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You tube hifi influencers. Love them or hate them?

Not sure if I posted this in the right place but here goes. I've been an audiophile for over 50 years. Way back in the day, brick and mortar stores allowed for extensive auditioning and experienced reviewers  from the few established audio magazines gave fairly honest reviews of equipment. Now there is an army of tube influencers and online reviewers with varying degrees of experience/bias praising  their flavour of the month components that dominate the scene. What's a new audiophile to do? I trust the opinions of members of various forums more so than any of these influencers except for perhaps "The Audiophiliac", Guttenberg. How do you feel?

128x128alvinnir2
fastfreight
677 posts
 

EZ. Just dont turn on Youtube.  Listen to music.; it sounds better.  I do read specific reviews, but always with a shaker of salt.

boxcarman
321 posts
 

Opinions are like AH's, everybody has got one.

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yesiam_a_pirate
154 posts
 

I like some of them: OCD Mikey for example strikes me as honest- I states "I'm a dealer I want to sell you what I like" 

The Chinese Dude- Thomas & Stereo does a pretty good job unless he's pitching some ChiFi stuff. Way back when I bought a Suncoz introductory priced DAC based on his recommendation and hated it. He is honest about his amp- Galleon. He openly states he wants you to buy it because he makes it. That's pretty honest in my book. 

Paul McGowan's PS Audio daily vids are good. He is honest about his intentions to sell you his gear. Again- to me that's solid. 

Shameless plug for my local dealer who I have really grown to love- he doesn't post youtube vids and I'm after him to do so. He's brutally honest and has guided me to lower priced items that turned out to be well-bought. He can't discount some stuff like his Magnepan, Audio Research and Sonus Faber lines but one time he bought the pen in my pocked for $12,000 cash right after I bought a set of Audio Research Reference 160m Mk2 amps. Apparently he really liked Bank Of America blue plastic pens!  audioexcellence.us in Murrells Inlet SC. Eric is the owner. help him out if you can. High-end 2 channel dealers are dying off rapidly. Plus he pours Woodford in his listening room. :)

carlsbad2's avatar
carlsbad2
1,380 posts
 

Hate them but for a different reason.  I will only watch youtube if there is no other way to get the info and I need it really badly.  99% of the time, if I'm sitting, I'm listening to music.  So I want to read info, not listen to it.  My ears are occupied.  So I never go there.

Of course the monitization of the internet is moving all info to aural.  not good.

Jerry

8th-note
348 posts
 

I have found YouTube videos quite valuable when I am considering buying a new piece of gear. One of these days I'm going to buy a dedicated streamer (I currently use a laptop) and I've watched videos on several different models. A video is an excellent way to review something like a streamer because it has an app that can be complicated to set up and you can see what the display looks like when in use.

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