2. misc-audio
  3. 161165-1069

As much as I try, I just don't get it........

A few YouTubers are always making changes to their systems, and having their audience listen ( I imagine you all know the few posters I am speaking about ). The show reviewers are posting some audio samples, and having their audience listen. I can go on and on. Honestly, however I try, I cannot determine what the big deal is, as these videos, with the " audio presentations ", are weak, poor, and tell me nothing. I listen to a lot of YT videos of my favorite artists, videos from some of my favorite recordings, some studio and some live, and many sound quite good.....but nothing from these others I speak about, do anything for me. This is why I admire Steve, at his Audiophiliac channel, Sean at his Zero Fidelity channel, and Paul McGowan at his Ask Paul ( from PS Audio ) channel ( and others ), who speak, and know, listening in this context, is useless. Am I alone in this finding ? Does anyone actually feel listening to some of these posters, with their " audio presentations ", get the impact, or " lack of ", of what they are hearing ? I am in no way demeaning these folks, but my audio and listening background, does not allow me to make good judgements in this way, unless I am in the actual room of the demo. Enjoy, be well and stay safe. Always, MrD.
mrdecibel
daj
87 posts
 
What do you think of the *comparative* nature of this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0YkKlEMe8w 

Nice. To me, this blows up the argument of uselessness. To say it's useless is to miss the point. I believe there are plenty of examples on YT where audiophile SQ is indicated and can be distinguished from non-audiophile SQ. That's "indicated" not ascertained. The point is obviously not definitive evaluation. It's one bit of information where the alternative may be no information aside from specs, opinion, visual, etc. 

I'd say that video disproves "By the time you hear a recording of a component or loudspeaker on Youtube, all that's really left to judge critically is how it looks". To me, this is a misunderstanding of what's on offer by way of a YT vid.

I'd go for the Rubicon 6s BTW.
barts's avatar
barts
775 posts
 
+1 isochronism  
barts's avatar
barts
775 posts
 
MrD,
I can't agree more.  There are persons who legitimately believe they
can discern differences in audio equipment over the telephone. This is as bizarre as it gets for me.  YT is no better, how many variables and how many times has this been bisected. I'm sorry, but for all the bloviating about you must hear this piece in your own space and now suddenly anyone putting up vids on YT can influence you...OMG.

That's not to say that I enjoy some of those vids!  Have a nice evening.

Regards,
barts 
glupson
7,842 posts
 
Come to think of it, geoffkait's Teleportation Tweak was years ahead of schedule.

It could improve the YouTube sound, too, I guess.
eganmedia's avatar
eganmedia
26 posts
 
Daj says:
Nice. To me, this blows up the argument of uselessness.

The fact that the mics are better than a camera mic moving around the room doesn't mitigate the fact that Rode are, at best, "meh" microphones.  Nevertheless there is a baseline established and maintained.  That's a step above.  But the placement of the mics lets you know how each of those speakers sound off-axis only, not what the on-axis sound is like at what would be a typical listening position.  Even with a single set of speakers A/Bing them miked from the position shown in the video with mics placed at the apex of a triangle typical to a home listening setup would sound at least as different from one another as multiple speakers miked the way they are in the video.  Position those same mics like that on an electrostatic speaker and it would sound absolutely nothing like how it would to a person in the sweet spot.  At the distance in the video most cardioid mics are still pretty beamy and the distance between drivers of the floor standing speakers will definitely affect what gets picked up.  The stand mounted speakers look to have their drivers more or less equidistant from the microphones so they might well have the advantage of less phase cancellation.
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