Loaner Program Requirements - Need Your Two Cents

Discussion in 'Rules, Payments, and Other' started by purr1n, Jun 16, 2017.

  1. Ringingears

    Ringingears Honorary BFF

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    Um...it's a shit storm over there? ;)
     
  2. Mshenay

    Mshenay Barred from loaner program. DON'T SEND ME GEAR.

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    yeaper, the loaners over there are still working smoothly though so that's nice... here's a fun story. I'm in a DAP tour and one of the first to get it... managed to get something stuck in it... a fault of both the manufacturer and himself. The manufacturer has graciously allowed the now faulty dap to continue on the tour. No problem, it's only an SD card BUT here's the kicker. The person who held and defected it has openly offered to buy it! Really a ray of sun shine after coming from two other headphone programs previously. Mistakes were made, communicated and the originator has hope to buy said unit.

    To quote some one else, while I suspect a large portion of the barrel is turning into sewage, it seems there's still a little wine buried under neath.... but it's a shame you have to wade through the stench to get to the good stuff that's still there
     
  3. mscott58

    mscott58 Friend

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    That is awesome! I've seen tons of snake-oil stuff in the audio world, with the required 5-star reviews and loads of "impressions", but never anyone bold enough to post actual measurements of something like processing speed being positively impacted. And have to love the pseudo-tech-babble of something like "nano-diamond carbon particles". Brilliant.

    It's had to think that people sit around considering what suckers might fall for next...
     
  4. Kattefjaes

    Kattefjaes Mostly Harmless

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    It's a great idea. I always look forward to the impressions from the loaners, especially from people whose tastes are reasonably consistent. Loaners benefit everyone when people post decent impressions.

    I've only had two loaners so far. The first one (the baby Stax set) turned out to be so thoroughly doused in perfume that it made my eyes and skin itch, so I couldn't use it for long enough to write a fair or informed impression. I packed it up and posted it on the next day. Commenting on the sound would have been unhelpful. The second loaner (the Eikons), which arrived yesterday, is working out nicely. I already posted preliminary impressions after some hours of head time. I'm more likely to keep this one for the week, to give it more of a detailed listen in quiet evenings (when traffic outside is lighter, and people aren't turning on massive noisy fans behind me).

    Asking people to post some impressions of loaner gear is totally reasonable- hell, those sorts of impressions are part of why we're here, no?
     
  5. lac29

    lac29 Acquaintance

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    My feeling is that as long as you provide some sort of reference to your impressions ... like talking about what gear you've owned in the past (especially popular ones like HD800 or a Schiit product) and how your current impression compares to your experience in the past, people will have a lot better way to judge your impression.

    As long as I know how FancyPantsHeadphoneAmp's impression compares to your previous feelings about say the Gungnir Multibit, I'm good to go, even if you are a random guy posting for the first time.
     
  6. Galm

    Galm Still looking for Little Red Riding Hood

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    In my experience every forum tends to have something worth reading. It just depends on how much effort you're willing to go to get it.

    I mainly come from laptop forums like Notebookreview where I'm a "power user" and have written guides etc... Like some of our resident experts here.

    I consider myself an "outsider" to both this forum and head-fi at the moment and my unrequested impressions of both are something like this:

    Head-Fi: Maybe because of how large the user base is it is like some have said like wading through garbage at times. But I don't think it's really out of a place of malice. One of the users I pmed a lot about the Hugo 2 to get his impressions at one point seemed to genuinely loved it. He was going to shows and had other gear and was a very pleasant guy to talk to. He also didn't like Yggdrasil when he heard it but wasn't aware of the warm up period. So clearly there is misinformation, but it's at least coming from a good place, and really did enjoy the Hugo 2 sound sig. And you can find plenty of impressions that are more likely to be on the money if you pay attention to the specs of devices and your own experience.

    SBAF: A hard forum to "jump into". Knowledge here is significantly more likely to be helpful and the posts are on average much longer and more detailed when talking about impressions or new gear. But it has its own set of "issues" for people trying to come in. One of the things most off putting to me was the "How to win friends and influence people" section. I know it isn't intended as such, but reading through it looks like a hall of fame for cyber bullying on both sides. It can also be nerve wracking attempting to post here for the first time. I've spoken with a bunch of folks who've tried to join here at this point and all the ones who went away basically just said their posts were disliked or they were attacked. I made mistakes in the beginning too, and it was a mix between dislikes and receiving "warnings" from some of the more polite users here warning me to be careful. I know SBAF is very set in its ways and I comply to them, understand that it makes the environment hard to jump into, and I'd guess it has driven away more than one person who would probably be a great asset to this community otherwise.

    So TL: DR it's wading through a lot of garbage vs treading carefully in the beginning

    So overall, I'm not surprised the loaner programs work well in both places. Head-Fi really isn't full of people looking to steal or ruin things (for the most part), and SBAF is a tight knit community where loaner users have proven their worth to get on the lists.

    Now I'm sure I'm not the kind of member you're asking about Marvey, but I also think people should post their impressions. The loaner program is really helping out the users who get units, they could chip in with like 20 minutes of effort to say what they thought of the product. It's something I bet at least a few users would want to do anyway, I know I always want to post how a new laptop I get to tear apart compares to the rest.
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2017
  7. Kunlun

    Kunlun cat-alyzes cat-aclysmic cat-erwauling - Friend

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    Oh f**k yeah, impressions.

    Hey @Marvey, @zerodeefex and the Klignon High Council, how about a brief, helpful guide to impressions thread?

    Just a few pointers to help newer people who might be a little leery or imagine that it's a lot of effort when it doesn't have to be.

    Here are a few ideas as an off-the-cuff first take on it.

    KUNLUN'S "I'M STUCK ON A TRAIN AND BORED" GUIDE TO WRITING IMPRESSIONS

    1. Listen. No, seriously, take time to listen to your favorite music that you know really well. Now listen to a few things that are more treble focused, some bassy things, stuff that has female and male vocals, etc. If you have heard something live and have a recording, hey great. Listen carefully to a lot of stuff. Close your eyes and pay attention. How does it sound? Not easy, but do your best.

    Spend enough time that you get used to the sound of the gear. Initial takes are as much about what you were used to as the new gear. That's okay, but move beyond that so the gear is the new "norm" for your ears. After that, you can switch to something else and see how your ears handle that.

    2. "I like it" or "I don't like it" is the least important thing about impressions. Not everyone likes what you like. It takes Different Strokes to row the world, yes it does...

    3. What did I hear, how does the gear sound, is the most important thing about impressions. You do not need audio jargon! You just need to think carefully about how to describe what you hear. Do your best. People can ask follow up questions if they have any. It's cool.
    The more practice you have, the easier it is.

    See? It's not so bad!
     
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2017
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Looks good to me. Believe it or not, simply making an attempt helps. I get quite a lot from noobs' impressions - enough to go back and get a second take many times.
     

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