Picking specifically Schiit as a slandering target, a year and a half before they announced a "kind of" similar product sounds a bit far fetched to me. At the time NWAVGuy was banned, Schiit was dealing in desktop size tube amps, not SS stuff.

Would seem more logical to go for the jugular of iBasso for example.

Agreed on the relay incident, it was the starting point. But it would seem way more significant to go after the chinese amps, somewhere along the lines of : "look what they do for that much money ! This is outrageous ! I can do better for cheaper !"

Also why not pick up on Schiit in the blog ? Everything he tested (praised or loathed) is SS. Sorry Anax I don't buy it. At least not the Schiit part. Guess I'm not enough into conspiration stuff, or I just don't give a crap anyway.

Re-read my post Anax. I said I was not buying the Schiit targeting, and that I didn't care about the rest. It might be JDS Labs behind it, or maybe just a lunatic. I'm no client of JDS Labs, and I built my own for the kick of it. I still have it, don't use it, and definitely don't think it's the be all and all of portable audio. If not I wouldn't be around here would I ? I just did what a lot of people should do about all this, move on.

Not everything that came out of this is actually bad, to me at least. I'd rather have people questionning the value of what's on the market, rather than discussing about the pseudo magical experience they're supposed to get from whatever is the FOTM. And at least it got some people interested in the underlying science of the hobby. Ultimately most of them will come around to a more balanced position and overall it puts pressure on manufacturer to avoid putting out half-assed products on the market. Has JDS been picking up a lot of speed in the last 12 months ? Yes, absolutely, but no more so than RSA the year before with the balanced stuff he was putting out, and for an outrageous price at that.

Why do I think picking up on SS is significant ? Because NWAVGuy was not only about THD and IMD, he was also going after low cost. Why go after tubes if the people you are targeting can't or don't want to buy it ? Or do you really think the guys that went for a JDS Labs O2 would have thought about buying a Lyr at more than double the price ? It's basic marketing, at the price level the O2 is offered, potential clients don't think about 2 products as being part of the same category.

However you're wrong about the WTC, it was an undercover team of tibetan monks to protest against the chineses occupation. But your governement doesn't want you to know that. 

Why are people who would buy a tube amp segregated from the argument?  I fail to see the logic of your point.  Especially when the premise of his argument is that tubes are for fools that have more money than brains and then lays out pages and pages of argumentation on every audio forum beyond the scope of his own blog.  Religions don't rest on their laurels by preaching to the choir, but by expanding their base of converts.  That's also how you expand your potential marketable client base and subsequent profits.

Lest you forget, said 'EE' specifically named Schiit more than once by name as a 'design by ear' company in not so flattering fashion in his blog and commentary.  How can you say that is not specific targeting?  The target was not a product but a philosophy (and potential competitor).  If he only cared about the actual product, he would have approached his argument very differently and never have made as many enemies along the way.  He did not simply present a logical argument but pushed a holy crusade based on a perversion of objectivity.  This is evident from the tone and behavior of said individual except to those seemingly in direct agreement as a result of their own confirmation bias.  No surprise there.

We've discussed the pluses and minuses of the 'movement' before in other threads, that's not the point of this one so no sense in derailing it down that line of discourse.  It's really just the most recent retread of past movements, arguments and products in a very deliberate and calculated way.  It is non-unique other than the potential underlying motive which is the premise here.