To me, the best thing Zeos did was lead me to the forums where the discussion is a bit more multi faceted and there is a larger audience of opinions.
Theyre is a good mix of “low” and “mid” fi with a solid dab of the high end. I may not be able to afford the high end stuff but its good to have those who can to compare and contrast against what i can afford. And to be honest, they do that well with respect to the gears tier vs the relative eco system.
totally agree… This is also how I found this awesome forum… A LOT of interesting characters and a lot of well informed (experience) people here… I may come and go but this “tab” on my webpages stays open… allows me to keep up with the topics.
Well thats another good thing this forum does. Keeps prices of things in perspective and pushes the used market. Budgets go a little further.
Its only a matter of time, Z is going to acquire tidal. Hes going to forget us little people.
A lot farther in some cases. It does take some work, but I’ve seen some pretty sweet deals just between forum members here. Good when it stays in the fam.
He shilled da fuq out of the hemps and Singxer the last two days. But props to him if he can help move units and bring new blood into the industry better for us all.
Just because he’s a shill doesn’t make him wrong or a snakeoil salesmen.
Even though he dislikes Tidal and doesn’t seem to be a fan of streaming? 
More likely he overcomes his reservations and takes over the audiophile world with the first streaming service exclusively for movie soundtracks and anime theme songs… 
Unlikely. He still needs the little people to pay for his mortgage.
He got that $1400 though. Cashin’ checks !
That’s a good point $1400 is enough to pay for like a half-week when your an audiophile! We should stop watching, donating, and buying from his links for three days just to even everything out.
And to answer the original question: Yes, but isn’t everyone with a positive opinion about a product?
think Z is in with the big “A” he gave a passing review for the amazon basic amp.
Come to think of it i should get a piece for shillin hard on it.
Yes. I don’t even think he is intentionally lying, he is just too enthusiastic
I think a problem for reviewers is there really aren’t that many outright bad products. With amplifiers its mainly about getting one with the right output specs for the load you intend to drive. DACs all sound pretty much the same in reality. Headphones and speakers sound different but tuning is a matter of preference. So reviewers appear to be shills, as who really wants to watch or read a review that says the obvious - it sounds fine, buy it if you like the style and build and think the price is right.
I would argue that the majority of products is bad.
Someone way smarter than me once said “You either lead in performance or price to performance. Everything else is a failure”.
Is it though?
No they don’t.
I’d argue there are objectively bad headphones. And despite what some want to argue, no amount of EQ or DSP will fix a bad headphone.
A product is bad if it is not fit for its intended purpose. In the context of audio I would say that means equipment which is able to convert and amplify signals and replay music and which is safe to use and reasonably durable. And the great majority of audio equipment is able to do that.
An amplifier does what the name implies, it amplifies a signal. Whether it is fit for purpose is pretty much determined by whether it can drive the intended load at the desired level without clipping or distorting.
Digital to analogue conversion has been a mature technology since the 90’s and DAC performance can be measured to far finer resolution than anything which is audible. And no other part of the chain offers audible transparency for so little. Of course there are filters and manufacturers play with things but differences are trivial compared with transducers, room set up, what happens if an amp starts clipping or distorting etc. Doing an level matched ABX on DACs is an interesting experience.
For headphones there are basic design and constructional matters which play a huge part in whether we like them, weight, ergonomics, percieved touch point quality and the other things that affect comfort and usability. But many of those are entirely about personal preference. I have no problem using my Etymotic ER4SR IEMs but I understand why many can’t stand their deep insertion design. Then it is mainly frequency response/tuning, which again is just personal preference.
The function of audio equipment is to facilitate enjoyable reproduction of recorded sound. Most gear can do that. The biggest determinant of sound quality (assuming it is music and a performance you want to listen to) is the quality of recording and mastering. After that it is speakers and room set up if using speakers or headphone choice and especially correct fit if using IEMs.
I can enjoy music perfectly well with most audio equipment. And some of the things affecting purchase decisions have nothing to do with sound, such as price, industrial design, feature set, user interface, warranty provision, build quality and just whether or not it all adds up to something I want.
This thread has turned into a semantic debate of the word “bad?”
I’m not sure that’s a useful direction.
Can we at least add “does not poison you” and “does not burn your house down” to the “how to qualify good”-criteria?
Crown XLS-series or QLC PL-series are great amplifiers, when you need to get the bar in a disco to vibrate.
For home use, I would not use any PA amp, except maybe for passive subwoofers. Does not make the XLS or PL series less good.
Sure, you can go through and measure S/N ratio, accuracy, rise time and linearity. Does not tell you a whole lot about how “good” it is, just that the spec sheet is accurate.
For amplifiers. If one wanted to, a Class C amplifier properly tuned would pass the 1kHz into whatever load test with flying colors. While sounding like absolute arse with music playing.
Garbage in, Garbage out.
In other words, can be measured to stupid high accuracy, but for 0 actual value, yes?
So an amplifier powered from an internal steam generator that only accepts input signals with a 2.3V offset is good when it makes sound?
The reason I bring up this obviously ridiculous example is that in software development, great care is given to how the user interacts with a program. Having “the best thing ever” but require a crew of 30 virgins to make it do the best thing ever, is not “good”, no matter how amazing the result. Impractical turns “good” into “meh at best”.
TL;DR:
“Good” is objective at best.
“Fit for purpose” and “Good” can be very different.
A reviewer, despite common interpretation, does not have to end a review on “5/5 stars, best thing ever” or “1/5, teapot does not make coffee”
Measurements tell you jack shit when you don’t know what you measured.
i don’t know about the shill thing but what i’m almost certain of is that Zeos is really into hentai
I think consideration of what constitutes “bad” audio gear is germane in a discussion about shill audio reviewers. One of the arguments in support of accusations of shill reviewers is that most reviews are at least not negative. However if most audio gear works and offers acceptable performance then that will be reflected in reviews which are polite about most products and seldom really rip a product apart. By definition most products of any kind will be average, which means most reviews will be average. An honest review for most headphones will be “it’s OK, not bad but not brilliant, if the tuning matches what you like and you like the design and comfort then you’ll be fine with these”. But that would be interpreted as being a shill by many. The exceptional and outright bad products are the outliers.