineer a good product with all the R&D attached than to start from scratch. The problem is that knowledge is still unknown, so making mistakes can happen since they never learned about them. That attached to borderline slave labor ends in higher than normal QC issues and lower end products.

The thing is, they will learn too, but are far ahead of the curve. I remember when Harbor Freight tools were complete garbage. Now, they have some real competitors in the market if you know what you are looking for.

But going back to your original question, it's easier to guess at an address of a youtube reviewer and send a 50 dollar IEM that costs them 5 dollars and shipping is subsidized by their government than to send out a decent product and ask the reviewer to send it back.

 

[zenki]

Just have to know which one's good and which one not so good.

 

[SilverEars]

I've been using Head-fi for research since around 2005. IMHO it is not as valuable a tool as it once was.

Lately there are too many people writing "reviews" in return for free product "with no incentive" to write a favorable review.

Really...? No incentive?

ANOTHER free product later is "no incentive"?

True. And this changes the forum dynamics of members since commercial incentives are melded into thsi community.

When a review unit is sent, reviewers most often than not have some sort of biasing element such as more review units in the future or discount on the unit or do not need to send it back, and it will effect reviewer's integrity (they may not be concious or not). It's really easy to figure out if one is not gullable. You can figure out people's motives based on their expressions.

This results in what I call 'spam.' Instead of the forum dynamics causing reliable and useful crowd sourced information, the information becomes suspecious and diffult to know if there is any truthful value within it. That is the problem.

Usefulness of a forum comes down to honest crowd sourced information, and a forum becomes unreliable if the information has no integrity. Therfore, the forum is not longer useful.

Let's consider if a reviewer's hyping up an expensive costing item is ethical. They do it out of their interest of gaining something without the considerarion for the buyer that will take the loss.

Why is ethics important? What kind of world do we and want our kids to live in?

 

[Currawong]

Think of the children!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[cscales]

True. And this changes the forum dynamics of members since commercial incentives are melded into thsi community.

When a review unit is sent, reviewers most often than not have some sort of biasing element such as more review units in the future or discount on the unit or do not need to send it back, and it will effect reviewer's integrity (they may not be concious or not). It's really easy to figure out if one is not gullable. You can figure out people's motives based on their expressions.

This results in what I call 'spam.' Instead of the forum dynamics causing reliable and useful crowd sourced information, the information becomes suspecious and diffult to know if there is any truthful value within it. That is the problem.

Usefulness of a forum comes down to honest crowd sourced information, and a forum becomes unreliable if the information has no integrity. Therfore, the forum is not longer useful.

Let's consider if a reviewer's hyping up an expensive costing item is ethical. They do it out of their interest of gaining something without the considerarion for the buyer that will take the loss.

Why is ethics important? What kind of world do we and want our kids to live in?

You explain what I'm thinking about very well. This is my concern in a nutshell.

I had an experience recently which brought this to a head for me. There is a well known website specializing in headphone gear. It used to be my favorite source of reviews. Good writers, good comparisons, clear descriptive language.

Then I had concerns. At the start of each review they very clearly publish a disclaimer, which is good. However, the disclaimer often includes a part about how the gear is provided free BUT! the company providing it actually does still own it and can ask for it back at any time.

So I'm thinking that's not OK with me but thankfully I dont have to read their reviews so off I go to Head fi where nobody publishes reviews based on free product..........................

 

[gerelmx1986]

I knew there was a company I had forgotten. Focal did a proper job of it, thankfully (except when their drivers fail). They don't make their own headphones though.

And sony a rare excepción , I know their mid-fi offerings may not be good. But hell the IER-Z1R and MDR-Z1R are for Me the best sony has to offer hopefully they release another open-air TOTL can a la qualia 010

 

[gerelmx1986]

Some brands may be hype as I've seen on a thread of DIY IEMs.

But possibly fre companies like sennheiser or sony for example invest in R&D in all the aspects from drivers to dampening factors of cups etc.

You cannot simply generalize that all totl headphones use a very cheapie driver

 

[Krassi]

who cares? its hobby and should be fun..

 

[cheewheol]

Agree with OP, I want a brand that is reliable. Thereafter, I will let my ears be the judge.

 

[mashuto]

who cares? its hobby and should be fun..

Because it's a hobby where people spend a lot of money for often minor or outright questionable "improvements" and often have strong beliefs related to the hobby that are based on very very subjective things.

So it attracts people who spend lots and swear the expense has been worth it as well as people who don't and often think they know better and seemingly feel the need to prove it to those who have spent more.

Combine all that with the fact that it's a very niche hobby so advertising often follows the "influencer" model and it makes it hard sometimes to actually find objective information. Leaving everyone to form their own opinions.

And nobody wants to feel like they wasted their money and especially not to have others tell them they wasted their money.

These types of threads always seem to fall into the category of having something to prove and people who don't want to be told that their hobby is a waste of time or money.

 

[Krassi]

@mashuto thats a wonderful summary of what i thought
You dondt want to be told that you actually bought a dead when you thought its the super racer V3.
This place is really the biggest information central for this niche hobby and a source for super weird stuff you would never come across in your live.

I found my RR1 here that i love and prefer the underdog bang for the buck category.