The Head-Fi Healing Thread

And this really dovetails with GTA's comment about the rampant hypetrain threads over there where the blind are leading the blind, in some cases, seemingly spurred on by shills.

The sad reality is that since early 2008, when I joined HF, the admins have managed to grossly alienate or simply ban far too many of the site's most experienced, knowledgeable and articulate posters - basically anyone who stops toeing the party line and starts to question sponsor claims, including members of their own management like uncle erik. While some excellent posters with vast audio and/or technical knowledge remain and continue to inject signal into an ocean of noise, there has also been an incredible rise in inexperienced high volume posters, who gain legitimacy and authority through HF's incredibly ill-conceived "supremus" title, even if they are 12 years old who have never attended a meet/heard anything better than mid-fi or 75% of their posts consist of "+1's" (hi dubstepgirl - who, by the way, totally deserved front page press for that tube thread that she was using to flip bulk bought tubes at a profit in violation of HF's own terms). In any event, the Supremus title should be awarded solely to long term members for outstanding post quality demonstrated over time. Newbs with multi-thousand post counts should be put in a time out corner and dubbed "verbal diarrheaus" to help visitors quickly recognize who they should ignore.

The HC exodus, departure of uncle erik, changstar exodus, etc. should have tipped Jude and company off to the genuine need to change things up, but I have yet to observe any real efforts at reform or attempting to breath new life into HF as a source for reliable info or honest dialog about audio.

 

I think it is clear that they (HF/Jude/associates) are not interested in whether they are "a source for reliable info or honest dialog about audio". They have a business model and it's working just fine for them.

 

I wonder why they haven't opened a headfi store yet, or sold franchises. The Buyer's Guide is their inventory. They have a hype machine. Seems like a no-brainer.

 

Heh. Ya know, it's a good question.

 

@Im4der - in the short term, no doubt you are correct. In the long term, they still need to maintain the value of their brand and the general perception that HF is a site worth visiting for reliable info about headphones. It will hurt their bottom line if a google search for head-fi turns up a bunch of hits on other forums about how HF has become a giant hype circle jerk where the admins selectively edit content and cater to sponsors to the detriment of consumers. To be clear, I think this is a gross overstatement of where matters presently stand, but it seems to me that that is the direction things are headed in, which is really unfortunate when I think about how much I used to enjoy visiting, reading and participating on HF.

 

I remember when I posted in the Alpha Prime thread about how there's no way they can turn a $100 headphone into a $1,000 headphone. I've heard both the Mad Dogs and the Alpha Primes, and there's not a massive difference. I go on the thread, post about it, and everyone jumps on me calling me a hater.Sure they do sound better, but like $600 better? Sorry, but I'm not a sheep and won't follow the herd.

 

I remember thinking that I shouldn't be too disappointed about the new model being released so soon after buying my ADs because the additional cost would have been enough to pick up a midfi open hp. But I was annoyed to find out that the upgrade program did not apply. That was one of the things about Mr Speakers that appealed to me. Anyhow, it was very surprising that very few people were disappointed with the lack of an upgrade option. The hype train just drowned out all negativity.

 

Because you can't please everyone all the time. As soon as they start distributing product some of their ad customers may object. They have a good thing going. They have built up a critical mass and as long as they add members faster than they lose them they'll be OK as a business concern. Why bother with e-commerce infrastructure, inventory, distribution agreements etc.?

 

Yep. I suppose modern business jargon calls it "core business." And theirs is not buying, stocking, selling --- or even franchising others to do so.

 

They're essentially a marketing agency; they generate good PR for their clients' products.

 

Not HF, but Reddit. But read it... Wait for it.

LOL.

WEED-FI.

 

Finally thought about this thread to post.


I visit HF for some similar reasons:

1. Stick to the threads for gear I own / am interested in
2. It's a great depository of new gear that's being released. But really for reviews, unless it's a name I know and trust, I'm not bothering reading it.
3. I remember being new to the hobby. I had to learn a lot of tough lessons about all the crap gear people still sounds good. Can't begin to count the number of times I purchased crappy gear based on an overly praising review, or a hype train. I see threads from people who are also new and trying to figure out this hobby. I try to remember how frustrating that experience was and try to help. Sometimes I give up (See below)

Sometimes I have to take a break and avoid it for a few days when:

1. A thread becomes an endless chain of non substantive posts: " I'll put these on my buy list ," "I bet these will go great with my _____ amplifier," "I'll probably sell my current DAC for this one" etc. Please, go tell the nearest wall. It'll be slightly more interested than I am.
2. People think that since they've purchased expensive gear they're now an expert! The Beyerdynamic T1 thread was an endless line of these folks. "These T1s sound amazing. Way clearer and more detailed than my HD650/LCD-2/etc. Beyerdynamic really hit the mark with these."

 

I still go there to check out the for sale or trade section as well as any upcoming nearby meets. Ive notice alot of old timers not really there anymore so a friend told me why some people who got banned or did not feel good being there anymore but I thought it was probably over exaggerated. Only recently at a local event I ran into some HF'er that essentially admitted and quite proud to be a "reviewer" whom I will not name that wrote very positive reviews to companies let let him keep stuff for free or in the hopes they do that after the review.

I literally wanted to vomit on the spot . I can believe some "reviewers" over there. reminds me of that southpark episode of the yelp reviewers...
Now I know.

 

Should be: "Welcome to Head fi, haha on you if you get fleeced."

 

Are there any specific examples anyone can cite of really crap gear getting a strongly positive review by Head-fi staff or Head-fi consensus?

It seems to me that most of the gear out there from most manufacturers sounds at least pretty good. Or at least, I've yet to buy anything that sounds like shit, and I've bought a lot of stuff that got positive reviews on Head-fi. I'm just trying to get a sense of why it's considered a shillfest over there.

 

Oppo HA-1 comes to mind. Take every stereotype about "harsh" solid state amps and sabre "glare", put them in a package and there you go. Lovely interface though, so at least it's got that going for it.

 

I think this is a pretty good shilling of the Abyss headphone and cavalli amp:



Jude likes it and bought it.... but no one at the Big Sound 2015 liked it that much: https://www.youtube.com/user/InnerFidelity/videos

Pretty much everyone was squirming when asked what they thought of the Abyss. Perhaps it isn't that bad, but maybe not worth the money. Other than that the general trend over at HF is that "the lastest thing is always the greatest thing". It's entertaining to read but a perhaps bit lacking in critical judgement. In comparison the members of SBAF seem to take a much more "wait and see" approach.

But I suppose it's only natural. HF and sbaf isn't really the same thing, and HF does do its job rather well. Right now sbaf couldn't do what HF does so each has its purpose.

 

Abyss seems to be highly seal dependent and there seem to be virtually infinitive ways to tweak the pad angle. Otherwise Abyss won't conditinally go on the Leaderboard.

Some crap IMHO:
- Rando DAP, portable amp/DAC combo, and IEMs.
- The entire JH brand, except maybe JH13 and to some extend, Angie
- Woo brand. Not utterly crap, but nowhere near the reputation HF bestows onto Woo.
- Beyer T1, Senn IE800, etc.

 

It sounds like what Steve Huff does with cameras. Everything is WOW. BEST EVER.