Legal fund for Reviewers/Erin?

[Timcognito]

It's amazing to me what a few threats and terse emails could do. One site founder rally's his members in defense of another site founder, ignoring their previous rocky relationship. Hundreds of pages of comments of outraged audio enthusiasts that spread to multiple websites and social media, insighting many discussions on freedom of speech, reviewing ethics, legal system costs in time and money, reviewers insurance, ethical vs technical purchasing decisions, etc. Then on to technology, tweeter array schemes and wiring, crossovers and frequency response, dispersion, power efficiency, verification of existing products and similar designs and test data. Oh, did I mention new and existing videos exploring all the topics above, more testing and more vitriol. So now that almost everyone in audio has taken a deep dive into Tekton's speakers, performance, construction, patents, ethics and business practices, that were mostly negative in tone, I wonder if EA regrets his knee jerk reactions to couple of modest reviews.

 

[ta240]

..... I wonder if EA regrets his knee jerk reactions to couple of modest reviews.

I wonder if he is introspective enough to see the error or if everything that has transpired is someone else's fault.

A guy I used to work with had a piece of paper taped to the edge of his computer screen that basically said "You can't always control what happens, but you can control how you react to it".

And the ultimate perspective creating saying was also from a co-worker that after something went wrong would often say "If this is the worst thing that happens to me today I can deal with it". The real perspective came when it sank in just how much worse things can be, when I saw her face as she got the phone call that her husband had been killed in a car wreck. Pausing for perspective could benefit a lot of people when they think something bad has happened to them.

 

[No one who matters]

It's amazing to me what a few threats and terse emails could do. One site founder rally's his members in defense of another site founder, ignoring their previous rocky relationship. Hundreds of pages of comments of outraged audio enthusiasts that spread to multiple websites and social media, insighting many discussions on freedom of speech, reviewing ethics, legal system costs in time and money, reviewers insurance, ethical vs technical purchasing decisions, etc. Then on to technology, tweeter array schemes and wiring, crossovers and frequency response, dispersion, power efficiency, verification of existing products and similar designs and test data. Oh, did I mention new and existing videos exploring all the topics above, more testing and more vitriol. So now that almost everyone in audio has taken a deep dive into Tekton's speakers, performance, construction, patents, ethics and business practices, that were mostly negative in tone, I wonder if EA regrets his knee jerk reactions to couple of modest reviews.

View attachment 364722

My perspective believes this is unlikely the case. My view is instead this person has most likely made up his mind that he’s the victim and not the bully. Some poor souls have personality disorders that prevent them from honest self reflection, and poor outcomes to their behaviors serve only to reinforce their distorted views of the world and their interactions with it.

We see the contradictions in his defenses that he does not. We see the doubling down after every challenged statement. We see the halfhearted apologies that lack specificity or any sense of remorse. We see him hiding his mistakes by way of deletion when things go south. And we see instance after instance of others having similar experiences when interacting with him - assuming the recounted stories are true and complete. The absence of interactions praising the person for their character is a deafening silence.

It’s more likely any reflection revolves around how angry he is that this happened to him and how he must vanquish his enemies - whether real or imagined - at all cost. Whether or not he started it is not a consideration.

Sad. But like most I feel nothing but contempt for these sorts. They are EPA superfund sites of toxicity. It belongs to them. But rarely - if ever - will they own it.

 

[Timcognito]

My perspective believes this is unlikely the case. My view is instead this person has most likely made up his mind that he’s the victim and not the bully. Some poor souls have personality disorders that prevent them from honest self reflection, and poor outcomes to their behaviors serve only to reinforce their distorted views of the world and their interactions with it.

We see the contradictions in his defenses that he does not. We see the doubling down after every challenged statement. We see the halfhearted apologies that lack specificity or any sense of remorse. We see him hiding his mistakes by way of deletion when things go south. And we see instance after instance of others having similar experiences when interacting with him - assuming the recounted stories are true and complete. The absence of interactions praising the person for their character is a deafening silence.

It’s more likely any reflection revolves around how angry he is that this happened to him and how he must vanquish his enemies - whether real or imagined - at all cost. Whether or not he started it is not a consideration.

Sad. But like most I feel nothing but contempt for these sorts. They are EPA superfund sites of toxicity. It belongs to them. But rarely - if ever - will they own it.

I agree with every word above. But it's different when pick up a scorching hot pot without a pot holder, your regret is instant and personality plays only small role.

 

[No one who matters]

I agree with every word above. But it's different when pick up a scorching hot pot without a pot holder, your regret is instant and personality plays only small role.

LOL, not when your wiring‘s all wrong. You keep picking up the pot wondering why it’s still mad at you.

 

[amirm]

It's amazing to me what a few threats and terse emails could do.

Remember, I kept everything to myself for some three weeks. If he had not come here and publicly repeat the legal threats, and then go after Erin, it would have remained that way. We are here 100% because of what Eric Alexander did, not because of any overreaction on my part to go public and such.

 

[Timcognito]

Remember, I kept everything to myself for some three weeks. If he had not come here and publicly repeat the legal threats, and then go after Erin, it would have remained that way. We are here 100% because of what Eric Alexander did, not because of any overreaction on my part to go public and such.

NP because you brought it up as a question about reviewer legal protection and noted that this incidence with Erin and Tekton and your own dealing with them may have led to frivolous and expensive legal matter. That was clear and took some honor and guts not to just look at your own interests, but Erin's and the reviewing community.

 

[Newman]

While definitely a personal preference, is one I share - ALWAYS FASTER TO READ!

Not sure if it is the same for you - audiobooks are also an issue - just cannot sit thru a person reading to me at a glacial pace. Same when my family wants to read me something... err.. NO Just send me the link please.

I have to agree.

So many people post links to YT videos with no explanation, and I always think, "Pleeeease put a few TL/DR words for the video's key conclusions about the thread discussion."

Generally speaking a 10 minute video could be scanned for key points in written form in about 20-30 seconds, and a TL/DR absorbed in 5-10 seconds.

 

[tmtomh]

I wonder if he is introspective enough to see the error

Nope.

 

[Freq451]

I kind of like people, even when they're being people, provided they're likeable, of course. .

I don't hate people. I just feel better when they're not around... (paraphrasing Charles Bukowski, I think)

 

[MattHooper]

Another site has posted a re-cap:

Audio Brand Faces Boycott for Threatening Reviewers With Legal Action Over Negative Reviews

Perhaps a measured response could have avoided this controversy.

www.headphonesty.com

 

[tmtomh]

Another site has posted a re-cap:

Audio Brand Faces Boycott for Threatening Reviewers With Legal Action Over Negative Reviews

Perhaps a measured response could have avoided this controversy.

www.headphonesty.com

Thanks! A decent recap overall - and I'm glad someone has posted a nice one-stop summary for anyone who's interested, and for posterity since @Eric Alexander has demonstrated a penchant for trying to edit and rewrite the record of what actually has happened.

However, I really wish that the piece would have supplemented the mention of Alexander's YouTube video commitment to publish measurements for all future Tekton speakers with the information that after taking down the video he subsequently publicly posted on Facebook that he's "under no obligation" to provide speaker measurements.

 

[Somafunk]

Another site has posted a re-cap:

That’s a good site btw for anyone looking for something a bit different to asr, quite scathing on all things audiophoo related

 

[Sean_S]

While definitely a personal preference, is one I share - ALWAYS FASTER TO READ!

Not sure if it is the same for you - audiobooks are also an issue - just cannot sit thru a person reading to me at a glacial pace. Same when my family wants to read me something... err.. NO Just send me the link please.

Anyways, not sure why I wanted to share - back to Tekton...

I suspect that the playback speed control is our mutual friend.

 

[Mnyb]

I suspect that the playback speed control is our mutual friend.

It does not help .

It’s weird at 100x times the speed and still linear ( some make a crude time line to click on but still )

You want to scroll trough to the relevant part, for example computer settings tutorials are horrible this way .
If it’s a written tutorial I could just quickly scroll to the relevant part who often is a picture of the setting I just could not find

I think the current trend of making a video of everything is because people are slowly becoming illiterate .

For example for my current speakers there is a nice video on how to unbox them . Or you could look just at the pictograms printed on the box and get it in one second or less .

 

[coonmanx]

Another site has posted a re-cap:

Audio Brand Faces Boycott for Threatening Reviewers With Legal Action Over Negative Reviews

Perhaps a measured response could have avoided this controversy.

www.headphonesty.com

A bit thin on the facts and it fails to mention the cabinet resonance that Erin found. Oh well. At least it gets it right about the backlash to threatening reviewers.

 

[sweetchaos]

So far, i found the following:

audiokarma:

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/youtube-reviewer-threatened-with-legal-action-over-speaker-review.1057053/

- Thread was deleted

audiogon
posted on March 17, but people started talking about the litigation on this thread later on

Audiogon Discussion Forum

We have had many discussions/arguments over tekton speakers in the past, mainly involving a couple posters who thought their $4000 tektons sounded bette...

forum.audiogon.com

pinkfishmedia
posted on April 5

Manufacturer Litigation Against YouTube Reviewer

A brand I sincerely hope no one here will ever buy. Consumer power.

pinkfishmedia.net

audioholics
posted April 6

Erin's Audio review squashed by Tekton

Threatened legal action against ErinsAudio for the company scheduled review has resulted in the (self-) censoring of the measured results on his site. As usual, members on ASR are up in arms at the temerity of Tekton head honcho Eric Alexander for cancelling Erin and have gone so far as to...

forums.audioholics.com

audiogon
posted on April 9

Audiogon Discussion Forum

Hey Audiogonians, In the vast, vibrant universe of audio reviews, where the line between subjective opinion and objective analysis often blurs, a new s...

forum.audiogon.com

stevehoffman
posted on April 10

Um Tekton?……seriously….. no

We have a speaker manufacturer threatening to litigate against Audio reviewers? Heck no Most of the reviewers get paid very little and do a service to...

forums.stevehoffman.tv

- Closed on April 19

audiophilestyle
posted on April 10

What do people think about the Broohaha about Tekton suing reviewers

I have no skin in this game but have been reading elsewhere about this and thought I would share. The intersting thing is there are reviews on the Tekton website - subjective ones - that dont use the feet. This really is a bad situation either way. What do people think? Chris - is this OK to talk...

audiophilestyle.com

psaudio
posted on April 10

Tekton's comments on Erin's Audio Corner review

This is a strange one. Erin measured one of Tekton’s speakers and gave what I thought was a nice review. The speaker had a little dip in the response one place or another and Erin made note of it. Tekton either has filed or threatened to file for damages. What? This wont be good for either...

forum.psaudio.com

audiogon
posted on April 12

Audiogon Discussion Forum

Eric at Tekton Designs has been battling two different reviewers who have posted measurements without his permission, using Klippel devices for their re...

forum.audiogon.com

diyaudio
posted on April 12

Interesting Post from Audio Karma

https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/youtube-reviewer-threatened-with-legal-action-over-speaker-review.1057053/

www.diyaudio.com

- Thread was closed

avsforum
posted on April 12

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/tekton-threaten-litigation-after-unfavorable-reviews.3298929/

audioresurgence
posted April 13:

Tekton Review Debacle -Manufacturer Bullying - Corruption?

Get to the bottom of Tekton Speakers spat with YouTube reviewer Erin's Audio Corner, manufacturer bullying or reviewer's corruption, when audio reviews go bad.

www.audioresurgence.com

audiogon
posted on April 14

Audiogon Discussion Forum

I’ve briefly taken a look at some online reviews for budget Tekton speakers from ASR and Youtube. Both are based on Klippel quasi-anechoic measurements ...

forum.audiogon.com

audiogon
posted on April 17

Audiogon Discussion Forum

Measurement bias is the idea that if you know the measurements of something that information will already bias your perceptions of it’s performance. For...

forum.audiogon.com

headphonesty
posted on April 18

Audio Brand Faces Boycott for Threatening Reviewers With Legal Action Over Negative Reviews

Perhaps a measured response could have avoided this controversy.

www.headphonesty.com

diymobileaudio
posted on April 19

https://www.diymobileaudio.com/threads/tekton-threatens-lawyers-over-reviews.467104/

Let me know if I missed any.

update 2024-04-19: thanks to @MoreWatts more links added.
update 2024-04-22: added diymobileaudio

 

[MoreWatts]

Let me know if I missed any.

Audiogon forums have several threads that address the situation: (Edit: Sorry @sweetchaos, I just noticed you referenced the 3rd one already).

Should Speaker Manufactures provide a Frequency Response Graph?​

---

Eric at Tekton Designs has been battling two different reviewers who have posted measurements without his permission, using Klippel devices for their respective measurements...

Stereophile review of the $30,000 tekton speakers​

---

We have had many discussions/arguments over tekton speakers in the past, mainly involving a couple posters who thought their $4000 tektons sounded better than the highest price Wilson’s and other high budget speakers. (Controversy is addressed in later pages).

Thin Line Between Critique and Courtrooms: A Dialogue on the Recent Audiophile Drama​

---

Hey Audiogonians,
In the vast, vibrant universe of audio reviews, where the line between subjective opinion and objective analysis often blurs, a new saga unfolds.


They also have a thread about ASR that Amir responded in recently, plus one on measurements bias.

Whenever I peruse those forums, I feel like I need to shower afterwards...

 

[kschmit2]

[...] However, I really wish that the piece would have supplemented the mention of Alexander's YouTube video commitment to publish measurements for all future Tekton speakers with the information that after taking down the video he subsequently publicly posted on Facebook that he's "under no obligation" to provide speaker measurements.

The article seems to have since been updated, as it now has a section on measurements at the very end.

 

[amirm]

FYI I am now banned from Tekton facebook page even though he claimed he was not going to let me post there.