tbh it legit was just a subtweet at NTR and amirm
mostly because it seems they are more about how perfectly it seems on a sheet or on a playlist that only focuses mostly on precision.
which is not what I find fun about music… i like fucking grados for god sake and those would fail
also if so many dacs sound the same why bother with an external dac when a laptop has a dac that isn’t noisy or distorts and i haven’t noticed that much a difference with the USB dacs i’ve used… not until i tried out the dragonfly red and hip dac on my phone when i actually noticed a difference in the bass and that was it
You’re the poet my friend, not I. You want to know what someone “feels”. This is interesting, I don’t believe I have ever received a reply I could possibly disagree with more. On most every point.
“Well clearly you are not educated enough about measurements”
Thanks for that considering you then turn around and give me superpowers. I some how can magically turn a graph into what I hear. I wish; I could then just purchase one item and automajically turn it into whatever I want. You sound like someone whose subjective sound impressions were not verifiable with measurements. Thus embittered, you exaggerate a litany of trivial measurement ills to justify dismissing all of it.
Then, take your statement:
“There is no “bright”. What is “bright” for you, is “warm” or “not enough treble” for another.”
Rubbish. You totally exaggerate and I believe you know it. Within reason we are all the same species and few of us fall out of spec so drastically. The implications of that single statement on your part are no less than existential. Ignore all reviewers, ignore all measurements, and ignore you. The only solution is to send away for 10 products of interest to an independent third party versed in double blind measurements and then test for your preferences: with a beer and not a beer, full moon or not, temperature variance, who else is in the room or not, and your mood. I give up.
Let me cue you in on my process. I regularly read many reviewers. I “measure” their enthusiasm for an audio product and If on average a particular product floats to the top I might buy it if it fits my interest at the time e.g. recently UM MEST IEM. I will then listen to it with dozens of musical pieces and compare it to my equipment inventory. I have then numerous impressions that I then go to published frequency graphs to get an explanation, not before. This has worked so well that I consider folks like Amir know what they are doing, despite the occasional human errors they make. I also note that the reviewers, on a second viewing, are not unlike me no matter what music they like.
Of course there are differences in ear structure, your own sensitivity to different frequencies, etc. But not nearly as much as you imply. After doing this for a while, my personal main difference is that I am not particularly sensitive to upper treble spikes as others due to my age.
In the end we cannot know what someone experiences but I think sound is not nearly as subjective as we think. We hear the same highs and lows, resolution, staging. This is the only way we are able to talk about music at all other than just, er, feelings. What is subjective is what sound properties we VALUE. Some want more base extension, some less. But on the whole we hear the same base extension.
Taking your arguments to their logical conclusion I would just be a hermit. There would be no purpose to talk about music to anyone unless its only in terms that something made me feel love or hate, happy or sad. Perhaps that’s what you mean? Thus I call you the poet.
I have no idea what reviewers you listen to but I would be curious.
Well there goes that. Not having the need to waste neither my time nor energy.
All I can say, as long as you are happy listening to music, I am happy.
That’s all that matters, and you are entitled to have your own opinion. I respect that.
To be fair to the reviewers you mentioned your statement:
“p.s. I believe that every single reviewer that you mentioned is using plain words to explain sound”
Is not true for all of them e.g BGGAR. He always uses music minute marks to illustrate his comments. In my experience I find far more consistency in reviewer evaluations than you appear to. Where they are different, now and then, is very interesting and is generally explained by vastly different music tastes such as hip-hop vs classical. I see far less difference is sound perception between people than you do (bright is pretty much bright for everyone). The bell curve is very narrow. You might say evolution selects for this; we need to agree on what sounds like a lion as opposed to an elephant.
Now what we VALUE in sound appears very different, bright music may be desirable or not. The value one attributes to base, treble, detail, stage etc. is a more fruitful approach to what is subjective.
Favorite headphone YouTube channels
Joshua Valour and the Headphone Show, those two channels are amazing. They go into tremendous detail, and they do a fantastic job describing the sound.
Chuckolatte is fun to listen to, he seems determined to keep HD 600 as king of headphones. I like Steve Guttenburg too, although I have purchased products that he raved about, and I didn’t feel as great about them as he did. Love his love for Grado.
Z Reviews, I have pretty much stopped listening to him, I just don’t get as much out of his videos as I do the people above.
DMS, I love how opinionated and passionate he is.
Oluv, He is terrific with Bluetooth speakers, but I think he needs more seasoning with his headphone reviews, he seems to think HD 600 and other high impedance phones sound the same out of a phone as they do out of a high-powered stereo or amplifier,I feel that those headphones sound muted and not to the full audio potential out of portable devices.
David Sylvia, he is very good, he gets better and better as he samples more products.
Wheezy Reviews, he is beginning to get into higher end gear, which is great because his analyses of the products he has so far sampled has been of a very high quality.
Home Studio Basics, I find that I disagree with him periodically, but he is always worth listening to.
Remember Lachlanlikesathing? He’s over at Minidisc now. He does not review much anymore, but he recently had a nice video about the new HD560.
Hifiinsider doesn’t unbox or review much anymore. His HD600/650 comparison video is still right on after all these years. I think he is a fan of all the headphone companies and wants to see them all do well, he’s all about the flourishing of the industry as a whole, so you won’t always get the passionate opinionated views from him as you would from others.
Do you remember TheGamingAudiophile? He doesn’t review that much anymore. For a while it was fun to watch his videos because every time he reviewed a new headphone, it was the best headphone he had heard, until a few weeks later when he came out with another headphone review and that was the best one he had ever heard. Toward the end of his reviewing time, I thought he was getting better, more nuanced and balanced and less predictable.
Do you remember dalethorn? Loved his reviews and eq charts. He was all about the eq. A big Grado guy. Loved it when he had those big 15 headphone comparison videos, those were crazy good, complete with audio forge eq charts of course.
Thank you for taking your time to put down such a detailed list. Respect!
Thank you and you are welcome
I like to see the love for Chuckolatte, I don’t see him referenced here often, but I’ve really enjoyed his videos.
I’ve been watching Michael de Lazzer lately and I quite like his style. I think his unique style contributes something different in the HiFi world. I really hope his channel can grow in the future.
The reviewers I pay any attention to are just Zeos and Steve Guttenberg. I trust Z’s recommendations and so far I’ve not been disappointed in anything I’ve bought based on his reviews. What I also enjoy about Z is his style of reviews. To me he is down to earth and real and goes over equipment that the majority of people can afford to purchase if they choose.
His review station(s) are usually messy with gear and wires all over. That is indicative of real life and how most of our setups probably look like to some degree. As much as I like and keep my cable management clean and tidy, there is no reasonable way to have it all showroom perfect.
I like Steve Guttenberg more for his historical background and his subdued enthusiasm for ultra high-end gear that I’ll probably never be able to afford. He seems genuine and has a vast experience with the hobby and industry overall.
A couple of reviewers I don’t much care for are DMS and John Darko. I’m not into the style of reviews of DMS all that much. John Darko seems a little out of touch for my liking when it comes to gear and prices that are chasing that last 1% of fidelity that I think most of us couldn’t discern if our lives depended on it.
I do fear however, that if I watched anymore reviewers than I do, I’d end up broke!
Poor William from the Headphone Experience has had a rough time of it lately…get well soon sir 
A couple recent reviews from 2 of my favorite channels:
I haven’t had a chance to watch much of his other stuff, but the amount of detail and experiments he has gone through just on vinyl cleaning has really cleared up much of reality vs bs when it comes to vinyl care/cleaning. I am pretty big fan if any of you guys are into that, you might wanna check out Paul Rigby.
I really enjoy the British Audiophile videos. Really informative and well presented:
I saw a review by this guy and I really didn’t like his possible bias. He reviewed Legacy 4 and in 3 mins out of the total 18 mins, he praised Linsoul for how fantastic a company it is, how much they have done for audio and that they are the ONLY company that never expect anything in return from him as a reviewer.
I mean he has made 25 videos and at least 50% looks like Linsoul products and the way he spoke about them, he sounded very biased in a way, where all products from Linsoul have to be great.
I could for sure be wrong, but after seeing A LOT of reviews on YT, he stands out to me in a not so good way.
Schill detected.
Lately, I’ve been enjoying Randy The Cheapaudioman quite a bit; he never takes himself too seriously, isn’t overly verbose and genuinely seems to enjoy what he does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdMYEvgyG4g
lol that guy reminds me of Zach Galifonakis on between two ferns doing audio reviews.
