Any Advice for those Listening to Youtube Reviewers?

@hilde45 

+1

Also only follow youtube reviews after reading this months Stereophile, The Absolute Sound and HiFi+.

I follow several reviewers regularly. Most of them indicate their particular interests and seem to tailor their sites to those interests. I wouldn't watch cheapaudioman for a review about a halo Sonos Faber floorstander, he isn't about that and doesn't pretend to be. For different reasons  I like watching A British Audiophile, because I like his level, methodical, analytical and comparative format. Having good  production values and a consistent pattern helps. (For YT reviews, I benchmark savagegeese because of the consistent method and high production values; it is an automotive site, not an audio site.)

One site I look at is ASR. I know there are many people her who dislike  Amir's approach. He has a take-no-prisoners approach and doesn't seem hesitant to pan gear that doesn't meet his particular testing standards. Those standards are open to debate as far as how well good performance in a user setting corresponds to good performance on his bench or in the spinorama. Products from cherished makers have sometimes seen a skewering. I have observed that he seldom reviews something well that doesn't also perform well. His methods skewer amplifier distortion, and he declines to do testing of tube gear because of its high levels of measurable distortion, euphonious or not. I can't see a brand bias; his SINAD scale places ultra high end next to low-end unknowns at both ends of the performance scale. He seems to prefer speaker offerings by KEF, and if there is a preference, it is for neutral coloration and flat frequency response and low distortion. I have heard some of his critics dismiss him, but few are able to persuasively explain why, except that he has expressed a dislike for a reader's cherished brand or model.

Most of the YouTubers I've seen seem to be more about themselves than about audio. Most have to invent a crisis, controversy, or drama to have anything to talk about. And of course you can't tell what anything really sounds like while listening to YouTube, so I just ignore them.

First they gotta get product, next they gotta get subscribers, third controversy helps build both.