@ozzy62
A difference is a difference no matter how bad the room or acoustics are. You might not hear a component or speaker perform at its potential, but if you can hear an improvement (or the other way) when something is swapped out, then it exists.
I think so too.
It’s unfortunate that since Google’s acquisition of YouTube in 2006 the highest bitrate offered has been 192kbs (2012/13).
You would have thought that it would been upgraded since then, but alas, no.
As of late 2022 only premium subscribers can get 256kbps, everyone else gets 128kbs.
Hopefully that situation will change in the near future.
Actually, things aren’t as bad as some might like to make out.
Some audiophile channels do offer high bitrate downloads which you can then use to compare any potential differences between playback equipment - or not.
In any case, for better or worse, a YouTube video will always carry considerably more weight than any article written by a reviewer.
That fact alone makes well recorded online demonstrations a serious alternative source of information interested in sound quality.
Even at the lowly 128kbps significant sonic differences can be easily heard through a pair of (hopefully) neutral loudspeakers or even better, headphones.
