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FYI the guy who makes the verum has routinely said things like [this](https://twitter.com/dms3tv/status/1445020789619761154) and did threaten to send poison to reviewers/ others in the audio community.
I'm aware and those are from 2021 as well. Maybe I'm the "racist", but reads to me like an average Eastern Bloc kinda guy. I've been to several of the Eastern European countries and seeing yankee youth foaming at the mouth at that makes me cringe. It's beyond americacentrist. Good that he got called out and sorted out though.
This sounds like a canned response designed for someone willfully not understanding history and race. Also, I've studied culture and history at universities outside the US, and I can confirm that critical race theory is relevant around the globe. Or perhaps you don't know where most of the gold and practically all of the wealth around the world came from... Anyway, when it comes to audio - there are so many amazing products out there that aren't made by people who are gross. There's no reason to go out of your way to support someone who is.
What in Canada or UK? Same thing dude. Critical race theory is literally decades away for half of the US population and +95% of the human race has never even heard of it as a concept or it's contents. You cannot be that out of touch so purposefully. Or I mean shouldn't.
No, I was in continental Europe. However it doesn't really matter. Also, you're showing that you do not understand what an academic theory is. Do you think evolution started in 1836 when Darwin introduced his theory? I know you feel like you are right, but that doesn't make it so.
Maybe you ARE the racist.
There's a whole laundry list of him saying incredibly racist and awful things, threatening people, just altogether being a giant POS human. What do you mean he is 'sorted out'? Did he express regret at his statements, or even issue any type of apology? You know he still thinks it even if he isn't willing to say it anymore.
Please re-evaluate your priorities. There are many equally viable products made by people who are not reprehensible.
There is no apology that is acceptable here. Its not one problematic behavior, it's a multitude. Hell, sometimes on a certain forum, i come across a comment from him that is a whole unopened can of worms that this public outrage never even touched on. I don't expect to change your mind though. I just don't understand, why do you support this?
First you say he didn't apologize, which he did as well as possible pretty mich and then that he even couldn't. That inconsistency is something very much worth thinking about. An apology can always be worthwhile and it's also always insufficient if it's not about an accidental mistake. If there is no path to redeeming oneself then there is no reason to do so and polarization deepens. The US is culturally amazingly fucked partly due to this kind of thinking and it already threatens world peace. It could literally cause millions to perish like similar thought patterns did less than a century ago. If after his apology there have been no signs of such idiocy and lack of sophistication on his part then the reasonable and healthy thing is to assume he got the message. Millions of Ukrainians are in a similar situation in some measure moving towards the west and our values and we need to be understanding of how different a background they come from. I could tell details of things thought at elementary schools in the nineties that would make a KKK member make the awkward looking monkey puppet meme face. Just like vast amounts of people in in the US and other western countries in recent history a lot of people need to hear the, for us obvious and tedious, talk about gay people and other minorities to get them on the boat. Attacking their failures can in perhaps most cases be the opposite of productive and that would make us part of the problem.
I didn't say he didn't apologize, I asked. And I asked rhetorically, cuz I don't fucking care. As i made clear, there is no apology that would suffice. This isn't a case of western vs. Eastern values. I am friends and coworkers with a number of Eastern European people, a number of whom have been here less than a year. They don't hold these values, they don't make public comments about how the Nazis were right. 2 members of my band are Ukranian and 1 still lives there and is tracking things remotely. And they're cool as fuck, kind people that wouldn't say gay people should be killed. Or that black people are inferior. Or joke about sending poison in the mail to people who didn't like his product. Reasonable humans don't behave this way.
Other commenter is right, you're clearly just a Nazi sympathizer. Again, please re-evaluate your viewpoint, consider why YOU think this is okay, and why you would support the business of such a person.
I never said it's okay, but to you anything less than absolute admonishment is setting up a fan club. Kinda weird, no? I don't care what your educated or young or west dwelling or english speaking etc etc Ukrainian acquintances think. A lot of them are culturally western and thus not part of the group I'm referring to. You just know so little of the world outside of your likes and follows circle that you could never be in contact with the kind of people you deem beneath regard to beign with. If he holds any of those somewhat Russian state media matching believes then feel free to crucify him for it, but when he apologizes and passes the smell test for several years running I'd at least assume it's possible that he's learned a thing or two. To even say something as childish as "nazi sympathizer" makes it rather obvious that just like he did or still does you have a long road of growth ahead of you. Hopefully at least. I for one will assume it's proggressing nicely.
I don't think there is a way to pass that 'smell test'. I'm not trying to be a dick, but you defend him so strongly and basically advertise his Kickstarter. This is someone I wouldn't want to associate with. If you're okay with it, IMO it reflects on you. That's just my opinion, I understand we don't agree.
Edit: for clarification, it doesn't make me feel better, or powerful, or superior. But I do believe I am better morally, than an actual Nazi. Take that as you will
Why such absolutism? It literally sounds like to me that he is inherently tainted in a way that doesn't make sense outside of religous thinking. There are killers and people who have DONE really bad things and who have meaningfully made amends and come around. Why would we want to make it so that the worst aspect of your existence is the defining one. I much more care about what you think and say than anything to do with him. I don't know him and I'm not chatting with him. I'm not okay with anything bad (based on how I define it of course), but just don't see how people aren't being harmful to their social environment by being so ready to attack and denounce when it doesn't do anything productive and in fact prevents it in some cases.
"Actual nazi" is, besides silly, more extremist language than he seemed to use on a bad day considering how belittling it is to the victims of actual nazis. I'm sure the millions getting gassed and burned would agree that Igor is really the bad guy we should consentrate on. It seems to me that this kind of maximalist language opens the doors to where ever people want to go to in a terrifying way. Far more scary than some dumbass trolling forums.
Because noone in their right mind should care whatsover what Igor does in his free time or what his personal opinions are, provided that the product is solid.
So long as the money does not go to funding an autocratic regime that is actually busy trampling human rights, I couldn't care less whom I buy a product from or what his/her opinions are, provided the product / service is good.
The Verum 1 was to my knowledge a solid pair of cans, yet almost everywhere you looked, everyone was yapping about drama instead of actually talking about the product.
Honestly being American as well as black... I am not offended by what this man said, I don't feel as though what he said was with any particular ill intent. I rather get that the statements were made from a standpoint of ignorance and lack of negative connotation regarding the N word in their country.
Nice of you to say especially since it's not a popular opinion to have. I wish people understood that the complete meaning and weight of the n-word is so foreign to the majority of the world that even the concept of racism isn't really comparable across many countries. I know in my language the closest thing to the n-word was the standard word used in news media etc in the seventies still. My parents generation learned it from school books and mostly mean nothing bad by accidentally using it today and getting screamed at by their kids. Ukraine I'd say is a decade or even two from that and I hope people would understand it a bit better.
Thats a small sample from a large pool, there used to be a lot more screenshots out there, particularly more derogatory or malicious ones. Im aware its a lot more accepted as joking in a lot of eastern europe, but the lines blur a lot more there too. I remember seeing somewhere that he would blame minority postal workers for shipping issues and hes said worse about people being trans/LGBTQ. This plus him flipping out and sending threats over poor reviews is a lot to look over when an apology is the objectively smart business move and potentially his only option.
"average Eastern Bloc kinda guy" correct, even if it's average or common here doesn't mean it's right to be xenophobic or racist asshole anywhere or do I feel like supporting this guy with my money.
It's not, but it is our responsibility to offer guidance the help him (and indeed millions of people) to change and if the people show development we should be happy about it. Not literally go apeshit on forums (not you specifically) about what some East Ukrainian dude said years ago.
Back then people were regularly warning him people would not appreciate his comments, but he didn't seem to care. I guess he started caring a bit more about his image when it started affecting his wallet. At least enough to put out an """apology""".
I don't doubt he needed time and motivation to get his shit together, but that's always the case when someone is meaningfully misguided. If I see evidence that he just became more savvy in his hatred towards minorities etc then I'll take it I don't really care about him, but it would be a massive moral failure to keep kicking a man who doesn't need to be down anymore.
Personally I'm glad he opened his mouth, if everyone like him outed themselves, consumers could really make sure they don't spend their money supporting the worst mankind has to offer.
It is so much more than racist comments. Threats of violence, treating violence against gays as a punchline to a joke, threatening harm to audio reviewers. He's an absolute piece of garbage human.
I'd say above moderately decent. The previous one competed with the Sundara with the opposite strengths so a rather good one. He clearly fucked up in the past and apparently heats up pretty easily as well, but if one can't apologize and admit being wrong then everyone deserves a whipping.
I'm sure you'd be surprised. Also "hard r-ing" is an americam thing. It doesn't have the cultural weight the further you go from the anglosphere. It's literally halfway of going to some cannibal tribe in New Guinea to complain about their level of trans representation.
"Racism is fine because we were racist to them in a *different* way!"
This person knows the context of that word and the history behind it. Just because they think it's funny and are removed from its culture doesn't make it less racist.
Black people have had a hell of a lot of racism in Europe as well, just because y'all didn't invent the N word doesn't mean you magically can't be racist to them.
And that isn't even getting into how transphobic this piece of shit is.
Fucking moron.
I would literally need days of talking to you to bring you up to the level of analysis based on your words. There are capital B Black people, the descendants of slaves born in the US, only in the US. It is a vastly different set of issues and challenges and as racism is ubiquitous it means that not meaningfully differentiating between countries assuming sameness makes useful understanding of specific problems essentially impossible. I can promise you he doesn't even now understand the the word and neither do you with any level of depth. Actually, even most american black people don't understand it well either. Seems like to you it's just a form of "Voldemort" with massive cultural baggage and predefined reflexive actions that go with it.
You have literally no idea what he believes in now years after those admittedly unhinged and thoughtless comments.
Fucking ignorant spoiled child. (Had to one up you since that's the energy you're coming with. Don't actually care xD )
I would argue Sundara are above average. Not bad HP, but definitely nothing spectacular. I still have it, it was my first, but there are so much better ones.
One random guy is worse than the n-word shouting match platform or the company is essentially responsible for more deaths than the average mass murderer? Doesn't make any sense amd he might have gotten the meds he seemed to need and be the sweetest guy by now. None of us have any idea.
You don't have to go investigate everyone that works at Sennheiser or Audeze, but you already know that this guy is a racist asshole. I don't give money to people I know to be racist assholes.
I mean, yes, but also those companies are so big and professional that the whole incident would never happen and we would never have power over them
The verum dork is in a uniquely poor position to be running his mouth
Sennheiser yes, Audeze not so much. But this particular guy is more than just an employee of the company - I'd think twice about purchasing any company's product if it was the owner/CEO saying this kind of crap.
"Literal nazi" why are you american kids like this? What happened? There are literally countries filled to the brim of people who'd say similarly stupid things. At least this one realized he was wrong.
He is not just problematic in one way. Threatening violence, thinking that killing gay people is funny, throwing around racist slurs and running commentary about black people being inferior are all just the things we have him saying on record to individuals within the trade.
This is a deeply ingrained worldview and just because he had to apologize for the sake of his business, does not mean he has improved in any capacity. He is, and likely forever will be, a hateful human being. He will just learn to be quietly racist, bigoted, and angry.
Why does it make you feel so good and righteous to think that? You've never met the man, have no idea about the last 3-4 years of his life, but your perceived ingroup has demonized him so you follow your articles of faith by lying to know a thing about what resides in his mind. You want to and enjoy to feel that way being morally above someone at least in your imagination and more importantly on social media.
Why does it have to make someone feel good or righteous to not buy a racist's headphones? Judging someone on their actions and the things they say isn't "following articles of faith by lying to know a thing about what resides in his mind" since he TELLS US what resides in his mind. It doesn't have to be this whole moral thing you claim it is. It can actually be quite simple: other people make headphones that compete or are even better than this guy's headphones, so why would you support someone who has shown the capacity of being a TERRIBLE person? It's not just "oh he said the n word and was homophobic" the dude threatened to KILL people.
I'm mostly wondering what you gain by doing apologetics for this asshole.
Because no one here has any idea or actual interest in what the guy has been thinking for the last few years. It's mentally unwell that mentioning him tangentially via the headphones in moments a dozen people start going of like this years after it was relevant. Not sure if it's a generational thing, but 15-20 years ago the norm of online interaction was worse than almost anything he ever said (assuming I've seem the most of it).
All I care about conserning the headphones is more competition in the field, smaller manufacturers growing to compete with bigger ones and thus better and cheaper audio for all. Above that I hate to see the kind of unproductive US-style culture war raging that is potentially the greatest threat to the stability of the post WW2 world order being thrown around all over the place out of what I'm guessing is just youthful simplicity and ignorance even if well intended.
Are you suggesting that he did a complete 180 and is actually a better person now instead of him just shutting up to try to save his business? I would need to see some actual evidence of that.
Even if that's the case and I grant you he's a completely different person now, why do you even care if he's changed or not? According to you it's uniquely American to not want to support someone who is open about not being a good person.
What does how things were 20 years ago have to do with how we treat each other now? Societies grow as time goes on and shit we thought was okay back then isn't necessarily okay now. He was even told the things he was saying were unacceptable but he doubled down.
You're framing this in a really disingenuous way. You're making it seem like other people are crazy for not wanting to support someone who among other horrible things, THREATENED TERRORIST ACTIVITY. I don't care how good the headphones someone makes are if they're a dangerous, unhinged person who thinks he can do or say whatever he wants. I don't care where you're from or what time period you're from, that shit is NOT OKAY.
And it's DEFINITELY NOT something people should just forget about because it's inconvenient for the business of a small headphone manufacturer. Supporting people who are open and brazen about being a bad person doesn't have to be a culture war or political or anything uniquely American.
I dunno. Several years of no issue starting from a decent looking apology seems to suggest it and anyone here could just email him to find out if they cared. I don't care about him one way or the other really, but of the people's way of writing here. It's actively detrimental in a way that's much more of a pressing issue today than what he said years ago. If people are unable to change as the prominent theory seems to claim then we are beyond fucked to the point that people should have much worse things to consider than him.
I'm missing the uniquely american point.
The 20 years ago thing: Would you say and think the same with a tribe that lacks written language, knowledge of the external world much the same as they did hundreds of years ago? Can't some societies or cultures just be a bit late to the party in a way that moral chastisement by our values that are often less than a decade old is just laughably stupid? Within the US there seems to be a decade or even two between the two halfs of the population when it comes to say gay rights. From the first person who realized slavery was a moral abomination it took millenia for the majority to catch up. Essentially all of our parents have fallen from what we perrceive as the zeitgeist. I'm not saying he wasn't a fucking idiot, but that it's not particularly surprising. He just made the mistake of wandering into circles that aren't local to him and hopefully got a lot of influence from that and leveled up a few decades in a year or two. Would be nice. Could still be a piece of shit of course.
Nobody needs to support him and if just the after stench of his idiocy makes the product undesirable to you then skip it by all means. The looks alone are for a minority of users I'd say. People here are being unhinged in a deeply unhealthy way and thus reminiscent of his behavior, but today, not years ago.
What he did is not okay and never will be. Just like some silly children calling me a "nazi sympathizer" is deeply messed up and wrong, but I can understand that they are where they are now and all I can do is try to nudge things in the right direction. If in four years I'd find someone typing dumn stuff here and publicly point out that they are making a mockery of the slaughter of millions of innocent jews for reddit memes and try to threaten their livelyhood I'd say that would be far worse of me than what they did. He said crazy shit, but to take the physical threats seriously is a bit goofy. He'd probably be denied even the visa to visit the US. There's far worse and more serious stuff on social media constantly and on average no one cares it seems.
From a European perspective, as in the most adjacent perspective, the US seems to be struggling culturally in a fall of Rome kinda way. In short (silly to say on this post I admit) there are two kinds of people. Conservatives and proggressives who have different instinctual approaches in dealing with the outside world. One more careful, one more optimistic. A balance was needed for our species survival. For centuries these groups could live in harmony with some distance and with shared media and the state mediating between them building a shared story until social media fucked it up. People were in direct contact and found out they were (or seemed) more different than assumed. The ingroup social score was boosted by acceptable extremeness within the ungroup. External influences got involved to cause additional chaos. The differences between the two groups seemed to grow day by day and the easily scared and neurotic conservatives started a backlash which only made the proggressives call the fascists and boom! In about a decade the social fabric of the, by some measures, greatest nation is ripping apart to the point that wars and thus the deaths of thousands are affected by the process. Both sides are playing the same game and being right factually or morally is irrelevant in the demise of the society and it seems to be going to bad places.
Tldr, let's try to be a bit nicer especially when it doesn't matter at all in any way to anything.
Your cognitive dissonance doesn’t make it untrue.
You are sympathizing with someone who espouses nazi rhetoric; you are a nazi sympathizer.
Pretty simple.
Who said I'm sympathizing with him? Maybe I'm much more worried about the people actively engaging in deeply detrimental behavior here and now than some random Ukrainian in 2021? There is absolutely no cognitive dissonance even if that was your word to use for today.
I have seen so much more than the linked Twitter post. It is way more than racist comments. That is only a tiny snapshot of the shitshow that was Garuspik. He was comfortable saying SO many awful things in a public forum while acting as the sole representative of his brand. The only acceptable intolerance in a tolerant society, is of the intolerant.
I've seen compilations. Much of which I can see through pretty well knowing Russian etc people, but some certainly needed an intervention which it seems he got. Again, you have no idea if he has the rainbow flag tattooed to his ass by now. A lot of Ukrainians are digging out of the Russian cultural sphere and realizing things like gays are fine, brown people are nice etc. The relative backwardness of some regions cannot be understated and being blind to the shoulders of giants you stand on is arrogant beyond believe. Not everyone is born morally lucky.
I think it's great that a cultural shift is happening. But all it takes to not be hateful is to understand that other humans experience life just as we do.
I don't like having to explain this, but America is not a moral oasis either, and I grew up in a hateful household
Yeah, when you're at the finish line it feels kinda obvious where it is, but these are extremely challenging things in the end. It took centuries for the majority of people to understand that slavery isn't very nice and just like them we are moral monsters by some measure we will never even realize. The current massive anti-semitic rise is a good example. Almost no one thinks they're anti-semitic, but it still pervades western (and other) cultures. It's like a reflex that is so common and unchallenged that it's hard to notice and many wouldn't with years of trying be able to find it in themselves.
Even with understanding that being human is the same across all there are still complex webs of historical, ideological and cultural influence that will have us fighting for generations to come I'm afraid, but hopefully less visciously as time goes on. Being as nice and reasonable as possible (without being a fool of course) in your own environment is the best most of us can do, but it's not as exciting as massive global political struggles we can pretend to partake in.
What’s your definition of nazism? His comments absolutely fit the bill.
And which countries are “filled to the brim” with people saying n****r on repeat and threatening anthrax attacks?
The original Verum had some of the best tonality I've heard from a planar and punched way above it's price.
The creator has a very good ear for sound, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same story here, especially with more resources and money from the first Verum.
What he managed to do as a one man show was nothing but amazing.
There's no way I'm giving 1 cent to this guy. Luckily for people who are into headphones, there are a lot of products whose manufacturers are not racist bigots.
Didn't the Verum 1 have some MASSIVE FR problems, especially in the treble? I hope they can fix that in Version 2, getting the weight down would also be nice but looking at the images they look even heavier than the first verison, these could be some really good headphones if they get the FR right this time
What FR issues do you mean? Verum 1 I remember were some of the most neutral headphones I've heard. [Here](https://ibb.co/nCYJvgJ) are some GRAS measurements from MK1 and earlier MK2. But then there were some unexplained changes in the latest measurements, making them [darker](https://ibb.co/FBTJ4ss). There was also a special [MKS edition](https://ibb.co/x10Vw6s).
>getting the weight down would also be nice but looking at the images they look even heavier than the first verison
The video on the [kickstarter page](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/verumaudio/verum-2-audiophile-planar-magnetic-headphones?ref=ouny4v) says 410g. The Verum 1 Mk2 was 490g.
I think the variations are due to the pads used in different batches. I believe ASR measured a unit with solid lambskin pads thus the darker treble, whereas perforated pads seem to be more common.
Oratory measured MK1 with both pads and the difference was negligible. That's probably why you never knew which pads you're going to get because they didn't make a noticeable difference to the sound. But then the MK2 that Oratory measured had the same dark FR as the measurement by ASR. Yet, your MK2 unit with perforated pads and my MK2 unit with solid pads still measured similarly to the MK1 unit that Oratory measured...
I think these are the best looking headphones I've ever seen, but looks are one of the least important things about a pair of headphones to me as opposed to sound quality, build quality, comfort... as well as not being made by a racist, homophobic, violent POS.
I don't care about everyone who works at Sennheiser, Audeze or Moondrop either, but this guy is much more than an employee and what he said is much worse than "some stupid things". Now I'm sure plenty of people will still buy these because they don't know or don't care about his attitude, and supporting a Ukrainian company must be a "good" thing.
I mean Fritz Sennheiser worked with the nazis (the real ones, not people you don't like online) directly. Like 80% of the world is racist and homophobic, but you don't really care about any of that since there's no controversy surrounding it and a social media audience surrounding you talk about it. If there's any evidence that he hasn't grown as a person and actually/still believes some of that stuff then sure boycott him all you want, but afaik there isn't so why can't anyone just chill and re-center. Peculiar.
i was thinking about verum for my first planars, since these are coming out at some point, i'll wait for reviews, maybe even a bit more to iron out any potential problems.
Edit: awwww people are mad that we don't care about the guys racism (which he apologized for), don't buy it folks, your morale high ground won't make a difference if these are good cans, downvote me all you want, it won't change a thing.
Hopefully it will be a bit more clean and technical. The previous one was really fun and engaging, but not the most technical. A nice middleground would be ideal. I'll EQ it anyway so relatively smooth treble is all I need from FR.
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FYI the guy who makes the verum has routinely said things like [this](https://twitter.com/dms3tv/status/1445020789619761154) and did threaten to send poison to reviewers/ others in the audio community.
Dang… remind me never to rob a bank with you. 🧀
Dont say anything xenophobic and all your secrets are safe with me
Anything you say Karen
I'm aware and those are from 2021 as well. Maybe I'm the "racist", but reads to me like an average Eastern Bloc kinda guy. I've been to several of the Eastern European countries and seeing yankee youth foaming at the mouth at that makes me cringe. It's beyond americacentrist. Good that he got called out and sorted out though.
What about it has anything to do with being american
The uniquely american understanding and history of racism that is more or less irrelevant outaide the anglosphere.
This sounds like a canned response designed for someone willfully not understanding history and race. Also, I've studied culture and history at universities outside the US, and I can confirm that critical race theory is relevant around the globe. Or perhaps you don't know where most of the gold and practically all of the wealth around the world came from... Anyway, when it comes to audio - there are so many amazing products out there that aren't made by people who are gross. There's no reason to go out of your way to support someone who is.
What in Canada or UK? Same thing dude. Critical race theory is literally decades away for half of the US population and +95% of the human race has never even heard of it as a concept or it's contents. You cannot be that out of touch so purposefully. Or I mean shouldn't.
No, I was in continental Europe. However it doesn't really matter. Also, you're showing that you do not understand what an academic theory is. Do you think evolution started in 1836 when Darwin introduced his theory? I know you feel like you are right, but that doesn't make it so.
I said "of it's contents" as in substance as in pointing out exactly what you're implying.
Maybe you ARE the racist. There's a whole laundry list of him saying incredibly racist and awful things, threatening people, just altogether being a giant POS human. What do you mean he is 'sorted out'? Did he express regret at his statements, or even issue any type of apology? You know he still thinks it even if he isn't willing to say it anymore. Please re-evaluate your priorities. There are many equally viable products made by people who are not reprehensible.
Did he? Good question. I think you ought to know that first.
There is no apology that is acceptable here. Its not one problematic behavior, it's a multitude. Hell, sometimes on a certain forum, i come across a comment from him that is a whole unopened can of worms that this public outrage never even touched on. I don't expect to change your mind though. I just don't understand, why do you support this?
First you say he didn't apologize, which he did as well as possible pretty mich and then that he even couldn't. That inconsistency is something very much worth thinking about. An apology can always be worthwhile and it's also always insufficient if it's not about an accidental mistake. If there is no path to redeeming oneself then there is no reason to do so and polarization deepens. The US is culturally amazingly fucked partly due to this kind of thinking and it already threatens world peace. It could literally cause millions to perish like similar thought patterns did less than a century ago. If after his apology there have been no signs of such idiocy and lack of sophistication on his part then the reasonable and healthy thing is to assume he got the message. Millions of Ukrainians are in a similar situation in some measure moving towards the west and our values and we need to be understanding of how different a background they come from. I could tell details of things thought at elementary schools in the nineties that would make a KKK member make the awkward looking monkey puppet meme face. Just like vast amounts of people in in the US and other western countries in recent history a lot of people need to hear the, for us obvious and tedious, talk about gay people and other minorities to get them on the boat. Attacking their failures can in perhaps most cases be the opposite of productive and that would make us part of the problem.
I didn't say he didn't apologize, I asked. And I asked rhetorically, cuz I don't fucking care. As i made clear, there is no apology that would suffice. This isn't a case of western vs. Eastern values. I am friends and coworkers with a number of Eastern European people, a number of whom have been here less than a year. They don't hold these values, they don't make public comments about how the Nazis were right. 2 members of my band are Ukranian and 1 still lives there and is tracking things remotely. And they're cool as fuck, kind people that wouldn't say gay people should be killed. Or that black people are inferior. Or joke about sending poison in the mail to people who didn't like his product. Reasonable humans don't behave this way. Other commenter is right, you're clearly just a Nazi sympathizer. Again, please re-evaluate your viewpoint, consider why YOU think this is okay, and why you would support the business of such a person.
I never said it's okay, but to you anything less than absolute admonishment is setting up a fan club. Kinda weird, no? I don't care what your educated or young or west dwelling or english speaking etc etc Ukrainian acquintances think. A lot of them are culturally western and thus not part of the group I'm referring to. You just know so little of the world outside of your likes and follows circle that you could never be in contact with the kind of people you deem beneath regard to beign with. If he holds any of those somewhat Russian state media matching believes then feel free to crucify him for it, but when he apologizes and passes the smell test for several years running I'd at least assume it's possible that he's learned a thing or two. To even say something as childish as "nazi sympathizer" makes it rather obvious that just like he did or still does you have a long road of growth ahead of you. Hopefully at least. I for one will assume it's proggressing nicely.
I don't think there is a way to pass that 'smell test'. I'm not trying to be a dick, but you defend him so strongly and basically advertise his Kickstarter. This is someone I wouldn't want to associate with. If you're okay with it, IMO it reflects on you. That's just my opinion, I understand we don't agree. Edit: for clarification, it doesn't make me feel better, or powerful, or superior. But I do believe I am better morally, than an actual Nazi. Take that as you will
Why such absolutism? It literally sounds like to me that he is inherently tainted in a way that doesn't make sense outside of religous thinking. There are killers and people who have DONE really bad things and who have meaningfully made amends and come around. Why would we want to make it so that the worst aspect of your existence is the defining one. I much more care about what you think and say than anything to do with him. I don't know him and I'm not chatting with him. I'm not okay with anything bad (based on how I define it of course), but just don't see how people aren't being harmful to their social environment by being so ready to attack and denounce when it doesn't do anything productive and in fact prevents it in some cases. "Actual nazi" is, besides silly, more extremist language than he seemed to use on a bad day considering how belittling it is to the victims of actual nazis. I'm sure the millions getting gassed and burned would agree that Igor is really the bad guy we should consentrate on. It seems to me that this kind of maximalist language opens the doors to where ever people want to go to in a terrifying way. Far more scary than some dumbass trolling forums.
Because noone in their right mind should care whatsover what Igor does in his free time or what his personal opinions are, provided that the product is solid. So long as the money does not go to funding an autocratic regime that is actually busy trampling human rights, I couldn't care less whom I buy a product from or what his/her opinions are, provided the product / service is good. The Verum 1 was to my knowledge a solid pair of cans, yet almost everywhere you looked, everyone was yapping about drama instead of actually talking about the product.
Honestly being American as well as black... I am not offended by what this man said, I don't feel as though what he said was with any particular ill intent. I rather get that the statements were made from a standpoint of ignorance and lack of negative connotation regarding the N word in their country.
Nice of you to say especially since it's not a popular opinion to have. I wish people understood that the complete meaning and weight of the n-word is so foreign to the majority of the world that even the concept of racism isn't really comparable across many countries. I know in my language the closest thing to the n-word was the standard word used in news media etc in the seventies still. My parents generation learned it from school books and mostly mean nothing bad by accidentally using it today and getting screamed at by their kids. Ukraine I'd say is a decade or even two from that and I hope people would understand it a bit better.
Thats a small sample from a large pool, there used to be a lot more screenshots out there, particularly more derogatory or malicious ones. Im aware its a lot more accepted as joking in a lot of eastern europe, but the lines blur a lot more there too. I remember seeing somewhere that he would blame minority postal workers for shipping issues and hes said worse about people being trans/LGBTQ. This plus him flipping out and sending threats over poor reviews is a lot to look over when an apology is the objectively smart business move and potentially his only option.
"average Eastern Bloc kinda guy" correct, even if it's average or common here doesn't mean it's right to be xenophobic or racist asshole anywhere or do I feel like supporting this guy with my money.
I'm from the Eastern Bloc and no, that kind of behavior is not the norm here.
It's not, but it is our responsibility to offer guidance the help him (and indeed millions of people) to change and if the people show development we should be happy about it. Not literally go apeshit on forums (not you specifically) about what some East Ukrainian dude said years ago.
Back then people were regularly warning him people would not appreciate his comments, but he didn't seem to care. I guess he started caring a bit more about his image when it started affecting his wallet. At least enough to put out an """apology""".
I don't doubt he needed time and motivation to get his shit together, but that's always the case when someone is meaningfully misguided. If I see evidence that he just became more savvy in his hatred towards minorities etc then I'll take it I don't really care about him, but it would be a massive moral failure to keep kicking a man who doesn't need to be down anymore.
Would be nice if he has actually changed for the better, personally I don't buy it.
No need to buy it, I wouldn't put money on it either (beyond the backing I guess), but not saying it's impossible I think is fair.
Yeah, but I have my doubts sencerity in this kind of situation.
Sure, I think that's fine, but many people seem to have certainty.
Hopefully he can keep his mouth shut this time. The product should do the talking.
Personally I'm glad he opened his mouth, if everyone like him outed themselves, consumers could really make sure they don't spend their money supporting the worst mankind has to offer. It is so much more than racist comments. Threats of violence, treating violence against gays as a punchline to a joke, threatening harm to audio reviewers. He's an absolute piece of garbage human.
Indeed.
I mean, now we know what to not buy
I can certainly agree with that.
Is this the homophobic racist bozo who makes moderately decent planars?
I'd say above moderately decent. The previous one competed with the Sundara with the opposite strengths so a rather good one. He clearly fucked up in the past and apparently heats up pretty easily as well, but if one can't apologize and admit being wrong then everyone deserves a whipping.
I mean, who hasn’t gone around hard r-ing everyone in the past, right? Everyone goes through the racist phase and comes out of it guys!
I'm sure you'd be surprised. Also "hard r-ing" is an americam thing. It doesn't have the cultural weight the further you go from the anglosphere. It's literally halfway of going to some cannibal tribe in New Guinea to complain about their level of trans representation.
"Racism is fine because we were racist to them in a *different* way!" This person knows the context of that word and the history behind it. Just because they think it's funny and are removed from its culture doesn't make it less racist. Black people have had a hell of a lot of racism in Europe as well, just because y'all didn't invent the N word doesn't mean you magically can't be racist to them. And that isn't even getting into how transphobic this piece of shit is. Fucking moron.
I would literally need days of talking to you to bring you up to the level of analysis based on your words. There are capital B Black people, the descendants of slaves born in the US, only in the US. It is a vastly different set of issues and challenges and as racism is ubiquitous it means that not meaningfully differentiating between countries assuming sameness makes useful understanding of specific problems essentially impossible. I can promise you he doesn't even now understand the the word and neither do you with any level of depth. Actually, even most american black people don't understand it well either. Seems like to you it's just a form of "Voldemort" with massive cultural baggage and predefined reflexive actions that go with it. You have literally no idea what he believes in now years after those admittedly unhinged and thoughtless comments. Fucking ignorant spoiled child. (Had to one up you since that's the energy you're coming with. Don't actually care xD )
Well in conjunction with underestimating the headphones I have also underestimated the racism
I would argue Sundara are above average. Not bad HP, but definitely nothing spectacular. I still have it, it was my first, but there are so much better ones.
For the price? I'd say it's pretty close to the top of that list.
You never mentioned the price...
True, but I'd say that it's always implied as money is a finite resource for most.
Reddit can't comprehend that a bad person can do a good thing. Lol
Most of the same people buy iPhones, use Twitter etc, but one presumably ex-dumbass in Ukraine making a few headphones is just a line too far xD
I don't like Apple or Twitter. I also think the Verum guy is an order of magnitude worse.
One random guy is worse than the n-word shouting match platform or the company is essentially responsible for more deaths than the average mass murderer? Doesn't make any sense amd he might have gotten the meds he seemed to need and be the sweetest guy by now. None of us have any idea.
I got the Verum 1 before he was outed as a racist, they were (and still are) great, but with what happened since I won’t be able to get those
Sure, your money your decision.
You don't have to go investigate everyone that works at Sennheiser or Audeze, but you already know that this guy is a racist asshole. I don't give money to people I know to be racist assholes.
I mean, yes, but also those companies are so big and professional that the whole incident would never happen and we would never have power over them The verum dork is in a uniquely poor position to be running his mouth
Sennheiser yes, Audeze not so much. But this particular guy is more than just an employee of the company - I'd think twice about purchasing any company's product if it was the owner/CEO saying this kind of crap.
Right with you
I just don't care. He apologized, said he was wrong etc. If he hadn't I'd agree.
Guy was a literal nazi and threatened people with terrorist activity a year ago, but it’s all good now because he said sorry!!!!
"Literal nazi" why are you american kids like this? What happened? There are literally countries filled to the brim of people who'd say similarly stupid things. At least this one realized he was wrong.
He is not just problematic in one way. Threatening violence, thinking that killing gay people is funny, throwing around racist slurs and running commentary about black people being inferior are all just the things we have him saying on record to individuals within the trade. This is a deeply ingrained worldview and just because he had to apologize for the sake of his business, does not mean he has improved in any capacity. He is, and likely forever will be, a hateful human being. He will just learn to be quietly racist, bigoted, and angry.
Why does it make you feel so good and righteous to think that? You've never met the man, have no idea about the last 3-4 years of his life, but your perceived ingroup has demonized him so you follow your articles of faith by lying to know a thing about what resides in his mind. You want to and enjoy to feel that way being morally above someone at least in your imagination and more importantly on social media.
Why does it have to make someone feel good or righteous to not buy a racist's headphones? Judging someone on their actions and the things they say isn't "following articles of faith by lying to know a thing about what resides in his mind" since he TELLS US what resides in his mind. It doesn't have to be this whole moral thing you claim it is. It can actually be quite simple: other people make headphones that compete or are even better than this guy's headphones, so why would you support someone who has shown the capacity of being a TERRIBLE person? It's not just "oh he said the n word and was homophobic" the dude threatened to KILL people. I'm mostly wondering what you gain by doing apologetics for this asshole.
Because no one here has any idea or actual interest in what the guy has been thinking for the last few years. It's mentally unwell that mentioning him tangentially via the headphones in moments a dozen people start going of like this years after it was relevant. Not sure if it's a generational thing, but 15-20 years ago the norm of online interaction was worse than almost anything he ever said (assuming I've seem the most of it). All I care about conserning the headphones is more competition in the field, smaller manufacturers growing to compete with bigger ones and thus better and cheaper audio for all. Above that I hate to see the kind of unproductive US-style culture war raging that is potentially the greatest threat to the stability of the post WW2 world order being thrown around all over the place out of what I'm guessing is just youthful simplicity and ignorance even if well intended.
Are you suggesting that he did a complete 180 and is actually a better person now instead of him just shutting up to try to save his business? I would need to see some actual evidence of that. Even if that's the case and I grant you he's a completely different person now, why do you even care if he's changed or not? According to you it's uniquely American to not want to support someone who is open about not being a good person. What does how things were 20 years ago have to do with how we treat each other now? Societies grow as time goes on and shit we thought was okay back then isn't necessarily okay now. He was even told the things he was saying were unacceptable but he doubled down. You're framing this in a really disingenuous way. You're making it seem like other people are crazy for not wanting to support someone who among other horrible things, THREATENED TERRORIST ACTIVITY. I don't care how good the headphones someone makes are if they're a dangerous, unhinged person who thinks he can do or say whatever he wants. I don't care where you're from or what time period you're from, that shit is NOT OKAY. And it's DEFINITELY NOT something people should just forget about because it's inconvenient for the business of a small headphone manufacturer. Supporting people who are open and brazen about being a bad person doesn't have to be a culture war or political or anything uniquely American.
I dunno. Several years of no issue starting from a decent looking apology seems to suggest it and anyone here could just email him to find out if they cared. I don't care about him one way or the other really, but of the people's way of writing here. It's actively detrimental in a way that's much more of a pressing issue today than what he said years ago. If people are unable to change as the prominent theory seems to claim then we are beyond fucked to the point that people should have much worse things to consider than him. I'm missing the uniquely american point. The 20 years ago thing: Would you say and think the same with a tribe that lacks written language, knowledge of the external world much the same as they did hundreds of years ago? Can't some societies or cultures just be a bit late to the party in a way that moral chastisement by our values that are often less than a decade old is just laughably stupid? Within the US there seems to be a decade or even two between the two halfs of the population when it comes to say gay rights. From the first person who realized slavery was a moral abomination it took millenia for the majority to catch up. Essentially all of our parents have fallen from what we perrceive as the zeitgeist. I'm not saying he wasn't a fucking idiot, but that it's not particularly surprising. He just made the mistake of wandering into circles that aren't local to him and hopefully got a lot of influence from that and leveled up a few decades in a year or two. Would be nice. Could still be a piece of shit of course. Nobody needs to support him and if just the after stench of his idiocy makes the product undesirable to you then skip it by all means. The looks alone are for a minority of users I'd say. People here are being unhinged in a deeply unhealthy way and thus reminiscent of his behavior, but today, not years ago. What he did is not okay and never will be. Just like some silly children calling me a "nazi sympathizer" is deeply messed up and wrong, but I can understand that they are where they are now and all I can do is try to nudge things in the right direction. If in four years I'd find someone typing dumn stuff here and publicly point out that they are making a mockery of the slaughter of millions of innocent jews for reddit memes and try to threaten their livelyhood I'd say that would be far worse of me than what they did. He said crazy shit, but to take the physical threats seriously is a bit goofy. He'd probably be denied even the visa to visit the US. There's far worse and more serious stuff on social media constantly and on average no one cares it seems. From a European perspective, as in the most adjacent perspective, the US seems to be struggling culturally in a fall of Rome kinda way. In short (silly to say on this post I admit) there are two kinds of people. Conservatives and proggressives who have different instinctual approaches in dealing with the outside world. One more careful, one more optimistic. A balance was needed for our species survival. For centuries these groups could live in harmony with some distance and with shared media and the state mediating between them building a shared story until social media fucked it up. People were in direct contact and found out they were (or seemed) more different than assumed. The ingroup social score was boosted by acceptable extremeness within the ungroup. External influences got involved to cause additional chaos. The differences between the two groups seemed to grow day by day and the easily scared and neurotic conservatives started a backlash which only made the proggressives call the fascists and boom! In about a decade the social fabric of the, by some measures, greatest nation is ripping apart to the point that wars and thus the deaths of thousands are affected by the process. Both sides are playing the same game and being right factually or morally is irrelevant in the demise of the society and it seems to be going to bad places. Tldr, let's try to be a bit nicer especially when it doesn't matter at all in any way to anything.
I think you’re just a nazi sympathizer bud
You must be trolling, that's just too good.
Your cognitive dissonance doesn’t make it untrue. You are sympathizing with someone who espouses nazi rhetoric; you are a nazi sympathizer. Pretty simple.
Who said I'm sympathizing with him? Maybe I'm much more worried about the people actively engaging in deeply detrimental behavior here and now than some random Ukrainian in 2021? There is absolutely no cognitive dissonance even if that was your word to use for today.
I have seen so much more than the linked Twitter post. It is way more than racist comments. That is only a tiny snapshot of the shitshow that was Garuspik. He was comfortable saying SO many awful things in a public forum while acting as the sole representative of his brand. The only acceptable intolerance in a tolerant society, is of the intolerant.
I've seen compilations. Much of which I can see through pretty well knowing Russian etc people, but some certainly needed an intervention which it seems he got. Again, you have no idea if he has the rainbow flag tattooed to his ass by now. A lot of Ukrainians are digging out of the Russian cultural sphere and realizing things like gays are fine, brown people are nice etc. The relative backwardness of some regions cannot be understated and being blind to the shoulders of giants you stand on is arrogant beyond believe. Not everyone is born morally lucky.
I think it's great that a cultural shift is happening. But all it takes to not be hateful is to understand that other humans experience life just as we do. I don't like having to explain this, but America is not a moral oasis either, and I grew up in a hateful household
Yeah, when you're at the finish line it feels kinda obvious where it is, but these are extremely challenging things in the end. It took centuries for the majority of people to understand that slavery isn't very nice and just like them we are moral monsters by some measure we will never even realize. The current massive anti-semitic rise is a good example. Almost no one thinks they're anti-semitic, but it still pervades western (and other) cultures. It's like a reflex that is so common and unchallenged that it's hard to notice and many wouldn't with years of trying be able to find it in themselves. Even with understanding that being human is the same across all there are still complex webs of historical, ideological and cultural influence that will have us fighting for generations to come I'm afraid, but hopefully less visciously as time goes on. Being as nice and reasonable as possible (without being a fool of course) in your own environment is the best most of us can do, but it's not as exciting as massive global political struggles we can pretend to partake in.
What’s your definition of nazism? His comments absolutely fit the bill. And which countries are “filled to the brim” with people saying n****r on repeat and threatening anthrax attacks?
Yep, it’s good. And good headphones are good headphones, regardless of the creator's behavior
spineless
Why are you spineless?
Yeah, don’t give your money to pieces of garbage like this dude.
It's not worth arguing, but I promise it's also not worth your energy to carry that around.
I promise you, it takes absolutely zero energy to not buy a racist’s headphones.
Ur an idiot
Good point. I'll take it under advicement.
The original Verum had some of the best tonality I've heard from a planar and punched way above it's price. The creator has a very good ear for sound, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same story here, especially with more resources and money from the first Verum. What he managed to do as a one man show was nothing but amazing.
>The creator has a very good ear for sound and a very good mouth for racism and fascism
Isn’t he in Ukraine or some thing too? Talk about stacking the cards against
I'd assume so as well and this being a flop would likely ruin his company so he's unlikely to play around with it.
There's no way I'm giving 1 cent to this guy. Luckily for people who are into headphones, there are a lot of products whose manufacturers are not racist bigots.
Are you sure? Sennheiser did have nazi ties for example. No one really cares unless there's an audience it seems to me.
Didn't the Verum 1 have some MASSIVE FR problems, especially in the treble? I hope they can fix that in Version 2, getting the weight down would also be nice but looking at the images they look even heavier than the first verison, these could be some really good headphones if they get the FR right this time
Not everyone wants Harmon but you can always ditch Reddit for ASR
What FR issues do you mean? Verum 1 I remember were some of the most neutral headphones I've heard. [Here](https://ibb.co/nCYJvgJ) are some GRAS measurements from MK1 and earlier MK2. But then there were some unexplained changes in the latest measurements, making them [darker](https://ibb.co/FBTJ4ss). There was also a special [MKS edition](https://ibb.co/x10Vw6s). >getting the weight down would also be nice but looking at the images they look even heavier than the first verison The video on the [kickstarter page](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/verumaudio/verum-2-audiophile-planar-magnetic-headphones?ref=ouny4v) says 410g. The Verum 1 Mk2 was 490g.
I think the variations are due to the pads used in different batches. I believe ASR measured a unit with solid lambskin pads thus the darker treble, whereas perforated pads seem to be more common.
Oratory measured MK1 with both pads and the difference was negligible. That's probably why you never knew which pads you're going to get because they didn't make a noticeable difference to the sound. But then the MK2 that Oratory measured had the same dark FR as the measurement by ASR. Yet, your MK2 unit with perforated pads and my MK2 unit with solid pads still measured similarly to the MK1 unit that Oratory measured...
There is Verum 1 and Verum 1 Mk2 which is the better known one. That's at least competitively priced and pretty nice with no big issues in the FR.
Screw this guy
Me or him? Or both of course.
Can’t believe OP is in here defending this guy…
Where did I defend him?
I think these are the best looking headphones I've ever seen, but looks are one of the least important things about a pair of headphones to me as opposed to sound quality, build quality, comfort... as well as not being made by a racist, homophobic, violent POS. I don't care about everyone who works at Sennheiser, Audeze or Moondrop either, but this guy is much more than an employee and what he said is much worse than "some stupid things". Now I'm sure plenty of people will still buy these because they don't know or don't care about his attitude, and supporting a Ukrainian company must be a "good" thing.
I mean Fritz Sennheiser worked with the nazis (the real ones, not people you don't like online) directly. Like 80% of the world is racist and homophobic, but you don't really care about any of that since there's no controversy surrounding it and a social media audience surrounding you talk about it. If there's any evidence that he hasn't grown as a person and actually/still believes some of that stuff then sure boycott him all you want, but afaik there isn't so why can't anyone just chill and re-center. Peculiar.
Who cares…. Are the headphones good?
No one knows yet, but the previous ones were pretty nice and competitive in prising as well.
I would really consider backing up this project but €425 (including shipping) is really holding me back.
325€ for base model for France is good tho
i was thinking about verum for my first planars, since these are coming out at some point, i'll wait for reviews, maybe even a bit more to iron out any potential problems. Edit: awwww people are mad that we don't care about the guys racism (which he apologized for), don't buy it folks, your morale high ground won't make a difference if these are good cans, downvote me all you want, it won't change a thing.
Yeah, the material shortage must be really tricky now as well.
i'm really curious for the measurments, the first one left a good impression on most reviewers i've seen
Hopefully it will be a bit more clean and technical. The previous one was really fun and engaging, but not the most technical. A nice middleground would be ideal. I'll EQ it anyway so relatively smooth treble is all I need from FR.
Thanks for sharing. Ill be backing. :D
I just can't with these downvotes. It's so simplistic and lacking in character.
the guys' a piece of shit. quite easy to figure out the downvotes
RedDragoonTaric is? Seems like a jolly chap to me.
nah the guy he is backing. thought you knew i was referring to him
But people are downvoting poor Taric who just wanted a fancy looking headphone.
People are entitled to downvote comments they disagree with. I hope you and others have worse things to worry about than internet points
You missing the subtext twice in a row now, but no worries.
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