Peer Review of the Reviewers: Critique/Praise Audiophile Reviewers

I met zeos in real life at a minimeet and I consider him an honest person. I don't always agree with his reviews but I firmly believe that he is reviewing the products that he chooses to honestly. He's a bit enthusiastic about things but I've also seen him out down products (he560 for instance). I do find his reviews entertaining though.

Lachlan is another good reviewer whos videos I enjoy

 

Well, that's fine as far as it goes, but like... let's say that Sennheiser releases a bad headphone. Not obviously "hide your ears" bad, but not up to snuff at its price point, and with a couple of ugly sound qualities (a harsh treble or rolled-off bass or whatever). If nobody publishes negative reviews, then when you go to search for reviews of the thing, what you're going to find is a handful of positive reviews, and no negative ones. Which makes it hard to evaluate -- if Inner Fidelity hasn't reviewed it, did they just not get around to it, or did they listen to it and decide it wasn't good enough to review? Is the absence of a review a negative review that offsets some positive reviews? Is a headphone with ten reviews likely a better one than one with four reviews, because the missing reviews should be interpreted as bad?

From a writer's perspective, it makes sense not to spend a lot of time talking about things that you aren't excited about. But from a reader's perspective, that lack of feedback is frustrating and distorting.

 

I think you answered your own question. Quality review of a Fiio product? Fiio is a mass produced, buzz word compliant line that offers marginal sound quality but does so without emptying your wallet, hence the rockin, no depth reviews, by folks wanting to get their post count to the moon or gather tons of page views or lots-o-free product.

Hope I didn't sugar coat that too much

 

I actually think that's more revealing of his disposition for cheaper gear being "good enough". Fits into his whole budget-fi guru persona. Assuring the peons who click his affiliate links that their M50 is "good enough" at only a "fraction of the price".

There's been a lot of drama behind Zeos on reddit, and while I'm sure he's a "nice guy" and all, I would not count him as a discerning trusted reviewer.

 

At the same time, it's kind of the dismissive comments I was referring too... (No offense intended

I wonder why there are no (or so few) critical in-depth reviews of these budget products. It seems like such an opportunity to educate/inform/create better consumers who would in turn require better products. Instead, wallet-conscious (or just cash-strapped) people keep drinking the kool-aid and the enlightened/informed who could give quality impressions trash the buyers... Instead of the products. I'm definitely annoyed by the "positive review in exchange for another sample" culture. But I also wonder why so few critical reviews... Maybe people here see them as a waste of money so won't review them? I get that! Or bad experiences with early Fiio stuff?

So throw stones at the freebie suck-ups, but I think this is a better place than "Fiio is crap because."

Maybe off topic but it seems like there should be quality reviews of budget products, too.

 

The problem there is you don't have an audience. The people who just want to know what they should buy for $50 or whatever are looking for quick-hit reviews (arguably things like this Lifehacker piece -- which is heavy on Fiio -- are too in-depth for that audience, even). And the people who are "enthusiasts" enough to read reviews in an engaged fashion aren't interested in reading a lot of reviews of ultra-budget stuff.

(Enthusiasts are interested in stuff they'd consider buying, stuff they can daydream about maybe someday being rich enough to buy, and maybe one or two token down-market things to recommend to friends.)

 

That's not entirely true. When I was looking to spend $100 on a pair of headphones I did extensive research on the open headphones available to me and ended up with the SR80i, and eventually the Ad700 as well. Unless you mean stuff more in the $50 range.

 

Alright, let's please get off the defensive. I am not throwing stones at Fiio buyers nor you. Fiio is what it is.........fills a need at a price, nothing more, kinda like a low end Creative Labs. Hell, I even bought an E-3. And listened to E-7, E-11 and others before I concluded my little CMoy did as well or better.

Second, reviewers have their own motives for reviewing products and if you do not want to acknowledge what some of them are, so be it. Reviewers are not altruistic do-gooders intent on providing a stream of consciousness on all products that may be in the market scope. As another member has already clearly elucidated, some reviewers never review a product simply because it does not meet the hype or it does not sound good enough to command the price tag. More than a few high quality reviewers that are well respected have this view. Instead of writing about everything that comes down the pike, they invest their time in writing about the good stuff for the most part. And besides, what did your Mom tell you?

When coming here from HF, you do notice a big difference. SBAF is not full of folks firing off reviews of all sorts of FOTM, budget IEMs, portable amps or the like. There are lots of budget favorites here and they are easy to find. The SBAF crew cut through most of the noise you are trying to plow through yourself and just talk about the items that are truly a step above the noise.

The whole situation with commercial reviews of audio products is not too dissimilar from what has been going on for decades with cars. Three or so major mags reviewed pretty much every car that came out and if you are really astute you can read between he lines to find some chinks in the armor but for the most part they never say anything bad about any of them. And it will stay that way since they are, well, commercial. Want an unbiased view, buy the stuff yourself. Expensive but priceless education. And I know you have quite a bit of expertise in this area. You have been through lots of cans from what I recall over at HF.

SBAF is doing a lot to forward the first hand experience with loaners, mini and micro meets, etc. Truly the best way to get knowledge I think. And it won't hurt to ask about a particular category or price point, many members here have been exposed to lots of budget stuff.

Just don't expect reviewers to go on a crusade anytime soon.

Peace and Love, here on the Boat!

 

No, right, that's a thing, but the catch is: You just do that once. At that point, either you're settled in and you have a pair of "good" headphones that you keep forever, or else you get into the "hobby" and keep reading reviews of headphones. But in that case, you're no longer reading reviews of $100 headphones -- you're reading reviews of the headphones you want to upgrade to.

 

Even Changstar/SBAF has recommended new headphones that have major issues with functionality, not even getting into what they sound like. The HE 400S just would not seal on my head with the stock pads. The Oppo PM-3 was the same but the pads are glued on. The Focal Spirit Pro should not be recommended anywhere; even if you have proportional dwarfism (or are a French jockey) and they fit over your ears, they will still break due to the defective design.

That the UERM is described as very neutral as it's intentionally voiced similar to NS10 speakers is hilarious to me. Then a caveat that it might have problems as it's "too neutral" when most of those problems for general listening come from it being voiced like an NS10...

 

I'm sorry if I came across defensive/offensive. Seriously. My quoting you was only in response to the dismissive part. I definitely wasn't accusing you of throwing stones. I should have been clearer.

I have felt in the past devalued for buying Fiio stuff. Stupid me. Seriously. Someone's impression of me based on what I buy shouldn't matter. And its not the worse thing in the world to have been sucked up into the review mill. There are worse flaws. I have those, too.

I do feel a little bit out of place in the hobby. This thread is all about the crazy commercial reviews. I smell it now. I just don't really know where the honest reviews of those products are. That was my main point. But its not the mission or purpose of SBAF to ferret out bad products to protect new audiophiles. Though I'd be happy to see a review site like that. It just wouldn't pay to do it! I'd like an altruistic, save-your-money thread.

You and mkozlows both made great points about the reviews that are here, and why the item are reviewed that are. It makes a ton of sense. The only people who will pay to review Fiio stuff is Fiio (Or distributors I guess). If someone here listens to a Fiio product and says "wow. compared to an AK JR or sansa clip that sucks" there is no reason for them to review a Fiio player, etc. On the other hand, I hope everyone here feels the freedom to praise a Fiio product, if one is praiseworthy. The only people who will tell me what is wrong with the X3ii etc is someone selling me a X5ii. I wish that were different about the hobby.

I appreciate SBAF a ton. Its been really engaging reading and a fun community. And there are things from HF I'm soooo tired of. I do like that this place isn't "summi-fi" either.

Thanks for your patience, all!

 

The only way we'll ever get the reviews we want is if we fund someone to review them. Lachlan has a patronage account which he uses to fund his headphone purchases. If Tyll or another honest reviewer sets up a subscription to their site with the intention to never take free samples again, I would buy a subscription. Basically, make a list of requested reviews, and have the reviewer go through each item, paying for it with some of the subscription fees, and then maybe reselling it when they're done (maybe not).

 

Or donate to SBAF piggy bank

 

Already did that.

 

I've always found David Carnoy's reviews on CNET pretty good. Short, sweet, and usually to the point. Does a good job of bringing out the negatives without overly focussing on them.

 

I had a similar frustration when I was buying the Koss MV40 and the only reviews I found were a handful on Amazon and one post on HeadFi. The post on headfi was actually pretty spot on and I had the same impression when I finally tried them, but they still weren't great.

For beginner looking through reviews I agree that the lack of feedback is a problem. For people more experienced though I think they understand that if it wasn't that good to begin with then you wouldn't expect too many reviews. Although I do know that when it comes to cars that every model anyone ever makes gets reviewed so.

Basically I think the lack of reviews for everything is due to a lack of organization among reviewers as opposed to food magazines and auto magazines. People get assigned to specific sections like someone is in charge of Ford and someone else does Chevy and they make sure it's exhaustive. For headphones it's still kind of the wild west where anyone just reviews whatever they feel like. Tyll does a pretty good job but he's only one person and he honestly needs a bigger staff to cover everything out there. I believe he has one guy that does CIEMs and another that does electronics but staffing needs to be bigger.

Here is an article that might be relavent.

http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/review-or-not-review#IID5m5H1iQxzA85z.97

 

Whoa, cool, thanks!

 

That's a huge honor, thanks a lot man!