Z Reviews Bitching Thread

He was anxious about reviewing the K812 because he didn't like it (understandably) and never reviewed the Beyerdynamic T1. The Ultrasone and Beats Solo review were headphones that were so bad they weren't even deserving of a proper review other than mockery.

Everyone is right so nobody is. If there is no commonality between what everyone hears then there is no point even talking about audio gear and headphones because nobody would share similar experiences. This is obviously not the case and sound can at least be described relatively to a reference point e.g. HD600.

If the audience who watches your reviews are not experienced then you need to be a better reviewer rather than worse. There is no doubt that the zeos audience is people who are extremely new to audio and don't have particularly large budgets. Your recommendations as a reviewer should be as stringent at $50 as it is at $500. I'd argue that poor recommendations for a budget headphone is actually worse because this is their first taste of a good headphone and many in this price bracket are cash strapped teens/college students. If you've got $50 to spend then you'd want to get the best for your money just as much as if you had $5000 to spend and while $50 seems like a small amount of money for a headphone it is still a lot of money to some people.

The worst aspect of Zeos is that he has no interest in improving his reviews. You can start out as a poor reviewer but if you've got the drive to improve then someday it will be worth it. Zeos neither has a measurement rig to provide basic information such as frequency response and THD. Nor does he measure important aspects of headphone amplifiers such as output impedance when it is not listed in the specifications. His actual analysis of how a headphone sounds is so poor that he actually recommended this. Which innerfidelity measured. If he actually had a measurement rig he'd at least start to get better at identifying frequency response.



It doesn't matter if you are an "entertainer". If you can't talk about sound with any degree of consistency you're a bad reviewer. If you have no interest in improving then nobody should recommend people to watch their reviews.

While I don't link affiliate links in principal I can understand why people would want to use them and don't really have a problem with it if you've shown yourself to be a good reviewer and can consistently describe sound with a degree of accuracy. Patreon is the most ethical option overall aside from buying every headphone yourself and of course Zeos just does it all but manages to take it a step further by selling headphones back to Patreon. To me this is ridiculously unethical because you've got heavy incentives to liquidate a bad headphone/audio gear with a positive review just to get your money back. To buy more stuff. To do more reviews. To make more affiliate link money, drive youtube channel growth and Patreon growth. What makes it worse is that a lot of the audience is so ignorant and/or fanboyish that they don't realize they're being duped.

 

Yes, so your first point (about the K812) concurs with what I was saying to newerguy: that Tyll does review gear that is bad.
On your second point, I don't think it is fair to characterise his reviews as "not proper" or mere mockery: both videos come at the end of written reviews.

 

Damn! I'd done this on changstar and forgot for SBAF.

ABP -> Disable on superbestaudiofriends.org.

As I have corrected my mistake, and promise not to do it again, may I plead for a short suspension rather than a ban?

Anyway... I needed more time to work on Audioboobs.

 

No he generally doesn't and it's only when a lot of people commented about wanting a K812 review that he did it. In his monthly Innerfidelity Update posts he comments on the headphones he measures. If he is going to say something about a headphone he doesn't like then it is there such as the EL-8 Open.

I think that negative reviews of new noteworthy headphones is an important part to the industry. Particularly, if they are flagship headphones where FOTM/New Toy Syndrome run rampant. The problem with innerfidelity is that Tyll often reviews headphones of interest far too long after they were released such as the LCD-4. Getting some measurements out close to release is important for potential buyers and SBAF has done well with reviewing Massdrop exclusives quickly.

 

I get the strange feeling that we generally agree, but your replies give the impression that you disagree with what I'm saying. So I'm just going to step out of this conversation...

 

And what if we're all idiots?

 

We need to update your tag or whatever you call it "Keeper of the Memes and SJW hunting anti-shill" I can sense that the SJW hunting part is true, don't lie to me, it's 2016.

As far as reviews in this hobby I truly miss a larger base of analytical, sound describing reviewers such as metal571, Tyll and (if my according to hazy memory) you with your recent Stax review. I honestly wish I could contribute myself but I know very well my written English impressions comes out like shit, a review would probably be even worse.

 

More like experienced observers have a hard time weeding out good information from the bad.

I still haven't found a solid consensus on the LCD-4, opinions on it are completely all over the place.

 

I enjoy his videos but he's hardly ever right about anything he reviews. All hype, some hate (T90 review was pretty spot on IMO), and a whole lot of misinformation.

Buying a balanced Woo Audio amp to fix his headphones... sounds really dickish to me. It's as if he's saying they are horrible.

Metal571 and I always talk on reddit usually don't agree on a lot of stuff, but he's very respectful. Zeos has replied to some of my reddit comments before and has berated me. He really is full of Scheiße sometimes as his fans defend him talking to me that way.

It sounds bad of me, but if you want honesty and technical insight into headphones, look at metal571's or my youtube channel.

 

That self-promotion doesn't quite sit well with me.

 

I have been in head-fi world for couple of years now. To me, Tyll always seemed like a good reviewer. He explains clearly what's different in soundings and to me he doesn't sound biased at all. (Founder of HeadRoom would mean he knows stuff about audio)

Now, when i first heard about this video (in r/headphones) i came upon on this comment that has 10+ vote-ups:
"i like this guy. he is so much more real about things than say... that head fi guy jude. and he is more watchable than tyll."

I may agree that Jude is little bit biased... But i don't agree that guy who says: "HD800 bass is distorted" or "AD2000X has wider soundstage than HD800" is more watchable, than guy that clearly explains differences in soundings and knows how stuff should sound....

To this comment and to this video: I might watch z- videos, or i might read r/headphones. But anything they say i can't take seriously anymore. If i read or watch those things, its for humour.

 

Tyll? Ha! He doesn't even note the temperature and humidity!




(It's a joke. Knowledge of another thread required to understand, and if you don't, then no, it is not worth looking for)

 

The Audio equipment reviewer is situated at the intersection of information, opinion, his review organization's financial well being, the reviewers personal credibility and audio overall as a industry, with a dash of entertainment thrown in.

In my view, I have a responsibility to the industry, to the site(s) I work on and especially to the readers/viewers, I suspect that most other careful reviewers feel the same way. To me, the most important thing to convey in a review is a sense of what that piece of equipment sounds like, pardon the dichotomy, "objectively". Whether the sound I am describing is one I favor or not is mostly incidental, "leading the witness" by insisting that everyone share my taste helps no one. I think that is why thoughtful, serious reviews may seem measured at times and why I try and be measured on my own.

I think reviewers should be concerned for evenhandedness, so when you find a piece of equipment that you just can't get on with it can be better to move on and leave that piece to someone who can more easily see the merit in it, this may well be what Tyll's position is when he doesn't review something (assuming he can get it in the first place). As a parallel, in the early days of rock music, most newspapers had staff music reviewers and, when rock concerts became both a musical and cultural phenomenon that could no longer be ignored, the papers knew they had to cover these events. But most of the music reviewers back then were from the Classical or Jazz world and what's the point of a review from someone who a priori just doesn't like that particular kind of music?

Most things we get for review from professional manufacturers are at least decent, fortunately the stuff that really is terrible on an epic scale tends to die from natural causes before it gets enough publicity to make a review a thing of interest to the general audiophile/music lover. For things you do review, you certainly have to come out with what you believe to be the downsides (as an aside, I tend to find reviews and especially reviewers that never find anything even slightly wrong suspect). But it's just as important to point out what's good about the piece and why someone may find this something they might want to own. That's being thoughtful and fair to the manufacturers who are entrusting their product to you while being honest and respectful to your audience. And if you can be somewhat entertaining along the way, so much the better!

As far as the non-serious, agenda driven and "shock jock" type of reviewers, they exist as gurus to the uninitiated and morbidly ironic entertainment for everyone else, so it's not all bad...

Best, Kevin

 

Apparently burn-in tames treble now. Perhaps I should try that with HD800

 

Sounds as plausible as burn-in being a thing in the first place anyway.

So Massdrop are sending him stuff now?

 

The guy's a moron! Still, he has a certain verbal facility - that'll pass for knowledge and meaningful insight amongst other morons.

 

Metal571 is a joke. He used to be alot on overclock.net, but not anymore.

 

Instead of only stating, could you perhaps explain why? I find little to fault in his headphone reviews.

 

Really now ? Stax 2170 better low end than the TH900?

Looks like a new stax fan boy is in town.

I always found this guys reviews annoying but this takes it to a new level.

 

So that's what the birth of a stax fanboy looks like...