wow great write up and thanks for this. ive used my ob4 extensively too for about 1.25 years id say but my experience has been pretty much the opposite. i know its subjective but the sound quality is so dang good imo. i listen mostly to jazz, hiphop, and electronic/chiptune/op1 music so maybe that could be part of it.
i agree about the handle being a risky way to use it since that hinge is smooth and easy to then have the ob4 fall flat, but ive never actually had that happen yet and i use it that way a lot, having it facing speakers upward makes the sound diffuse in a nice way. also if you are worried, you can actually push the handle all the way back and lean it that way! so its less of a tilt but then its rock solid on the ground without being laid flat on the ground.
i dont get the audio hiss/artifacts you are talking about. its got the slightlest slightest hiss at the max volume but that is perfectly normal. my sonus faber concertino’s are 2k per speaker and they also have this and they are handmade in italy. can you share a video or sound example of this?
the battery life ive found to be good. but ive heard folks generally get varied battery life with some TE products so that’s a shame. their QC def isn’t great overall bc their manufacturing just seems to always have some issues. i get quite a lot of battery life though. i use it about 2 hours per day and i charge it a little less than once per week.
crap i should say though that the motorized knobs def seem not sturdy though. that’s my biggest critique of it. they are so cool and great to use, ive used them to loop and slow down jazz lines when im practicing and trying to transcribe and its been an incredibly useful tool. but every several months i have to run the “calibration” routine from the manual bc the volume knob stops working, but the calibration does work like a charm every time. i dont know what to make of it but thats the one thing that has me worried about its longevity.
edit: it is definitely stereo. out of curiosity, what gives you the impression that it isn’t? when i send anything hard L or hard R, i clearly hear each side isolated with the true L ch or R ch. for such a small footprint, the fact that it has any stereo spread at all is pretty miraculous, usually stereo spread requires two speakers. sometimes you see really wide speakers too.