Interesting people are starting take notice....

Michaels HiFi

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Some way down that article is a paragragh titled "So, What Can We Do?"

The simple answer is not to read crap reviews written by self-appointed Youtubers, often with no access to comparative kit or measuring gear, and who probably know no more about hi-fi than their watchers. Ignore them and they will go away as their revenue stream will end and maybe they'll be encouraged get a "proper job" if they have any talent.
 
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Great article and very true. It is easy to watch a "well known" Utoob reviewer gush over a piece of equipment as being the holy grail of audio and want to rush and buy it asap. Then to find it sounds nothing like what this gold star reviewer Tuuber said. Keeps the industry chugging along and Audiogon and TMR busy. Have you guys ever looked at HOW MUCH used gear TMR has listed? Now we have a rare few who speak the truth and get "lawfared" into silence. We cannot have bad reviews it upsets the sales numbers.
Watch the reviews as entertainment and enlightenment but not as the gospel truth. If you are planning to spend the amount most good audio gear is today use Google as your friend and find a local dealer you can go demo the piece. Even if it is an overnight trip with gas money and a hotel it will save so much heartache. And even then you need to understand synergy. Do dealers even offer home demo sessions anymore?

From my perspective even all the big name audio review sites there is NEVER a disparaging review. But thinking about that statement that has been the norm for years right?

Sorry just a morning rant over coffee.........Hope everyone has a great day.
 
I’ll add this as another reason to establish a relationship with a dealer who will talk turkey with you.
I agree Mike. Your "dealer" should be your most trusted reviewer. I will never forget what you told me when deciding to switch from Brand A to Brand B. You told me I would not be making any substantial benefit in sound quality.
 
I agree about the dealer.

Here is someone putting this at the feet of dealers on my FB page and my response about how it's larger than that.

And let's he honest - the forum nitwits -we all know who they are - as absolutely part of the problem as well. We've seen that played out here multiple times.

Screenshot 2025-10-02 at 8.00.17 AM.png
 
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I agree Mike. Your "dealer" should be your most trusted reviewer. I will never forget what you told me when deciding to switch from Brand A to Brand B. You told me I would not be making any substantial benefit in sound quality.
It’s funny, I’m brutally honest. Just talked a customer out of buying a new DAC streamer that was announced recently because vs his Cascade/Dual Pink Faun, that would have been a big step down or at a minimum, completely unnecessary.

My favorite story is talking someone out of the Kharma DB11’s because they would overpower his small room. He ignored me. Bought them anyway, then called me 3 months later with his tail between his legs to help him out do his “mistake”.

Lastly, work with a good dealer who will help your spouse in a time of need. This is a subject that goes ignored, but I can’t tell you the number of calls we get from a wife who says “my husband passed away and we have all this stuff” or “I’m terminally ill and I need to sell all this stuff so my wife doesn’t have to deal with it.”

We look after our customers and help the best we can. The team managing our consignment and pre owned gear does a great job here.

But I’ll be honest, there was a guy right here in Sarasota who called the other day, told us his unfortunate story about his illness and this guy had every single brand we sell, yet he never bought a single thing from us. We never heard of him before and he was only a few miles away. But he had all the brands we carry, but he bought elsewhere or used. NOW he needed our help. It’s a shit load of work selling used gear for piddly amounts of commission on each item and we take all the risk dealing with the scammers out there. Let me tell you, I’m sorry for his situation, but we’ve never even spoken to this guy and he’s been here for decades and known of us, but never even came in the store once! Never even called. But now needs our help? I gave my guys the parameters and guidelines to help him under, so we will see what happens.
 
A couple of years ago, I wanted a sub $1K AVR. I bought the Onkyo 7100 based on a review by Andrew Robinson who touted the clear sound. It sounds like crap, dialog is not clear. A waste of $700. A friend gave me an older Denon AVR which has extremely clear dialog.
 
A couple of years ago, I wanted a sub $1K AVR. I bought the Onkyo 7100 based on a review by Andrew Robinson who touted the clear sound. It sounds like crap, dialog is not clear. A waste of $700. A friend gave me an older Denon AVR which has extremely clear dialog.
That is one guy I would NEVER trust a review from.
 
Looks like more people are taking notice of the belligerent companies and forum owners who are bought off by sponsors trying to silence customer issues (AS excluded as it does not have sponsors)

As for which forum (and certain forum members) is bought and paid for - we all know the answer to that.

https://www.headphonesty.com/2024/08/hi-fi-industry-tactics-threatening-reviews/

What a load of complete Bullshit. All the way around man...

People are only taking notice of your own "story" and relentless propaganda. For that? More power to you. First off, the "story" that a thread was "deleted" on the WBF is still there for all to see. Yet, you still keep telling the same BS on FB and here. Take a look. The thread that you stated was gone is still there, and has been, since the day you posted your BS. I guess you never took another look, nor cared, as you had an agenda that you are apparently still pushing.

You were booted from the WBF for reasons that has NOTHING to do with what BS you stated. TBT, you started a thread that was honestly advertising the Greek Audio Geek, albeit under a different and an innocent name to begin with. You took that and ran with it and that was perfectly fine for a while.....The day you started your BS campaign was the day we really took notice of your agenda. We gave you grace. Plenty of it. You took that and completely shit on the WBF, spreading false lies on your FB page, relentlessly.

Then cried, "victim" when your ass got booted!!!!!

That is why you were banned. This had nothing to do with protecting an advertiser or sponsored manufacturer. It had EVERYTHING to do with your own actions. Spare me the BS and promotion of your "People taking notice".

Those that know, well, they know...But please, keep spreading your lies and letting people know exactly who and what you are.....as you, "tell the truth about audio". LOL

Tom
 
high fidelity:):)

from burning devices to mafia. Very mean Industry and sound quality went lost, basicly no more importance.
And yeah all thouse payed forum shills. Nitwits on purpose

Advertising two friends shops on the website while driving a campaign against what they do not sell is complementary.
 
What a load of complete Bullshit. All the way around man...



You were booted from the WBF for reasons that has NOTHING to do with what BS you stated. TBT, you started a thread that was honestly advertising the Greek Audio Geek, albeit under a different and an innocent name to begin with. You took that and ran with it and that was perfectly fine for a while.....The day you started your BS campaign was the day we really took notice of your agenda. We gave you grace. Plenty of it. You took that and completely shit on the WBF, spreading false lies on your FB page, relentlessly.


Tom

Hi Tom - thanks for posting.

Interesting you're STILL claiming Alessandro (the client with the issues I talked about) - and who has publicly posted ON YOUR SITE TO VERIFY THE ISSUES WERE REAL - is a liar.

It's confusing to me why you are calling 'propaganda' all his public posts on Facebook telling his story about the shitshow called Taiko. HE WENT PUBLIC with the issues after giving up dealing with their BS, I simply shared his story.

And let's also be clear how Taiko operates - it goes behind the backs of distributors and dealers to take paying customers AWAY from them -so Taiko can get paid direct and cut out their dealers. They are on what is known as the '.1' list.

Be honest - the thread was DELETED. You then posted stating on the forum anyone talking about it would be immediately banned. That's why I needed to use screen shots in my video and not show the actual full post - you had DELETED it. Your attempts to silence failed. It appears Headphonesty should be including you in their recent articles of naming names.

All hell broke loose about your questionable behavior by deleting so you then reinstated it. Having one of your own owners - as WBF does - who questions how WBF operates allows for interesting insight.

You banned me with no warning because one of your biggest sponsors - yes the one that Steve makes bold claims about when trying to get new sponsors - was having posts posted about the nightmare its customer was having. The normal forum nitwits called the claims lies (and some suggested violence).

Some even tried to spread lies about me to others outside the forum and were swiftly shut down when they were told about what working with Taiko is really like. Again these nitwits claimed the customer was lying about the issues with Taiko. Imagine the gall and stupidity of that stance?

Then when photo proof was presented on WBF of the customers posts detailing the nightmare you suddenly deleted the thread and warned people to not even talk about it. How Gestapo like.

As we dug further into the customers ongoing issues with Taiko, we started hearing about customers - many customers - with orders (some back to December 2023) who've paid tens of thousands of dollars still with no unit and no ETA of when it would ever be ready. Hmmmm.......

Funny you also popped up the other day on WBF to protect one of the biggest known industry shills who's pretending to be a regular consumer when he was called out for his shady behavior. Why would you protect one of the largest known shills-for-hire in the industry?

Even your owner Ron called me and admitted you violated every single one of your own rules, and stated you and Steve are "out of control in how you operate WBF".

It's funny to me you continue to call the real story a lie - even with screen shots AND the customer having repeatedly posted in multiple places for all to see the real story. Is that because they are a paying sponsor or because you just really don't care about companies delivering on what people pay for?

Interesting how WBF operates - it's banned Jay for no reason and any thread that mentions him gets deleted, Mike for no reason (jealous he started a forum maybe to compete with WBF - at least his isn't paid by 'sponsors'), me and anyone else who won't pay your bribe fee to post. It's a real shame you deleted all of the Genesis subform when he wouldn't pay your pay-to-play fee recently. No pay to WBF = you will be silenced.

Any company who takes tens of thousands of dollars up front, is close to two years with no ETA, and is still sending out emails to customers saying they have no ETA to give should be questioned.

Any company that put the customer through the ringer as it did should be questioned.

Any company who goes behind the backs of its dealers and distributors to CUT THEM OUT of multiple sales should be questioned.

It's ok though, we all know Steve has a special relationship with Taiko as he likes to brag about when trying to woo new sponsors.

Thanks Tom for helping to bring attention again to what Alessandro was put through and how WBF really operates by posting this post.

I didn't secretly go by some different name to try and promote my site on your low-traffic forum. I had clear links in an effort to be transparent in my signature. I get upwards of 3.4 million views on a good month so I don't need to try and get a couple of cheap views off WBF. Of all the dozens and dozens of posts I made on WBF, less than 10 linked to a video since I was there to talk audio, not to try and promote anything.

It must be nice you being able to come here and post on Mike's forum. Too bad you banned him from yours from being able to do the same. That pretty much says all anyone needs to know about WBF.

Honestly Tom I thought more of you than this. I'm quite disappointed how you guys turned out to be. Being banned from WBF is actually an honor among honest audiophiles now as you've got quite the ban list going - so no victim status here.

I have no ill-will towards you or Steve, Steve is well...Steve and a lost cause. You I still have hope for.

Edited for spelling.
 
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Michael -

Not worth getting into arguments with the WBF administration.

Like many, I was also banned from that site. My alias there was MJB. Back in 2020, I posted in WBF that upon listening to the VR 11s at the Florida Expo I found them to be impressive but felt the sweet spot was a bit small and some instrument presentation seemed larger than I liked. That was all that was needed to get banned.

It is clearly a very “political” and combative place; therefore, I’m very ok not being part of that environment. For me, this audio hobby is about good music played via nice systems and enjoyed with good friends. I don’t have time for petty stuff.

Respectfully…
 
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