Manufacturer threatens lawsuit over negative review

GoldenSound discusses the legal threats received from DAC manufacturer dCS over his review of the dCS Bartok.

Special thanks to Amir Majidimehr from AudioScienceReview and Jussi Laako from Signalyst for their input.

How to read the new measurements:

The 10 stages of headphone measurements

0:00 - Andrew's Intro
3:32 - Golden's Intro
6:01 - Backstory
14:33 - Point 1: Delta-Sigma
17:05 - Point 2: Filters
17:43 - Point 3: 10Mhz Clock
18:06 - Point 4: DSD Noise
22:27 - Point 5: Default Upsampling
23:27 - Point 6: Reclocking
24:10 - Point 7: Review Setup
25:35 - Point 8: Lina Clock
26:15 - Golden's thoughts

[GoldenSound]

I am pleased that this whole situation has come to an end.
I'm looking forward to visiting dCS next week, and for now the most important thing I ask is that people refrain from giving anyone at dCS a hard time. Particularly at CanJam this weekend. The individual involved is no longer with the company, and I do not want anyone to be directing further messages their way nor giving any sort of hardship to employees who had nothing to do with this situation in the first place.

However, I would also like to sincerely thank everyone in the community for their support the past few days

[mnstr_]

I just learned two things today:
1. dCS is a company.
2. I will never buy a product from dCS.

[littlesukka]

"dCS welcomes reviews of its products that are honest and accurate" - proceeds to sue a reviewer who was being honest and accurate

[UneLigneChaque]

This silliness is going to be a lot more damaging to their business than any bad review.

[Iznoful]

As a CFO of a company using dCS products for about a decade, and replacing them every 2 years, within our supply to the audio recording branch, after this we'll be choosing to spend our $300K annually elsewhere. Thank you for this snippet of information of a toxic manufacturer. And well done! :D

[motoman]

Cameron, I have 35 years of high profile litigation experience in the defamation area and I’ll defend you for free if they sued. Tell DCS to pound sand.

[LinusTechTips]

I've always appreciated your approach and mission. If you need any help, we are here for you. Step one is getting the word out on our news shows this week. Step two is whatever it takes to help ensure the ongoing success of independent tech media.

I believe your team is in contact with mine. Let me know the second you need anything - LS

[ZReviews]

I cannot thank Andrew and Cameron enough for bringing this to light. It is always a concern when an independent opinion, be it my own or my fellow reviewers, is met with consequences and threats such as these. This hobby is relatively small and there is no room for vindictive behavior from manufacturers and it should not be supported.

DCS is Challenging a man with incredible insights, fact checked, Community support, and well-spoken commentary in the space. We all saw how well that worked out for MQA.

[fatphoca]

I just cancelled my DCS Lina headphone amp order. No way am I giving my dollars to such a bunch of arseholes.

[PassiveSmoking]

I never really knew much about dCS before clicking on this video.

Now I know that I'll never buy a dCS product, ever.

Good job, dCS. Your lawsuit damaged your reputation far more badly than a bad review ever would have.

[JoshComley]

That bit about not being your mommy or your therapist absolutely reveals how unprofessional, hotheaded, and juvenile this person at DCS is. That's just despicable. Props to you for posting this. Can't say I'm going to buy anything DCS after this. Bullies.

[ErinsAudioCorner]

I replied to Cameron's video on his channel but will reply here as well...

Having gone through this recently with a speaker manufacturer I have to provide my deepest empathy here. This is an extremely stressful situation. Even when you know you're 100% in the right it is still tough to go through. In my case the entire community stood up and had my back. It looks like you are getting the same results here.

Two things:
1) Manufacturers must learn that all reviewers aren't for sale. The audio review space isn't what it was 2 years ago when *so many* were shilling and getting paid under the table. Reviews can't be bought and paid for. Transparency has always been an issue in this space but with more objective means this is really putting a light on the dark side of the industry. The consumer is also getting wise to this and these kinds of actions only sour us on specific brands that respond with this disgusting, childlike behavior.

2) Manufacturers also need to learn that when you have concerns or disagreements with a review this is not the way to address those concerns. Threatening, belittling... and then expecting reviewers to cower down when they've shown nothing wrong (never mind malicious in intent).

2b) IMHHO, the gentleman you've spoken with at DCS should be fired. And the CEO should step in and offer a public apology for that doofus' actions. That one man has done far, *far* more damage to the company's brand than any single review could have ever done. As a "VP of Marketing, " he's a liability to the brand at this point.

If you have to start a gofundme to cover legal costs then I'm in to help as much as I can.

- Erin

[jeffjacobs]

Be sure to report dCS to the FTC for violating the Consumer Review Fairness Act.

[lacsativ]

"I am neither your mommy nor your therapist" - in what world is this type of wording acceptable? Nevermind the fact that they are literally the VP of "Sales and Marketing", that stuff would be nasty coming from any company representative. Speaks volumes of the type of company that dCS is.

[NotJustBikes]

Thanks for making this video. I just wanted to let you know that YouTube actually has a "corrections" feature for exactly this purpose, though it's very poorly documented. I only just learned about it myself a few days ago.

In the description, put "Correction:" or "Corrections:". Then, on the next line, mention a timestamp and the correction. Put each correction on its own line.

For example:

Corrections:
0:00 This part is actually this
2:56 I said x but meant y

These must appear AFTER any chapters (so it's best to put them at the END of the description).

You can find the documentation by googling for "YouTube corrections" but honestly the actual docs are less clear than what I just wrote above.

Thanks again for your in-depth and honest reviews.

[stickinthemud]

It is good to see the apology by dCS and that this matter is either now resolved or will be shortly.

That said, as an attorney with over 35 years experience, I am distressed to see unacceptable legal jackassery in the apology text.

No business, whether it be a lemonade stand or a multibillion corporation, should ever issue a statement along the lines of regretting, or in this case apologizing, for “any” distress or inconvenience.

That’s nothing but ass-covering, passive aggressive bullshit. These statements, if they are to mean anything at all, should clearly apologize for THE distress or inconvenience.

They should be issued as an acknowledgment and confirmation that inconvenience or distress HAS occurred.

Now, this statement has been issued and there’s no point in going back to have it revised. But if you own a company, don’t step in your own shit but issuing statements that apologize for “any” inconvenience. The inconvenience or distress has occurred, and your apology is both worthless and insulting if it is written to press a presumption that it has not.

[badinkstudios]

Hi dCS, I'm a comic creator who spends hours and hours a day sitting at my desk doing art and listening to headphones. What discretionary income I have, I save to buy audio equipment for my desk. I always dreamed of being able to save up and buy your products one day. However, thanks to this fiasco, you lost a customer for life. I think you vastly underestimated how much content creators influence the purchase decisions and culture of various hobbies.

[MattBorchert]

The Streisand effect is very real and this is going to bring exponentially more negative feedback towards dCS than a review on something as obscure as a high-end DAC ever would. A mind boggling decision from them. Hopefully you can easily win this and recover any damages suffered.

[jonathancraig]

DCS. Not my mommy. Not my therapist. Not my stack.

[TheIntellectualRedneck]

I call absolute bullshit, there is no way this clown didn't know what was being communicated, they're just back-tracking in ass-covering fashion in an attempt to mitigate the community backlash.

A bad review will make me avoid a product, but I don't tolerate any kind of corporate bullying. I'd never heard of DCS before today, but the details of this story have convinced me to place them on my "not ever" list of companies.