Zeos & Linsoul have teamed up for another collab, this time with the HarmonicDyne brand, and it’s all about the bass. They were kind enough to send them to us for review.
Here are the measurements:
B&K 5128
Raw
HpTF Variation
What does HpTF variation mean? headphones behave differently on different heads. Here you can see the variation in performance when measured with two different heads/ears, one in the form of the B&K 5128 and the other in the form of the GRAS KB5000 pinna.
THD:
Ordinarily I’d show it at 110dB as well, but this level of Harmonic distortion at around 100dB is already a bit concerning and as I pushed it further I’d start getting some high order products creeping in.
EQ:
Despite the unusually high harmonic distortion, it can still be EQ’d, just not quite as much as we might like. Keep in mind that distortion is related to volume level, so how much boost you can get away with is determined by how loud you listen.
In this instance I didn’t push it as far as I’d ideally like, both to be safe but also because this is meant to be a headphone for bassheads. So this is still a basshead EQ… just made it more clean. I kept a bit of that V-shape intact, just focused the bass more towards the sub-bass rather than mid and upper bass, allowing the mids to come through a bit more cleanly.
Notes
- Build quality is nothing special but does the job and feels sturdy enough
- Comfort is exceptional. Big cushiony pads, nice padding for the headband.
- Subjectively, it’s reasonably detailed sounding, just massively wooly, muddy bass punctuated by spicy treble.
- Tonality overall is just not remotely in the category of “good sound quality”.
It should be noted that Zeos had this sent to us, knowing that we would be measuring it, and having a general sense that this is how things would go for us. He’s explained that he made it deliberately to NOT be normal - to not be like the sound that others are chasing. So despite what I’m about to say, it’s admirable for him to take this approach with his product, so please check out his channel here and consider his perspective on all of this as well.
Now, as far as our evaluation is concerned, we like Zeos… we’re friends with him and regularly hang out at audio trade shows, so it pains me to say that this is one of the more unpleasant auditory experiences a person can have, despite the excellent comfort. I described it in the review as sounding “like you’re walking through a swamp while occasionally getting impaled by spikes”, and you can also show that fairly demonstrably with the measurements.
I think the rebuttal here has been something along the lines of “you just don’t like fun”, however I would counter by saying it’s worth trying that EQ profile out for the Eris if you think that’s the case.
To me… ‘fun’ and good sound quality are not mutually exclusive. You can have good midrange and treble balance, while also having massive, thunderous, unhinged levels of bass, that doesn’t mask or muddy the rest of the sound. I would love to see something like that in the next attempt, rather than just copious midbass at the expense of everything else.
