As someone who watched the video it came across as a way to push people towards his paid service where he can tell you the “truth” about products that he has heard at the shows. I haven’t watched one of his videos since. Why should I bother if he’s not allowed to tell the truth on U Tube 🙄
FAKE NEWS - NEGATIVE REVIEWS NOT ALLOWED!!
The "You Know Who" rambling in this video appears to be spreading another falsity. It seems to be a coverup for his own agenda (that he’s trying to blame the shows for).
Here’s what I think the agenda is: "I can’t say anything honest on YT in the public domain. You need to get a paid membership at my website to hear the truth"
EDIT: Looks like someone from Axpona debunked it on the comment section as well.
26 responses Add your response
snapsc, I agree with your post. Moreover, I really don't understand why so many take what Youtubers say as Gospel? No matter how much equipment they've listened to or owned, it's just their opinion. It's their opinion in the context in which they listened to a particular component. As with most things context matters and audio is no different. |
If every time we read a review our brains could remind us that is an opinion or a preference and not an absolute truth…we may then react better to what we read… positive or negative. If I reviewed my buddy’s system, it wouldn’t rank as high as mine… and if he were doing the reviewing, mine wouldn’t stack up to his…are we both right? Are we both wrong?
Do negative reviews actually benefit anyone?
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I watched that YouTube because I fell for the “click-bait” title he used. Normally I avoid his videos because I don’t much care for the style of presentation and all the posturing about being the only person on YouTube to have access to the highest of high end products. I’ve never seen a more blatant self serving video. Sure, let’s all rush to his website and buy a membership so we can hear him speak about equipment most of us have little or no interest in. |
@tony1954 I had a subscription to The Audio Critic from its beginning in 1976. Near the end it was taking limited paid advertising. It failed because it couldn't raise enough money from subs and limited advertising. There were also several other audio publications with even more limited distribution, like Martin DeWulf's Bound for Sound, StereOpus and Sensible $ound. Stereophile and TAS continue because of an influx of investor money and a strong advertising base. Same for HiFi+ and HiFiNews&Record Review in the UK. |
No negative reviews ever? Maybe that's more or less the case now, but it was not always so. My preferred speaker (and I've heard about a dozen well-regarded and more expensive alternatives in my own listening space over the years, and own three) received a devastatingly bad review from Corey Greenberg in Stereophile when it came out in the 1990s, and that review basically killed the company that made it. Still, it's my strong favorite even against multiple award winners from the reviewers, "Recommended Component" status speakers, and so forth. Why? Am I "wrong"? Are the reviews "right"? A far undervalued dimension of our "hobby" is the ear-brain interface. Personal taste. Even if your "taste" is for "accurate and convincing reproduction of acoustic instrumental timbre, convincingly realistic spatiality, visceral impact"—mine is, and I play several instruments in the same acoustic space my audio system occupies—it remains the case that our bodies and minds are different, and so our subjective experience is different. How different? More difference than a different power cord (etc.!) can cause. |
I remember back in the early 1970's, I bought a subscription to an ad free, audiophile equipment review publication called "The Audio Critic". Their mandate was to publish completely truthful and unbiased reviews of equipment, without the pressure to give favourable reviews to their advertisers. It was great while it lasted, but physical media requires more money coming in, than is generated by subscribers and that was the end of it. |
Exactly right! I had no idea myself many years ago BEFORE i used a dedicated room to do as hobby 2 years acoustics experiments non stopped ( i am retired). After the results and the way i learned to play with a system /room, i never trusted anymore any users reviews about S. Q. Save statistical analyse about a gear pieces qualities and reported defects. I discovered Jay years ago here and i was flabbergasted by his reviews of very costly gear in an empty room with no acoustics ...He discovered acoustics power recently.😊 Anyway the room acoustics must be coupled to a specific system and speakers... Another fact most people completely underestimated... As the necessary ears measures and HTRF measures if you aspire to high fi with any stereo system ...All stereo system by design are an impediment for spatial acoustics qualities (Choueiri) Read acoustics articles it is way more interesting than reviews...I advise this to all...
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People who say equipment needs breaking in - NOPE. If it doesn’t sound good out of the box, for me at least, it never changes. That said hotel rooms are notorious for being hard to setup properly and many just don’t have the time. I know I have done some, where audiophiles got together, at a hotel, and setup their own equipment in the rooms. It made me appreciate how hard it is. As far as reviews, they used to be more up or down before. I mean even car reviews are like that now. An example, I remember going on a business trip to Nottingham UK, and on the way back home trip, bought an English car magazine. It was full of positive and negative reviews, like the Kia Rio. The title of the review was, ’Her name is Kia Rio and she is crap’. I feel the audio magazines are more to sell the public to the manufacturers, rather actually selling us on the products, anymore. Same with the youtube reviews.
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Isn't that something....lol, Accountant says he's an amp designer over night?! I mean...bro..when did you get that electrical engineering degree and figure out the black art of analog circuits design n all?! Ah yes, that genius in mainland China designed something for you, huh? He even made the pirate ship name plate, for you?? Rock on! Overnight amp designer..... I mean...what the f did ya design, o great jack sparrow? Oh, that's right...you just heard it a couple of times and told that Chinese engineer (the unsung hero) to bring the highs down a lil bit...and he did a few more iterations for ya? Gotcha.
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I recall sitting in that Mofi room with a speaker built to a strict budget in a very suboptimal room. That guy seemed to know enough to beat out 6 figure rooms in that show. The Borresen room (from guys who seem to really know what they’re doing) didn’t have much of a competitor, easy home run, etc The guys with the requisite aptitude levels don’t seem to have any problems at shows. It is the floppy ones who have all kinds of problems, it seems (blame this, blame that, cry me a river, whatever). |
There’s a flip side to any coin. How good is his customer base, the average audiophile’s room? Pretty horrid, I would say. It is usually some living room with glass everywhere, etc, all kinds of suboptimal conditions. The hotel room is usually no worse than the avg audiophile’s room (audiophile of 40 years n all!). All he does is buy expensive gear, plop it down in a room and if it sounds like crap, he’ll somehow fix everything with a magic cable. That’s the avg customer base. What does the same audiophile really know about gear matching, synergy, etc? It is not a whole lot at all, in comparison to the manufacturer who designed/voiced the equipment. If you are a manufacturer (an expert, so to speak) and can’t set up/make it work acoustically in a room with suboptimal conditions (typical of what your customer base lives with) and do proper gear matching (work out all the kinks), there’s something wrong with your competence level. Just don’t show up to shows and showcase your incompetence, I suppose. Don’t give me the cop out, don’t cry me a river that it was all the hotel room’s fault. You should have taken the right kind of treatment with you since you are already the expert of gear synergy for the gear you supposedly designed. I'll tell you about the manufacturer who wouldn’t know anything about room acoustics, his "own" gear or how to set anything up. He’ll usually contract it out to mainland China. It is designed/made in China and looks like a creme deluxe piece in the end. It gets the high end low aptitude manufacturer’s name plate and the high end markup eventually. He may even give it a Italian sounding name to make it feel more cultured, lol. Would that guy know diddly about how "his" equipment works, how to set it up, what to match it up with, etc? No, he wouldn’t, the Chinese designer in mainland China would.. It would be the hotel room’s fault all day long for this type of guy.... and he better start paying the YTers and forum incognito promo boys for poetic praise pronto. |
I am not a reviewer and i already used some very well known reviewed product, i bought it and never spoke about it again by name , it was pure trash... Especially in an audio forum where there is many users...😊 I bought it because some reviewers dont censure themselves or have no idea about audio i dont know ...My friend was with me listening and he refuse to bought it ...😋
then nevermind what a reviewer said read between lines and read about what he never dare to speak about ... If i censure myself here about a product reviewers do the same ...ASR reviewers measured then they dont need to censure their opinions. I trust them only for low cost products. I reasd many users to confirm their measures revelations though ,. Measures are not enough ... For high end you need more than specs verification ...
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I agree with most of what you said @deep_333. I didn’t watch the video. I won’t give these people the air in the room, or the clicks needed to generate their income. Attention is the currency of social media. When these outlets collide with the world of audio, you have three simplistic approaches to drawing attention. One is the “look what I just found, it’s just the thing you need to be completely satisfied with your system”…until next week when the next “thing” gets dropped shipped at their door. Most Youtubers get dropped into this category, some going as far as trying to get in on the manufacturing end by dropping a new logo on another manufacturer’s said piece of savior gear (ironically a pirate ship) Since approach #1 is getting full of “honest reviewers”, approach #2 requires promoters (they aren’t influencing anyone) to be the protagonist, fighting for you against the industry. “I’ll tell you what others won’t, but on my Patreon channel…don’t forget to subscribe!” We seen approach #3 first hand on this site, where shills receive industry benefit by showing up in forums only to carpet bomb the place with tens of thousands of posts, who in the end, lose all credibility and are subsequently banned. I’d rather read the press release or hear a manufacturer’s spokesperson tell me the benefits of their product and decide for myself if it’s BS. |
If an exhibit room sounds good it is. But if it sounds bad you don't know why. Is it the setup. Is it brand new gear that needs breaking in? I could go on. If you don't know why then negative comments hurt the equipment and you really don't know what equipment. Is it the software. Is it apiece of electronics. Is it the speakers? Did something fail when you heard the system? And the reviewer's bad comments can hurt a manufacturer when the equipment could be very good on a longer, real test. And if the manufacturer of the equipment is on shaky ground he could fail undeservedly. Bad reviews should ONLY come from long term use in a known environment. That's a reason I hate to read Jonathon Valens show reviews especially. |
I would much rather the manufacturers themselves came out on YT or Audiogon, disclosed their affiliations and said what’s great about their product. I would be delighted to hear directly from guys like Michael Borresen, Levinson, etc getting into technical aspects of their stuff, as a sales pitch, explaining how their stuff stands against the competition or not.. IMO, it would have a lot more weight to help increase their market share. But, no... it’s all a skewed shady presentation with the dealers, promo guys (disguised as reviewers), the forum pied pipers, etc.....tired stuff...Why are these designers and engineers letting the ’know nothing’ promo guys talk about their stuff? (continues to remain the big mystery). It would be better to hear it directly from the horse’s mouth. |
I get the fact that most of these YT guys are promo advertisers with kickbacks from manufacturers/dealers, portraying themselves as reviewers. It is the business model. But, this guy is a notch above the rest of the YT peddlers (rubbing it in), trying to appear innocent, claiming he had "no choice" in the matter (oh! he’s a poor victim of the system crap!). Omg, such a poor innocent creature he is...woe is he...caught in the middle of all of it (NOT!!, it’s a deliberate choice).
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Positive review or negative reviews are unequal as for their meanings for me... A piece of gear can be evaluated for his design quality but to be evaluated in some system context with a qualitative and a measured synergy level ( they are not the same for me) is another thing and an evaluation in some acoustical environment is also a third things completely ... Measured confirmed specs of a piece of gear are not always enough to discard or promote a piece of gear in my opinion . It is only an element .. I will not even indicate but cannot put it under the rug the importance of the reviewer not only his audio gear history but his acoustics experience and his own musical interests and biases . A negative review may appear less ambiguous in meanings than a positive one but it is not the case generally ... Does the negative review refer to the design quality only of the gear piece or result from a bad synergy with other pieces of gear or a system ? Or does the negative review result more of some specific acoustic environment not optimal at all for it? Or from the reviewer biases ? It is why giving negative reviews ask for more work , or more caution, or more parameters inspections before speaking ... And the consequences may be hard for an industry... Reviewers know that... 😊 It is why i prefer statistical users and reviewers analysis... I bought my pieces of gear without ever listening to them before ... When i did my job of analysis i winned. Save in a case where it was no synergy then i return the amplifier... 😁
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