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

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...

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...

I’ll put my point more positively:

Sometimes we benefit from reviewers who translate their experience into tools, techniques, and vocabulary which can help someone who also plans to learn and then listen and experiment for themselves.

We are in agreement about that, I assume.

"I thought Randy's video was ridiculous and the comments worse. He's just playing to his crowd, stoking resentment, cynically trolling for clicks."

 - @kerrybh

Bingo