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. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    A more enjoyable way to spend time on YouTube than watching unboxing videos (IMO). This guy makes knives out of literally anything, including eggs, chocolate, and rice, not to mention more conventional materials like shark teeth and carbon fibre. It's a weird trip:

     
  2. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    It is a weird thing, isn't it? Nobody describes the garage in a car review (but some put "babes" on the hood...which is also odd). And nobody would ever think of unboxing a vacuum cleaner or a notebook computer.

    But one guy once "unboxed" and now everybody does it. Even the term remains the same between "un-boxers".

    It is even more useless in a written review to show 17 pictures of the package (yes, it happened), the reader is struggling through that jungle of redundancies...untl if it is established that the sound is awful...and all that effort was for nothing.
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2020
  3. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Well, I like this guy. Usually he's machining, but this year, he's preventing his workshop from collapsing, building a new wall and putting a new roof on it. I never used to find building interesting!

    But guys like this are just genuine guys. Just doing their thing. Inviting others to join.
     
  4. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    But there is more, because guys like this (as he acknowledges, on every video) could not get that work done without the the support of a community. and without viewers shelling out directly on patreon and directly. But it isn't schilling. It's giving something to someone who seems worth supporting for the ongoing content they provide (like SBAF, I suppose).
     
  5. robot zombie

    robot zombie Friend

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    That is worth mentioning. There are plenty of youtubers making genuine content about stuff that interests them. I think it's kind of cool that it can be a job now. It's like actual slice-of-life, or reality TV with only real things and no drama. The small-timers are pretty cool.

    Sometimes I think the problem isn't so much with the "Youtube" part as it is the "review" part. Once you're on sort of hooked into a mains line with reviews, it's different. It doesn't HAVE to be bad, but generally what you're going to get will be more superficial and 'safe' for them than some random person with nothing at stake. Really, the only honest way to do really big, mainstream reviews and truly stay reasonably honest is to present everything you can find that is objectively there and leave the audience to draw their own conclusions. Easier said than done with things where subjectivity is a significant factor, though.
     
  6. Metro

    Metro Friend

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    Search for just about anything on YouTube and you're almost sure to find it...
    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vacuum+cleaner+unboxing
    I'm not surprised at the popularity of unboxing videos. People enjoy opening packages and they imagine doing it as they watch the video. For a product they are considering for purchase, it removes uncertainty about what they actually receive. For a luxury item they can't afford, it's a fantasy vicarious experience.
     
  7. Brause

    Brause Friend

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    Whenever Dr. Schweinsgruber releases a video, more people unsubscribe. Soon YouTube will be entirely depopulated and we can use the freed internet capacity for distributing more misinformation.

    UPDATE: 2 subscribers cancelled since I posted this. Lack of quality works!

     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2020
  8. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    I made a really informative YouTube unboxing video of the AKG K550 a while back. Unfortunately due to the high content level it’s seen few views. I don’t know why.

     
  9. Deep Funk

    Deep Funk Deep thoughts - Friend

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    The only unboxing videos I can stomach are the watch videos or coffee gear. Watches can be pieces of art, especially mechanical watches.

    Coffee gear, well if you feel compelled to buy the thing you can make good coffee yourself so there is a reward.

    With most unboxing videos I fast-forward or look for the actual review. No review either, skip the content and do something else. Cat videos are always better.
     
  10. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Deeply disturbing.

    I don't have my DAC/amp connected up. Is it even more scary with sound? I don't know if I even dare try it. The screams must be horrendous.
     
  11. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    (Best Unboxing Ever)
    There were no screams. It was worse. Far worse. There was an "ouch" and... Tubular Bells.
     
  12. Gazny

    Gazny MOT: ETA Audio

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    Sound test at the end sounded great on my airpod pros. The jack may be too big for me like you said in the review.

    Really has me thinking how useless some presentations of equipment can be. Nothing will surpass the live experience for my personal opinion. Just sensationalism and hype.
     
  13. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    it’s consumerism porn. Nothing more.
     
  14. auri

    auri Facebook Friend

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    I know this is a necro thread and it's diverged from the original subject matter, but I just wanted to chime in one more time with a specific example of a time I tried to trust a single thing DMS said on YT - or any of the other hundreds like him, really.

    I'm trying to decide between the Sony WH-1000XM4 and the Bose Noise Cancelling 700, especially in comparison to the QC 35 II I had at my last job but turned in. I was actually searching for "Bose 700 teardown" and DMS' video where he compares them to the QC was the second result. Great! The title is "DON'T BUY THE BOSE 700 - REVIEW" - so, not exactly the kind of teardown I was looking for, but what the hell.

    I went into the video the first time only vaguely remembering the uninteresting LTT collab, and the second time today having remembered this thread. I know that in general the odds of encountering any real attempt at objectivity or rigor in genpop are comparable to the odds of surviving an avalanche, especially when we're talking about audio, but I figure there's some hard QOL/convenience meat to dive into when talking about this kind of headphone, if not the more macro concerns surrounding whether or not it sounds good enough in broad strokes to be livable with every day, certainly as opposed to getting pointlessly mired in its pure sonic minutae compared to other headphones. So I figured the thoughts of anyone with the first level of interest in high-end audio on the matter might be useful, because I do want something that sounds decent.

    Even then - with the bar of expectations set at limbo height - I ended up with a bit to unpack.

    1.) He said the 700, and I quote, "ruined the sound" of the QC by introducing a "V-shaped" response curve. As I was concerned with these kinds of broad strokes, well, this was concerning. He showed a response curve on-screen, presumably of the 700, but in comparison to other measurements, maybe just a stock photo of a V-shaped response curve? Reverse GIS turned up nothing.

    DMS' context-free response curve:
    vsh.jpg

    RTINGS:
    rti.jpg

    crinacle:
    700.jpg

    As we know measurements aren't everything, but if someone says something "ruined the sound" compared to something else, I would expect third party measurements to back that up? Here are two different comparisons between the QC and the 700. The first one even makes it look like they phoned it in with the 700 and used the same driver design.

    (Easier to read here)
    ruined2.jpg

    ruined.jpg

    Either way, sure doesn't look ruined to me. It's been a few weeks since I last used the QC. I always swapped them out for my TH-X00 on quieter days but they weren't wholly unpleasant to listen to, and as it turns out, neither are the 700... as long as they're turned on.

    I'm ashamed to admit that his video was originally part of why I didn't bother to try the 700, I simply got the XM4 on Cyber Monday when I noticed the price dropped. I haven't been happy with how bass heavy they are and a minor comfort detail, and I can still return them at the end of January, so why not - got the 700 delivered this morning.

    What I've found is that they sound like absolute hot garbage when plugged in but not turned on, even to a Modi MB/Magni 3 stack. This was not the case with my old QC. I noticed crinacle had measurements of the old QC active and passive and the results were as expected, not wholly different, at least in comparison to the difference with the 700 active and passive. I didn't see any separate measurements for it but it would be pretty ugly anyway.

    So, his comment that the 700 "ruined the sound" of the QC is true in this respect - passive vs. passive. But even the graph he posted isn't what the 700 sounds like passive, because it very obviously has next to no bass.

    From an audio nerd standpoint, the 700 relying on active DSP even when hardwired is kind of annoying. They're only usable as earmuffs and for audiobooks or similar when the battery is dead. But, this might actually be the worst thing I've found about the 700 so far, which is really good news.

    In the most charitable of interpretations, maybe these graphs weren't available to cross reference when he made that video over a year ago. But it becomes so immediately obvious that it's only passive vs. passive when you actually turn the things on that it's just stupid to bring up at length like he did, especially without any mention of that. It might be a somewhat meaningful complaint in that the problem actually exists, but active vs. active they both sound fine.

    2.) We're probably around the same age, but I swear the dude rants on like a stodgy grandpa who misses the good old days because he can't open a PDF when it comes to the controls. Again, in the most charitable interpretation possible, maybe they've made a major change here in the firmware, but his video was several months after their release and he's a nobody so it's not like it was a pre-production unit or something, and for my pair of them, it's a single click of the power button to turn them on and a single click to turn them off. Hold to pair. The light on the bottom is on if they're on. There's even a sound that plays. Yes, I would rather have a power switch instead of a button too, but I'm pretty sure they're a relic of the past at this point for any wireless headphone unfortunately. I'd much rather it be more waterproof and a button if that's a consideration other than just aesthetics.

    3.) This part just reeks of self-importance - guy knocks them for comfort as an objective, widely applicable mark against the headphone without mentioning anywhere that it might just be him and YMMV? I'm 6'3", wear XXL helmets and a size 8 hat, I had to swap out the headband cushion to a piece of cloth to be able to wear a set of the same DT880 he's wearing (why?) in the review. I don't normally Boomer out over tattoos and piercings but I'd be interested to see if the huge gauges he has in his ears have anything to do with it, because the 700 fits my giant head absolutely perfectly with just the tiniest amount of adjustment to spare. Been wearing them for hours now. Praise be.

    The difference between the plaintive, self-centered ranting in his video and my current experience makes me appreciate the guys who go out of their way to provide the first level of additional information to describe why something doesn't work for them. This is a pretty extreme example of subjectivity, but it's useless to talk about the shape of a gaming mouse without mentioning your hand size. There's still good info on YT despite all the examples of flashy, vapid idiots. Maybe a bit hard to find in the audio space I guess. Audio is hard, man. If someone can't even be objective enough to take a step back to consider that a multi-billion dollar company *might not* release a flagship product that's wildly uncomfortable for a large chunk of people, I can only shudder at how horrible his videos covering the minutae of hifi products must be. Would probably be a more effective torture than Baby Shark on repeat.

    Anyway, I'm not going to watch it a third time to find more. I've already wasted enough of my life. I've learned enough to lean on the Gell-Mann amnesia effect to safely discount anything else he has to say, or even measure.

    If anyone finds this post when they happen to be searching for these cans, the jury's still out, but my initial impressions are as such:

    Bose 700
    ++ Comfy! For me and my giant ass head and lack of ear furniture at least. No pressure points, plenty of articulation left.
    ++ Almost zero noise cancellation hiss. Only when you're listening for it. Really impressive.
    + Best looking wireless headphones ever? Both show fingerprints though, so meh.
    + Very, very decent sound. Certainly livable. No glaring inadequacies with the power on. Don't wanna nitpick here.
    + States battery level in terms of hours left. Nice.
    - Sounds like ass when plugged in with the power off, no matter the source.
    - +$60

    Sony XM4
    +++ Automatically stops noise cancellation and even PAUSES YOUR MUSIC when you take them off. Light sensor in an earcup before the AirPods Max did it. Genius! Not in the Bose. Thus, I'm calling this as leading to much better real-world battery life no matter what the numbers say (30 vs 20 in favor of Sony, but only experience would really tell).
    ++ Ability to change noise cancellation based on your movement speed. Defaults to off for running, halfway for walking. Very cool. Again not in the Bose, but it just uses your phone accelerometer so could be added later unlike the light sensor.
    + Better system voice. Bose is obviously a robot. It's all in the details.
    + Better touch controls (whole earcup vs. half)
    + Much better software overall. It is just named "Headphones" which is a bit presumptuous, but you can even take pictures of your ears to "tune" the noise cancellation for God's sake. I mean sure, you're probably getting data mined with either of their apps, and somehow I doubt there are ear fetishists at Sony who are going to squirrel away your intimate cochlear photos for later nefarious "usage"... but you never know.
    + 3.5mm on both ends of the cord, meaning I can't use my 14 different AudioTechnica cables but the right angle side on the stock cord can be used in the headphone or source. It's all in the details!
    +/- Looks fine, no complaints. Not that this is important, you can just definitely tell where the extra $60 in the Bose went to, other than the name and Mercedes F1 sponsorship.
    - Noticeable noise cancellation hiss. Not bad, meaningless with anything playing, this is like half of a minus, but the 700 kinda kills it here.
    - Decent sound but bass heavy. +5 below 400. Can EQ out over BT in the app but not when wired.
    - Again, giant ass head, but the very soft pads cause my left ear to touch the foam inside of the cup. Nothing hard and I can only just feel the foam. It's only on the side with the light sensor that kinda bunches the foam out. Might try to fix by gluing it down if I keep them. Otherwise, will replace pads - they are really soft.

    Leaning towards sticking with the Sony if I can figure out the ear foam. XM3 earpads apparently won't work so might have to wait. It's not like they'll be wired most of the time, so I can probably live with EQing the bass.
     
  15. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    I have nothing to add other than the only reason I don't have ear piercings (I like how they look!) is concern about how they might damage headphones or influence sound.

    Oh and those impressions may be better used in relevant threads. Vtory has one on the XM3 but I can't recall if there's one for the Bose kids (which I remember trying— I think? Same general impressions of a Bose product either way haha).
     
  16. Biodegraded

    Biodegraded Friend

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    I like this guy's reviews - but I'd be wary of anything he says regarding fit...

     
  17. Gazny

    Gazny MOT: ETA Audio

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    YT reviewers are less useful than Iphone recordings from 2016 of a system.
    Nothing will beat hearing it for yourself.



    Content creators have a huge bias, money moves around. Either shipping, "floor models", gifting the item, or payment for ad time, or refer to them a billion times. Screeching into my psyche to consume. Don't blame them too much, most of them are addicted to audio, and will do anything to suck at the teet.

    These reviewers destroy the autonomy many viewers struggle with. Sure maybe that was the psyop. Some of them build armies of compromised individuals. Even form clans with themselves. Personally I find it all very toxic, as if it is some giant machine of crap.
    |\/|
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2021
  18. MaxBuck

    MaxBuck New

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    The same could probably be said about forums like this one and ASR. A site Canon develops, and woe betide the individual who expresses an opinion that the administrators deem to be heretical.
     
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  19. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    No.

    The difference is that we aren't wanting for subscribers and we actively discourage people who do not find this place useful to go elsewhere. We fully grasp that we will not be the truth to everyone.

    There are no heretical opinions here. People here have vastly different gear and preferences. There is only misinformation. Woe betide the individual who espouses misinformation and deems it as truth.
     
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