Your Favorite YouTube reviewers

Narrowing down part, I can kind of agree but it’s dicey. On one hand, you got those who pick out the main talking points from a number of reviewers talking about the same product, compare against them all and find out which characteristics you find that comes up frequently (ie. meta-analysis of qualitative data) to get at least a general albeit vague idea of how something sounds, and on another hand, you got people who fall for the “trust me bro. I’m yo boi. I got you fam” trap.

Also, product exposures are realllly easy nowadays. Just take a look at markets where audio is most active. Asia for example. Simply browsing through E-Earphone and Fujiya Avic’s websites will open doors to a whole slew of products. If it weren’t for e-earphone hiring a person from Hong Kong and getting him to scout his home country’s audio market, I wouldn’t have ever found out about Panther Audio for example.
Want more? There are international audio shows aside from CanJam and Munich High End. There’s the Headphone Festival and Portable Audio Festival held almost every season in Japan, there’s TAA High End in Taiwan for a handful of headphones (mainly home theater audio though), and Taiwan Portable Audio Fair. and the list goes on. All these tech shows have participating brands listed on their websites so you can get exposed to them that way.

I kinda understand why they retracted the loaner program to be fair.
It gets really expensive along with the risks they have to face. I see so many loaner/rental programs in Japan, but that’s because… it’s Japan lol. Nobody steals there haha.

Lissimores should really consider at least an event of some kind though. Not one of those “you get to shake hands and take pics with your internet idol” sorta BS, but an actual tech show of some kind. They can start small. One brand at a time even and build reputation from there.
Or since their main office is located in Vancouver, collaborate with HeadphoneBar and start… something. I dunno… Shake hands, two-store collab, bring in products HeadphoneBar doesn’t have for audition… It’ll at least be something considering the headphone market is pretty much dead in Canada.
Or maybe section off their office as guest space and get potential customers to come in by appointment. Making the map of brick n’ mortar stores around the world, I found that method to be the most popular among North American stores.

Anyways, I think we’re both in agreement on at least one thing in that there’s barely any opportunities for us consumers to audition products, and for some reason, that has become prioritized to the internet icons in which us consumers have no choice but to rely on them for information.
I’m willing to think this scheme is all intentionally fabricated, but I’m not gonna go further into conspiracy territory lol.

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You’ve obviously given this topic more thought than I have. Many storefronts are disappearing in the US though because people are moving more to e-commerce. This is especially true for electronic products. And the pandemic has also accelerated this change.

I’m still not that comfortable with the idea though. And prefer to deal with people directly… But I’m old. So that’s my excuse. :slight_smile:

User/special interest groups (SIGs) or meets could be another way to get some hands on experience without having to go through the purchasing and returning hassles.

Meetups would be fantastic.
I mean, here are some example of meetups between enthusiasts after a huge tech show (I believe both were after Portable Audio Festivals)

If the Lissimores are so adamant on having their beloved youtube icons doing the marketing, why can’t they organize meetups? Use them to their darn advantage. They’re everywhere. America, UK, even in Japan.
Why can’t they adopt something like what the BBQ Pit Boys does and start Chapters of sorts… like monthly meetups at their local community centers or something. And instead of the (i’m sorry for repeating myself but I just get irritated by this) “shake hands, take pics with internet idols” type BS, get participants to bring in their setups so people can get opportunities to open their eyes to novel ideas they haven’t thought of before.
Seriously. PrecogVision is living in Japan for freaking sake and have yet to see anything on his channel interacting with local communities when they’re so darn active like you see above.

I understand e-commerce has gained in popularity since the pandemic, and I feel the popularity of audio products has shot through the roof since then too.
And I guess since that’s where they started, the current gen are stuck in the mindset into thinking that everything could be understood by virtual means.
But, as I alluded to in my earlier post, there’s a reason why PC part megastores (Micro Center) are opening branch after branch across America and it shows that there’s high demand for physical stores (for whatever reason it might be) for PCs.
And if the reason is the fact that people do actually value the tangible experiences in order to become confident in spending their money, I don’t see why this doesn’t apply to headphones too.

If the reviewers want consumers to “Become more informed about the products (we) purchase” as they keep repeating themselves over and over, no matter what objective info they throw at us, nothing can top the subjective experiences.

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New YouTuber that masters techno and electronic music tracks, with some interesting takes on speakers and headphones. Not sure I agree with everything, and he also uses these video as both infotainment and plugs for some of his courses and business. But still interesting.

These are the 4 videos I’ve listened to so far in chronological order, beginning with the oldest. Some of the comments on his videos are also interesting. The first is on EQ, the others are on speakers and headphones.

An interesting defense of the Auratones and NS10’s. This is not the first time I’ve heard comments along these lines though…

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Interesting, added to the watch later list!

These guys are also good. I’m surprised I didn’t run across their channel and podcasts earlier.

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2 hours! Added to “really watch this later maybe”

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Ok it might be 2 hours long, but what a great show. An actually informative podcast!

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Brent and Dennis’s podcasts are pretty informative on a wide range of audio-related topics. You can sort of pick and choose what to listen to as well, because they give a brief summary at the start and provide an index of shortcuts to each section in theYouTube video notes. The sections are also separated by a brief musical interlude.

I ran across the video above while searching for new videos by Floyd Toole. And that Q/A discussion is one of the best I’ve listened to so far on their channel. I listened to a few more today though, including the ones below. I don’t know if you’ll be into this, but the first video was mostly a critique of this 2023 article on Audiophilia.

I’m sure there are some here who will relate to this, and others who won’t. Brent and Dennis (and their guest) make no bones though about where they stand. I’ve pre-cued the video to this discussion.

They followed this up with another video where they discuss what an anechoic chamber is. Here’s the video on that, and a couple demonstration videos from their notes.

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This post is entitled: The Strange Alien World of Midrange Monitors and “Grot Boxes”.

And it goes back to a couple videos I posted above by AP Mastering, where the Sony NS10M and Auratone 5C were mentioned. This is the study on the NS10M that was mentioned in one of the videos. And it is a pretty interesting read, if you haven’t looked at it before.

The PDF is from an article by Sound on Sound, a website that caters to sound producers and audio engineers (and other interested geeks like me). The conclusions and graphs in this study are pretty interesting though. Especially the differences between the step/impulse response of the Auratone and NS10M, and the other speakers. And also their waterfall plots (which look like flat walls compared to most of the other speakers!). What it really drives home are some of the temporal advantages of these kinds of closed-box designs.

I suspect that many of the lower cost speakers I’ve been considering would probably have dreadful performance in these areas by comparison. Here are a couple other articles from SOS that might help to put these midrange monitors in a little better perspective though, both in terms of some of their pros and cons.

Erin of EAC also managed to corral and measure a version of the NS10M, and here’s also his take on it.

Another interesting finding in the NS10M study was that the speaker’s response should flatten out when flush mounted.

I just noticed this topic after hmmm 7 years? So I’m going to be slightly disruptive as usual.

One of my favorite YouTube reviewers:
The Charismatic Voice

This person doesn’t review hardware, speakers, software, or audio.

She reviews vocal performances. She’s highly trained, and does a mixture of reaction video and analysis.

Along the same lines:
Virgin Rock

The same sort of thing where a classical musician - and harpist - analyzes rock music.

I don’t know where they find people that haven’t heard the highlights of the last 60 years of pop and rock, especially when they’re highly trained in classical or opera, but hey. It is fun also sometimes to see some of the really young reviewers - like Molly Boy - hear Janis or The Doors, Roy Clark, or Stevie Ray Vaughn for the first time, but those are pure reaction. The two I listed have very smart analysis.

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My favorite reviewer is @Resolve , his reviews are always very fair and informative, and I never get the impression that he’s trying to hype up the newest thing to get the most affiliate link click throughs like many reviewers. His dry humor is getting better and better over time as well.

He strikes a great balance between measurements and subjective impressions. Although he does seem a little bit wishy washy about why or how something would sound to the viewers, I do understand the reasons behind it. There’s a fine line between being fair and giving a personal opinion.

Unfortunately @Resolve is only my second favorite Canadian Youtuber, Steve Wallis is #1!

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She’s interesting. I’ve heard some songs 1,000 times over the last 30 years. She listens to a song once (and reads the lyrics), and picks up stuff I’ve never noticed. All the time.

She has also matured quite a lot relative to her early videos. In one of the first few “It seems these rock songs all have guitar solos.” She’s now moved on to albums. I wish that she’d use better non-closed, non-wireless headphones…

Many reaction videos reveal the limits of the listener, but there are some good ones.

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I particularly enjoyed her reaction to Zappa’s “Peaches en Regalia” Yes. she finds things that are highly instructive. Listening to her makes me a better listener.

PassionforSound does a very good job and his patreon page has a nicely put together index containing, info, reviews, price etc of all sorts of different audio devices.

inthemix who is a professional audio engineer has some very nice review as well.

@aregina (even though he is Korean, and don’t speak english) is to me one of the best reviewers i have ever watched. Very nicely put together videos and he usually goes in depth with info about the products that other reviewers don’t.

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@kanou654 and @hifi1483 does a lot of high quality sound tests, also with comparisons.

And of course The Headphone show which is why we are all here i assume.

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Ah thanks to you both for noting her analysis! I would never have watched one of her videos otherwise as her thumbnails look like just another positive reaction video. Digging these…

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I see this is an old thread but I’ll throw in my two cents. I’m finding I’m watching these YouTube reviews more than TV right now! Love watching Lachlan from Passion for Sound, DMS and Joshua Velour. Do really like Resolve’s approach and Golden Sound too. We’re spoilt for choice and their productions are super professional now.

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