The Six Moons.com review on the Mhdt Labs Orchid DAC just went up

probably worth a listen but there are countless DAC and other products worth a listen....without the I bought the review sample conflict of interest......

@janehamble Your post throwing shade at @teajay may have been an attempt at humor but why does everyone have to be so aggressive, cynical or unkind? Buy it or don’t buy it, nobody cares, least of all Teajay. Everything he has recommended (based on personal experience or the preponderance of other posts) seems to sound pretty good for the money. Maybe its your taste, maybe it isn’t.

People seem to think that most reviewers are getting rich or getting kickbacks from manufacturers, which just isn’t the case. These guys have found a way to get the opportunity to listen to alot of gear, more power to them. Your post however implies that once someone identifies something as a world beater, they aren’t allowed to ever identify another...thats just unreasonable.

One thing I don’t understand why would Terry give false review for a company that is pretty small such as MHDT, Lab12?

Say these small companies pay him to do these reviews, how much they could pay? Let’s say MHDT gives the review sample to him for free, why would Terry replace his reference DAC with a cheaper model? He could still say good things about it but at least put the Orchid in his second system if he had to mention he keeps it.  

I am trying to understand but it just doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe I am naive. 

Now, if it was a bigger company say B&W, Sonus Faber, McIntosh, etc. it would make more sense. 

Terry used his Magnepans for like 10 years I think. Why wouldn’t he replace the Magnepans before? He used his Pass Labs for many years. Why wouldn’t he come up with a different amp to replace before? I cannot put the pieces together in the puzzle. 

This particular reviewer isn't the only one that has said a lot of good things about the MHDT labs DACs in general and the Orchid in particular.  I read a lot of good things before I bought my Orchid (which was before this review was posted) and am very happy with mine.  

Hey celo,

Actually, I had my Magnepan 20s for over 18 years until I replaced them with Lawrence Audio Cello speakers.

I get two major perks out of professionally reviewing:

1) I get to hear/audition equipment in my home environment, which is quite different then at show or store space.  It's a great pleasure to hear gear that I'm very interested in to see how good or different it is compared to my own reference pieces in my own two systems.

2) Yes, a great perk is then be able to purchase at a reduced price a review piece if I'm so inclined.  The cynics would and have accused me of being "bought off" or being payed to write a positive review.  I can honestly say I have never written a review for financial gain.  

I still get great pleasure of finding killer products at reasonable prices and sharing this information in my reviews.