OCD mickey website and negativity.

No sense in feeding the haters and trolls.

This is true.

It’s also true that not everyone who has a criticism is a "hater" or a "troll." Unless one is a narcissist, there is a middle ground.

Once someone decides to post public videos and build an audience and community, they tacitly become a public figure. That requires some restraint on their part, some modesty. Those who exhibit such moderation earn respect and trust, at least in my book. Those who take pleasure in randomness or snark do not.

This YT'er has 24.5k subscribers and 1k videos. He makes videos for public consumption. He sells to the public. That is why he is discussed on this public forum. He is not just another guy selling audio or offering his opinion. He has succeeded to a point where public opinion seeks to discuss his views. That's an accomplishment for him. But it's not without norms.

I’ve bought gear from Mikey. I went down to Atlanta to pick up the gear. I bought his used NAT Audio 805 Generator mono blocks and a NAT Audio Symmetrical Balanced Line Stage that he coordinated the sale from one of his existing customers. I picked up both components from him almost two years ago.

His rig looks like a mad scientist experiment but is the most amazing system I’ve ever heard. I have a buddy with a 500k system that I listen to frequently so I can appreciate what an amazing system sounds like. Mikey’s rig is on another level. To be fair, my buddy hasn’t really addressed his room yet because of remodeling. Some say the room accounts for 50% regarding sonics.

I needed a pair of XLR cables for my new gear and Mikey pulled a pair of his top of the line silver foil cables off of his rig and sold them to me before I took everything home. I had a great time hanging out with him, I consider him a friend. He treats everybody he works with like this.

I’ve featured his videos on the private FaceBook group that I created almost five years ago: HiFi and music media releases. We don’t see eye to eye on everything. I’m an analog vinyl guy and he’s a high end digital guy. He makes fun of my AudioQuest cobalt Dragonfly DAC but it sounds incredible with the NAT gear!

I’ll be doing more business with him soon.

Critical thinking is paramount for our society and I fully support it. You should ABSOLUTELY ask yourself who I am and verify my background in the industry, to determine if I am a YouTuber making videos using exotic manufacturers only to bolster my image and perceived credibility, or if I actually am a career Audiophile who has owned a well known USA Amplifier manufacturer, or that I earned a patent in cable design, etc, etc. Its healthy for you to question anyone telling you they are an "expert". This is the age of self proclaimed experts and online smoke and mirrors.. By all means, run me through the gauntlet with everyone else. The issue of "troll" arises when someone does not like my form of message delivery. Maybe its too "rough" for their ears or feelings. So they post pieces that are cloaked in objectivity, yet have a knife covered up. Like this poster saying hes learned from me, but does not understand why the products I choose are not "enough" to be the "real" high end. Evidently TAD Reference One, with NAT Magma GM100 Tubes is not High end..LOL ...Also, one has never "broke" in the 6 years Ive been selling them.. Even if they did break, they are $250 bucks on Ebay or $800 from NAT. If the original poster did any research they would know this, but its still OK to throw shade of "until it breaks" LOL... Ridiculous... and this is what you all get here.. this is the quality of your conversations.. ..

The bottom line is just as a few here are accusing me of complaining or being neg, listen to you all complain right here right now..Even to the point of name calling. This whole thread was created in order to complain and give ground for others to complain as well.... Gaslight much ?

The funny part is the only complainers here are those that have never interfaced with me.LOL..They are only guessing and making things up. Ever ask yourself if these guys just may do the same thing with Audio gear ? Hello, McFly !... Again, typical for a forum... People speaking on a subject that they have zero experience or knowledge about.. Other people reading their fiction and forming opinion, taking a stand and regurgitating it elsewhere, as if its truth.. I hope you know this makes it very easy for us as sellers to manipulate you. If you all only knew what goes on behind these anonymous monikers. Real, actual, names, credentials and affiliations across the board would change things. As was pointed out above, you all know exactly who I am and what I do, and what my system consists of along with my career history. Few of us know who the hell you are, or if you even have an audio system, or if you are someone hired to shill or harass.

The Irony of it all, is that you will be very critical and untrusting with the "popular" folks that speak about audio, but you blindly trust your assumed "peers" on the forums. We know this and it is exploited to its full extent. We may even lie about gear we own on this forum. Not me, however. I dont have that luxury. You can watch my videos and see for yourselves the foundation from which I speak. You can google my history going back 20 years and my associations with industry moguls.. The fact that my amps went into Industrial Light and Magic on the Presidio in SF.. My three trips to Seoul Korea to consult with LG Electronics as Mark Levinson’s (the man, not Harmann) Marketing manager There’s too many to list, but there is the internet to log it all for me..

So go ahead and slam all you want, you will be very aware of what we have been creating in a few short years from now..And you’ll want to be a part of it..Because it makes this hobby a far better place and it includes everyone.

See you all on Youtube

OCD HiFiGuy

Last night I watched a video by Audio Excellence Canada, they claim they "only comment on equipment they sell", and "have a right to do so because they paid for it", etc, and don’t necessarily "care if the manufacturer gets mad at them or not".

And how they "carefully review" the products before they decide to sell them. While the criteria for this was not explicitly laid out, it describes their approach. We cannot say this for some resellers who just sell products and pass it on.

Apparently AE recently received questions by more than a few subscribers about PS Audio, wanting AE to comment more on Paul M and PS Audio. AE carries PSA and were pretty easy on the discussion, no drama, and one can appreciate that.

Whether one believes this strategy or not by AE, it was a simple way of putting their own little disclaimer out there for themselves. Each reviewer has their approach fwtw. 

We can all appreciate how each of these reviewers invests their time and $ to share products with us in any case. I sure do, goofballs and all, I guess👍