Anybody try the new Heaven 11 Billie Mk 2?

I find his reviews to be some of the best on YouTube. He is not in bed with anyone and buys most of the gear he has and has been very transparent. I have gained a fair amount of equipment knowledge from watching his videos. His taste in music and gear are very much inline with mine so there is that. 

He is not in bed with anyone and buys most of the gear he has and has been very transparent.

To each his own, I guess.

To me, a good reviewer does not use reviews to push a product as "amazing" etc. No, they are assessed, warts and all. There are typically drawbacks, downsides, imperfections, etc. In other words, *balance.*

Take a look at his recent review titles. He is blowing smoke for clicks, and that’s easy to see.

HiFi: Speakers that I WILL NEVER forget. My Top 5!
HiFi: My Top 3 high end Integrated Amplifiers of All Time over $5k, and WHY.
Willsenton R8 Tube Integrated Amplifier 2022. A Rarity in HI-Fi.
IMPRESSED! Dynaudio Heritage Special FULL REVIEW. My Last Speaker? My Last Audio Review?
The HiFi Rose RS 150B Review! Holy Wow! It’s GORGEOUS!
Schiit Audio Freya + and Aegir Review. Tubes, Class A. Affordable Audiophile!
The Klipsch Heresy IV Review. WHOA!!!
The Hi-Fi Rose RA180 Integrated Amp Review. Nothing Else Like It!
The Klipsch LaScala AL5 Review. They Speak to the Heart.
Klipsch Heresy IV 16 Month Update! Feed ’Em and Smile.
REVIEW: Pass Labs INT-25 - CLASS A SWEETNESS!
The Klipsch Forte IV Speaker Review. BIG TIME HIFI!

Watch Tarun: A British Audiophile and you’ll see someone who deploys judgment and criticism in order to grade the products he reviews. And not everything gets an "A+." He also does not talk to dead people, which is always a plus.

Maybe he chooses to not write reviews of gear that does not preform well. I have watched many of his reviews and in most he has a section for cons or negatives. 
 

I watch the British Audiophile as well and do really enjoy his reviews. I have a small list of reviewers I trust on the tube. SoundNews, iiwi, British Audiophile and Steve Huff. I usually will watch a YouTube review and try to follow that up with actual end user reports to get an idea of the realism of the review.

Maybe he chooses to not write reviews of gear that does not preform well. 

That's the practice of some reviewers, for sure. But in my opinion, he's full of hyperbole and exemplifies the approach and language of marketing and advertising. Marketing/advertising, in my view, is different than critical reviewing, just as science and business are different things. I suppose the question for me is, Would I trust this sort of person to recommend a heart surgeon? Not. A. Chance.

@temmple 

Huff is just trying to monetize his channel. Nothing wrong with that.

He is also using the sale/resale of those items he buys at industry accommodation (or gets for free for reviewing them) and then after a period of time passes, he seems to sell them on. Nothing wrong with that either.

What’s wrong about this scenario is that innocent individuals (like yourself?) seem to give him and his reviews more credibility than is appropriate. The stuff he reviews is all varying degrees of good to great…which is also the current state of the gear being manufactured.

His system is moving up the foodchain because better manufacturers are willing to let him review their gear now. They are willing to do that because he is getting clicks. He is getting clicks because of his Ginsu knife headline clickbait. Nothing wrong with that either.

He is learing on the fly, just like many of us. His opinions aren’t necessarily invalid but they arent the same thing as Lavorgna or Atkinson or the late Art Dudley saying at the end of a review: “I bought this for my system”. Huff is cranking out seemingly a review per week…that’s not enough time to do one properly. But I get it, he’s trying to earn a living but Huff would likely agree that his reviews aren’t really intended to guide anyone, just to ad another data point.