Trusted/Quality Review Sources

Lately I've noticed that there's been some pretty interesting audio releases but (understandably) there hasn't been too much coverage on SBAF with what seems like pretty vocal members getting out of the hobby or dialing their investments in it down.

I'm curious what active reviewers (youtubers, audio blogs, specific members on another forums, ect.) people around here might lean towards to get info on more interesting new releases.

As an example I've recently found Wavetheory on youtube to be a pretty great reviewer for in depth takes (though his taste does diverge from mine, I get where he's coming from).

 

@GoldenOne on YouTube is the best I've ever seen and the only YouTube audio reviews I'll actually watch. Knowledgable, great measurements, experienced non bs honest subjective impressions.

 

I don’t know if you can really “trust” anyone. But what you can do, and this is my personal philosophy, is buy and try some things, form opinions, then see what reviewers are saying. Which ones match up with what you think? Which ones diverge? Which ones have thinly veiled compliments for less than stellar gear?

Over time, it gets easier to triangulate what specific reviewers say with how you’ll find a particular piece of gear. It’s not an exact science, but it generally works out over time.

Same philosophy applies to members of this forum. Some hear things the same way as me, some hear things very differently. It takes time to learn the difference for each user.

To answer your question (sort of) - I’m almost certain I’ll like anything Herb Reichert, Steve Gutenberg, and (posthumously) Art Dudley gush over effusively. That doesn’t mean you, nor anyone else will, but for me, they are trusted reviewers, because I put in some work to triangulate what I like with what they say.

 

@Resolve on the headphones.com forum and YouTube channel has preferences that don't match mine, but the guy's consistent and has a great head on his shoulders IMO, not to mention isn't quite as "MEASUREMENTS ARE EVERYTHING" as many other folks on the web are. On that note, he's also doing a great job pushing back against certain absolutisms on the measurements side of the hobby which is DEEPLY necessary at this point.

TylersEclectic on YouTube, I also met on the headphones.com forum and think is a stand up guy who does a good job describing the sound of things for folk who're unable to hear things for themselves (I can't remember if he has an account here, whoops). From what I've seen, he's done coverage of the ETA stuff and some Nitsch stuff that tracks with other impressions. I will be a bish and say that I don't think his subjective impressions are quite as savvy as some others on here, but he gets them out well enough and backs things up with nice production value for entertainment.

That's not to say the whole headphones.com team is good, by the by. I wont name names but I've come across some absolutely useless articles being featured on their blog with video tie-ins on the YouTube channel; I just ignore them, they read a lot like my head-fi posts going back to 2011. I don't want to think about how long ago that was.

Lots of folk seem to put stock in DMS but I tried looking into his reviews around the time of that whole KZ fiasco and found that I wasn't really getting very much out of his impressions, but they're a damned sight improved to when he was calling the DT880s a budget HD800 (... no, what the hell dude?). He's formerly of Abyss and thinks the new HE-1 Orpheus, which others here have thought to be grossly underperformant and insipid, is grand. Take that as you will.

Avoid Zeos like the plague, it's not even funny content now, nor has it ever been.

@Crinacle has a great library of frequency response measurements but has gone on the record as saying that he doesn't feel that the like of impulse response and CSD make any sense to him given "headphones are minimum phase devices" (timestamped YouTube video HERE) and that distortion graphs need not get as much attention as they do. I think that's a load of bull but the fact remains that he maintains a valuable online resource for eyeballing FR graphs, the nice thing about those measurements being that they don't really care for preferences, since his preferences don't much align with mine either.

The main thing is to try stuff out on your own and try and draw correlations with impressions you read, find the ones that make sense to you, extrapolate therefrom.

 

Well I’m stumped. Single driver “point source” HP’s produce frequencies (say higer vs. lower) that are out of phase with each other?? Maybe he means IEM’s with 28 ba drivers struggle with this?

 

He specifically names "headphones and IEMs" in the video hyperlinked so no clue about that.

 

I’m trustworthy.

 

Exploring alternative reviewers like Wavetheory on YouTube is a proactive approach to discovering diverse perspectives and insights. Remember, finding reviewers whose tastes align with yours can enhance your understanding and enjoyment of new releases

 

@Denino901, maybe introduce yourself and get the feel of this place.
https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/new-members-introduce-yourself.11639/

 

An endless pursuit of opinions with little genuine ablity to evalutate equiptment Its a sewer out there

 

Erin's Audio Corner is my go-to guy for speakers. He's very good at explaining context, his preferences, and the meaning of measurements without distorting their meaning or interpreting them in a questionable fashion (unlike a certain somebody...), and provides separate subjective and objective thoughts.