You tube hifi influencers. Love them or hate them?

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.

Most of them selling another cold day in hell.

Some good opinions here and no doubt we should trust our own ears but there are many who do not have good dealers close to where they live to personally audition gear.

I think some of the online reviewers have limited value, but what often is the greatest problem is #1, a lack of technical knowledge, and 2, no long term reporting that can give a clue to reliability, among other things. Like many of you, my system is largely tube based although rather modest with a Conrad Johnson LS17 preamp and some Quicksilver Mid Mono Power Amps, both with vintage quality tubes.

Recently, I was thinking about diving into the world of 300B based amps. No local dealers had any 300B amps to audition, despite living in a city of 3 million population. So I did a google search which took me to, among many reviews, some you tube reviews of 2 very inexpensive ChiFi amps, available from Amazon, or direct from China, and these 2 amps had universal praise from you tubers Guttenberg, Thomas and Stereo, Jay’s Iyagi, and Steve Huff.

Thankfully, another you tuber, Skunkie Designs, who has extensive technical knowledge, posted about some serious circuit deficiencies in those amps that were creating both performance and reliability issues as well as showing the mods to correct the issues.

I’m sure there are many people who were lured into buying these amps and regret it. So theres the good and the bad of it I guess.

I think it pays to have an open mind about "influencers." In this hobby, the numbers of brands, the flood of new products, the relatively fewer shops that carry any audio gear pretty much require a willingness to explore the web for information. That, of course, does not preclude a certain degree of skepticism. Let’s not pretend that traditional print reviewers were immune to a relationship with sponsors. One paid for a subscription, but a substantial amount of revenue at those outlets came from industry advertising, and that required a relationship of goodwill with those same companies. The business model was never that of Consumer Reports.

I find some reviewers on YouTube to be very helpful, many of whom take a more technical approach and bring an engineering perspective to the review, something very few audio store salesmen possess. I am not talking about the irritating "Hey guys" ADHD personalities who need a course in effective presentation. Taron from A British Audiophile, Erin’s Audio Corner, and even Amir from ASR offer valuable service. With Amir, you just can’t afford to be thin-skinned. I think one would be deliberately benighting one’s inquiry to ignore them.

Most of the Youtubers seem to rely on drama, manufactured conflict and artificial "excitement" to create clicks. They're easy to ignore.

A few of the "influencers" have posted here and have become downright nasty. So it's easy to see them for what they are.