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YouTube Audio Reviewer Tier List - Jan 2023 Edition

Soria Moria

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2022
Messages
395
Likes
810
Location
Norway
S tier
Amir
Sharur
Erin

F tier
Resolve and all the Headphone show guys - Useless, plus they operate a store so take every of their opinion with a huge grain of salt.

GoldenSound - Aside from the MQA revelation, his videos are 90% nonsense.

Hans Beekhuyzen - Has measuring equiment beside him to give a false impression that he’s knowledgable. This guy is a lost cause when it comes to snake oil and probably believes every tweak in the world. Also he made a video where he says ABX tests aren’t great because you need time to get used to the sound changes your gear brings to pick them out, but will then go on to talk about how whatever audiophile reuter snake oil gear he has bought was an immediately noticeable improvement.

Z reviews - Talks for too long and is too incoherent.

Passion for Sound - A bit like Hans, but not quite as far down the rabbit hole just yet. He’ll be there eventually though.

The Honest Audiophile - Talks about the sound quality differences between different services and calls the drums on Amazon’s streaming service ‘hard hitting’.

Joshua Valour - Incompetent and also probably bought off by Abyss.

Darko Audio - Very pretentious, has no idea what he’s talking about and people probably only trust him because of his British accent.

A British Audiophile - See Darko’s section.

Cheapaudioman - Not the voice of reason he wants to be. Falls for useless R2R toys and likes terrible speakers.

PS (BS) Audio - Scammer.

Steve Guttenberg - Yet another useless talking head.

Andrew Robinson - Clueless (see: Scientific Audiophile’s video on his Yamaha review).

Currawong - Yet another useless talking head.

DMS - Clueless and also an Abyss representative meaning he’s biased. And the LTT Abyss video he featured on was a disaster (see: Scientific Audiophile’s reaction to it).

I used to watch most of these people before coming here.
 

Koeitje

Major Contributor
Joined
Oct 10, 2019
Messages
2,292
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3,880
I added them to the list because I think they bought a B&K 5128 too recently, and I saw a recent video in which they were discussing harman target and FR.
Yes, but he also spoke about dumbing it down for the Youtube channel with the full data only available at their website. I don't remember the exact details anymore but I remember thinking their dumbing down also made it not quite correct anymore.
 
OP
IAtaman

IAtaman

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 29, 2021
Messages
2,272
Likes
3,836
S tier
Sharur
Really? That I find very surprising. I can not judge how much he knows because honestly everytime I tried to watch a few of his vides to hear a different perspective, his excessive anti popular trolling put me off and I shut the video down.
Yes, but he also spoke about dumbing it down for the Youtube channel with the full data only available at their website. I don't remember the exact details anymore but I remember thinking their dumbing down also made it not quite correct anymore.
Might be, in any case, if they continue on this path, which I suspect they might given their recent investment, LTT might be an important source of audio product information for a lot of people.I would love to see Amir there, showing them how to do it properly.
 

Soria Moria

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2022
Messages
395
Likes
810
Location
Norway
Really? That I find very surprising. I can not judge how much he knows because honestly everytime I tried to watch a few of his vides to hear a different perspective, his excessive anti popular trolling put me off and I shut the video down.
He has a high level of technical knowledge, but yes he does mix it a little in with some trolling. He is also very opinionated, and usually calls something that isn’t great for ‘trash’. But I think he’s an important voice in the community.
 

henologist

Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2023
Messages
57
Likes
105
Location
Austin, TX
Amir and Erin are the only reviewers I currently follow because they do measurements and can relate those to subjective experience. You can't really do a youtube video that's just a series of graphs with no opinions or explanations, and pure subjective reviews for audio hardware are worthless. The only youtubers I watch that lean on subjectivity aren't doing reviews so much as they are showing off random interesting things, like Techmoan and DankPods. DankPods also does a decent job explaining more nerdy concepts to a general audience, like what an FR graph means and how different types of headphones work. But I wouldn't take his recommendations for anything that's not drum-related seriously; you see a lot of objectively-poor-but-subjectively-lauded gear coming up in his videos, usually the higher-end stuff that his relatively young audience isn't gonna buy. I would definitely rather have him be the average person's first exposure to audio hardware discourse than someone like Darko.
 

Count Arthur

Major Contributor
Joined
Jan 10, 2020
Messages
2,197
Likes
4,888
My criteria for a reviewer is: "can I use the information they provide to help me select a product?".

From the reviewers I know, and there are some on the list that I don't really know, there are a few that facilitate this:

Amir, obviously.
Crinacle
Resolve
Erin

Also, an honorable mention for some that aren't on the list, like Vintage Flanker, that have made reviews for this forum: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ak-measurements-digital-interfaces-dac.40483/

Of the remaining reviewers that I know, I find them pretty useless, although some are occasionaly entertaining to watch; even if it is to snigger at them explaining why I need a $1,000.00 USB cable with silver conductors.
 
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IAtaman

IAtaman

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Of course, as you wish. Many, including myself, came across the gold coin that is ASR on the latrine also known as YouTube, so if it is not too much trouble for you, would like to continue discussing.
 
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fpitas

Master Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Jul 7, 2022
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9,885
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14,191
Location
Northern Virginia, USA
Can we at least rinse off ASR?
 

FINFET

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Jul 27, 2022
Messages
113
Likes
202
Glad that Julian Krause is mentioned here. He used a dScope to measure audio gears and provided very detailed charts for dynamic range, output impedance, etc. which I find very useful.
Podcastage help me save a lot in microphones. Though I think he should consider adding some measurements as well.
 

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,370
Likes
234,417
Location
Seattle Area
If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Amir receives no revenue from his YT videos. I may be wrong.
You are not wrong. I don't have any monetization on youtube, or even call for donations. I don't even ask for subscribing or hitting the like button.
 

Urvile

Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2021
Messages
85
Likes
109
Location
Seattle
Does anyone have an opinion of Hans Beekhuyzen? Some of the stuff he says seems to make sense, and others to me seem like complete drivel, EG he loves audiophile network switches.

TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel
 

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
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234,417
Location
Seattle Area
Does anyone have an opinion of Hans Beekhuyzen? Some of the stuff he says seems to make sense, and others to me seem like complete drivel, EG he loves audiophile network switches.

TheHansBeekhuyzenChannel
His description of products and teardowns are useful. But nothing he says about fidelity of gear has any merit.
 
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