NwAvGuy: The Audio Genius Who Vanished

[JR4321]

You and I don't make any money from our comments here, but do we nevertheless want to maintain public credibility? One way to do that is to maintain an apparently consistent position, such as a consistently "objectivist" audio philosophy.

 

 

I can't wrap my head around the public credibility comment. We are anonymous. It's always nice to be liked, of course, but not to be mean, I don't really care what anonymous folks think of my anonymous presence. I just wanted to learn more about audio to enable the best home audio experience for the least money spent.

 

And NWavGuy is also anonymous. The vast majority do not appear to know who is was/is. He doesn't appear concerned with his public credibility. It would be nice to believe that he was simply outraged at the snake oil and did his part. As with most things, I'm sure there's more to it than that.

[Jud]

Of course I can't have any idea of the motivation of an anonymous person I never met. But recalling posts on his blog quite a while after the Head-Fi thing in which he was still trying to push his side of the story; the Head-Fi thing itself, regardless of who was right (my experience as an onlooker has been that you have to persist in arguing past a couple of warnings before banning); the licensing of his designs in such a way that they couldn't be changed; all say to me that this is a person for whom it's important to be correct, and to be seen to be correct.

[Jud]

It would be nice to believe that he was simply outraged at the snake oil and did his part.

 

Was he perhaps outraged at what he considered snake oil to the point he was unwilling to admit to the presence of said snake oil (an anti-jitter measure, ASRC) in his own design?

[Paul R]

I can't wrap my head around the public credibility comment. We are anonymous. It's always nice to be liked, of course, but not to be mean, I don't really care what anonymous folks think of my anonymous presence. I just wanted to learn more about audio to enable the best home audio experience for the least money spent.

 

And NWavGuy is also anonymous. The vast majority do not appear to know who is was/is. He doesn't appear concerned with his public credibility. It would be nice to believe that he was simply outraged at the snake oil and did his part. As with most things, I'm sure there's more to it than that.

 

Perhaps. I remember thinking that he was tired of having overly arrogant mistakes pointed out to him, and was simply embarrassed enough to vanish. He did some really good stuff, but he also made some real bonehead mistakes. Such as the one Jud references. He was also pretty argumentative and determined to show up audiophiles wherever and whenever he could.

 

Mmm.. I wonder if he is an alter ego for a person here?

 

-Paul

[Jud]

Perhaps. I remember thinking that he was tired of having overly arrogant mistakes pointed out to him, and was simply embarrassed enough to vanish. He did some really good stuff, but he also made some real bonehead mistakes. Such as the one Jud references. He was also pretty argumentative and determined to show up audiophiles wherever and whenever he could.

 

Mmm.. I wonder if he is an alter ego for a person here?

 

-Paul

 

I wouldn't call the thing with his O2 DAC "bonehead." He obviously wouldn't have *added* ASRC to the ODAC. It's possible he wasn't aware that process is internal to the SABRE DAC chip, though I think that risks giving him too little credit for knowing the parts he was working with.

[Jud]

I wouldn't call the thing with his O2 DAC "bonehead." He obviously wouldn't have *added* ASRC to the ODAC. It's possible he wasn't aware that process is internal to the SABRE DAC chip, though I think that risks giving him too little credit for knowing the parts he was working with.

 

Edit: one of the comments on the linked article pointed out a spec violation in his amp design, but I'm willing to bet that isn't a unique occurrence in consumer electronic equipment design.

[Paul R]

I wouldn't call the thing with his O2 DAC "bonehead." He obviously wouldn't have *added* ASRC to the ODAC. It's possible he wasn't aware that process is internal to the SABRE DAC chip, though I think that risks giving him too little credit for knowing the parts he was working with.

 

Missing the SABRE DAC built in ASRC wasn't the bonehead mistake. Not owning up to it and moving on? That was... well IMNSHO of course.

 

-Paul

[JR4321]

...all say to me that this is a person for whom it's important to be correct, and to be seen to be correct.

 

Well if he was actually motivated by a desire to "out" the snake oil folks, wouldn't it also make sense that he would want to be seen as correct. As you noted, it certainly appears he spent a LOT of time on this project, which tells me he was VERY motivated, whatever the reason.

 

Did I read that he was in the audio world at some point? Maybe he was laid off? What audio companies are in the NW? Carver, I believe.

[JR4321]

Mmm.. I wonder if he is an alter ego for a person here?

 

-Paul

 

not sure i'm following, but are you suggesting I'm his alter ego? i'll take it as a compliment, if so, though not sure if that's how it was intended...

[Paul R]

not sure i'm following, but are you suggesting I'm his alter ego? i'll take it as a compliment, if so, though not sure if that's how it was intended...

 

(grin) Didn't mean you - was joshing another member.

 

-Paul

[mayhem13]

.......ask Jason if he knows the whereabouts of NWAvGuy.........

[solrighal]

I am NwAvGuy!

[Audio_ELF]

I am NwAvGuy!

No ... I am NwAvGuy!

[Jud]

What audio companies are in the NW? Carver, I believe.

 

AV = Audio-Video, so probably not an audio-only company.

[BobSherman]

AV = Audio-Video, so probably not an audio-only company.

 

[Ned Kelly]

Of course I can understand people want to get off the audiophile bus. There are more important things in life. I Agree!

 

What I don't get is how someone would think this hobby is about "Trusting 65 year old writers to tell you how something sounds..." Huh?

 

Fremer, Atkinson and others at Stereophile are that vintage easily - Robert Harley may be even older. At almost 56, I dont really have a problem with that, and I suspect that many here are middle-aged or older : its the demographic although many in the industry realise they need to start appealing to a younger audience hence the explosion in support for headphones, headphone amps and DACs : seems like every man and his brother has something to sell Head-Fiers today and that just wasnt the case 5 years ago.

 

John Atkinson did try to arrest the slide by hiring Steven Meijas and he had a following with the 'Entry-Level Audio' column he wrote for them, but it didnt take long for Audioquest to poach him. If you look at a lot of the 'legendary' designers from the golden age of audio (80s and 90s, not 60s and 70s ), many of them are now well into their 60s : that's just the way it is. I would be just as nonplussed to have young Turks like nwavguy designing and evaluating gear to the exclusion of anyone over 40 - as welcome as his measurements mantra was, neither the O2 nor the ODAC lit my fire. Mock me if you will, but I think there is something to this whole 'psycho acoustic' thing and that distortion properly employed does work. End of the day, its easy for this to become another navel-gazing thread, and I grudgingly admit that anyone who can walk away from this hobby with nothing more than O2+ODAC and a pair of $500 headphones that measure well is ahead of the game financially - more power to them.

 

(I just sold my speaker rig and I dont miss it one bit, so perhaps I'm not the best person to comment on the 'cult' aspect of this hobby - we all choose our own flavor of the Kool-Aid and mine says that no speaker under 10K will ever image like my HD800s, a pair of headphones that just happen to measure superbly)

[Ned Kelly]

I can't wrap my head around the public credibility comment. We are anonymous. It's always nice to be liked, of course, but not to be mean, I don't really care what anonymous folks think of my anonymous presence. I just wanted to learn more about audio to enable the best home audio experience for the least money spent.

 

And NWavGuy is also anonymous. The vast majority do not appear to know who is was/is. He doesn't appear concerned with his public credibility. It would be nice to believe that he was simply outraged at the snake oil and did his part. As with most things, I'm sure there's more to it than that.

 

I think there were a few at Head-Fi who claimed to know who he was, but that sort of scuttlebutt is bound to follow anyone of his notoriety. Kind of irks me that he allowed others to make money from his designs but - at least with the O2 - refused to accept a cent. Might have been a noble gesture at the time, but it would be interesting to know how many O2's were sold by JDS Labs and others. I'll stick with my Taurus, whatever the cost of the individual parts or the hourly rate of the Koreans who assembled it.

[Ned Kelly]

The way he humiliated uDAC design by NuForce was hilarious, too bad some of the goodies were promptly deleted.

 

He also put a lot of DiYers noses out of joint - people who may well have agreed with him re Nuforce and others - by going after one of their sacred cows.

 

NwAvGuy: Virtual Grounds & 3 Channel Amps

 

Anyone who maintains that his ego didnt come across on his blog need only track down some his earlier forum posts - he tore into people remorselessly and it looked personal to me. He's hardly the first designer to get into it on the forums, but it saw him banned from several as a result and I think that's when the blog started. Kevin Gilmore can be very blunt online but because most in the head-fi community genuflect at the mention of his name, all is usually forgiven - different story for an upstart like nwavguy. I dont blame him for going back to his day job, and we have no idea what transpired in his personal/professional life over the last 2 years : I say let the guy take as long a break as he needs.

[dalethorn]

Quote Originally Posted by flatmap View Post

Of course I can understand people want to get off the audiophile bus. There are more important things in life. I Agree! What I don't get is how someone would think this hobby is about "Trusting 65 year old writers to tell you how something sounds..." Huh

 

Fremer, Atkinson and others at Stereophile are that vintage easily - Robert Harley may be even older. At almost 56, I dont really have a problem with that, and I suspect that many here are middle-aged or older : its the demographic although many in the industry realise they need to start appealing to a younger audience hence the explosion in support for headphones, headphone amps and DACs : seems like every man and his brother has something to sell Head-Fiers today and that just wasnt the case 5 years ago. John Atkinson did try to arrest the slide by hiring Steven Meijas and he had a following with the 'Entry-Level Audio' column he wrote for them, but it didnt take long for Audioquest to poach him. If you look at a lot of the 'legendary' designers from the golden age of audio (80s and 90s, not 60s and 70s ), many of them are now well into their 60s : that's just the way it is. I would be just as nonplussed to have young Turks like nwavguy designing and evaluating gear to the exclusion of anyone over 40 - as welcome as his measurements mantra was, neither the O2 nor the ODAC lit my fire. Mock me if you will, but I think there is something to this whole 'psycho acoustic' thing and that distortion properly employed does work. End of the day, its easy for this to become another navel-gazing thread, and I grudgingly admit that anyone who can walk away from this hobby with nothing more than O2+ODAC and a pair of $500 headphones that measure well is ahead of the game financially - more power to them. (I just sold my speaker rig and I dont miss it one bit, so perhaps I'm not the best person to comment on the 'cult' aspect of this hobby - we all choose our own flavor of the Kool-Aid and mine says that no speaker under 10K will ever image like my HD800s, a pair of headphones that just happen to measure superbly)

 

Most of the older reviewers end up talking to their older demographic - not that they necessarily want that, but that's the way it works out. I for one am never going to use terms like "punchy bass" or "layered" something-or-other, mostly because I get the idea that those terms promote colorations instead of higher fidelity. But if you want to talk to a young audience you have to speak the language convincingly. The biggest demographic problem I see (if it's a problem) in the audio business isn't age-related, it's gender-related. My youtube channel (mostly headphones) is viewed by 93 percent male and 7 percent female. I added a couple of cameras a year ago and briefly the percentages changed to around 90.5 and 9 percent, but now it's back to 93-7.

[mkrzych]

Take a look at the last post on headphonia:

NWAGUY still is somewhere?

[ilok]

I had a ODAC/O2 combo, wow that thing sucked. Not sure if it was the dac, the amp or both.

[dalethorn]

I had a ODAC/O2 combo, wow that thing sucked. Not sure if it was the dac, the amp or both.

 

Was it a kit or assembled at the factory? Did you buy it from the original source, JDS or Mayfair?

[ilok]

Was it a kit or assembled at the factory? Did you buy it from the original source, JDS or Mayfair?

 

Mayfair, it was driving a DT880 600ohm, it made sound but no music...

[dalethorn]

Mayfair, it was driving a DT880 600ohm, it made sound but no music...

 

I know Massdrop likes those Mayfairs, but I always buy the JDS Labs versions. Thanks for that tip.

[wildcatsare1]

What are you smoking, NWAVGUY was, is and will always be an unmitigated ass.