FINAL UPDATE:
Update/Statement from dCS following my visit to dCS recently: https://dcs.community/t/goldensound-and-dcs-factory-visit-latest-news/6961
This situation is thankfully now resolved. As it turns out, this situation was mostly the result of one individual at dCS who also provided false information to the managing director seemingly in order to encourage or persuade him that this course of action was the only option. This person is no longer with the company, and David Steven (dCS Managing Director) and I have spoken various times over the phone and in person at a recent visit to dCS in Cambridge, and I’m very pleased to say things are on a good path.
This situation was unfortunate, but I’d encourage reading through this most recent statement and I’m thankful to David and the team at dCS for their swift actions once the truth of the matter became clear.
UPDATE: dCS has issued an update and apology, and has confirmed there is no legal action that will occur. It seems things were not all as they appeared internally, more details in David’s statement: https://dcs.community/t/goldensound-headphones-com-dcs-an-update/6740
This is perhaps the most stressful video I’ve had to make.
The TLDR is that dCS has threatened me with a “7-figure lawsuit” over my coverage of the dCS Bartok in 2021.
dCS alleges factual inaccuracies, however I disagree with almost all the points put forward, and feel that this is simply a result of them not liking the fact that my coverage was negative.
All the details are discussed in full in the video and I’d ask you to watch that for full context and details.
dCS later responded to this video, and their response can be found below:
Live link: https://dcs.community/t/a-response-to-recent-claims-regarding-dcs/6722
Web-Archive Link: https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://dcs.community/t/a-response-to-recent-claims-regarding-dcs/6722
However, there are various issues and complete inaccuracies in this response, not least of which is the claim that they never made a threat of litigation in the first place when there is clear email evidence documenting this. Additionally stating there was a meeting between myself, dCS staff and Andrew & Taron of headphones.com where the hostile behaviour/communication of one of dCS’ employees was apologised for.
This meeting did NOT occur, and currently I have had no apology for the comments or behaviour from dCS, nor a proper acknowledgement of the factual inaccuracies in the letter from the lawyer to myself.
Our full response to their response is available here: https://forum.headphones.com/t/dcs-response-and-story/23779
Cameron, be aware that you have a lot of support on Audiogon. I know that ven the minion leader and his minions on ASR support you as well.
Some of us have also written to Dcs and stated that we will never purchase any equipment from them in the future.
I have always found GoldenSound reviews to be enjoyable comprehensive and fair and consider the action of dCS to be totally wrong.
I am a Hungarian. I do feel a bit off that a (seemingly) British company is using the name of world class Hungarian composer like Béla Bartók for their 20.000 dollar product and then bullying reviewers like this. I am fairly sure that dCS has never asked for permission to use Bartók’s name from his estate (considering that he died in 1945, his estate still exists, yes and the manager of the estate is no pushover either). As he died as a dual citizen and while the state of New York did not provide any protections dCS’s practice can certainly be attacked in a Hungarian court (there is no time limit on the rights of the deceased in Hungarian law and all personal rights that the living person once had maybe considered protected, including likeness, name and revoking the use a name or infringing trademark). Also, note that the dCS Bartók was registered as a trademark in CHINA, in Chinese, in 2021, which raises all sort of questions… https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview/detail/CN500005356706138
It’s always that unauthorized ‘rogue agent’ in the company that’s always doing the mucking around and bolluxing relationships right? I know this unnamed person’s identity actually:
First Name: Phantom
Surname: Scapegoat
Apparently, you need to grow up or better: retire. Deleting posts is not accepted practice around the internet. Neither is bullying or ad hominem attacks by nobodies. Once it went up, it will stay there for posterity, similar to any print publication. As for why it is still on the front page: there hasn’t been a new post since and the original post had been updated to reflect the new information.
Re
Hello,
It’s a shame that DCS doesn’t take criticism
In general, the vast majority of reviews are poetic, I have a lot of equipment thrown away in the basement.
I’ll show you for FREE how to make a real review of an audio device from an audiophile client:
1.How does it sound: a.bad, b.good, c.very good
2.Does it have musical instrument separation: a.bad, b.good, c.very good
3.Does it have a stage (the placement of the instruments in space): a.bad, b.good, c.very good
And I’ll give you just two examples from my equipment (over 40 pcs):
-Naim 250 DR: 1.c/2.c/3.c > HI-END (exceptional)
-Marantz PM6007: 1.b/2.a/3.a > HI-FI (a basement trash)
(let’s not forget the 10:1 price difference)
The rest of the review is composed only of poetic, pleasant details.
TY
Sir,
Time to move on-we miss your candid erudite reviews.