Thatās of course unfortunate, but the peacock to me luckily isnāt deadweight at all. Thankfully, DMS didnāt make me miss this experience.
Why the Hell would I do that? What a cowardly thing to say. āoooh, the reviewer said something that I disagree withā¦ RUN!!ā Gimme a break. And donāt get me wrong, I have no skin in this game. I donāt own a pair, and at that price most likely never will. But Iām not going to throw hate all over them either like that little shit did. I donāt care what his credentials are, you donāt have to be a dick. Just say you donāt like it and that you would not recommend them and be on your way. That is all.
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DMSās explanation of the sound is his subjective observation about what he heard, which I donāt doubt is actually what he observed with his personal unit. He even mentioned it could be a QC issue and thatās just the problems he had with the unit he received. Regardless, DMS has always been critical of excessive dampening to the point he explains it as being muffled or far too rolled off. I absolutely do not think critical reviews of a product should be condemned, rather they should be commonplace to point consumers in a good direction rather than playing marketer for corporations selling the product. You should be watching several reviews of the product to begin with, gather their objective observations and subjective ones and compare and contrast and then make the financial decision to buy the item or not.
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I agree.
I mean, he did did give fair reasoning as to why he doesnāt like it. Yes, he generalized some very bold claims like he usually does, but at least he went into more depth than usual as to why he doesnāt like it that much. He did do a good job explaining his perception of it and how it sounds to him.
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Also, I fully understand everyone being offended by his review. I know I felt the same when he released his amateur-approached Ollo Audio S4X review. However, I disagreed with him because it didnāt appear as though he invested any time into researchā¦ whereas I spent weeks researching to compose my review for the S4X. Thatās one of the cases where I just thought that his review is misleading. Once I went to the comment section of that vid, you could just see the fan-boys who bought everything he said and repeated it. In regards to that, you can get toxic vibes from his fans/him. I understand that.
With the Peacock, I donāt have it, so I canāt say how it sounds. All I know is that some people really, really love it, and the others really, really hate it.
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I think at the end of the day, if something is drawing a strong divide Itās probably best to skip it. And I mean like I said before the price just confuses me. At this price point you can get some very competitive headphones that are tried and true with less of a contentious divide in regards to the overall package you get. But I mean you have to make that decision for yourself if itās worth it, your own ears are the decision makers in the end.
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I think at the end of the day, if something is drawing a strong divide Itās probably best to skip it.
Iād generally agree, I have been burned by this advice before.
When it comes to IEMs for example I have both the FiiO FH7 and the Ikko OH10 and while the general agreement is that the FH7 are a class or two above the OH10 but to my ears the OH10 sound way more enjoyable.
I admit the FH7 have bigger soundstage and are more neutral sounding but I just donāt enjoy listening to music on them as much as the much cheaper OH10s.
For this reason, Iād recommend actually trying out a demo pair for yourself and deciding for yourself - with a divisive set of cans you may avoid a disaster or you may miss a gem.
well guys, i hate to say it, noā¦ i really like to say it: donāt buy headphones based on internet or youtube reviews. Everyone has different ears and youāre trying to buy audio gear based on a verbal description of how it sounds to someone else. If you donāt want to be disappointed or getting ripped of or you donāt want to send back stuff: Donāt do that.
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While I do understand your point, Iām not exactly sure I can agree with it. In a perfect world, sure. But I live in the middle of no-where Kentucky. There isnāt a place that I can go to to try out gear before I buy anywhere in a reasonable distance. So looking to online reviews, and places like this, is my only recourse outside of buying completely blindly.
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This is the case with most.
Iām pretty sure weād all be more than happy to go out and give something a listen. Most of the time we have no access to listen before a purchase, so online reviews is the only thing we can rely on.
The person reading/watching reviews is the one who should make the judgment whether a reviewer is honest or does it purely as a job.
The person reading/watching reviews is the one who should make the judgment whether a reviewer is honest
I donāt think itās a question of honestly in most cases, more a question of the reviewer having a personal taste and the viewer being familiar enough with the reviewer to be able to judge the sound not only based on what the reviewer says but also based on personal preferences and what the reviewer doesnāt say perhaps.
This is multiple levels of filtering and bias the viewer has to be aware of, which seems almost Herculean a task if you ask me.
Granted, I donāt have the opportunity to evaluate equipment in person most of the time anyways, but at least where am from thereās a mandate by law 14 day return period for a full refund / no questions asked. Most specialised shops are more than happy for you to evaluate equipment that way as long as you donāt abuse it.
The risk is imo that YT reviewers tend to pretty much all lean neutral which means youāre getting little deviation in terms of opinion most of the time, which makes it hard to discover things you may like but donāt know you would yet.
Itās like asking a person who likes story driven games their opinion on multiplayer FPS games, hardly going to get an accurate picture, however valid it may be to consider as a point of reference.
More notes on these:
Iāve tested them now on the xDuoo TA-20 and they definitely benefit from tubes despite their warmth, even tube rolling; JJs sound best overall, whereas EHs can sound a bit too warm for my liking on some tracks, but then outshine JJs on others - so Iād say if you have these give tube-rolling a try.
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I would follow up on the taste part. Every reviewer should do a quick spurt up front about what kind of music they like and their favourite headphones.
If a reviewer started a review by stating their love of classical music and their belief that Sennheiser headphones were the pinnacle of headphone technology, I would just move on.
Their review may be technically great and completely accurate it would matter much less to me as we have nothing in common, taste wise. And this hobby is ALL about personal preferences.
It is hard enough to compare opinions since we all hear differently, you need to find someone that shares your musical or headphone tastes, at least a little. IMO.
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i would never, ever again buy an IEM or headphone solely on online or youtube reviews, in a scenario, where i donāt have access to any EQ to balance out any peaks or make more major adjustments to my linkings. There are just too many parameters at work, i.e. the chain one is using, the kind of music being played (in my case quite a broad variety of genresā¦), how it is recorded etc. Imo, limiting you toolset doesnāt gain you anything. And throwing around hundrets and thousands of dollars (euros lol) hoping youāll be as lucky a someone else says, he isā¦ disregarding all these factorsā¦nope, thatās just naive. Now donāt get me wrong, i was on the hype-train long enough myself - itās fun! Itās exciting! Yeahā¦ but it can also be really frustrating and sad if you encounter flaws on your beloved new item and if you realize, how much money you already spent. Itās an addiction, and i donāt want to give into it anymore. Quite the opposite, iāll try to nerd out on EQ tweakery instead with all my gear. Itās so much fun, i currently have tweaked my P9 with APO and it sounds more like a KPH30i now. Thatās how iāll get new sounding gear now, not by buying new stuff that one reviewer hypes to the limit and another one says itās the worst. Nooope, sorry.
Yeah I get that, you have to be careful and not allow it to become an addiction, I know better said than done. But thatās always been my take on all of this. This is a hobby, best to keep it a fun hobby rather then let it control your life in which you keep chasing that high of perfection you likely will never find.
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This here is actually really important: if you like what you hear then thatās great! Others not liking something should not necessarily impact ones own enjoyment after all.
I greatly appreciate people being honest though. I have no doubt that DMS genuinely doesnāt like the Peacock. And most importantly, he gives reasoning as to why that is. Being critical is often confused with being rude.
I had a similar experience with the Sennheiser IE300. I personally do not like that IEM at all and returned mine. Too dark to me, too little energy, not what I enjoy. I still think though that itās a great IEM for those who enjoy that kind of signature, since it has the technicalities to back up itās asking price. And itās hella comfortable. So while I do not like them at all, I can still acknowledge that itās a good pair of IEMs. My experience with the Mangird Tea has been the same: not what I like, but it is a good IEM when I remove what I may find enjoyable and be critical about it.
If they were just not DMS cup of tea he would have said so, and brought up positive points. But since he didnāt I believe he just did not find anything good about these.
Like I said: That doesnāt mean YOU or anyone else might not enjoy them. Your mileage may vary. That sentence is so important in this hobby.
People in general have a hard time accepting differing opinions, not just in this hobby.
Your own genuine feelings and opinions are valid.
Others genuine feelings and opinions are valid as well.
Just because someone else does not like something doesnāt mean that you have to not like it as well.
Likewise, your opinions and feelings arenāt facts and the āend-allā that everyone has to abide by.
I wish for more quality discourse and a respectful treatment, not just in this hobby.
Discuss, debate. Call out weak points or arguments. Make quality arguments as well. But donāt question someoneās tastes.
Lastly, the best critic is one self. So if you can, Test listen. Itās not always possible, but when it is, itās the best way to try if you like something.
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That is one way to do it and definitely the cheaper way.
I ended up buying and selling (at a loss of course) dozens of headphones over the last 7 years.
I have FINALLY gotten to to the point where I have several headphones that I love.
But that was a very LONG, very EXPENSIVE journey. 
If they were just not DMS cup of tea he would have said so, and brought up positive points. But since he didnāt I believe he just did not find anything good about these.
I have to admit; thatās really hard to believe, that there are no positive points AT ALL, even if you donāt like the sound, (which is obviously the most important metric).
But he even knocked down the build quality; this makes me think he may have received a dud. Or maybe thereās a feeling that Chinese brands asking for this kind of price must justify themselves extra hard whereas āMade In Americaā i.e. Abyss commands the price tag? Idk, but I do find it hard to believe that thereās not a single redeeming quality he could find.
While comfort is subjective and I know he had issues with the comfort, (I find them super comfortable personally), but at least build quality wise, these are easily on par with the Campfire Audio Cascades; I am not saying there was any malice on his part, but preconceived notions are hard to shake.
Fresh one.
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As an owner of these, I have found this review to be much more accurate than the Z hype or DMS hate.
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Well that was a long review (three parts)!
I really enjoyed it. Lots of comparisons and he appears to be pretty impartial. WHAT a headphone collection!
It gave me a more favourable impression of the Peacock and confirmed, yet again, that I do need to grab a set of OG Clear Proās.
I found it much more interesting than most of his reviews. Required viewing for those looking to make a big jump in headphones.
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