kennyb123

This has been my observation as well. I’ve occasionally found myself preferring the PCM layer of hybrid SACDs over the DSD layer. I’ve been pulling the discs out again to rip the PCM as I had previously only ripped the DSD layer assuming it would always be superior.

I’m sure most folks won’t be surprised that a certain someone reacted with Disagree to my statement above.

Many are here to learn, not be scolded because they have an incorrect understanding.

Yeah my bad. I deleted my comment after seeing this. My point is still valid. Why did he need to take a swipe at Kirk? Why couldn't he have just corrected the statement as I did?

(deleted)

The website itself is not encrypted at rest. It''s the traffic between the browser and web server that is encrypted.

Or maybe he was relaying his friend’s observations the first time? Tough to know whether what appear as first person observations are really his own.

Do they “deserve a burn” or should it be done in a more gracious way? For example, might the reviewer have not gone for the burn but just said that “these headphones just really didn’t work for me... I would strongly encourage an audition before buying”? As you mentioned, for Audeze this is a business and a livelihood. I fully agree though that a second opinion from another reviewer should have been sought before torching the product as Sonis had done here.

Ah. Now I get why the usual suspects rushed to defending his misrepresentations. Weird thing though is that George and Sonis reported hearing things differently with respect to these headphones. George thought that the "highs were severely attenuated" while Sonis thought that the top end sounded "shrill and distorted". I guess they can be both, but in his initial remarks there was no mention of them being shrill. Also George thought that the mids were "very forward" while Sonis thought they were "veiled and muffled". Very forward seems to contradict veiled, but I could be wrong. And as far as the bass, George thought it was "severely attenuated" while Sonis thought that there was "plenty of it". Again these two observations seem to contradict either other, but again I could be wrong. George hadn't had a replacement set returned to him when he posted his remarks. I can't imagine that would have mattered as Sonis had reported that he "heard no difference at all" from the "newly rebuilt phones". Just another reminder that different people do hear things differently. LOL

It was brought to my attention that there was another write-up where Audeze LCD-4 headphones were said to sound “wretched”. Weird how closely George’s narrative tracks with what Sonis conveyed in his review.

It’s great that someone else will get a chance to hear these. But this will put Chris in a tough spot if he disagrees with your assessment. Better that he hands it over to another AS member who can call it as he hears without having to be concerned with the implications whereas Chris would have to be concerned with the implications of potentially throwing one of his reviewers under the bus.

I stand corrected. Yeah I was way off on the mark on that one. And after further thought I agree that there is a place for a consumer reports approach for a $4000 headphone. I was coming at this from the perspective that AS was aiming for a different clientele: an audiophile who would be visiting a boutique site site like AS. I also have to admit that I got a little steamed after being accused of “shamelessly shilling” for Audeze. I should have just walked away and not responded further. I will do so now. And lastly, I apologize for my snarky reply to you @kumakuma

Consumer reports reviews the $100,000 Tesla? My assumption was that their reviews were primarily of products the mass market would consider. For example, the best mid-size car. Those reviews wouldn’t be satisfactory to those in the market for $4000 headphones.

See post 102

I guess you haven’t spent much time on head-fi to see what’s important to a person who would be in the market for a $4k headphone. The fit is one thing, but more important is knowing how well it might perform in the way the buyer would intend to use them.