This might get deleted but I want to make this post anyways.
This project started years ago with the idea of a really good set of endgame monitors that offered the best there was to offer at the time. Spectrum 4k 144hz and spectrum qhd 240 hz (later 280 hz) were offered to early backers for a decent discounts for backing the project with a refundable deposit. It’s been more than a few years and many of the 240 hz backers have yet to see a monitor materialize, 144hz 4k spectrum is now available on amazon with 2 day shipping, many 280 hz backers have paid the full amount for their monitor, no word on 280 hz glossy being developed and there’s no word on VRR + Strobe tuning by blur busters.
I 100% backed this project knowing all the red flags about the eve branding. It’s a lot of money for these monitors but I put my money down to show my support for such a product being made that would have all the ports, 27" glossy, hdmi 2.1, 240hz nano IPS and most importantly blur buster tuning for backlight strobing. That last one means a lot to me because I remember being the person contacting the chief on blur busters asking if it’d be possible to tune the spectrum (maybe someone reached out before but in my memory it was me) and then I sent messages to eve constantly to take a look at the blur buster tuning services that would allow spectrum to be something truly special that would compete with the big boys.
I’ve worked in IT for a while now and I can tell you silence is the loudest message you can send someone you are working for. Even if there weren’t any updates on the status of the monitors, continious communication with your customers is key (both good and bad news) on the status of development.
I said this when I originally backed the project and i’ll say it again, the backlight strobing is going to make it or break it for this monitor because everything else you can get from another brand for less hassle (technically you can’t get glossy 280 hz from anyone else either). Gigabyte m27q X for example is 240 hz with KVM switch built in, usb C input, a couple of USB ports, VRR + Strobing and it’s a value king. Right now the only downside to the gigabyte is availability and the VRR + Strobing (even fixed strobe) isn’t that good. Want a super color accurate monitor? there are other monitors out there that are far easier to get (possibly cheaper).
Spectrum OLED today announced BFI which is really cool that they support it considering OLED’s blistering fast response time. I still want my VRR + strobed IPS spectrum 280 hz, it’ll have better motion clarity than the oled (1 ms of persistence vs oled’s 4 ms at 120 fps) with more brightness and less input lag since you’ll be able to strobe all the way up to 280 hz unlike the oled. Dough please give us a meaningful update on the 280 hz spectrum (and glossy variant) soon as there are many customers who are getting restless and angry being silenced in your forums.
Thank you to all the mods who have been trying their best at letting everyone know what’s happening when they hear news. I know it’s not your fault and the company (dough) is still learning how to manage supply chain and learning how to more effectively QA their products for the future.
I made an account just to respond to this because the BFI announcement broke the dam.
I made my order in 2021 and kind of just watched and chuckled. I told myself “ I’ll just randomly end up with a monitor one day and I have no idea when.”
I even laughed at the idea I might even forget I ordered it. But I’m not even afforded that pleasantry because Dough floods my inbox with every except an address confirmation or shipping notice. It’s worse because I didn’t want a 4k monitor. Ordering the 240 was purposeful (as I expect it was for everyone else).
But getting ad after ad and watching the 4k become readily available is just heartbreaking. Zero communication for months on end and pretty deliberate and open manipulation of your community. I, too, work in IT and so luckily I’m afforded extra tech, like an additional monitor, to hold the place while I wait with waning patience, but to kick a customer while they’re down is beyond words.
Absolutely zero effort for any kind of restitution and at this point I wouldn’t be surprised, or I even whole heartedly believe you’re just laughing at your customers be scammed and disappointed by you.
It’s moments like these I truly wonder how any of you sleep at night. It’s not on a bed of money, we all know that’s for sure. Which is kind of worse. You scamming me and collecting a bag is just capitalism being capitalism but collecting my money and still failing as people and a business is truly the only thing praise worthy about Dough as an entity and everyone involved.
As mentioned above, this will probably be deleted. May not even be read but, much like you feel for your own reputation and product, at this point, I do not care.
There is literally no other 1440p monitor that does at least 240Hz that has HDMI 2.1. That’s why I purchased one, then upgraded it to the 280Hz, then to glossy, because I’m going to be running a 4 monitor setup with the Spectrum as my top monitor (3x Samsung Odyssey G7 for bottom three), and since they’re using the DP ports, the only other port on my GPU is an HDMI 2.1 port. And since I want to run 240Hz on all monitors, the only way to do that is for the monitor to have an HDMI 2.1 port.
See my problem?
If Evecough coughI mean Dough would update stuff, I’d be less concerned that my money was sent off into the void with no expected “ROI.” I won’t be asking for a refund. I want the monitor I paid for, because it’s literally the only one that’s (going to be) on the market that fits my needs.
Agreed. This monitor was supposed to be something really special and I was 100% ready to wait a couple of years for it but damn this is getting out of hand without any communication from them.
I want to express my personal appreciation for your care of Spectrum’s ultimate success, fulfilling the striving of fellow enthusiasts, and through a beloved product, making a positive difference to the world.
I came across your letter before heading into this afternoon’s work on the OLED, that’ll involve starting assembling the mock-up, making progress on the PCB, and offering more ideas on how to collaborate with our enthusiasts better in making our OLED as great as it can be.
Please work hard to make it better because of the end of all this mess I really want to see this line of monitors succeed. I implore dough to please give an update on 280 hz matte/glossy asap even if there isn’t much new info to go on because it’s at least owed to the early backers who put their money down for such a great product.
Of course and thank you for putting your time and effort into sharing your thoughts with us.
I am sorry for sounding like a broken record at this point, but we already have shipment for 280Hz matte in very limited amounts. There is no news yet for 280Hz glossy, unfortunately.
You make some excellent points, @Liquidshadowfox. I especially agree on the silence aspect - by not saying anything, it lets everyone make their own assumptions about what’s going on and many of those assumptions will not be good.
To me, it feels like Dough is focused so much on how they want to be seen that they’ve forgotten how they’re actually seen.
We’re seeing news about buying the Spectrum on Amazon and getting quick shipping, when people who paid in full more than a year ago are still waiting for their orders.
We’re seeing news on the development of the shiny new OLED monitor, when the D02 and D01 models still appear to be little more than vaporware.
What about all of the people who have paid for products that they’ve yet to receive? Is there simply not enough stock available to fill those orders? What’s happening with shipping into the EU, which has been blocked by unspecified issues for many many months?
It’s obvious at this point that Dough does not like talking about bad news. We saw so many examples of it during the development of D03, and we’ve seen it over and over since then. I can understand the reasons for this - the simple act of saying “no” is seen as rude and disrespectful in many Asian cultures, and it’s seen as better to say nothing than to give bad news. But many (most?) of Dough’s customers are from Western nations, and Western culture values taking accountability for your shortcomings.
Dough really needs to get over this cultural hurdle if they want to survive in a Western market. But by failing to deliver on their promises, and not addressing those concerns in any visible way, all they’re managing to do is drive away customers.
I’m at the point where I would have settled for the 240Hz in matte since there’s no ETA for glossy, but due to the lack of consistent communication I’ve reached out to customer service noting that I now require a refund.
It’s really unfortunate since no other monitor out there has the same minimalist design and feature set that this one does, and I was really excited for it. However, it’s meaningless if you can’t get the hardware in hand.
Oh, please. In no culture is it accepted to take money from people and not give them what was agreed. There are no excuses.
Dough management is quite simply cynical, calculating people, who you can only hope are not honouring past sales in order to fund a company-saving new development that will allow them to produce the promised monitors for all clients, and not simply scamming customers and filling their pockets. Tired of reading excuses for them.
I’m not trying to make excuses for Dough’s failure to deliver products. I agree that there’s no good excuse for them taking payment and then failing to deliver what was paid for.
The cultural aspect only covers their lack of communication about the things that are going wrong. Western companies would at least acknowledge that there are problems, and possibly even talk about how they’re going to address those problems.
Dough’s approach is to say nothing about the problems, even when it’s clearly evident that there is a problem. If asked about it, they’ll either not respond or will say that everything is fine. The only time you’ll ever see them own up to a problem is when it’s already resolved and they’re able to move past it. For example:
D03 production delay because HDMI 2.1 wasn’t working. They claimed that everything was on track until a week before shipping was due to start, and only then said that it would take another 3 months.
D03 shipping delay because they didn’t have enough brown cardboard boxes to pack products into. There was a period of about 2 weeks where no new tracking numbers were given out. The community noticed that something was wrong, but we only got told after shipping had resumed.
Lack of a firmware updater on macOS. We still keep getting told that they plan on making one available, even though their firmware partner clearly doesn’t care.
Cas and Aethel are about the only people I’ve seen who’ll actually acknowledge that there are ongoing issues. I can tell that they’re as sick of the problems as the rest of us are, and that they’re frustrated with how little influence they have to make things better. They don’t show their frustration very often, but I can tell it’s there.
