I think itās cool that he has the headphones connected to the video and plays the music.
Itās really cool how the headphones are made.
What struck me is the typical RME sound.
The short notes in the background that just disappear.
It would be much different with another amplifier, more authentic, more musical and warmer.
A question for the owners: is the workmanship really bad?
Workmanship as in build? I think these are built great. Feels good in the hands and on the head. Slight pressure point behind my ears on my neck but I think thatāll go away once the pads break in a bit. Iām coming from good olā plastic sennyās so these feel like another world in build.
I just got mine today, S/N 374. Mine also came with the newer cable. I find it to be acceptable. The actual wire under the sheathing is quite soft so I might try to strip off the sheathing and find something else to wrap it in or just get a hart audio cable.
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On another video he said it was named JRiver, so I think itās this one: https://jriver.com/.
It does look great though, a pity my library is not that big and very disorganized.
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Been watching and reading several reviews on these. Been thinking about picking a pair of these up since I just currently have a pair of HD6XXās right now.
Stripped off the stiff sheathing on my cable. Rewrapped it with some paracord with the core strands pulled out. I wanted to go higher with the paracord but I ran out of length. I also need to get some heat shrink thatāll fit over everything. Cable is much more flexible now and no longer twisted through the sheathing.
Received mine today with the new 4.4mm cable. S/N 369 shipped from HifiGo Dec. 30th. I do like the cable (and the headphones). May try to strip off that cloth later as well but for now I will leave it that way and use my Hart Audio cable from my Helios to test the Zeus with my different amps.
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I received my Zeus yesterday. My set also came with the new cable.
First impressions after 6 hours of comparing them with my other headphones:
- vs x2
- the Zeus will definitly replace the fidelios X2. Both are v-shaped, but the Zeus is superior in sound quality
- the biggest difference i immediately noticed was in the mids. The Zeus is midforward, the X2 has recessed mids. Zeus has far more detail. Instruments are better textured and have more energy.
- X2 has more overall bass quantity, but the zeus extends better in the deeper bass regions. The Zeus is tighter and has overall better bass texture quality. The kickbass of the zeus slams harder.
-Treble: The Zeus has more treble energy as the X2, which is good, because x2s treble is grainy and some kind of unbalanced. Sometimes the Zeus has a peak in the treble region that becomes fatiguing after extended listening or at higher volumes.
Soundstage: X2 has an ultra wide soundstage, but not very much depth. As result the soundstage is unnatural to me. Zeus has a wide soundstage, but not as wide as the X2, and more depth.
Imaging: The Zeus is a clear winner here, because the imaging is a weak point of the X2 (maybe because of the missing depth in soundstage?)
vs Sundara:
- Sundara has the superior sound quality for me. Sundara and Zeus present voices exceptional well, but on the sundara the voices are better implemented into the whole mix. Also the detail and timbre is slightly better on the sundara, but the Zeus is almost on par with them.
Bass: Sundara lacks subbass. The Zeus wins for bass quantity and quality. The kickbass on the zeus is tighter and has more slam to it. Bass heavy tracks (Sol-Alef, Angel-Massive Attack, etc) are better on the Zeus, but the Zeus still lacks the last and deepest herz in the subbass region (Hey, Gl2000 i am looking at you)
Treble: Sundara outperforms the Zeus clearly. Both has exceptional good clarity and detail, but Sundara is better balanced and less fatiguing. Especially bad recorded rock music is better on the sundara.
Overall the sundara is like a neutral and slightly better detailed version of the zeus or the zeus is like a sundara in party mode.
Soundstage feels more open and airy on the sundara.
Amping: Sundara need more amping. On the geshelli archel pro 2.5 (high gain) i get them loud on 2 or 2,5 oāclock. Zeus is loud between 11 and 12 oāclock.
vs Nighthawk carbon (with microsuede pads)
Zeus is the winner
- NHC has more and deeper subbass. Also the bass is faster than bass of the zeus. But zeus has better bass texture and more tightness and slam in the kickbass. NHC has in sum a little bit more bass quantity overall, but zeus outperforms it with better texture quality.
- NHC is still awesome for bass heavy music or music with much subbass (hip-hop, edm, etc). The first 30 seconds of Alef - Sol are better than on Zeus, because of the better subbass and deeper soundstage.
Soundstage: Honestly i like the soundstage on the NHC a little bit more. It has a little bit more depth than the zeus.
-NHC has rolled off treble energy. I can enjoy rock music much more on the NHC than on the zeus with the boosted treble.
All other categories like detail, voice presence, mids, texture quality are better on the zeus.
Vs Tygr 300r
- Tygr isnāt as much v-shaped and offers better 3d audio positioning. Tygrs mids are slightly recessed. Due to these two points i can listening longer to the tygrs.
- Zeus has more bass and treble energy, offers more detail, has pronounced mids, has wider and deeper soundstage. The biggest difference is the far superior texture quality on the zeus.
Gaming
The Zeus is a superb gaming headphone. It has almost the same detail as the sundara and far more detail then NHC/X2. The bass hits almost as hard as on the NHC and has almost the same extension. So it is more fun than the sundara.
The tygr 300r still wins for me in imaging and 3d audio positioning. The zeus is very immersive and engaging too, but the tygr has a perfect balance between soundstage width/depth and imaging in between. The Zeus has wider and deeper soundstage, so maybe it is just the difference in soundstage size that irritates me here. Does need more time for checking this.
The Zeus has more overall detail and texture quality than the tygr, but the tygr isnāt as fatiguing in extended gaming sessions. Sundara is also very good for gaming. It offers more detail and soundstage than tygr and zeus. So it is better for competitive gaming. Due to the sundaras lack of subbass i prefer zeus for singleplayer games.
Personal ranking for music so far
B&O H6 > Sundara > Zeus > X2 > NHC > Tygr/M1070 > Phoenix
Competitve Gaming: Sundara
Casual Gaming: Zeus > Tygr > H6 > M1070 > Sundara
Conlusion
The Zeus will stay in my collection as fun headphone. It will replace my X2. Iāll also keep the sundara as neutral and more relaxed headphone. I think iāll also sell the nighthawk carbon, athough they are still the bass kings in my collection. Except in subbass quantity and bass slam the NHC loses against the Zeus.
So i think iāll save up and will try to get Gl2000 and Denon7200/t5p instead.
14 Likes
I like this reviewer for his no BS approach and detailed reviews:
hhttps://soundnews.net/headphones/full-size/harmonicdyne-zeus-review/
I agree with almost every thing, espacially lacking deepest sub bass and some flaws in soundstage size. Sundara has definitly a wider and bigger soundstage than these. I also get a better āroom feelingā with the semi open nighthawks.
The weird thing is, that i enjoy the soundstage of the zeus much more during gaming than during listening to music, but i couldnāt figure out the reason for this yet.
But i hear something different in 2 points:
-
there is a little bass bleed into the lower mids. That is not such present and thick like in the meze 99 classics, but the bass bleed is noticible for my ears.
-
there is a peak around 7k for my ears that is just a little bit too much for me
I can fix both points by eq and i really enjoy the zeus. I a/b listened them against the sundara yesterday. Sundara is still superior in detail and soundstage, mids and treble are more present, but i was one more time impressed by the zeus. It is not far away in detail than the sundara benchmark in this price range. Also i think that the texture quality in bass and mids is even sometimes better rendered then on the sundara.
Since i prefer warm or v-shaped headphones, i do have the feeling that the zeus will get more listening time than the sundara in the next months.
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Does it comes standard with that 4.4 Pentaconn cable now? Also would you recieved that cable if ordered from Linsoul?
Short answer: We do not know.
But as reported here the newer serial numbers come with it (and the 4.4mm-to-3.5mm adapter) ā¦ for now. I received it not directly from Linsoul and If this is the new standard accessory is not clear. You should probably ask the specific seller.
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I received my zeus from linsoul and i was surprised that it came with the pentaconn cable. I donāt kniw, if this will be the standard cable for the zeus in future. Linsoul product page says, that thereāll be more information coming soon about the product details / āwhatās in the box sectionā
My Zeus is number 385.
Looks like pentacon is standard I had serial 400 something before I returned it. Cable is well made but complete ass. And if you donāt have pentacon then you have to use the massive 3.5mm adapter. For me this is a must replace just like focal stuff. At least these arenāt super expensive headphones.
Case was super nice I know people want to save money but Iād love a relatively cheap case like this for some of my other cans.
The soundā¦ yeah it was decent but it didnāt really impress me. I preferred he500 and Verum 1 over it. The treble is absolutely reeled in compared to the Verum so I guess if you are sensitive to sibilance this might be your jam.
The pads are very very comfortable but I worry about the top headband pad flaking soon. I liked the rotation on the cups at first but within a week they loosened up and became floppy. I actually kind of dig the look.
Large stage, bass extension lacking but mid bass bump. Basically what the reviewers are saying. Both planars sounded more natural to me. If large stage and warm tint is what you want you might want these. They did not blow me away with technicalities. I didnāt hate them but I didnāt feel I needed to keep them as an example of price performance.
I canāt help but think they should be cheaper which I suppose means ditching the case to fight for better value.
Wow! Even if the sound is not that amazing Iād still buy them just for that case and those cables
Can anyone help me decide in this price range, sundara or hd660s or zeus or m1070 or sivga p ii?
Theres a huge difference between all of those lol. Going to depend what your looking for, preferences, genres of music, etc
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It depends in which sound signature you prefer.
If you want neutral sound, i would say it is sundara > m1070.
The zeus is v-shaped. So it is a different sound than sundara. Canāt say anything about hd660s and the p ii.
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As @Falenkor and @keppes have said, preferences will dictate the advice given. All have their merits/strengths. The only one Iāve actually owned was the M1070, but Iāve had relatives of the others with the HD58X (660), HE4XX (Sundara), M570 (P-II), and Helios (Zeus). The P-II and Sundara will mostly be neutral bright, lacking some low end if thatās something youāre after. M1070 are very smooth and full sounding with plentiful low end. HD660 are relatively neutral, but with an emphasis on mids/vocal region. If Zeus is anything like Helios, it is pretty V shaped with emphasized lows and highs, making it fun for modern music like Pop. Which are best for you depends on preference.
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Anyone use these on the Drop 789? I was thinking of picking it up for a little while now.
I recently got the Zeus and a JNOGā¦right now using JDS ATOM and looking to upgrade the ATOM or any other recommendations around that price range maybe up to $400-500-ish price range?
Hey man I fucking love your comparisons between the sundara, m1070, x2, etc. I recently got the m1070 in a sale for $250, but upon recieving them I was fairly disapointed with its performance. The higher mids where too shallow and far sounding comparing them to far cheaper headphones like my hd598 and koss porta pro, switching to the velour pads kind of fixed this issue but sent the bass traight into hell, and I do enjoy my bass. I ended up EQing them to the point where I like them better than my previous 2 HPs, but I keep asking myself if my money would be better spent with either the sundies or zeus. I want something that specializes in a musical/fun sound while still having technical abilities, basically I need some proper enjoyment daily drivers (I know this is kind of subjective). Im leaning between the hifiman sundies or the zeus, I know the hifimans are considered to have somewhat of an analitical sound, while the zeus kind of seems to fit my preferences.
So seeing that you have experience with a fair amount of HPs I would like to ask you what would you recomend me to get as my daily drivers. Here in Mexico I can get the zeus for 250, the sundies for 350, or I can keep my m1070 which I think I got for pretty cheap.
Anyway I would like to tell you your posts are highly informative, very comprehensible, and overall a great read. Keep doing what you do.
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Just got my pair that I ordered on the 16th Jan on Hifigo. So far really pleased!
They did came with the pentaconn cable with the fabric wrapping. Nothing to complain there, quality seems good. Serial is 539.
I was not expecting them to be that big, but comfort is really good.
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