2021 Golden Schlong Nominations

Jotunheim 2 for EV

 

For brown starfish I nominate Topping L30. In late December 2020, this headphone amplifier started destroying headphones.

I think this amplifier represents a great opportunity to explain our bias', how to think about audio equipment and what we value.

 

Awards for that kind of issue are likely to be given in court. How much does it cost if one's product deafens people?

 

None of my nominations have been vetted by SBAF well enough, but are well deserving

• Monoprice Cavalli Liquid Gold X (especially at the sale price and for Audeze headphones) (E)
• Dunu Zen Pro iem (E)
• Timeless 7hz iem (E) (V)

 

Volume spikes still aren't fully fixed. Just remove the "feature" - it is such a stupid hill to die on.

If iFi doubles down on the stupidity, I can't think of a more deserving awardee for the Brown Starfish. At least the Topping only killed headphones, not ears.

 

Dunu Zen Pro (E) - two weeks in and I'm half prepared to sell everything I have and just live with the Zen Pro and AK SR25ii as a source.

7HZ Timeless (V) - it falls short of the Zen Pro for me and in some ways feels more like a prototype or harbinger of great things to come than a finished and polished product...but for $200 it's ridiculous. If they can fine tune this and iron a few kinks out, improve build quality and tighten the bass up just a wee bit it could slay everything on the market.

Honorable mentions for me:

1) Oriolus Isabellae (E)
2) 64 Audio Duo (E) - great if you're a bass head looking for impeccable balance and no sacrifice to forwardness and resolving mids
3) AK SR25ii DAP (E) - a phenomenal little player that is easily pocketable, has great battery life and a buttery smooth highly resolving sound.

 

We ever finish this? Don't see where we ever did the actual 2021 awards and we're nearly in February

 

Thought Marv lost interest because of not very interesting candidates last year. We may change this to biennial, triennial, or even quadrennial, given slow innovations and highly duplicative candidates in the industry. Personally some recent products may be interesting to me. But forum-wise really none of them vetted by enough number of good ears.

 

Unfortunately, personal audio may be entering a mature stage like digital camera technology did, with an impressive early stage with rapid advances followed by diminishing returns. There's less headroom for improvement that is relevant to people.

 

The market has matured enough that some of the longevity awards may evolve to become "classic".

 

Lots of this is the last few years probably just being an awful time to launch these kinds of products, too. Some companies had to deal with, say, the AKM fire torching a large part of their product line. Then there are parts shortages, increased logistics costs... and this while the prices on audio products have mostly not gone up very much on anything I've looked at (although I've started to notice a few). So besides the usual risks of "maybe it won't sell", the products are more expensive to make and have to compete with existing products that were priced out before all of this happened, and mostly haven't adjusted yet. Hard to compete under those conditions.

 

Hopefully Schiit's prophesized slaughter of the sacred cows comes to pass.

 

When should we expect to receive our golden schlong?

 

Whenever we're ready and willing.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/848766..._search_query=golden+dildo&ref=sr_gallery-1-3

 

hello,
@WoodyLuvr, most likely in the form of a plushie.
cheers!

 

shawiinng

 

Or water buffalo hats...