tl/dr, the IEM is fine, the rest of the situation, including any fanboyish contributions from me ain’t.
I can’t really re-evaluate the actual performance of the NOB (unintentionally funny acronym, haha) rn since it’s out on loan, but this whole project caught me @ the perfect time to suck me in. I was, and remain, relatively new to serious IEMs, and was willing to go deep financially, to my self-set max, for something that I felt would complement the few pieces I had already landed that stood out to me. I felt doing so would “settle me down” and take the edge off the fomo and newb spendlust, and also that the IEM itself would play well with certain parts of my library (jazz, classical, first-wave progrock, latin, American roots music) where I wanted bass articulation without needing high quantity, or even lushness or fullness, in the low-end. It gave me that, plus a sense of balance and, for lack of a better term, restraint, that slotted in nicely with some of my other then-fave sets.
Some have asked about whether the reviews were real. Well, nothing I wrote was as detailed or sophisticated as a review, but I definitely went off a bit…
Being a newb, but also familiar from other hobbies of the dangers of gushing about a new acquisition, I tried to preface my remarks to warn the reader (maybe not strongly enough) that I was feeling gushy and to keep that in mind in interpreting what I wrote. Looking back, I feel like that in itself could come across as annoyingly fanboyish to a reader that doesn’t know me at all, if not a shiller’s ploy. Re-reading, I cringe a bit.
I’ll also cop to pushing my remarks out sooner than I naturally would have had I not bought into the mythology of the dream project brought to fruition by a well-heeled insider to the hobby to re-shuffle expectations of where TOTL begins. I bought into that mythology big time and I’m straight-up red-faced about it, but I’ve learned something about myself and how to spot a marketing arrow aimed at my soft underbelly. I’ll definitely be more reticent about gushing from the hip about any other new acquisition.
Out of many lessons learned, I will be wary of small-shop or boutique offerings, of hype and slickly tailored insider-oriented marketing appeals, of Night Oblivion, of all-BA sets, and of the hobby itself.
My new max spend is a small fraction of what it was, and I can’t imagine it rising too much higher. But I’ll hold onto my NOB (lol) and probably continue to enjoy it for much the same reasons as I expressed in my original comments, although at the same time I will think about all of this while I am listening.
I’ll be fine, as I trust the rest of us will as well (other than folks that got problem sets that aren’t being, and absolutely, no excuses, should be addressed), and probably better off in the long run…and I hope to stick around. See ya.
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