Stan: no one remembers what this thread was about and that's a good thing

1. apparently you violated your own single post mandate with more than one post.
2. You are a presumptuous ass - some of us have spent time as studio rats and live recording engineers. We know instruments, microphones, acoustic spaces, as well as how to achieve the best sound on the recording side of the business, let alone the reproduction side. My turn to be presumptuous. Bet you've never sat behind a big console and had to get good sound in a hurry with the clock ticking and money burning; dollars per minute.

You are one of the very few to achieve this award from me, (should be your new avatar, courtesy of Deviant Art):

 

LOL, it just reminded me of this (0:14)

 

When I read @alvin1118 pulling the loaner DACs, I wondered "How in the world is he doing this with class?". That seems like an impossible feat, yet here was alvin1118 doing just that, IMO.

Then along comes @Auditor ...

 

I copy below a message sent to @Marvey, not answered:

Hello,

I just asked with "contact us" form the deletion of my account.

I am not interested at all in arguing with you or any other in this forum. The basic reason is that I consider very dishonest the way you treated Alvin and the products he sells.

I want to point out that Alvin was neither informed nor in agreement with the contents of my post.

I do not know, actually, why all staff reviewers have decided to bomb down Denafrips products, that Alvin sent in good faith and for free. I guessed some possible explanations in my post.

What I am sure is that those DACs do not sound at all like Torq or Hands describe, the latter comparing them to "poop" (quite offending for owners).

Here in Italy, there is a community of about 100 Denafrips owners. The vast majority of them are musicians and/or seasoned audiophiles with decades of listening experience and many components owned, at any price. They preferred Denafrips DACs not only to Schiit, or Metrum ones, but also to AMR, MSB, ML and many other much expensive models.

One person can be fooled, 100 no. Either those reviews are not honest, or you listen in radically different way than us.

That's all. An explanation was due.

 

Ah, I did not deleted my post because of its content, even polite compared with your responses. I deleted because you moved it to a "sewer" section, target for your best humour. Each person have fun as he can or know....

 

First of All. Go f**k yourself. I would normally never respond to something like this, but that first line really got me. I, and quite a few others here are musicians, both classical and otherwise. I used to work in a few studios around town as an assistant engineer, and on more than one occasion have recorded "the real sound" of a violin or piano. Not to mention the 20+ years as a percussionist/drummer. Am I the best at evaluating gear? No, but there are people here who are very experienced in doing so, and I reckon they can "judge the quality of a source in reproducing faithful and correct timbre and decay of real instruments."

Second of all.

 

Do you guys put headphones on your ears or up your ass? I admit to being ignorant of how Europeans listen music.

Have you heard of Head-fi? Seems that it is quite easy to fool thousands.

[/SPOILER]

 

One person is a fool. A congregation of 100 fools just means you have a good marketing department.

I'm sure there's a saying for pouring cheap wine in expensive bottles...

 

@Auditor, you're really making a PR disaster for Alvin right now. You should really stop before you dig yourself deeper. For better or worse, you've set yourself up as an unofficial representative of his company and are doing everything wrong. Alvin is doing a good job of handling this. Don't screw this up for him any more than you already have.

Let me say, I totally understand wanting a friend's product to succeed and feeling threatened when other people give it bad or lukewarm reviews. A friend of mine wrote a very well received sci-fi novel not too long ago, and while I intellectually know her writing style isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, I definitely bristle a little whenever I see anyone criticising the book. It's not easy, seeing someone criticize a friend, and it's hard not to take it personally. That said, bad reviews happen, especially in a place like this, where brutal honesty is often considered a virtue. Maybe it's true that there's something different about your Denafrips community's setups and SBAF members' typical setups that explains why our reviewers liked it less than y'all do. Maybe you got unlucky and happened to get reviewers that just didn't care for the sound Denafrips was going for -- different people like different things, after all. Whatever the reason, Alvin is doing a good job handling it professionally and generally leaving a positive impression of the company and priming the community to give future products a fair shake. You're doing the opposite -- you're trying to burn Denafrips's bridges with SBAF, basically biasing people against Denafrips for no good reason other than to get your anger out.

I definitely understand being angry under these situations, but you really need to step back and realize you're basically setting yourself up as a volunteer PR agent and doing a terrible job of it. Alvin and Denafrips will be better served by you letting well enough alone and letting Alvin handle the fallout.

 

I own, and play, a rather serious, concert-level, classic grand piano. Classic as-in, from the time when you had ivory keys or nothing. Serious as-in, I just renewed the insurance on the instrument - currently valued at $150,000. At the charity events my fiancé and I have hosted at our former home, it has been played (and praised) by a variety of very notable, visiting, professional concert pianists.

I'm pretty sure I know what a piano, expertly maintained, tuned and played, live, is supposed to sound like.

Oh, I don't know. I have seasons tickets, and patronage, to the Seattle and Chicago opera, as well as the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in the UK, the local symphony, and various other musical venues/companies. It's a rare week, usually as a result of travel, that I'm not at some live, professional, orchestral or jazz performance or other.

Complete fabrication.

I say that AS a European, a Brit to be specific.

Musical instruments are, in my experience, rather more common in American homes simply due to there being less stick-up-the-arse snobbery there over buying cheaper instruments, often made in China, vs. the more artisanal products that seem to be in favor in Europe (with their attendant very-high-prices keeping them out of the reach of many that would love to own them).

Frankly, measurements, conducted by a serious, industry-respected, engineer in the field, say otherwise ... at least on these specific examples. That those measurements correlate strongly with what has been described shoots further holes in your unfounded assertions.

In regards to the Ares, I have had discussions with Alvin behind the scenes, and he with the DENAFRIPS engineers, about what we found with the Ares and I had agreed to listen to another sample, measured by them (without me seeing those measurements), since they felt the significant mismatch between left and right channels was not typical of the product.

You've not heard the particular Ares that I received, so you're not in any position to comment on what it sounds like (and see above regarding Alvin's suspicion that that unit might have issues).

You also seem to have serious reading comprehension issues as, some comments on lack of resolution that didn't make it into my review as they were overshadowed by the, again measurable, significant differences in left/right channel performance, specifically says that I didn't think it was a bad DAC. Others might disagree, but you're calling me on saying something that, for the life of me, I can't see where you're getting.

Beyond that ...

I HAVE NOT posted a word about the sound of the Pontus, which I have auditioned at length, and have provided preliminary feedback to Alvin on, so I have no clue whatsoever where you're going including me in this. Seems like typical fanboi/shill behavior to me.

So ... you have no clue what I think of the Pontus at all, yet you're throwing a tantrum expecting me to post something slamming it.

A psychologist would call that signaling or telegraphing ... which is quite telling ... and not doing your case any favors.

Who are they, then?

I think the only "staff" member that's commented is @Hands.

Lest you think otherwise, I'm not staff, I'm not a moderator nor an admin, and have never met the principals of this site in real life. I'm a regular, contributing, user just like everyone else ... albeit a bit wordier than most.

I did the full "Life after Yggdrasil" cycle on it, but didn't get to post before I got embroiled in my travels (was only supposed to be back for this most recent Sunday, but that's extending a few days while dealing with an administrative cock-up on the recent house-sale). So you've not missed anything.

I've shared initial thoughts with @alvin1118 on it. Had a quick exchange with @Hands 6 days after he got it working. Other than that Iv'e not said boo to a goose about what I think of the thing. So this "clown shoes" @Auditor wanker is pulling allegations out of his cranially-located arse.

At this point I am highly disinclined to post my thoughts on the Pontus at all.

And not just because the unit I heard, with >800 hours on it, died in transit and now has a new PSU. I think @Hands knows his way around this stuff more than well enough to know if he's listening to something with actual issues or something he just doesn't like.

I'm sure @alvin1118 will be quite thrilled with that piece of news and will, I'm sure, be along to thank you for it shortly.

It's a shame because Alvin has been a stand-up guy through all of this.

 

I'm really looking forward to the day musical instruments finally make their way out here to California. I hear good things.

 

For the pregnant ladies developing their child-to-be's musical taste: IVM . Intravaginal music. Seriously. It's an Ignobel winner.

And a company that makes them... Babypod. A quick glance suggests that it plugs into the phone, but I'm sure the audiophile mum to be is going to want a better chain than that.

 

And what's that thing people used to do with a comb and, if I remember correctly, a piece of paper?

Add in twanging a ruler on the edge of a desk... California can be making music really soon. Could even have some bands. Maybe, when they hang of stuff... host some concerts and festivals.

Bottom line: there isn't really any good reason to respond to "Auditor's" nonsense at all, let alone specifically... but, along with the usual trivia merchants like Mr TEG, there have been some really fascinating posts.

I do believe that a silk purse has been made from a pig's ear.

 

I've had a skin flute in the house for 43 years now...

 

So far we only have mouth harps here in Texas. That and spoons to click together.

 

That would be an ....umm....interesting ...uhh... routine for a listening session. I don't think the wife would go for it.