The Insane World of High End Audio! Is it All a Scam?


This 15 minutes of youtube video by "cheapaudioman" say a lot and hide a lot...

He review low cost products ...

His analysis of audiophiles world here seems fair to me...

But nowhere in all his videos and in this one  he mention "acoustics" as the basis of audio hobby, the anker of any system  and gear piece  evaluation and satisfaction...

He  always talk about the gear... Probably acoustics for him as for most is only acoustics panels purchase...

My point is not that the audio world of audiophile is a scam with scammers...

Not at all.

It is ignorance  of what is acoustics basics that makes people victim of their own decisions  and a potential prey for honest or dishonest sellers..

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeqbFYaJisQ

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Having experienced the difference between proper acoustics with really great gear then gear costing 10% in the same exact space and still having a great system I am a firm believer it is the most important aspect in audio.

In business I used to sell a dang fine automotive sound deadening product and did quite well at it, growing monthly for years in a row and without advertising. I hired a new web designer and he kept after me for months to significantly raise my prices though I had a really decent profit margin I felt it was wrong to do so. Of course it involved fancier packaging and a new name but I finally gave in and the business grew 4 fold in months. I never really liked doing so but I still had what I felt was the best product for the money available and more got to get in on it.

I came up with some ideas for a very dynamic website, had not seen some of those used before, spent a lot of money and a lot of time waiting for it. In the end the guy used my money and ideas to develop a competing product, quite good, tiny bits of product, very slick marketing and charged a huge price for it and sold a lot of it. In reality it was not better than what I sold, just marketing BS.

That said, I think there is more than enough evidence to support claims that gear is being sold that is way over priced and just does not perform that much better than other quality gear to justify the prices. Mainly it just sounds different in some cases and in others goes with the system better than other gear and or the way the customer perceives how it sounds can be related to our differences in taste and preference or just simply how our individual hearing works.

 

BUT, it does keep more money in circulation, not a bad thing for the rest of us that do not have the budget or do have the budget but choose to be happy with "lessor" systems.

Rick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm glad to see someone on YouTube finally gathered the courage to critique high end audio. Those fat cats have put one over on us proles for way too long.

Audiophile market is based on mass ignorance about audio and acoustics, it is not just about good or bad gear design, good or bad pricing...

Be it cheapaudioman selling low cost products or Jay selling very high end products,

they are legitimate reviewers with their style as any others ..

I dont want to criticize them and their character... It is useless and meaningless because we like someone style or not... So what!

 

But it is impossible to see through our own personal self deception, self scamming so to speak by the power of our ignorance if we do not inform ourselves about acoustics concepts and meanings in direct experiments ( there is very simple one even for a living room )...

It is because people dont do this that they delude themselves by taking the wrong choices for them...

It is not the reviewers the problem but ourselves...I refuse to makes reviewers bad or good one, the scapegoat of our own ignorance..

i know what i spoke about because 12 years ago i was totally ignorant... I am no more... And i dont speak about the useless knowledge of branded names gear various offerings here, useless for everyone save a reviewer because his job is to sell this to you, good or bad... We have only one audio system to work with...At least only one at a time and we must learn how to work with it... cool

Once we had understood how to deal with one system at any price, the basic is the same for any other system/room...

 

Yes, the audiophile market thrives on widespread audio and acoustic ignorance, and true progress requires self-education through direct acoustic experiments, not solely relying on reviewers.


But the idea that we don’t benefit from reviewers is not something I agree with.

Many (not all) reviewers have spent more time and may have more expertise than the average listener. And can help educate what we hear by conveying their techniques for listening, positioning speakers, and use of vocabulary that helps manage confusing auditory experiences. I’ve benefited in my own listening by their help.

But the idea that we don’t benefit from reviewers is not something I agree with.

 

I never said that we dont benefit from reviewer...

Who will listen to 400 amplifiers to advise us ? If not Jay...

Who will listen to low cost many pre-amp to recommend one ? not me, but Cheapaudioman...

i appreciate also Huff... Etc I even read ASR...

I bought my last tube pre-amp equalizer thanks to cheapaudioman recommendation and many others ...

 

 

My point is : not scapeagoating the reviewers, (who ignore acoustics basic deliberately or not to sell us gear) , but facing our own laziness and ignorance about audio essentials concepts in acoustics as the only to way undertand how to work our system/room...