Let us know how the lcd-24 is on the spring 2 and gs-x mini. Im about 6 months behind you with a bf2 and rnhp. Figuring what you have is the next progression if i ever take a step on that slope.
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Itâs out for review. @WaveTheory should have a review written about it very shortly with a comparison to the HEK1k. The Diana Phi will be there for comparison sometime in the next few hours.
Itâs a review Iâm drooling over. He has a Soekris 13xx to compare it against so⌠review potential: Iâm salivating.
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So Iâll say this - Z has certainly made to hobby much more accessible to a wider audience than in the past. Not so long ago this hobby was littered with snobby fart sniffing circle jerkers whoâll ridicule any new person coming into the hobby who hasnât spent an absolute fortune on it - âbecause what do those plebs know about true sound qualityâ.
While it certainly is true that you have a cohort of people saying others are crazy spending large amounts on DACs and itâs not worth it, Iâd much rather take that than the smugness of the prior of group, many of which is still exists today (and do so in this thread for that matter). While it is not as blatant as in the past, you still get extremely condescending comments from those people on a daily basis - e.g. âthats a great unit for the priceâ - piss off! Thatâs a lot of money to someone.
Whatever part of the fence you sit on, you might believe you are right but at the end of the day who the f*** actually cares. People should spend what they are comfortable spending and not hate on the other group for spending âtoo much/too littleâ.
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I think yoy need to take a break from audio forums for a while man. There is absalitely nothing wrong with talking about price/performance and the more qualifiers a statement has the more accurate it likely is. The matter of the fact is stuff like a 58X is great for the price. But in the wider scheme of things if you have a higher budget there is better out there. There is absalutely nothing wrong with pointing that out. No one is hating on you nor your budget when they do so.
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Still is, but you now just have to go to a different place to get that. Now you have a new breed of circle jerkers based around how something looks on paper and believing that as the absolute truth, called measurebaiters pushing people to spend their money toward things that wonât really benefit them just like how cable pushers might, but thatâs another story. Regardless this type of behavior has been in the hobby for as long as I can remember, just changes to different topics/focuses and different types of people after awhile, would be nice if that wasnât the case though
Not sure how calling a high end dac great for the price is condescending, itâs just a general thought on a product. Yes itâs high end, and yes itâs more than some will want to or can spend, that statement is targeted toward those looking in that market, not to someone who finds it unreasonable or is unable to drop that much money on audio
True, thereâs really no reason to care about it in the end, as what matters is whatâs right to you
To be clear here that post above isnât trying to say that, Iâm just spouting off totally absurd thoughts that are most likely completely incorrect assumptions of why he would release this video. The whole point of my post was not to try and tell people to spend more or spend less, or come to any conclusion about dacs either, it was just to highlight how much of a waste of time and terrible video he released, in my opinion. Again I donât give a shit about what he thinks about the dac in the end⌠well that would be the case if he actually gave a valuable or insightful commentary in that video. Something. Anything. Any reason to even listen to what he had to say, but that was somewhat absent in that video that I donât really think can be called a review. There really canât be any agreement or disagreement when there wasnât anything given to agree or disagree with
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Now thatâs a bit rude and unnecessary
Itâs not like price to performance disappears in the high end or that the concept of value vanishes. Value is a subjective thing anyways and itâs going to vary from person to person. Going back to what @Acidleak mentions with spending what you are comfortable with spending, the value of something is going to depend on what you are comfortable spending in the end
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100% agree there.
That wasnât aimed at the holo - more so cheaper gear. And to clarify, itâs the not the actual truth behind the statement that I have a problem with. As @eskamobob1 pointed out, price v performance is relevant. Itâs the way in which it is said and by who - very often coming from a superiority complex imo which you can see in the way they talk to people vs how they talk to other people who has dropped the same amount as money as them.
Oh yeah not at all what I meant - thatâs why I only quoted that part of your response. I think you had valid argument in general. I was just piggybacking off your rant so I can rant.
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You will find crazy people around every area/topic lol, and those people will be on a range of crazy as well, itâs just fine to lean one way or another, but try to stay away from the extremes as thatâs where things get bad
Ahhhhhhh ok
Hmmm ok I can see that
I mean I totally misinterpreted your response lol, sorry for obscuring your rant there lol
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You know me by now - 95% is rants. 3% is drunk posts/sometimes a drunk rant and then 2% is actual wisdom.
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I think the entirety of the disagreement is that Zâs review is off the mark on the opinions of actual owners here on the forum and every single review on line that I can get my hands on.
Zeos didnât only say that it was EXPENSIVE AF, but he also went out of his way to say that 1) he couldnât hear a difference and 2) the fact that he canât hear a different means that anyone that spends more than $1000 dollars on a DAC, is crazy for doing so.
Couldnât be more off on both of the assessments if he was being paid to do so by a Chi-Fi company specializing in $600 to $700 dollar DACS.
Maybe heâll revisit the topic (doubt it since every comment on the video right now is bias confirmation about how theyâre justified for not spending more on a DAC.
IMO if you want to be true to the hobby reviewâs like the one on the May are a disservice to the community as a whole. No one has to go spend that much on a DAC, but to say that he canât hear a difference is bizare.
EDIT: BTW, I wouldnât buy it for $4500 either, but Iâd certainly consider a $3000 purchase in the 2nd hand market for it. 
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Which just makes me feel his results were somewhat fabricated in order to push a general conclusion that didnât even relate to the specific product at hand in the end.
So far I havenât seen one below 4k on the used market, but time will help lol, although you have a lot of other really compelling options in that price range
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yeah ive grown entirely uncomfortable with Z using words like âi can sell thisâ and constantly referring to how much money he can make a company while pretending to give an honest review.
i dont think the people here realize that he knows what he is doing he reads the threads he has a plan to make money. he constantly mentions that people call him a shill, its just gotten blatant at this point. he is a salesman and if something is âdecentâ he will tell you to buy it.
now the only question left is either his taste is off or his ears are off or he is lying or at least twisting things. this is the second high profile disagreement in a month with almost everyone else with trusted hearing. its ok to disagree but the whole jerk off he did with the other R2R dac and the other cheaper dacs he said he loved and heard a difference with and linked to their amazon pages but now he cant tell anything at all and it just happens to be something he cant make money on?
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Please doâŚ
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Thing is I donât think he is a shill. I am one of his paterons so I get his videos early and he is going to release a review soon that will go against what a lot of people have been accusing him of shilling lately. I have never heard the Holo but Z has been more right than wrong when it comes to products that I have bought off his recommendations so far.
I like Z, heâs very entertaining. But, the entire reason for the existence of his channel (and this forum) is to sell stuff. Thatâs how he puts food on the table. He has zero incentive not to call everything âgoodâ. Unless itâs very expensive (people canât afford it) and thereâs no affiliate link for him.
Both can be true at the same time. I like zeos but you have to understand his lane his audience his funding mechanism and so forth.
Zeos is like a gateway drug you start with him but once in you quickly graduate beyond his MO. His channel is constructed for LoFi and MidFi products. He shills you on the Koss and JBL entry level gear just to get you on the door of Hifi. Again there is nothing wrong with that in fact his function is critical to expanding the industry. He does something that the others reviewers miss (Sean zf, Thomas, Jay, Darko, Audiophiliac, New Record Day, etcâŚ) all are more established reviewers but they miss the concept of reviewing products that the everyday person can afford and can start off with.
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Again just wait for the next couple of reviews to drop on youtube. He kind of bashes some products from companies he is supposedly getting paid by.
What you think of Zeos, is exactly that, what âyouâ think of him. For myself he was very right about the Dethonray Honey, ZMF Auteurs, and Liquid Gold X. I find him entertaining too, thatâs why am a Pateron of him.
Itâs funny, Iâve had the opposite experience. His channel was definitely a bit of a gateway into this hobby for me, but I quickly realised that I just donât have the same tastes.
A few examples spring to mind -
He thought the Aeolus was the best ZMF headphone and wasnât crazy about the Verite - the Verite being my favourite headphone in my collection.
He thought the Arya was overhyped and not worth the money, whereas I auditioned it in a hifi shop without seeing any reviews and loved it. Still have it today.
He referred to the 789 as âthe last headphone amplifier youâll ever have to buyâ, and I ended up having a much better time with numerous other amps (like the Asgard 3 which is cheaper).
Iâm not saying heâs WRONG about any of the above, Iâm just saying that when it comes to something as subjective as audio, one manâs tastes canât possibly reflect the worldâs. Heâs an entertaining guy and I like his videos, but I guess the usefulness of his reviews is going to be determined by whether or not you like what he likes.
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I didnât say I 100% always agreed with him. I didnât like the Monoprice 1060c or the retros. I also disagreed with his Arya review and old HE6 review. I find him entertaining and I donât base my buying decisions just on him. Go look at the Head Fi thread for the Honey. All I am saying is that he isnât wrong 100% of the time. And if you think he is then why do you even watch his reviews at all? Or care to waste any effort talking about him? This thread alone will make the Holo video more watched then it would be if no one posted anything on here. It would just be another Zeos Platinum that hardly no one watches or remembers, like most of them.