Audio companies behaving badly.

[Knuckledragger]

I've given the idea of this thread some thought on and off for years (going back at least as far as Mikhail's Bad Hair Day) but never actually made one.  ADD is a hell of a drug.  Also been busy with a few other things.  It's not secret that there are many companies that make and sell high end audio products that look shiny, cost large sums of money and have questionable performance.  (There's also products that are expensive, shiny and sound incredible, but y'all know that of course.)  It's not unheard of for companies to engage in lawfare against competitors and critics they dislike.  BOSE is infamously litigious.  Earlier this year Tekton Audio went after critics over reviews that made them unhappy.  I didn't follow that drama too closely, but I saw the headlines popping up a number of places this spring.

Recently dCS audio got rather aggressive toward a small reviewer because of his negative review of their Bartok DAC/streamer/headphone amp widget.

I cannot comment on dCS gear myself.  I did a search of HC for info on them and found one snarky comment by myself about the resistor layout on one of their amps boards, which was followed by an informed and even more snarky explanation by a certain Icelander.  It could well be that they make great products.  Their legal dept is another matter entirely.

[spritzer]

I think dCS are just in the same boat as MSB, super high prices yet you get better performance on the stuff from China that is a 1/10th the price. 

Now on the subject... there are too many stories out there but I'll never buy anything made by Focal - just stay away from that trash heap of a company in general.  Another is Hifiman... though I did order the new Mini Shangri-la but I really should have waited as there are plenty for sale used in China right now. 

[HiWire]

I didn't watch the video, but it's bad optics for a big company to step on a small YouTuber.

[Grahame]

Lead Story in today's techlinked

 

 

 

[justin]

On 7/15/2024 at 9:32 AM, spritzer said:

I think dCS are just in the same boat as MSB, super high prices yet you get better performance on the stuff from China that is a 1/10th the price. 

Now on the subject... there are too many stories out there but I'll never buy anything made by Focal - just stay away from that trash heap of a company in general.  Another is Hifiman... though I did order the new Mini Shangri-la but I really should have waited as there are plenty for sale used in China right now. 

I only saw ~2 min of the video but I assume it had something to do with measurements, my favorite part though is people wanting expensive, exotic gear that sounds different, but then acting surprised when it measures objectively worse than a Hospital DAC