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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?

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cleeds
5,655 posts
 

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.

ltmandella's avatar
ltmandella
115 posts
 

Sampled a few videos.  Lost interest mostly.  The only videos I found interesting were the ones where the "influencer" was able to interview on camera a bona-fide industry pro.

Those interviews I found interesting.  Mastering engineers, performers, and amp designers...

But just watching a talking head "infuencer"?  blah...

 

bluorion
438 posts
 

Does anyone know what happened to Markonhifi?? He had some good reviews and his channel was growing----then poof! He suddenly disappeared. Very odd.

classicrockfan
91 posts
 

This forum is full of oily trolls aka influencers. .

...using multiple user names single person can play multiple roles in the same thread

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,806 posts
 

@chenry

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.

This is exactly right. And can people honestly tell me that their experiences with brick/mortar stores were not a mix of pressure/BS and honest assistance? Every store I ever visited has had an intense motive to sell the gear they chose and to discount or have no opinions about other gear. Of course they need to stay in business -- and that’s totally part of the game. But often they are not good people to look to for objectivity. YouTube and magazine have some advantages, there.

@cleeds

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

Not my experience. In my opinion, this is a misuse of the word "most." There are quite a few which do not rely on drama:

  • Currawong
  • Passion for Sound
  • Tarun a British Audiophile
  • Hans Beekhuyzen
  • Darko
  • Ken Micallef
  • Joshua Valour
  • Pearl Acoustics
  • Zero Fidelity
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