RIP: Caute / Michael

It's nice to see you here, thank you for joining and posting

 

Ha, first impression of Michael was when launching company at 2022 July Schiit Audio Show. He came into the room, said “nope” and immediately rushed out. I cracked up because he was obviously on a <serious mission> to find a very particular thing. I know that feeling and laughed.

Later, he came back around…much more relaxed. When he figured out who I was, he lit up and was so nice. We chatted and got excited about a whole lot of stuff and a bunch of prototype headphones that weren’t even for sale at the time. He really loved hearing early JAR800 and Bill-P’s franken800. Later, he got and loved the Piety amp, which made me happy.

We kept in touch as I found out he had issues getting onto SBAF. I asked some admins to help him out and he was off to the races! He quickly joined the awesome Texas crew (who were so great to him) and got into Discord channels where he was super-excited and active.

He and I both have half-asian and half-european backgrounds, we bonded on that. His background was even more unique!

We knew and shared that deep-dive-wormhole excitement with him, so many of us have that feeling of discovery and chase…we were in that together.

I know a few of us reached out behind the scenes to make sure he was doing okay along the way. He really made friends here and had a big impact in a short amount of time.

This was from our last communication in October, so he knew we cared and he was not alone: “Thanks bro, I truly love and appreciate our lil community so much, so much love and care sent this way, it’s overwhelming!”

He is instantly missed.

 

In a hobby that skews older, unfortunate losses are sadly inevitable. Getting someone like @caute in here with their energy and enthusiasm was lovely, and we were better off for having that fire in here here, even if it was extinguished too soon. I hope it brings some contrast to the pain @CauteFam must be feeling to see the impact he had on a swath people he'd both met in person and those who had never interacted with him. He was a real one, and getting a loving tribute from a place that could be charitably described as "cynical and challenging" is a testament to the person you gave this world. I wish I had said something like this while he was around to hear it.

 

RIP Michael.

I only knew him through DMs in his SFD-1 stage. He was so excited about learning DIY and looked forward to a weekend with his father upgrading his SFD-1. I tried to help explain the process of getting the main board out of the SFD-1 (certainly not trivial) with pictures and a kind of order of things to do. We also exchenged a flurry of DMs when he was on the hunt for real 6N23P Rocket tubes. His enthusiasm was infectious, even in DMs and it made me even more willing to help.

He will be remembered and missed.

Jac