Thin Line Between Critique and Courtrooms: A Dialogue on the Recent Audiophile Drama

+10

@deep_333 

Few "goofs who think they know it all" invest in the same $100k+ Klippel NFS that brands like KEF and Magico use to measure and refine these designs.  Erin @ Erin's Audio Corner has used that scanner, which he invested in,  to produce dozens of speaker measurements on gear ranging from $100 entries of entry-level budget active speakers up to KEF Blades 2 Metas. Those, incidentally, came out to be within known margins of error for the measurements KEF produced in their white paper.  In some circles, he's held in significantly higher regard than the ASR crowd because his reviews start with subjective opinions, then move to objective measurements, and finally align those with his subjective impressions.  Occasionally he will also spend time highlighting and discussing where they do not.  Often, the latter are cases of "we see an irregularity in the FR graph, but I didn't pick up on it in my listening sessions like I did some other areas."  Also, unlike ASR, he acknowledges the existence of subjective listening preferences and highlights what his personal ones are and how they can be visually identified in the measurements. 

The complaint lodged against Erin was not that he used the equipment incorrectly, but that the speaker feet, which were not included with the speakers donated, weren't installed on the speaker when it was measured. That the inserts for those feet were completely drilled through cabinet walls and into the body itself is a separate discussion aside. Multiple individuals I know of in the speaker design either speak disparagingly of this approach, or at best identify to likely be a cost-cutting measure. They make clear it is not standard practice to introduce additional opportunities for air to exit the cabinet. Per them, the common practice is to either not breach the cabinet wall at all, or, if it's necessary from the length of the mounting hardware, to do so in positions that put them into internal bracing points for the cabinet so the cabinet wall integrity is maintained with or without the feet inserted. I strongly suspect that when he publishes the revised data on those Tektons, measured with the feet installed as Eric demanded, you'll see that the minor flaws he highlighted in his largely positive original review still exist in the revised measurements. 

Whether or not those matters highlighted in Erin's impact your enjoyment of the speakers is a matter of subjective opinion. Eric's ego-driven, impulsive overreaction to those minor issues being called out is another matter entirely. Threatening to initiate litigation over this, Eric's tapdancing damage-control BS about how,"I will begin litigation first thing in the morning if the review isn't pulled" (his exact words in the written communication) didn't mean suing Erin aside, this is a PR disaster of the first order for Tekton, and one entirely of Eric's own making.

make speakers not war

Sage advice!

@grislybutter +1.

He's his own worst enemy.