On July 15th I published a statement responding to videos posted by GoldenSound (Cameron Oatley) and headphones.com, which detailed recent communications between dCS and GoldenSound regarding a review of the dCS Bartók Headphone DAC.
After reading headphones.com’s official response to this statement, speaking directly with Andrew Lissimore and carrying out an internal investigation, I have since discovered that parts of this statement were incorrect.
I am deeply sorry to learn this. My statement was issued in good faith and based on information I believed to be accurate. I have since discovered that certain information regarding this matter, provided to me by an individual at dCS, was not correct. This individual no longer works at dCS.
My discussions with GoldenSound began with an attempt to discuss technical points in a review that was published 7 months previously. Between 2021 and 2022, we attempted to have intermittent discussions with each other about the review.
Things unfortunately escalated in 2023, following discussions regarding a voice note which had been shared online, as in late 2023, an email was sent by a dCS Americas employee which was totally unacceptable. Upon learning of this email I demanded a full and sincere apology be made. It now appears this apology was not made. I wholeheartedly apologise again on behalf of everyone at dCS to Cameron Oatley for the contents of this email. It should never have been sent.
The same individual also sent an email containing an unapproved reference to a ‘seven-figure’ lawsuit to Andrew Lissimore. I did not authorise or condone this email and was not aware it had been sent prior to this week.
In May 2024, my colleague in the USA instructed a lawyer to communicate with GoldenSound in an attempt to reach a resolution. I was aware of this letter and my intention at this point was to reach a solution by mediation or another process – not to instigate a seven-figure lawsuit. However, I appreciate that in the context of additional communications that have since come to light, this is not how this will have been construed and I apologise for any distress caused as a result of this.
We will be reaching out to Cameron to confirm that no legal action will be taken and to apologise for any distress that this situation has caused.
dCS has always worked with, supported and encouraged independent, subjective reviews of our products. We accept that subjective opinions will be positive and negative and have had our products reviewed independently for over 30 years.
Both dCS and Cameron have reflected and accept that were technical elements in the review and our communications that both of us need to discuss fully and clear up for all. The technical details of the points discussed in the original video and our responses are something that both dCS and Cameron are very keen to clear up, and we plan to address these further in a face to face meeting at the dCS factory on Thursday July 25th, more details to follow.
For now, we’d like to focus on finding a constructive route forward with Cameron and Headphones.com and I am working with Andrew and Cameron on this.
Once again I’m truly sorry to Cameron for some of the communications he received – this is not how we wish to do business or who we are, and I will be thoroughly reviewing our internal processes when it comes to any disputes or contentious issue. I personally will be more hands on in this area, learn from this and ensure our actions and communications across the company are reflective of the values we strive to meet.
We completely accept that many people will feel disappointed by our actions, and we sincerely apologise. We have always strived to make outstanding products and a positive impact in the audio community. Whilst we respect everyone’s right to express their opinion, we would like to request that people refrain from making threatening or abusive comments towards dCS employees.
This situation has caused distress for all involved, especially Cameron. We note his comments in videos on other channels stating that he’d enjoyed his time with the dCS Lina system and as a step toward repairing our relationship we are sending Cameron a dCS Lina system that will be provided for Cameron to use with or gift to a music based community programme or charity of Cameron’s choosing. As a result of our attempt to find a way forward Cameron and dCS got back into talking audio and have identified some interesting development ideas to advance playback in headphone audio so will report on this soon.