My Thoughts on Chi-Fi

My cogent response to recent controversies (after watching too many ProZD videos).

[lachlanlikesathing]

My actual thoughts on Chi-Fi: Despite being burnt by the TFZ S5 (nauseatingly overwhelming bass) and embarrassed by the HAVI B3 Pro1’s channel imbalance fiasco, I’ve had some good times with IEMs from obscure Chinese companies. In particular, I think there are a lot of Chinese audio companies that eventually broke out into making great products: Fiio and their seemingly great value DAPs. VSONIC I think makes some of the best IEMs around. And then there is HIFIMAN which has made the stunning graduation from making cheap looking, good sounding products with poor quality control to making expensive cheap looking, good sounding products with poor quality control.

I don’t mean to single out Chinese manufacturers because they are Chinese. The reality is that most of these OEM manufacturers are based in China. A lot of them throw review units at any person who puts their hand up, hoping to catch a hype train. Most of these products seem to be built around some word salad technology combination that seems exotic but was probably rejected by sensible engineers for feasibility reasons. A lot of them just sound plain weird, some of them are great, many of them are just poorly made.

I totally get the excitement of finding a diamond in the rough, and I was definitely at one point had fun trying really exciting, cheap new gear and sharing it with other people. Now I just have a drawer full of interesting but imperfect IEMs and I'm not really keen on buying more. Especially when there are plenty of tried and tested designs on the market that are still around today but end up overlooked because they are no longer in fashion.

I’ve come to think more like Nathan Wright: it’s all terribly wasteful. So that’s why I’m cautious when someone tells me about the new FOTM from Head-Fi. But thanks to everyone who shares their discoveries with me - it’s important to find your own fun within a hobby!

[HeretixAevum]

I'm offensive and I find this Chinese.

[Magnetorheological]

Gongfucius say: ahbestoss mik bes headphong.

[bombadt-yt]

Edit : looking at chi-fi market nowadays, this video has aged well.

[Kalavere]

"And then there is HIFIMAN which has made the stunning graduation from making cheap looking, good sounding products with poor quality control to making expensive cheap looking, good sounding products with poor quality control. "

As someone with a HE-1000, this made me laugh. God bless you HiFiMAN and your ridiculously priced, questionable QC products.

[FreeDM]

Is that an asian person impersonating an asian person?
I love it.

[QQ-Q-QQ]

0:35 - When you try deep insertion IEMs for the first time~

[HiFiInsider]

hahahaaa... love it. Do a video on how to comment in YT video. First: tell the content creator what a shitty job he's doing. Second: Ask a question that's already covered in the video. Third: Recommend a product you feel is better. etc. :)

[JukaForever]

Sounds like normal head fi forum posts

[absfastfurios]

Will you be trying UncleRuckus/Amar's meme, the Super Audio 2BA+2DD?

[Schmidteren]

Have you ever tried a good r2r dac? I would love to see how you react to it. :) Since it's been what made me fall in love with music again. I've been at a point for many years, where listening to music fatigued the crap out of me. Got a R2R dac/amp from audio-gd. That shit is gone, and fuck I'm a happy dude!! <3

[youllgetnoinfoaboutmytwitt]

I noticed it instantly the prozd omage

[WiiNV]

Can't be legit, voice was in sync ;)

[buonassi]

more of this.... you'll double your subscribers in 2 months! However, your spinfit video where you self identify as a tip roller and diddle the ear tips still ranks #1 in the LLAT humor archives.

[Wonginism]

Love the Chinese pronunciation it didn't set off my cringe detectors. I also don't think it was because my cringe sensors were overloaded by the echo chamber fanatics. Good portrayal of the echo chamber fanatics too.

[DJScopeSOFM]

I'm stealing you face at the end for future memes. xD

[NukenInDKuken]

0:30 "and everything is at ..."
what ?

Sorry Lachlan your stereotypes are in dire need of subtitles

[fernandosaldana]

Vsonic is garbage always fail from the cable i had almost every model of them in the pass.

[goldpieceleo]

Are you Chinese? Can you review this Chinese IEM KZ ED9? It's only $13 USD. Hahaha.