Yes I’ve emailed back and forth with Vatali about it.
OMG! Just arrange your fucking windows properly and stop moving them! I really hope no one actually listens to this guy.
It has been teased for over a year with a 4K price. I don’t know if anything has changed since then, but hopefully more accurate information comes out on it soon.
really cause Headfi and here have been mentioning 2500 USD
mind you in Canuckbucks that’s 3000 not including tax, duties and shipping
That sounds better. It was teased from Flux’s facebook a year ago so that sounds more appealing, especially with the FA 10/12s under their belt.
A bit off the latest discussion, but I have to say that headphones.guru is one of the more enjoyable people to read reviews from. Love his use of reference tracks
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really digging these 2 channels lately… like the way these guys review dacs/amps, I really appreciate the effort these guys go into describing the products without mktg BS.
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Yeah, I’m really digging Passion For Sound. Good content. 
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Another great review from the Hansmeister… yes I know the sound cuts are cheeseball but you can deal with it.
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Abyss tries to address a very interesting and somewhat controversial set of topics within the audio/hifi communities. I’m not sure we’ve solved any of them but this helps get their perspective and get our arms around the topics. I’m certainly not an ASR’r but I can appreciate what they do.
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i like listening to people who have very legit experience:
- Steve Guttenberg
- Paul from PS Audio (love his arrogance)
- Zero Fidelity
I like how the following describe sound:
- Tyll
- Currawong
- Andrew from the HEADPHONE show
I like to watch videos from guys that focus on presentation and style:
- Joshua Valour (!!)
- Darko (i take back my bias, he’s actually one of the best)
- DMS
But regarding sheer humour, creativity and hyping skills, noone comes even close to Zeos. You watch him to have a laugh, see a madman do very weird things you didn’t think of and get tempted to buy new stuff. He deserves all the praise he gets.
On a good day, to get legit infos about IEMs, i also watch BGGAR, but at most of times, he’s not my cup of tea. He seems weirdly arrogant.
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Wow. I love how this guy describes lines.
I love:
Currawong
Hans Beekhuyzen Channel
Steve Guttenberg Audiophiliac
William Murdock Headphone Experience
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Z Reviews - slightly less because I don’t like the wallpapers and some things he says, but found he has some great recommendations. He also has made some silly remarks like saying “Guess what, [the Audeze LCD-2F] are s*** compared to [the Audeze LCD-X]”. I myself prefer the 2F but they are both amazing. What I ascertain from his reviews is, if he is incredibly excited in a review, then the product is probably great.
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Ultimately you want to hear the product first, but on about half of my components I didn’t and was mostly very pleased. The 2 products I haven’t been so happy with were the RME ADI-2 DAC, and the Crown XLS1502 (both from Z) - but other Z recommendations have been great.
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How they “felt” about a song on a piece of equipment? For me that’s the least useful information. I haven’t found a reviewer yet that I agree with concerning their music tastes. They can keep their feelings to themselves. Now detailed discussions about where the roll-offs are or spikes and dips in graphs and how these compare to other similar equipment is very useful. I can translate that to my music selections. I especially appreciate when they say “not for me” but perhaps someone else who may prefer a brighter signature or more detail in the mids etc. The warm and fuzzy teddy bear stuff is irrelevant to me.
And yet I like both Steve Guttenberg, BGGAR, Crinacle, HEADPhone Show, and Amir the best. They all add to an overall impression what may be worth my time and money.
Very weird to say that’s the least useful information. What is more useful, plain words and poetry??
You do not read reviews to agree with somebody’s music taste, the aim of a review is to tell you about how the product performs. The reviewers could care less about your musical taste =) They are not writing for you, if they were, they would have 1 supporter (I don’t mean it literally). What I am saying is that you are not focusing on the readers musical taste, but rather using your hearing and your musical preference to notice the way a product performs sound-wise. This is what you do as a reviewer… or at least what you should do.
Well clearly you are not educated enough about measurements to say something like
It sounds like you are one of those people who just translate graphs into what you hear, in other words if the graph points out a certain sound quality you just translate that and convince yourself that’s how a product sounds.
Sound is subjective, and measurement equipment cannot measure how a headphone will sound to you, your ears are not the microphones that were used to make that graph. The frequency response you are seeing on the graph is not the frequency response at your eardrum.
You also cannot accurately compare measurements from different companies, as though they come from different labs, are made by different people, possibly different equipment and software - meaning that you cannot rely or compare them.
By using reference songs with minute marks you are explaining where it is “bright” for your ears. There is no “bright”. What is “bright” for you, is “warm” or “not enough treble” for another. A graph does not tell that. A song certainly does, you can always play the referenced song at the mentioned minute mark and judge that specific sound quality.
How our ears perceive sound is way more complex than a graph. This is something that people who grew up on reviewers don’t realize, once you actually take your time and do research yourself, you find out the bs that “audiophiles” make up… and unfortunately many people buy into it. The roll-offs and dips you are talking about are not the same roll-offs and dips that will be present once the sound reaches your eardrum. With headphones you have the pinna, concha, and ear canal that change the sound and frequency response.
What you need to be aware of is that our ears are not the same as the measurement equipment, to compare the two as though they are the same is not really how it works.
Measurement focused reviewers and magazines only focus on the graph, and that’s not how we perceive sound. You don’t hear a graph, nor does a graph show many characteristics of sound. The best reviewer can do is carefully explain what they perceive, explain it in a way that the reader can actually translate what they read into sound (if you use words, they need in-detail explanation).
Our ears are just the anatomical factor that alter sound, you can imagine there are things happening on a neurogical level. As you already know, our brains are very powerful and can make up things that are not there: memories (false memories), differences (there was a psychological study where two identical objects were placed in front of a person, and this person was asked to find a difference, and indeed they made up the differences), and of course - sound.
I believe this is what happens a lot in the audiophile community. If you are convinced something is the way it is, your brain will manifest it. If you truly believe that a graph can tell you what you are hearing, you will perceive it that way. If you are convinced a cable makes a difference in sound, you will “hear” this difference, I believe this “difference” is happening on a neurological and psychological level. That’s the power of our brain, belief is a strong power, but not one that can be measured (not to my knowledge). The amount of things you can achieve with pure belief might surprise you, if you study spirituality or something of that sort, you can discover many things that you can achieve just by pure belief.
Just my two cents =)
p.s. I believe that every single reviewer that you mentioned is using plain words to explain sound 
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Well said!
Here is a good article on that topic: https://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-we-hear.html
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Wow. Excellent article!
The hard truth is that DAC’s make little change to the sound, many will argue. A $200 DAC could sound the same as a $2000 to some - but because the brain of the audiophiles who pay the 2 grand, the brain is convinced there is a difference… because imagine spending 2 grand that you earned and not hearing a difference, “there must be a difference”. But I will not go there, I’m not trying to start a war 
But I do want to say that this test has been done hundreds of times and that many people indeed did not hear any audible difference - if you want you can do a study on this subject on your own, there are many studies and articles on the internet about DACs (not recommended for people who invested a lot of money into their DACs).
Amplifiers are different, as though they can have a “color” or a characteristic that translates onto the headphones themselves.
Regarding wine, it is something that could be inaccurate. You know when you eat something constantly and your taste buds and brain get used to it, and once you try something new you immediately like it? Well, what is highly possible is that the professional wine tasters are too used to the expensive wines, and therefore probably don’t notice the subtle differences in them, and because they haven’t been drinking the cheap wine in years, they are like “WOW. This is amazing”. The same way that a person who has been drinking cheap wine and drinks the expensive wine for the first time could have the same reaction about the expensive wine - of course, not knowing the actual price of the wine.
But the article covered just about everything that is taboo in the audiophile industries, especially platforms like Head-Fi where they will place you on the blacklist just if you make a complaint.
Unfortunately too much of the sound judging happens on a neurological level that isn’t really there - too much convincing. It’s crazy to read reviews about sources where they state significant sound differences, I mean the review looks more like judging a headphone - I never really understood how they come up with that bs… and tbh is one of the main reasons I started reviewing.
Great article, thank you! Will definitely use it for reference in the future, and will have to read it in depth (I just had a short glimpse at it).
Unfortunately, there will still be people who will bash you for this - but hey, I don’t mind going against the current and fighting for what is right - I know I am not alone 
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Yeah, I have done some testing with different dacs and I dont believe they make any changes.
Using the jds ol switch as my tool to switch instantly between 2 dacs. So no memory loss since it is literally an instant change.
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Debate that. Immediate AB testing really puts things to test, add blind testing and bam, that’s it.
I had a similar experience with Tempotec amps (or amp/dac combos), absolutely no sound difference. It was at this time that I went like "Wait. Wtf are these reviewers talking about), in fact, I don’t remember noticing a large (if any) difference between the Tempotec stuff and my Macbook Pro… yup.
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