Where the F*#! is Vilip?!
It’s December 24th 2022, roughly 8 months ago and I check my notifications to see that a new video is up by Audio Excellence Canada. At this point in my audiophile journey, I am watching everything I can get my hands on so I play the video as soon as it popped up on my phone.
The Audio Excellence videos feel like they are more for background listening while washing dishes or (insert your chore of choice here) so I doubt I was paying much attention but right at the 26 second mark Adrian, owner of Audio Excellence says:
“Unfortunately, I have some bad news. For those of you watching all over the world, umm, I had to let Vilip go recently. I didn’t want to do it but; I won’t go into the details… We wish him the best for his future endeavors and we will miss his insightful comments for the videos but unfortunately he could no longer work here.”
As soon as I heard that, two things went through my mind…
1: This must be a joke because for as long as I had been watching their videos, Vilip was a staple in the Audio Excellence Team. For me, someone trying to figure out how to listen for this and check for that; Vilip, was the slightly arrogant know it all that I needed to get approval from to some extent. Vilip was, in my opinion, AEC and AEC was Vilip.
2: I grabbed my wife and sat her down to listen to what I had just heard. Up to this point, and to this day of course… I had been forcing her to listen to all of the hifi videos with me and she knew Vilip as “the guy that was always wearing a hat”.
After the initial shock… maybe from the way that Adrian came right out and said it or maybe from the way that he abruptly hard stopped the “important channel update” without any detail, we tried to read through the comments to see if someone knew something that we didn’t. They didn’t.
Not satisfied with the comments section, I searched the internet looking to see if there was something online that someone knew, somewhere. Nope. Vilip had turned into a ghost. Now look, I need to be clear; I have no idea what he did to get fired without being able to say his goodbyes on the channel the way that Jay from Audio Excellence did a year or so prior. Did he punch Adrian in the face? Did he steal from the company? Did he say that JBL Horn Speakers are better than Wilson Speakers? Who the f*#! knows?!
Here is the point: There are very few things that Vilip could have done that he should not be able to come back from… The extreme’s aside; anything else is redeemable and there is room in the “Hifi Personality Space”. The guy was knowledgeable and interesting; if he wants to create content… HE SHOULD. If I am overstepping here and he, on his own, wants to disappear into obscurity… He SHOULD (which he is doing well).
Combing back through the comments of that video again for the purposes of writing this article; I was reminded that I am not the only person who is thinking this. In a 30 minute video where only 22 seconds were related to the topic at hand; most of the comments were about the split and not the newly released Mofi SourcePoint 10’s… that is not nothing. Here are a few:
@JulioCSolar
Well... Villip is unique. I grew up in an island full of people like him. I didn't mind, but I noticed things here and there which would make me blow a gasket. I'm a chief engineer that deal with people and eventually you have that "really smart guy" who don't know when to shut the f..up.
I will miss him because I know how to deal with this kind; but I also know that a ship only has one captain. Full stop.
@davewin1792
I'm here in support of Vilip. Short of killing someone, Vilip deserves a second chance. We live in some of the most challenging times world wide in our lives. He is human and a sinner like the rest of us. We love Vilip and his insight. He had great knowledge of the industry we love. Adrian, we love you too, but we're all flawed and make mistakes.
@sampapadas50
I know, for sure, that if I was about to drop a big wad of cash for some of your equipment Adrian, and I truly respect all the hard work that you have put out for all your customers, Vilip's brutally honest assessments of almost all audio equipment has been SPOT ON! It's his opinions I would listen to--nobody else's. I sincerely hope that your business doesn't suffer because of this, but I do hope that time gives way to forgiveness and like the man says , you are the captain of the ship.
@thepickyaudiophile
Villip you will be missed! Loved your personal take on audio and disregard for political correctness 😀 All the best in your endeavors ❤️
@MrCatalysis101
With all due respect to the rest of you, Villip was the key reason for my subscription to this great channel. He has a significant gift for reviewing equipment in a relaxed and entertaining way, in a style in a that any audiophile will identify with, in terms of being a guy who is one of us but, until very recently, was lucky to work in the retail hifi industry. Quite rightly, we don't have the specific reasons for his dismissal, which one assumes was a no alternative scenario, given his obvious popularity on YouTube alone. I hope there can be a reconciliation down the line as, again with all due respect, your channel content is going to be far less compelling without Villip. If he is reading these comments, I wish him luck and encourage him to set up his own channel, to which I would immediately subscribe.
So I say again; in my best Dave Chappelle voice: Where the f*#! is Vilip?! If he did not hit the mega millions, why isn’t he explaining what makes the Shindo preamp such an esoteric piece? What about his take on musical speakers vs. analytical… where do we strike the right balance between those two? What does he think about Jay’s CSS Audio Typhon’s? That last one; I might pay to hear!! I digress.
The video is below for those who haven’t seen it or just want a refresher. Let me know what you think in the comments… Does it matter if a content creator falls off the face of the earth? Do we reach out in the same way that they reached out to draw our attention? What is the right back and forth between creators and those that engage with the videos/articles that they put out?
Vilip… If you read this… Shoot me a text or email.
Denzel Marshall, the Audiophilosopher
Marshall House Hifi
P.O. Box 812
Columbia, MD 21044
Cell: (443) 938-4040