Judegate (formerly: STOLEN ITEMS ALERT)

In other potentially HAZARDOUS news...

Listening to Jimi Hendrix - Blue on vinyl to "Born Under a Bad Sign".
Sounds flippin' unreal and in a weird way, connects with this talk happening here

I have the Classic 200g vinyl. No clue how this new one sounds, but get this album if you don't have it!

http://store.acousticsounds.com/d/70513/Jimi_Hendrix-Blues-200_Gram_Vinyl_Record

Is this off topic?! REALLY? No one told me...

EDIT: The damn bass on the Nighthawk phono is stuff of legend. HO LEE FUK!

EDIT 2:

 

So a lot of people are subscribed to this thread with immediate updates and getting childish phallic jokes is not really something conducive to this thread's general direction. specifically not when everyone is suddenly chiming in. Can we please get back on topic?

 

Seems to me this horsie is breathing its last breath, so this threads general direction is better steered to the exit sign.

 

I find it interesting that Mr. Bian said that Jeff's job was to work with head-fi to promote HiFiMan's products. The fact that head-fi is working to promote hfm's products, with or without Jeff's help, says all that needs to be said about Jude's business model. He is paid to promote the products of the site's sponsors, not to propagate honest info. This has been obvious to all since the whole nwavguy v. Schiit dust up resulted in a ban for casting a negative light on a sponsor's product. There is nothing nefarious, unusual, or surprising about this, although there is a marked lack of transparency about this vis-a-vis the average visitor to the site. Print magazines have been doing essentially the same thing forever. I can't speak to Jude's character on a personal level, as, though I've met him, I certainly don't know him. If it is true that he views this site as a threat to hf, it seems a bit paranoid. It seems more likely that the apparent chip on his shoulder w/r/t this site is personal. Whether he is a napoleonic asshole or not I leave up to those here who know him.

 

I bet anything that's likely to give pause to the "average HF visitor" and cause him/her to step back and question how it could be that "everything is awesome" is viewed as a threat by Jude. And it is personal because its his livelihood. Having read this thread and a couple others I have no doubt of the following... (I'm REALLY overstating the obvious here):

1) The mid-fi to summit fi market that exists beyond beats / apple / monster etc. is a niche
2) This niche has its "ambassadors/thought leaders" that have an outsized impact on the purchasing decisions of the folks in the market for $250 TO $50,000 head-phones
3) Good or bad, justified or not, Jude has positioned HeadFI as THE first stop for anyone first stepping into this hobby and as such HE earns a living on the basis of being the ambassador/thought leader for a large pool of consumers
4) The niche represents a relatively small market... hence the message at headfi is "engineered" to be "everything is awesome", "everything NEW is awesomer!", "sorry about your wallet!!!" blah blah blah

Anything or anyone that compromises #3 or the message under #4 is a threat and Jude has too much riding on the success of HF to not care.

 

Hmm, Jeff asked me not to post a negative (honest take on the pros and cons) review of the re1000 because he said Fang gets very upset if people who get his sample products don't post glowing, hyped reviews.

I didn't want to be get Jeff in trouble, but you gotta tell the truth. Jeff suggested how things could be spun and at first I was trying to be positive. I was thinking as an inside joke I could quote without attribution the guy who went on lovingly about the muscle-y arms of a ciem maker, even giving the guy the nickname "two-guns" as part of a sloppy blowjob hype review I read somewhere. That seems to be the kinda thing people do.

Seriously, though, I ended up not posting because it's kinda depressing that people wouldn't want an honest take of their stuff.

Well, maybe now I should post a brief version of my honest take on HF? Would I get banned from HF for an honest take? Ugh.

 

Yeah, good luck with that...

 

Qucik story: last yr a guy stole afew DAPs at HFM China (they have CCTV), you know what, Fang told everyone: YOU meet me in a public plaza, we fix this with fists, my weight is 250lbs, if you win, I step back, nothing more, if I win, I'll beat your ass out ya. Result: no one came up.

 

@Kunlun

Why would you want to post it on HF? Post it here if anything.

I actually like HifiMan as a brand and expect great things from them in the years to come. They're a bit of hit and miss still but they've made HUGE progress in just a few years and they're still learning. If I was Sennheiser I'd be worried.

 

Point of clarification: Kunlun says HF to mean Head-fi. I think you are saying HF to mean Hifiman, which is more often abbreviated to HFM.

EDIT: Apparently this has already been fixed? I am a little freaked out now.

 

Sennheiser, Beyer, AKG, and Audio-Technica are not niche. You'll see pros, audiophiles, and normal consumers with HD 558/598/600/650/800, AKG K7 whatever, or DT 880s who have no idea these boutique planar/electrostat brands like Audeze, Hifiman, and STAX even exist or care that they exist as they're happy with with the good to great headphones they bought for under $500 and might use speakers most of the time anyway.

 

Wheres the reddit thread on this?

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/4bg4v8/be_careful_at_meets_guys_hex_stolen/

 

This must be an obvious dig on Fang, using 250 (二百五), no way that bean pole weighs more than a buck eighty.

For you dim-witted round-eyes: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=er+bai+wu

 

Wow, respect for Fang just went way back up

 

"Fang, cmon, you know my idiots are WAY more useful!"

 

I am pretty sure Jude's rant mostly translates to: "stick to hf and I can guarantee nothing but positive reviews, whereas with cs, you can't control that." Oops, my cynicism is showing.

 

I don't think that's at all cynical. I would say it's dead on, balls accurate.

 

If anyone remembers the HEK beta well, the Head-fi thread was pure BS pandering useless Frank I-type hype. Not necessarily because Jude ordered the people to write that way, but the culture fostered there is one of non-critical agreement with status quo, and the posters who have the most visibility tend to either not offer anything of substance or don't appear to be critical listeners.

The HEK was not the second coming, and while a good headphone, its flaws were only pointed out on the CS beta thread. The reviews we gave were very civil, but more importantly they were honest.