Audio Audiophile and gears

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Someone here asked me to collect all the headphones from the basement etc. and post a photo.
Hopefully don't have more hidden somewhere.
Most of these were bought used and some don't work (cable issues mostly)
The miniDSP ears are fake...there are few vintage headphones there, but not in good condition. Have ordered few headphone cables ( some will take long time to come) will try to repair them this weekend.


P.S
Looks like I have to drag headphonezone owner Raghav Somani's ass to court.
Back in India almost 2 months back there was an almost new iBasso DX220 in their deals section. I bought it from there and they were supposed to ship it to Kolkata. Due to covid issues they told me they will ship it after 2 weeks ( I knew that I won't be there but one of my colleagues would receive it and bring it back home with him)
However I forgot about it completely during the chaos while returning home. However once I received the credit card bill, called up the guy back in Kolkata and nothing was delivered.
After couple of emails they assured me that they will ship it ASAP ( that too 3 weeks ago)
I was not really worried as a seasoned veteran of importing equipments from Singapore/ China etc. I'm used to these things ( delayed shipping)
Now 2 days back I received an email from Raghav that he can't ship the DAP as it has been sold earlier and they didn't update their website.
I was ok with that too, but in that next email, he dropped a bomb...they don't refund your money, but give some store credit or some bullshit.
Today called up and ended up speaking with Raghav, the conversation started cordially but pretty soon realised he's a crook and trying to sweet talk me into their shitty store credit thing. That got me triggered and pretty soon he realised he picked up the worst possible person to con ( if he was being honest, I would not even bother to fight over few hundred EUR, instead he tried to lecture me on how to build community trust among audiophiles and other bullshit and I have a special hatred towards the "baniya" community of this kind)
Don't have much idea about India's consumer rights policy. But HPZ made a huge mistake by mailing a completely fake courier tracking number ( and Raghav is possibly unaware of it)
Spoke to a lawyer in Kolkata and a neighbour lawyer, both of them said it's almost a criminal offence ( fake tracking ID after receiving payment) The lawyer from India will send HPZ a legal notice by Monday/ Tuesday. Will probably end up paying a lot more for the lawyer, but won't let this crook off the hook so easily.
Though I understand it won't be as smoooth as the Audeze ( they refunded the entire amount for LCD X and I got to keep the headphones)...after all it's India, but I'm not going to give up easily. A small company like HPZ doesn't scare me one bit and I'm perfectly fine to take it to court if required.
People like Raghav is a shame to the entire audiophile community.
 
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quaratineinthesejeans said:
View attachment 112678
Someone here asked me to collect all the headphones from the basement etc. and post a photo.
Hopefully don't have more hidden somewhere.
Most of these were bought used and some don't work (cable issues mostly)
The miniDSP ears are fake...there are few vintage headphones there, but not in good condition. Have ordered few headphone cables ( some will take long time to come) will try to repair them this weekend.


P.S
Looks like I have to drag headphonezone owner Raghav Somani's ass to court.
Back in India almost 2 months back there was an almost new iBasso DX220 in their deals section. I bought it from there and they were supposed to ship it to Kolkata. Due to covid issues they told me they will ship it after 2 weeks ( I knew that I won't be there but one of my colleagues would receive it and bring it back home with him)
However I forgot about it completely during the chaos while returning home. However once I received the credit card bill, called up the guy back in Kolkata and nothing was delivered.
After couple of emails they assured me that they will ship it ASAP ( that too 3 weeks ago)
I was not really worried as a seasoned veteran of importing equipments from Singapore/ China etc. I'm used to these things ( delayed shipping)
Now 2 days back I received an email from Raghav that he can't ship the DAP as it has been sold earlier and they didn't update their website.
I was ok with that too, but in that next email, he dropped a bomb...they don't refund your money, but give some store credit or some bullshit.
Today called up and ended up speaking with Raghav, the conversation started cordially but pretty soon realised he's a crook and trying to sweet talk me into their shitty store credit thing. That got me triggered and pretty soon he realised he picked up the worst possible person to con ( if he was being honest, I would not even bother to fight over few hundred EUR, instead he tried to lecture me on how to build community trust among audiophiles and other bullshit and I have a special hatred towards the "baniya" community of this kind)
Don't have much idea about India's consumer rights policy. But HPZ made a huge mistake by mailing a completely fake courier tracking number ( and Raghav is possibly unaware of it)
Spoke to a lawyer in Kolkata and a neighbour lawyer, both of them said it's almost a criminal offence ( fake tracking ID after receiving payment) The lawyer from India will send HPZ a legal notice by Monday/ Tuesday. Will probably end up paying a lot more for the lawyer, but won't let this crook off the hook so easily.
Though I understand it won't be as smoooth as the Audeze ( they refunded the entire amount for LCD X and I got to keep the headphones)...after all it's India, but I'm not going to give up easily. A small company like HPZ doesn't scare me one bit and I'm perfectly fine to take it to court if required.
People like Raghav is a shame to the entire audiophile community.
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One of my friends gave his birthday to them for some store credit( he told me it was equivalent to 100 rs) and he got bombarded with many sms, emails regarding birthday offers from shady companies. They have got no respect for people's privacy.
 
quaratineinthesejeans said:
Today called up and ended up speaking with Raghav, the conversation started cordially but pretty soon realised he's a crook and trying to sweet talk me into their shitty store credit thing. That got me triggered and pretty soon he realised he picked up the worst possible person to con ( if he was being honest, I would not even bother to fight over few hundred EUR, instead he tried to lecture me on how to build community trust among audiophiles and other bullshit and I have a special hatred towards the "baniya" community of this kind)
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I recently faced a similar issue as the listed product was unavailable after placing an order but they did give option for both store credit and crediting the original payment mode. Obviously I chose the latter and it was credited. If they are not doing it, then it is really bad.
You can also file a complaint here. I was pleasantly surprised to see the prompt resolution when I logged a complaint against Flipkart last year for a refrigerator purchase.
 
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@quaratineinthesejeans they made me wait for 3 months on my Etymotic ER2XR replacement. I dropped them many mails in the meantime and they only had 1 answer “We are waiting for approval from the company ie. Etymotic to go ahead for replacement”

My ER2XR was suffering from channel imbalance issues and but initially they refused to entertain it and returned back the same faulty unit after 45 days. Then I sent it back again after explaining the whole issue multiple times and even made a video of it. It’s only after they realise that I am adamant and will not bow down they decided to take the up the matter further with Etymotic.

In the end they did not had a stock of ER2XR and instead gave me a complete refund in store credits.
 
If you live in India, full store credit makes sense. But what the hell will I do with their store credit?
They don't ship outside India, everything is overpriced and we do have lot more options from Germany/ Austria other neighbouring countries.
What pissed me off was that idiot's friendly audiophile mask and the fake brotherhood theory.
If it was hifiman, I would happily take some loss and buy something else from them. But HPZ...no freaking way!!
 
Yeah that’s why I am not complaining, I remember similar thing happened with my Zotac GPU 7 years back. I deposited the GPU in their service center and it took them 3-4 months to replace it with inferior card in the end. They said “Sir ye China jayega aur wahi se replacement ayega” that’s why it is taking so freaking long. A company called Razer had much better warranty policy even though their top end stuff never lasted more than 1 year on my hands.

But in HPZ case they said “It’s new year and Etymotic management is on holiday now bla bla”. Honestly it’s Apple that gave me best service till date, even though it’s handled by 3rd party here and they better be for their asking price.
 
Nalin said:
Yeah that’s why I am not complaining, I remember similar thing happened with my Zotac GPU 7 years back. I deposited the GPU in their service center and it took them 3-4 months to replace it with inferior card in the end. They said “Sir ye China jayega aur wahi se replacement ayega” that’s why it is taking so freaking long. A company called Razer had much better warranty policy even though their top end stuff never lasted more than 1 year on my hands.

But in HPZ case they said “It’s new year and Etymotic management is on holiday now bla bla”. Honestly it’s Apple that gave me best service till date, even though it’s handled by 3rd party here and they better be for their asking price.
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I have obveserved that many local sellers are good to do business with as long as everything is hunky dory. The moment something goes wrong, and it isn't an obvious fault of the seller, you will find yourself out of luck more often than not. People simply don't care about retaining customers. When they tell a customer how to spend their money(in store credit) which was given for an object that wasn't delivered it doesn't bode well.
 
DrkLord said:
I have obveserved that many local sellers are good to do business with as long as everything is hunky dory. The moment something goes wrong, and it isn't an obvious fault of the seller, you will find yourself out of luck more often than not. People simply don't care about retaining customers. When they tell a customer how to spend their money(in store credit) which was given for an object that wasn't delivered it doesn't bode well.
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Honestly I am ready to bear all kind of problems as long as I like the product. If I don’t like the end product then forget it I bear the loss and and take it as lesson.

I remember I used to have a high end Razer mouse that had some kind of design flaw and due to that it’s click switch never lasted more then 1 year as I used to do competitive FPS gaming that time. Razer knew that fault and always offered quick replacements and even offered upgraded models for some extra cash. It was all good but was getting rather costly to maintain it in long run.

In the end I ordered a packet of Omron switches in bulk from eBay HK (10 pieces) and always replaced it with the help of neighbourhood repair guy who was good in soldering. For me all that pain was worth it because I liked that mouse.
 
quaratineinthesejeans said:
If you live in India, full store credit makes sense. But what the hell will I do with their store credit?
They don't ship outside India, everything is overpriced and we do have lot more options from Germany/ Austria other neighbouring countries.
What pissed me off was that idiot's friendly audiophile mask and the fake brotherhood theory.
If it was hifiman, I would happily take some loss and buy something else from them. But HPZ...no freaking way!!
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Drag them to court if it's required, this store credit funda isn't good policy. I was also stuck with store credit when I sold my XM3.
It's OK as they clearly mentioned this store credit only option for buying/selling preowned items (unfortunately I noticed it later).
but for brand new items this isn't acceptable and in this case item wasn't even shipped.
 
I can't attack them legally for store credit bullshit ( it's of no use to me but it's mentioned in their terms and condition)
But they did make some mistakes like 3 assurance emails telling they have it in stock and will ship ASAP ( I specially asked about whether they somehow forgot to update their website...as similar things happen before with bigger store like Jaben, Linsoul etc.) and eventually sent a courier tracking number.
That's in EU is breech of trust and considered fraudulent activity. HPZ spams me everyday, but never sent a mail about the OOS situation and mistakenly sent tracking number.
Raghav may get away but won't make it easy for him.
I have lost money before in this audio game many times and other than Audeze never took it personally. But I genuinely dislike Raghav (hope the feeling is mutual) and it's more of a personal battle.
While they clearly mentioned about store credit clearly for pre owned stuff, but at least I couldn't find anything about incorrect listings. They cancelled my order after months and I didn't request for cancellation.
 
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I just like to Add here -

Raghav Somani is nothing without his father grand father’s or thier blood line’s deep fortune.….and they are indeed very deep pocket family. Acording to their self declartion they are from 1696 and they used to run bank at 1752, So taking your money and issuing credit note is Raghav’s core mindset.

Also I came across all these Audiophile Company like iFi , Shangling etc etc in Head Fi Forum ….. don’t even konw who the hell Headphone Zone is, but they all recognize the name ‘Ferrari Video’.

www.ferrarivideo.com

Ferrari Video - A Premier Headphone Distributor in India Copy

Headphones, Earphones Distributors in India for V-MODA, RHA, FiiO, JAYS, Comply, Panasonic, Technics
www.ferrarivideo.com www.ferrarivideo.com
 
I actually prefer Family owned business over corporate ones like we find in US. Sennheiser and many other European companies are nothing but family owned business.

What I don’t like is that inspite of all this, when it comes to service you are no better then a random web store that was opened maybe 6 months ago. We don’t have much choice here so it’s a monopoly like situation for Raghav.

I prefer to buy my gear used so only have limited experience with them, but my Etymotic situation is very similar to what @quaratineinthesejeans experienced. It should not have taken them 3 months to decide if I deserve a replacement of the unit which is proven as faulty.
 
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quaratineinthesejeans said:
I can't attack them legally for store credit bullshit ( it's of no use to me but it's mentioned in their terms and condition)
But they did make some mistakes like 3 assurance emails telling they have it in stock and will ship ASAP ( I specially asked about whether they somehow forgot to update their website...as similar things happen before with bigger store like Jaben, Linsoul etc.) and eventually sent a courier tracking number.
That's in EU is breech of trust and considered fraudulent activity. HPZ spams me everyday, but never sent a mail about the OOS situation and mistakenly sent tracking number.
Raghav may get away but won't make it easy for him.
I have lost money before in this audio game many times and other than Audeze never took it personally. But I genuinely dislike Raghav (hope the feeling is mutual) and it's more of a personal battle.
While they clearly mentioned about store credit clearly for pre owned stuff, but at least I couldn't find anything about incorrect listings. They cancelled my order after months and I didn't request for cancellation.
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May sound stupid idea but,
How about making a brief youtube video, sharing your bitter experience without revealing your identity.
Let others also know how cool is this HPZ.
 
Frankly speaking, it is just common sense that no one would agree to store credit when it is the seller's mistake. This is so stupid, it shouldn't even be allowed to go to court and if it does, the case would be over in just 1 hearing. Every e-commerce company always offers both options.
 
rdst_1 said:
Frankly speaking, it is just common sense that no one would agree to store credit when it is the seller's mistake. This is so stupid, it shouldn't even be allowed to go to court and if it does, the case would be over in just 1 hearing. Every e-commerce company always offers both options.
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Common sense is not so common, even more when you can secure a sale even after offering an unsatisfactory service to the customer. We keep hearing of massive law suits in West, in India people just let it go. Both options should be offered, after all that's customer's money.
 
Nitendra Singh said:
brief youtube video, sharing your …….. experience
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YES, What I wished to tell for a long long time, [Below part is not sarcasm - Not my intention]

A YT Channel is a must for a personality like @quaratineinthesejeans - Big plus no fear for TE Mods, you can go any / off topic as much you want for videos with more or fewer curse words, Remember YT now completely managed by AI.

(Detailed are under Spoiler for any Off Topic objection.)

Suggested Topic :
—————————————-
You can share your life experience and thoughts, bashing about apple, preaching about daws, fundamentals thought about music creation (I would like to say tutorials but you don’t have time), Raw thoughts about Audiophile company and their product - give them your peace of mind and about their malpractice - Review one or two product if you feel like, Basic literacy of medical treatments for the general public - critical opinions/thoughts, Unleash the peace of mind-demon of evil practice Indian medical industry - Right to health & dignified death for every Indian…..etc.

How To Make :
————————-
As I believe you already got several iPhone in your house from your spouse, If privacy matter to most then makes the video Zeos style - iPhone will capture voice behind too but mount on a tripod no shake please, You can start at home/ room but also make video outside too as I think due to ultimate civilization achieved in those part of the world, no hustle or bustle like India….Just point towards trees/grass and beautiful skies of Europe - Require Airy feel in the video (Want to say show us Europe), Make sure your voice reached to the microphone clear (who am I telling how to record), As there is no time to edit probably, pre-planned what you are going to say like Zeos.

YT requires only one thing to succeed/get noticed i,e Consistency - Once in a week or Once in two weeks, or Once in a month.

Eligibility :
—————————
(1) Doctor + Audiophile + Music Creation / Recording nerd [Rare and Deadliest Combo as F***] - None other exists.
(2) Front Line + Epicenter of Covid Pandemic worker/ fighter / Lifesaver to those family/patients a.k.a God.
(3) So far Doctor with Ethical and Moral value intact….not detecting Patients = Walking ATM machine.
 
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Wow!! Thanks a lot for the kind words. But in reality I'm just a common man with some medical degrees and hobbies.
I will wait for one week. If the issue remained unsolved, will request Zeos and DMS to add few lines in their videos, specially in a yard sale video of Z..that will be more effective than me making a youtube video ( not at all concerned about my identity when I'm not in India, but who will watch my video?)
Zeos is a good friend and we exchanged a lot of gears in last 1 year or so.
Moreover, I don't have any right / intention / of damaging HPZ's reputation in India indirectly affecting other employees and satisfied customers.
If Raghav agrees to deal like a gentleman and professional, this chapter will be closed.
But if he tries to show off his power and tries to get away by intimidating me, I will also play along.
If he has deep pockets, I'm a begger, but have a few friends like Jude ( Mansilla). Head fi is dying but Jude is still the boss of audiophile community.
 
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I would suggest the 598 if the condition ( specially the headband) is fine. Very easy to drive.
PXL_20210829_070445795.jpg See the headband..I had to glue the cushion to the headband. But this is a very old unit.
From now on I will use any of the dogs in the background of pictures to avoid confusion.
 
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