Ode to YT vloggers

Discussion in 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' started by oh_okay, Oct 1, 2020.

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  1. robot zombie

    robot zombie Friend

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    I think it's a pretty reasonable area for improvement. As the flow of information widens, it seems like info density goes down. Sure, you can sift through and pick it out. But that can take such a long time, and you may not even find it, making things so it might as well not be there in the first place. That's not just whining in my book. It's a real problem. Maybe nothing worth getting too upset about. But the standard bears acknowledging. It can be sort of like a big library where half of the books are just pictures of bathroom stall scrawlings. It's a shame that such amazing tech can be so impractical and unintuitive.
     
  2. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Even with Tyll, apart from that one wonderful classic, I'd rather read what he had to say than watch the youtube video.

    There's only one reason for these videos: monetisation. So the choice is, if anybody wants to support some particular person, watch their videos. If you do want to support them chances are you like their personality and presentation anyway. Sound cannot be represented over video any more than it can over text: I'd rather read the review. Also, that way I don't have to put up with the nasty annoying stuff that "vloggers" seem to consider obligatory, like the stupid background music to speech, the audio bullet points, the "wassapyoutubers" crap.

    Even for photography, which I do much more than audio these days because it doesn't require good ears, where you'd think that, being a visual thing, video would work so much better than text... Sometimes it does. Especially instructional stuff. Or the people who, as above, one gets to like, and my life with a camera, hints thrown in, is good entertainment. But if I'm browsing through, eg, fstoppers or petapixel, there are heaps of items where I don't stop to watch the video but would have stopped to read the article.

    Not so much an ode to vloggers, more an odear to them.

    (Hey though, everybody has to make a living, and there is far worse on youtube/etc than this stuff)
     
  3. Hammy

    Hammy Friend

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    The first I heard of DMS was when he was a guest in a Linus Tech Tips video and demonstrated the Abyss headphones for Linus. Linus Tech Tips shows up in my YouTube suggestions. DMS never did till the Linus Tech Tips video.

    Here's the Linus Tech Tips video with DMS. My own headphone setup can make me cry too and costs a little bit less than that ultimate Abyss setup.

     
  4. señorhifi

    señorhifi Friend

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    The problem I have with YT is that it's full of shills (cough Zeos cough DMS cough Joshua Valour cough cough). At least the most popular ones tend to be shills. You can see this easily when they deliberately hide things (DMS and Joshua Valour hold a straight face while saying the DT1990 is only a little bit on the bright side). In the end it comes down to them or either being dead honest and loosing touch with the companies that send them free stuff, being shills and keeping the free stuff flowing or (which is what most do), getting to a midterm where they'll talk about everything but the bad things or mention them and mask them out a LOT. It's not a good source of information unfortunately. At best you can use it to see how the product looks like in real life, but that's really it.
     
  5. señorhifi

    señorhifi Friend

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    Now with that said there was one guy, one holy man in the land of the dead, metal571. Guess what? He quit... He was the only true guy there with a plethora of headphone reviews. He decided to be honest, but that doesn't pay off in the long run, only the shills are successful on YT. He said Beyerdynamic cut contact with him after his negative Amiron Home (hiccup, hiccup, hiccup... sorry I almost barfed all over the floor) and DT1990/1770 review. There is also more honesty there to be found, but boy it ain't much.
     
  6. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    I genuinely liked metal571's reviews too but eh, I wish him well regardless and hope this didn't kill his love of audio gear. He had a bad run-in with forum locals after praising the new Audeze LCD-1 to High Heaven and extolling the virtues of the Harman target curve, thereby inspiring a healthy wall of "you're kidding, right?" from some. I presume this didn't do very much to convince him that making more video reviews was worth the stress. I did appreciate how much he strove to be genuine in his impressions, though yeah his preferences didn't easily align.

    He's still active now and again on the headphones.com forum if memory serves, and it's nice seeing him chime in from time to time.
     
  7. Bigpond

    Bigpond New

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    Wtf is youtube?
     
  8. Ksaurav402

    Ksaurav402 Friend

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    In a nutshell, YouTube is a video sharing website where you can watch videos.You can create your own content and upload it as well.
     
  9. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    As @Brause would say: reviews by people who can't write, for people who can't read.
     
  10. LetMeBeFrank

    LetMeBeFrank Won't tell anyone my name is actually Francis

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    [​IMG]
     
  11. Bigpond

    Bigpond New

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  12. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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  13. Bigpond

    Bigpond New

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    Thanks for the insight. Have you read the thread?
     
  14. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    I did. Note: We discussed this matter on PM after he sent me a message.
     
  15. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    First I thought this was a Sennheiser ad.

    Perfect lighting.
    Perfectly curated background.
    Lots of pretty camera angles.

    Note the strongly boosted bass...he probably uses a Shure SM7B microphone.

    Otherwise he does not say much - he remains on the surface. That's mainly marketing, sorry.
    In the end, it is a Sennheiser ad.

    Now I got a lot of flak for this assessment by people who think that curating the background is as important as the message itself. It is not - because it is pure window dressing, it appeals to buying emotions, and therefore takes away from the message.

    Nobody needs unboxing or first looks...absolutely nobody.

    And yes, I am a vlogger myself and I coined the term: "YT videos are for people for can't read by people who can't write". I always point to the accompanying written review. My vlogging schtick is that I am clumsy and terribly bad..and I am in character as Dr. Schweinsgruber. I did a couple of unboxing videos that focus entirely on my difficulties opening the box. But that's not what the sheep want.

     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2020
  16. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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  17. DBSTechTalk

    DBSTechTalk New

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    There are a lot of YT reviewers who also do written blogs, a great example is inToit Reviews https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDhV3KByLSY2roqZ2aQ0XKg. I think it is important to know the reviewers and their preferences and gear used so that you can fully understand where they are coming from.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2020
  18. DBSTechTalk

    DBSTechTalk New

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    removed, see above edit.
     
    Last edited: Oct 29, 2020
  19. perogie

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    I have no real hard opinion on the YT audio scene, I do watch some people but am capable of thinking for myself, so I watch/listen more for exposure to new or different products. The YT audio scene isnt a complete loss for me.

    However, and Ive said this before, I am always wary of a YT audio channel whose most prominent positive comments are for "production values" rather than the audio content of the review. Having watched some of his reviews here and there I most definitely know his ear does not match mine.
     
  20. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Baffles me. Yes, it is great taking the new toy out of the box. That's usually over in a few seconds. Now people have found a way of monetising it. They even invented the word, because perhaps unwrapping or unpacking are not sexy.
     
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