you know, i took a lot of sarcastic and snarky crap comments from a few of you regarding my very UNDERwhelming impressions of the Z1R i had a month ago (above).
You always get some flak while posting negatives in the main product threads, but as far as I'm concerned you're perfectly welcome to share your opinion and have every right to dislike it. Swaying to extremes always makes one's opinion seem less logical tho.
so it cracks me up to read Tyll's review on Innerfidelity today that basically mirrors my thoughts.
Certainly. But quite a few other reviewers had a very opposite impression.
Steve Guttenberg for example, worded "
a spectacular headphone. It matches or exceeds the performance standards of the upper-echelon planar magnetic headphones I’ve heard, and I’ve heard them all. Bravo!". Is the man an ultimate Headphone reference? Certainly not. Is he a totally deaf shill? I highly doubt it.
careful, Z1R guys..... don't get so emotionally invested in purchases that you lose objectivity. that fact is that if YOU enjoy it and YOU think it's worth $2grand, great. but the objective fact is that this headphone sorely underperforms at this price level.
Choice-supportive bias is very common in this hobby, well, in many hobbies and product analyses. It might certainly apply in some cases, but it can swing both ways.
I like to think I'm not very vulnerable to it, perhaps since my job requires being as logical as possible evaluating quality, regardless of who/how the product was chosen and I certainly bashed bigtime some of my expensive decisions that turned out to be a mix of poor taste and poor luck.
If I thought the Z1R sucked in too many areas, I'd have no problem admitting it. Had almost two months to return the thing and I have to admit the first impression in the first days was mixed.
Mine was one of the first posted in this thread and I had some interesting private chats with other members who decided to return theirs. I agreed with many of their criticisms. It's not a perfect model. It's not cheap. It's not for everyone. Is it as bad as some comical posts make it sound? Definitely not. To be honest, talking about pricing these at $600 in the current market just shows one isn't fully aware of what the competition is offering, at many levels.
"the Sony in comparison was disjointed and incoherent. Not once did it make me tap my feet."
This was one of the most interesting lines of the review, because it's exactly the opposite of what I got for the past 7+ months. Made me wonder how Tyll had been using it, given the gap.
The Z1R is a flawed tool (except in build, design, yadayada) but if there is something it has always achieved well in its imperfect implementation is a pure sense of fun with some tracks, which aren't perfectly rendered but end up being perfect ear candy nonetheless.
But, as I once posted in another forum full of nice people (you can quote me there); time will show how the Z1R will be remembered. Another meh-ish Z7 or something better, perhaps much better. Hopefully we'll all be healthy and here in many years to revisit the thread. And if few sell and it turns out to be positive, well, more for me...