Ive been listening to Zeos’s Sound demos. Anyone listen to these? I got my schiit modi and my sp200 888 amp hooked up and listening through my elex headphones.
Anyway, they all sound the same. Am i doing something wrong? what am i looking for?
ok just finished listening to the Neumann NDH20 sound demo and its sounded appropriately shitty. So maybe it does work a bit
honestly I think the only way to properly listen to these are using the same gear that he is using to monitor
It’s not really useful imo and won’t really accurately portray much. There are just too many factors that does not make it viable. It is kinda helpful to hear how much isolation the headphones give tho
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I don’t bother with these either. Even if it sounds good, I don’t get the impression it’ll be any indication of what the headphone will sound like in real life. If you look at the views, you see that not many people watch compared to his reviews. I’d rather watch an unboxing
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Its more for the comparison, though there are some duds where there was something wrong with the setup or planar magnets.
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But the main issue is that it’s not accurate in the first place, and comparing two headphones in a sound demo is very different in person. I personally still don’t think it would yield an accurate comparison
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Those sound demos are actually the only videos Zeos makes that I ignore and pass over. I tried listening once or twice and other than enjoying the little funky left, right, ditty at the very beginning I was bored almost immediately. I appreciate why he puts so much time into them for folks tho.
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IMO the way to make the sound demos useful is to be sure that your end (source, amp, DAC, headphones) is consistent for every demo you listen to. Try to use the most revealing and neutral pair of cans you have, if you have a choice. Then you have to listen to more than one demo. Also, this will only be relevant for the demos that he is using the same mics in the setup. You will never hear the same sound on your end as he is recording (that is like being impressed by the picture quality of an ad for a TV), but you can hear the relative differences. For example: the Bass is full or thin, the vocals are rich or reedy, the overall sound spectrum is flat or dynamic, etc. It won’t let you hear what the headphones or speakers sound like directly, but it will give you a comparative impression. YMMV depending on how revealing your own system is.
The most helpful thing for me that could be different would be to have reference recording that I could A/B. I loved the linked timestamps for the two different pads in the DT177X demo! Something that lets you compare two recordings that quickly is invaluable. I know that would be a lot of extra work for Zeos though. A consistent playlist would be helpful too, but could get boring. Plus, I’ve found so much great new music as a result of listening to the demos!
I recently listened to the sound demo for the DT177X’s and the comparison between the two different ear pads on Chris Cornell’s song was so striking that the opening chord sounded like a totally different voicing. I had to A\B the track several times to make sure I wasn’t crazy (jury is still out), but it sounded very different to me. I bought the pads as a result and I guess I’ll see when they get here how accurate the relative difference really is compared to the demo.
Bottom line for me is keep the variables as consistent as possible and extrapolate the results. Don’t expect magic though. 
I know this topic is old but be particularly wary of Zeos’ older demos with the neumann microphones sticking out of the blocks. They bloated the bass of every headphone I own (I think the hole he cut out of the block was just way too big).
They’re still not great but they’re at least not flat-out false now.
I just saw this topic, don’t trust sound demos in general, I prefer comparing measurements from a trusted source, ie tyll before he left, and contrasting that with my own experiences.
Other than that go try stuff, the only person you can trust in audio is yourself and your ears.
And if you can’t go so somewhere to try stuff make sure to buy from a place with free no questions asked returns lol
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Yeah, amazon-kun best boi
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But if you take advantage of bezos he will exterminate your account from the earth
They can still be useful (if well recorded) to give you a sense of the tone of the headphone. How many times have we had conflicting posts here of whether or not a particular headphone is bright, or dark, or sibilant, even with frequency response graphs?
The sound demos are not helpful to me. They sound nothing like the actual headphones when I try them.
I think sound demos should take a portion of the blame, its highly unlikely that anyone’s chain is entirely transparent, colouring sound that’s already coloured by zeo’s chain, the headphone, the mic isn’t going to result in clarity.
The other issue are people who use measurements to form their opinion rather than inform.
Finally, confusion in the lexicon is probably at the forefront, audio jargon is weird.
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Maybe if you listened with a really neutral headphone?
Even then, you can’t portray a headphone through a youtube video, I could use the highest end gear I have and still you won’t be able to truly get an accurate sense of the headphone
The triple Driver and Nighthawk sounded nothing like they did in real life. Only one that was close was DT770 250 ohm.