Zensō
Major Contributor
It seems no self-respecting audio pundit can resist publishing a rant without taking a swipe at ASR. 
-
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Audio Pundit Rant (Currawong)
- Thread starter Zensō
- Start date
Vini darko
Major Contributor
Well he is a member of head-fi 
- Joined
- May 18, 2020
- Messages
- 1,285
- Likes
- 2,938
I remember this guy from a headphone site some years ago - he insisted edge-clamped planar diaphragms exhibit true pistonic motion.
Did he mention me me me?
Dull.
Notice the 43 db Sinad Audio GD Dac/Amp.It seems no self-respecting audio pundit can resist publishing a rant without taking a swipe at ASR.
Hugo9000
Addicted to Fun and Learning
I like youtube's "auto-generated" transcript feature when it's available! (Stop video right away, click for transcript, scan it to see if anything is interesting. If not, don't waste your time watching the video. If it is interesting, you can skip right to the timestamp of interest. LOL)
00:02
okay it's ready at the outside and mmm
00:05
I'm thinking should I post this
00:07
shouldn't I post this well if you're
00:09
watching and obviously I have posted it
00:10
it's actually a bit of a rant it's the
00:13
five things I most dislike about the
00:17
headphone or kind of audiophile
00:19
community I mean and these are you know
00:23
everyone has their own idea about the
00:24
worst things about you know online audio
00:26
and and and reviews and all that kind of
00:29
thing but this is my kind of top five
00:32
worst at the bottom of the list is kind
00:35
of a very simple one and it's not an
00:37
about difficult one to solve it's kind
00:39
of number five seeking the wrong things
00:42
in audio and of course people come into
00:45
the Hobby and they don't know what to
00:46
look for and they see certain things
00:47
being kind of considered you know you
00:50
should do this or do that or they see
00:52
things mentioned like high rares and
00:53
they buy some simple gear and they think
00:56
I should I get high res musical to make
00:57
everything sound better and no obviously
00:59
no that won't there did going with about
01:02
things kind of the wrong way around and
01:04
it's getting a basic understanding of of
01:07
what things make a difference primarily
01:09
such as you know different headphones
01:11
differ headphones more suited to music
01:13
and adjusting to how loud you listen and
01:15
listening to loud and buying stuff that
01:18
you know if you're down on the low end
01:19
of the range like you're buying a cheap
01:21
portable player and you want to use it
01:23
with full-size headphones knowing that
01:24
you needed a bit more power so it's kind
01:27
of really it's like back when I used to
01:29
do computer tell people online with
01:30
computer stuff you know people who'd
01:33
have a computer problem and they think
01:34
thought they knew what the solution was
01:36
to their to computer problem and they
01:38
come in and ask for help with proven
01:40
doing the solution and you'd ask why do
01:42
you want to do this and they tell you
01:44
and they say oh that's actually not the
01:45
right way to go about solving your
01:46
problem you've actually what you'll
01:49
think is a solution is actually
01:50
something different so that's kind of a
01:52
fairly minor one on the bottom of the
01:54
scale and so but educating people in
01:57
what you know where to put their
01:59
priorities is kind of difficult because
02:00
audio becomes so much more complicated
02:02
than it was 10 years ago the number of
02:04
brands out there them or manufacturers
02:06
most of the time but in some ways it's
02:08
become very simple I would say to a lot
02:10
of people essentially well just buy some
02:12
Bluetooth law counselling head
02:13
phones and that will take care of 90% of
02:15
the problem which you can do just by
02:17
some Sony WH 1000s simple solves are the
02:20
problem you don't need any complex
02:21
electronics accept something that
02:22
transmits Bluetooth and will do 90% of
02:24
the job anyway anyway number four and
02:27
people are gonna think some people gonna
02:29
think this should be higher on the list
02:30
but I don't think so it's hyper trains
02:32
and that means some new product will
02:35
come out and people will think oh this
02:37
is must oh this is amazing new thing and
02:39
get all excited around it I find most
02:41
people are watching headphone having
02:43
been on head fly for 10 years that it's
02:46
often people who've just started on the
02:47
forums and something is being talked
02:49
about a lot and then so the people have
02:50
just come on get involved and get
02:52
interested and start reading about it
02:54
and want to buy the product themselves
02:56
and get caught up in the hype that's not
02:58
so much a bad thing as there aren't so
03:00
many products that are so much bad I
03:03
mean even stuff I've tested which is
03:04
extremely hyped is very good it's maybe
03:07
not worthy quiet of the extreme
03:09
accolades that people may hype on a lot
03:11
of stuff but still if people buy the
03:14
product generally it tends to be good
03:17
so they it's more so that the my dislike
03:23
of hyped ranges we are coming to number
03:25
three and that's one of the hype trains
03:27
around things that measure really well
03:29
and it's because of bad and misleading
03:31
science now there are people are posted
03:33
about this with showing how measurements
03:35
can be manipulated and adjusted and you
03:38
know back when I started I thought why
03:40
isn't like for example digital why isn't
03:42
digital just ones and zeros and why
03:45
can't I just use the cheapest optical
03:46
cable from my whatever my computer to my
03:50
deck and why won't it work perfectly
03:51
fine so I was argued for this a little
03:54
while until I I had bought a cheap
03:56
optical cable for the deck I had at the
03:58
time and then when I plugged in a more
04:00
expensive optical cable and noticed a
04:01
change in the sound I was like oh wait a
04:04
second house is possible when I learned
04:06
how it was possible then I realized that
04:08
it's very possible easily to
04:11
oversimplify the science around things
04:13
probably worse still is this is one of
04:15
the big bang things I dislike is it's
04:17
easy to manipulate science and easy to
04:20
manipulate measurements so they show
04:21
what you want them to and not the truth
04:23
of what's going on and unfortunately one
04:26
of the most popular people
04:27
does this has been clearly manipulating
04:31
measurements and clearly not showing how
04:34
he came about certain measurements and
04:35
as a result while deliberately using
04:39
setting up products from manufacturers
04:41
he doesn't like to show bad results so
04:44
that they get a poor reputation and it's
04:46
very easy to see in something simple
04:48
like this let's say you look at the
04:50
graph with a simple 1 kilohertz spike
04:52
and it shows all the distortion around
04:53
that 1 kilohertz spike in the middle now
04:56
look at the top of that you often see
04:57
some of these graphs overlaid and you'll
04:59
sometimes see that they're measured at
05:01
minus 3 dB
05:02
they're measured in Reverse from 0
05:04
downwards so they're showing how much
05:07
below for the full power signal you have
05:09
kind of distortion artifacts of various
05:11
kinds depending on the measurement being
05:12
taken so often they measured at 0 DB or
05:14
minus 3 dB
05:16
now the thing is when you have people
05:17
doing stuff like they have one graph
05:19
which is taken at 0 DB and the other one
05:21
is taken at minus 3 DB because they want
05:23
the one they want the product the one
05:25
product to look worse they'll they'll
05:27
put one of them might add 0 DB that
05:29
means it is going to show high
05:31
Distortion obviously than the one taking
05:33
it minus 3 DB and you can very easily
05:34
it's very easy to verify this yourself
05:36
as people have taken measurements with
05:37
both 0 and minus 3 DB to show how this
05:40
changes and so it shows one product with
05:42
the overlaid graphs you can see clearly
05:44
that what the product with the person
05:46
wants to favor has been measured at the
05:48
lower rate so it shows lower Distortion
05:50
it's really bad and manipulative science
05:52
it's really bad for it's really bad for
05:55
everyone that people are doing this and
05:57
there's a great post I'm not gonna link
06:00
to but a guy who was a professional
06:02
whose job is to professionally measure
06:03
equipment has posted how it's very easy
06:06
to make a product look bad just by
06:08
simple thing by using the say passing
06:11
stuff through the windows mixer which
06:12
might increase distortion or well what
06:14
have you very simple ways of making a
06:16
product look bad in measurements and
06:18
without showing exactly what settings
06:20
the computer had and the measuring gear
06:22
had no matter how expensive your
06:23
measuring gear is it doesn't matter if
06:26
you buy the best analyzer in the world
06:27
if you are doing stuff to make the
06:28
measurements look bad like you're
06:30
running the interconnects for one
06:32
product across the power cable or who
06:34
know there are many different ways of
06:36
making measurements look bad then it's
06:38
really bad for everyone in the industry
06:39
and and giving you know trying to
06:41
create hype around this place you can
06:43
easily tell this because often there
06:45
will trash particular manufacturers when
06:47
they do this and this is where my next
06:49
thing comes up is what I call the number
06:52
two which is obsession with people so
06:54
with manufacturers or particular ideas
06:58
such as low distortion obsession with
07:00
things like MQA
07:01
assessing with what particular people do
07:04
or particular ideas that can be very bad
07:07
for the Hobby and I find it the probably
07:08
one of the biggest problems for example
07:10
the discussion around mqa lately has
07:13
been very quite toxic in many respects
07:16
mqa our little video on this was
07:19
originally advertised and what falsely
07:21
advertised as being lossless and then of
07:25
course you can still see the old
07:26
articles and in audio magazines which
07:27
show this and you'll have these people
07:30
who have vitriolic lee pointed out all
07:33
the floors with the mqa and all their
07:34
arguments and also people who have
07:36
vitriol that they tried to discredit
07:38
everyone who has criticized MQA
07:40
and it's it's an encoding format which
07:44
has complex issues but because of its
07:47
complexity the peoples obsessions get
07:51
caught up on you know simple ideas like
07:53
Lotus lower distortion is better or this
07:56
sounds better or you know cables are all
07:59
rubbish or trust only trust your ears or
08:02
all this kind of thing where the truth
08:04
is kind of more complex than that
08:06
and because of these over the
08:07
simplifications like you know epic using
08:10
you know purely objective is thinking
08:11
purely subjective is thinking these
08:13
extremes just like extremes in society
08:15
in general are really bad and do do
08:18
damage to the industry overall so kind
08:20
of what do you call black and white
08:21
thinking or black and white or very
08:23
extreme thinking is not good for anyone
08:25
and every ask aspect you know I have
08:28
gear here that measures amazingly well
08:31
such as the cord gear I have non
08:33
oversampling Dax here which measure
08:34
amazingly barely but sound woody
08:36
fantastic
08:37
I had everything sitting around here the
08:41
best one of the best measuring headphone
08:42
amps in the world I have a tube amp
08:44
right next to it you know I have
08:46
everything around here everything has
08:47
its merits and demerits in that but
08:50
understanding where and when these
08:52
demerits and merit
08:54
are useful and when they are not useful
08:56
is more complex than too simple this is
08:58
good and this is bad thinking and that
09:01
leads the number one is that when I
09:03
talked about obsession with people is
09:05
obsession with people who are genuinely
09:08
toxic there very often and this happened
09:11
on head fire you'd have someone become
09:12
very popular they become very helpful
09:14
they gain some maybe some scientific
09:16
knowledge there or some technical
09:18
knowledge and people flocked around them
09:20
to hear what they'd say about staff and
09:22
then those people actually were very
09:24
insecure they'd usually pick one
09:27
manufacturer and they deliberately
09:28
target that manufacturer to say bad
09:30
things about them and they'd they'd pick
09:32
that a manufacturer as the enemy and
09:34
they'd get there all the people around
09:35
them to criticize that manufacturer and
09:38
trash that manufacturer it could be a
09:40
single person it actually caused a lot
09:41
of distress to certain people who were
09:44
genuinely interested in making good
09:45
products and they were basically got to
09:48
the point where lies were being told
09:49
about certain people and then of course
09:51
when they get kicked off head fight they
09:53
end up making their own forum or their
09:55
own group and they go about oh we were
09:57
kicked off to hide the truth about the
09:58
manufacturer absolute rubbish and it's
10:01
these really toxic people
10:02
if basically it's now even infected
10:06
YouTube where I've seen one guy just
10:09
trash out your other reviewers and it's
10:12
I for example for as a reviewer I do my
10:15
own thing I really don't care what other
10:16
people do for the most part and you know
10:18
I have to live with whatever I say and
10:20
and stuff I screw up on video which I
10:22
have but to build yourself up by
10:24
trashing other people is really really
10:27
bad and toxic behavior as someone who
10:31
I'm very clearly I very clearly know my
10:33
own limitations as a person I know when
10:35
the science I have knowledge about is
10:37
limited I know my own limitations and
10:40
you'll hear me say this in the video and
10:41
I say kind of this is about something is
10:43
above my paygrade kind of thing I mean
10:45
it's more technical and more complex
10:47
than I am aware of and I always say as I
10:51
understand stuff because I can't don't
10:53
understand audio fully and I know that
10:54
and I make clear that in my case I know
10:57
my own limit but I don't have to put
11:00
other people down to push boost myself
11:03
up and I see so many other people having
11:05
to do that these what I call toxic often
11:07
toxic leader
11:07
of communities who insist on picking him
11:11
any fashion make picking a manufacturer
11:13
trashing that manufacturer to make
11:15
themselves look good look we're saving
11:17
you from buying this products from this
11:18
evil manufacturer who has terrible
11:20
measurements on their staff or whatever
11:22
and it's really amazing how they go
11:26
about you know again this comes they do
11:28
everything that is kind of bad on my
11:31
list they encourage people to seek the
11:33
wrong things they courage hype trains
11:36
around products who are from people who
11:38
they like or from their friends if their
11:40
friends in the industry and mqa is a
11:42
huge example of what happened to the the
11:44
audiophile press I'm very sure that this
11:46
the whole mqi thing came bad in the
11:48
press because they trusted everything
11:50
they good old mate Bob Stewart said and
11:52
everything they make Bob Stewart said
11:53
wasn't quite correct and often sometimes
11:56
was blatantly not true but that's
11:58
another thing altogether and they
12:00
promote bad and misleading science mqa
12:02
as opposed to child of this people
12:04
posting measurements with you know
12:05
different levels on each product to make
12:07
one look more distorting than the other
12:08
is a poster child of this their
12:10
obsession again with certain
12:12
manufacturers or certain ideas being
12:13
correct or being wrong such as some of
12:16
the measurements claiming stuff wasn't
12:17
capable because you know make the
12:21
arbitrary fact made up in WAV guys an
12:25
example of this Oh everything below
12:26
minus 95 DB is inaudible so the fact
12:28
that my own act has huge distortion
12:30
spikes below that it is irrelevant no
12:33
it's not it's oh absolutely rubbish Dec
12:35
by general standards it was just a cheap
12:37
thing albeit 99 bucks it was fine but
12:40
still it's that kind of thing people
12:43
obsessing about and here's an example um
12:45
distortion down to minus 140 DB well I
12:48
mean a difference between 120 140 DB is
12:50
nothing it's kind of it's an irrelevant
12:52
Leeloo measurement that I'll get into
12:55
the review of that it's the Toxic
12:57
leaders in my opinion are the ones who
12:59
assembled everything that I don't like
13:02
about this hobby and can bring it all
13:06
together into one box so that's my five
13:09
things so the things I recommend people
13:11
look out for is and you'll see these
13:13
people if you point out that they're
13:14
wrong or there's something wrong they'll
13:16
try and they'll justify what they say
13:17
they're trying defend what they say they
13:18
go nuts basically or they they try and
13:21
the other person who's criticizing them
13:23
which is very often happens are you know
13:25
and you'll see it's a it's a thing to
13:29
look out for and there are millions of
13:31
articles online how to look out for you
13:33
know toxic managers toxic people in the
13:34
workplace they have much the same kind
13:36
of traits as those people so for example
13:38
if I say something that's wrong you tell
13:41
me now if you're something you disagree
13:42
I'm happy to have people disagree with
13:44
me for example but you'll see these
13:45
people if you disagree with them they'll
13:47
say they allow this Agreement but if
13:49
they make any comment which disagrees
13:50
with what people says nobody will
13:52
criticize them you'll find that because
13:54
they'll just get hammered by all the
13:56
other people who do agree with the toxic
13:58
leader so these things you should all be
14:01
aware aware of hype trains well they're
14:04
not so bad by themselves usually most
14:06
products that come out up bad bad and
14:08
misleading science is a big problem my
14:10
father was a scientist and there is
14:11
what's reported in the news is just a
14:13
really superficial look at what science
14:17
is about science is extremely complex
14:19
things like audio things like the
14:21
environment things like everything
14:22
around in medicine are extremely complex
14:24
topics if you read what you read in the
14:26
news compared to what you see there was
14:28
a research done on a certain thing what
14:31
you read in the news is usually a big
14:33
summary and when you read the actual
14:35
research it is totally totally different
14:39
to what you read in the news it's vastly
14:40
more complex and vastly more in-depth
14:43
and often very difficult to comprehend
14:45
so look out for oversimplifications and
14:48
science the other thing is obsession if
14:50
someone is going about trashing a
14:51
company stay away from them yeah sure
14:55
there are companies I don't like so much
14:56
or maybe there are companies I like more
14:58
obviously but people look out for people
15:01
who are just just trying to destroy a
15:04
company and every time they post
15:06
anything about them it is negative and
15:07
destructive and they know I'm not and
15:10
the last one look out for people who
15:12
when their argument is countered they
15:14
start attacking the person that's a big
15:16
huge red flag and you should look that
15:19
out it's like good old Margaret that
15:20
just said that she knew where she was
15:22
she knew she'd want an argument when
15:24
people started attacking her personally
15:26
so those are my five things I really
15:28
hate about the audio file kind of
15:31
community audio file kind of the the
15:34
whole hobby
15:35
so I hope this maybe was vaguely useful
15:37
food and thanks for allowing me to have
15:39
my soapbox what do you think comment and
15:41
make the post comments below and tell me
15:44
if you think I'm on the money or there's
15:46
or off the money
English (auto-generated)
okay it's ready at the outside and mmm
00:05
I'm thinking should I post this
00:07
shouldn't I post this well if you're
00:09
watching and obviously I have posted it
00:10
it's actually a bit of a rant it's the
00:13
five things I most dislike about the
00:17
headphone or kind of audiophile
00:19
community I mean and these are you know
00:23
everyone has their own idea about the
00:24
worst things about you know online audio
00:26
and and and reviews and all that kind of
00:29
thing but this is my kind of top five
00:32
worst at the bottom of the list is kind
00:35
of a very simple one and it's not an
00:37
about difficult one to solve it's kind
00:39
of number five seeking the wrong things
00:42
in audio and of course people come into
00:45
the Hobby and they don't know what to
00:46
look for and they see certain things
00:47
being kind of considered you know you
00:50
should do this or do that or they see
00:52
things mentioned like high rares and
00:53
they buy some simple gear and they think
00:56
I should I get high res musical to make
00:57
everything sound better and no obviously
00:59
no that won't there did going with about
01:02
things kind of the wrong way around and
01:04
it's getting a basic understanding of of
01:07
what things make a difference primarily
01:09
such as you know different headphones
01:11
differ headphones more suited to music
01:13
and adjusting to how loud you listen and
01:15
listening to loud and buying stuff that
01:18
you know if you're down on the low end
01:19
of the range like you're buying a cheap
01:21
portable player and you want to use it
01:23
with full-size headphones knowing that
01:24
you needed a bit more power so it's kind
01:27
of really it's like back when I used to
01:29
do computer tell people online with
01:30
computer stuff you know people who'd
01:33
have a computer problem and they think
01:34
thought they knew what the solution was
01:36
to their to computer problem and they
01:38
come in and ask for help with proven
01:40
doing the solution and you'd ask why do
01:42
you want to do this and they tell you
01:44
and they say oh that's actually not the
01:45
right way to go about solving your
01:46
problem you've actually what you'll
01:49
think is a solution is actually
01:50
something different so that's kind of a
01:52
fairly minor one on the bottom of the
01:54
scale and so but educating people in
01:57
what you know where to put their
01:59
priorities is kind of difficult because
02:00
audio becomes so much more complicated
02:02
than it was 10 years ago the number of
02:04
brands out there them or manufacturers
02:06
most of the time but in some ways it's
02:08
become very simple I would say to a lot
02:10
of people essentially well just buy some
02:12
Bluetooth law counselling head
02:13
phones and that will take care of 90% of
02:15
the problem which you can do just by
02:17
some Sony WH 1000s simple solves are the
02:20
problem you don't need any complex
02:21
electronics accept something that
02:22
transmits Bluetooth and will do 90% of
02:24
the job anyway anyway number four and
02:27
people are gonna think some people gonna
02:29
think this should be higher on the list
02:30
but I don't think so it's hyper trains
02:32
and that means some new product will
02:35
come out and people will think oh this
02:37
is must oh this is amazing new thing and
02:39
get all excited around it I find most
02:41
people are watching headphone having
02:43
been on head fly for 10 years that it's
02:46
often people who've just started on the
02:47
forums and something is being talked
02:49
about a lot and then so the people have
02:50
just come on get involved and get
02:52
interested and start reading about it
02:54
and want to buy the product themselves
02:56
and get caught up in the hype that's not
02:58
so much a bad thing as there aren't so
03:00
many products that are so much bad I
03:03
mean even stuff I've tested which is
03:04
extremely hyped is very good it's maybe
03:07
not worthy quiet of the extreme
03:09
accolades that people may hype on a lot
03:11
of stuff but still if people buy the
03:14
product generally it tends to be good
03:17
so they it's more so that the my dislike
03:23
of hyped ranges we are coming to number
03:25
three and that's one of the hype trains
03:27
around things that measure really well
03:29
and it's because of bad and misleading
03:31
science now there are people are posted
03:33
about this with showing how measurements
03:35
can be manipulated and adjusted and you
03:38
know back when I started I thought why
03:40
isn't like for example digital why isn't
03:42
digital just ones and zeros and why
03:45
can't I just use the cheapest optical
03:46
cable from my whatever my computer to my
03:50
deck and why won't it work perfectly
03:51
fine so I was argued for this a little
03:54
while until I I had bought a cheap
03:56
optical cable for the deck I had at the
03:58
time and then when I plugged in a more
04:00
expensive optical cable and noticed a
04:01
change in the sound I was like oh wait a
04:04
second house is possible when I learned
04:06
how it was possible then I realized that
04:08
it's very possible easily to
04:11
oversimplify the science around things
04:13
probably worse still is this is one of
04:15
the big bang things I dislike is it's
04:17
easy to manipulate science and easy to
04:20
manipulate measurements so they show
04:21
what you want them to and not the truth
04:23
of what's going on and unfortunately one
04:26
of the most popular people
04:27
does this has been clearly manipulating
04:31
measurements and clearly not showing how
04:34
he came about certain measurements and
04:35
as a result while deliberately using
04:39
setting up products from manufacturers
04:41
he doesn't like to show bad results so
04:44
that they get a poor reputation and it's
04:46
very easy to see in something simple
04:48
like this let's say you look at the
04:50
graph with a simple 1 kilohertz spike
04:52
and it shows all the distortion around
04:53
that 1 kilohertz spike in the middle now
04:56
look at the top of that you often see
04:57
some of these graphs overlaid and you'll
04:59
sometimes see that they're measured at
05:01
minus 3 dB
05:02
they're measured in Reverse from 0
05:04
downwards so they're showing how much
05:07
below for the full power signal you have
05:09
kind of distortion artifacts of various
05:11
kinds depending on the measurement being
05:12
taken so often they measured at 0 DB or
05:14
minus 3 dB
05:16
now the thing is when you have people
05:17
doing stuff like they have one graph
05:19
which is taken at 0 DB and the other one
05:21
is taken at minus 3 DB because they want
05:23
the one they want the product the one
05:25
product to look worse they'll they'll
05:27
put one of them might add 0 DB that
05:29
means it is going to show high
05:31
Distortion obviously than the one taking
05:33
it minus 3 DB and you can very easily
05:34
it's very easy to verify this yourself
05:36
as people have taken measurements with
05:37
both 0 and minus 3 DB to show how this
05:40
changes and so it shows one product with
05:42
the overlaid graphs you can see clearly
05:44
that what the product with the person
05:46
wants to favor has been measured at the
05:48
lower rate so it shows lower Distortion
05:50
it's really bad and manipulative science
05:52
it's really bad for it's really bad for
05:55
everyone that people are doing this and
05:57
there's a great post I'm not gonna link
06:00
to but a guy who was a professional
06:02
whose job is to professionally measure
06:03
equipment has posted how it's very easy
06:06
to make a product look bad just by
06:08
simple thing by using the say passing
06:11
stuff through the windows mixer which
06:12
might increase distortion or well what
06:14
have you very simple ways of making a
06:16
product look bad in measurements and
06:18
without showing exactly what settings
06:20
the computer had and the measuring gear
06:22
had no matter how expensive your
06:23
measuring gear is it doesn't matter if
06:26
you buy the best analyzer in the world
06:27
if you are doing stuff to make the
06:28
measurements look bad like you're
06:30
running the interconnects for one
06:32
product across the power cable or who
06:34
know there are many different ways of
06:36
making measurements look bad then it's
06:38
really bad for everyone in the industry
06:39
and and giving you know trying to
06:41
create hype around this place you can
06:43
easily tell this because often there
06:45
will trash particular manufacturers when
06:47
they do this and this is where my next
06:49
thing comes up is what I call the number
06:52
two which is obsession with people so
06:54
with manufacturers or particular ideas
06:58
such as low distortion obsession with
07:00
things like MQA
07:01
assessing with what particular people do
07:04
or particular ideas that can be very bad
07:07
for the Hobby and I find it the probably
07:08
one of the biggest problems for example
07:10
the discussion around mqa lately has
07:13
been very quite toxic in many respects
07:16
mqa our little video on this was
07:19
originally advertised and what falsely
07:21
advertised as being lossless and then of
07:25
course you can still see the old
07:26
articles and in audio magazines which
07:27
show this and you'll have these people
07:30
who have vitriolic lee pointed out all
07:33
the floors with the mqa and all their
07:34
arguments and also people who have
07:36
vitriol that they tried to discredit
07:38
everyone who has criticized MQA
07:40
and it's it's an encoding format which
07:44
has complex issues but because of its
07:47
complexity the peoples obsessions get
07:51
caught up on you know simple ideas like
07:53
Lotus lower distortion is better or this
07:56
sounds better or you know cables are all
07:59
rubbish or trust only trust your ears or
08:02
all this kind of thing where the truth
08:04
is kind of more complex than that
08:06
and because of these over the
08:07
simplifications like you know epic using
08:10
you know purely objective is thinking
08:11
purely subjective is thinking these
08:13
extremes just like extremes in society
08:15
in general are really bad and do do
08:18
damage to the industry overall so kind
08:20
of what do you call black and white
08:21
thinking or black and white or very
08:23
extreme thinking is not good for anyone
08:25
and every ask aspect you know I have
08:28
gear here that measures amazingly well
08:31
such as the cord gear I have non
08:33
oversampling Dax here which measure
08:34
amazingly barely but sound woody
08:36
fantastic
08:37
I had everything sitting around here the
08:41
best one of the best measuring headphone
08:42
amps in the world I have a tube amp
08:44
right next to it you know I have
08:46
everything around here everything has
08:47
its merits and demerits in that but
08:50
understanding where and when these
08:52
demerits and merit
08:54
are useful and when they are not useful
08:56
is more complex than too simple this is
08:58
good and this is bad thinking and that
09:01
leads the number one is that when I
09:03
talked about obsession with people is
09:05
obsession with people who are genuinely
09:08
toxic there very often and this happened
09:11
on head fire you'd have someone become
09:12
very popular they become very helpful
09:14
they gain some maybe some scientific
09:16
knowledge there or some technical
09:18
knowledge and people flocked around them
09:20
to hear what they'd say about staff and
09:22
then those people actually were very
09:24
insecure they'd usually pick one
09:27
manufacturer and they deliberately
09:28
target that manufacturer to say bad
09:30
things about them and they'd they'd pick
09:32
that a manufacturer as the enemy and
09:34
they'd get there all the people around
09:35
them to criticize that manufacturer and
09:38
trash that manufacturer it could be a
09:40
single person it actually caused a lot
09:41
of distress to certain people who were
09:44
genuinely interested in making good
09:45
products and they were basically got to
09:48
the point where lies were being told
09:49
about certain people and then of course
09:51
when they get kicked off head fight they
09:53
end up making their own forum or their
09:55
own group and they go about oh we were
09:57
kicked off to hide the truth about the
09:58
manufacturer absolute rubbish and it's
10:01
these really toxic people
10:02
if basically it's now even infected
10:06
YouTube where I've seen one guy just
10:09
trash out your other reviewers and it's
10:12
I for example for as a reviewer I do my
10:15
own thing I really don't care what other
10:16
people do for the most part and you know
10:18
I have to live with whatever I say and
10:20
and stuff I screw up on video which I
10:22
have but to build yourself up by
10:24
trashing other people is really really
10:27
bad and toxic behavior as someone who
10:31
I'm very clearly I very clearly know my
10:33
own limitations as a person I know when
10:35
the science I have knowledge about is
10:37
limited I know my own limitations and
10:40
you'll hear me say this in the video and
10:41
I say kind of this is about something is
10:43
above my paygrade kind of thing I mean
10:45
it's more technical and more complex
10:47
than I am aware of and I always say as I
10:51
understand stuff because I can't don't
10:53
understand audio fully and I know that
10:54
and I make clear that in my case I know
10:57
my own limit but I don't have to put
11:00
other people down to push boost myself
11:03
up and I see so many other people having
11:05
to do that these what I call toxic often
11:07
toxic leader
11:07
of communities who insist on picking him
11:11
any fashion make picking a manufacturer
11:13
trashing that manufacturer to make
11:15
themselves look good look we're saving
11:17
you from buying this products from this
11:18
evil manufacturer who has terrible
11:20
measurements on their staff or whatever
11:22
and it's really amazing how they go
11:26
about you know again this comes they do
11:28
everything that is kind of bad on my
11:31
list they encourage people to seek the
11:33
wrong things they courage hype trains
11:36
around products who are from people who
11:38
they like or from their friends if their
11:40
friends in the industry and mqa is a
11:42
huge example of what happened to the the
11:44
audiophile press I'm very sure that this
11:46
the whole mqi thing came bad in the
11:48
press because they trusted everything
11:50
they good old mate Bob Stewart said and
11:52
everything they make Bob Stewart said
11:53
wasn't quite correct and often sometimes
11:56
was blatantly not true but that's
11:58
another thing altogether and they
12:00
promote bad and misleading science mqa
12:02
as opposed to child of this people
12:04
posting measurements with you know
12:05
different levels on each product to make
12:07
one look more distorting than the other
12:08
is a poster child of this their
12:10
obsession again with certain
12:12
manufacturers or certain ideas being
12:13
correct or being wrong such as some of
12:16
the measurements claiming stuff wasn't
12:17
capable because you know make the
12:21
arbitrary fact made up in WAV guys an
12:25
example of this Oh everything below
12:26
minus 95 DB is inaudible so the fact
12:28
that my own act has huge distortion
12:30
spikes below that it is irrelevant no
12:33
it's not it's oh absolutely rubbish Dec
12:35
by general standards it was just a cheap
12:37
thing albeit 99 bucks it was fine but
12:40
still it's that kind of thing people
12:43
obsessing about and here's an example um
12:45
distortion down to minus 140 DB well I
12:48
mean a difference between 120 140 DB is
12:50
nothing it's kind of it's an irrelevant
12:52
Leeloo measurement that I'll get into
12:55
the review of that it's the Toxic
12:57
leaders in my opinion are the ones who
12:59
assembled everything that I don't like
13:02
about this hobby and can bring it all
13:06
together into one box so that's my five
13:09
things so the things I recommend people
13:11
look out for is and you'll see these
13:13
people if you point out that they're
13:14
wrong or there's something wrong they'll
13:16
try and they'll justify what they say
13:17
they're trying defend what they say they
13:18
go nuts basically or they they try and
13:21
the other person who's criticizing them
13:23
which is very often happens are you know
13:25
and you'll see it's a it's a thing to
13:29
look out for and there are millions of
13:31
articles online how to look out for you
13:33
know toxic managers toxic people in the
13:34
workplace they have much the same kind
13:36
of traits as those people so for example
13:38
if I say something that's wrong you tell
13:41
me now if you're something you disagree
13:42
I'm happy to have people disagree with
13:44
me for example but you'll see these
13:45
people if you disagree with them they'll
13:47
say they allow this Agreement but if
13:49
they make any comment which disagrees
13:50
with what people says nobody will
13:52
criticize them you'll find that because
13:54
they'll just get hammered by all the
13:56
other people who do agree with the toxic
13:58
leader so these things you should all be
14:01
aware aware of hype trains well they're
14:04
not so bad by themselves usually most
14:06
products that come out up bad bad and
14:08
misleading science is a big problem my
14:10
father was a scientist and there is
14:11
what's reported in the news is just a
14:13
really superficial look at what science
14:17
is about science is extremely complex
14:19
things like audio things like the
14:21
environment things like everything
14:22
around in medicine are extremely complex
14:24
topics if you read what you read in the
14:26
news compared to what you see there was
14:28
a research done on a certain thing what
14:31
you read in the news is usually a big
14:33
summary and when you read the actual
14:35
research it is totally totally different
14:39
to what you read in the news it's vastly
14:40
more complex and vastly more in-depth
14:43
and often very difficult to comprehend
14:45
so look out for oversimplifications and
14:48
science the other thing is obsession if
14:50
someone is going about trashing a
14:51
company stay away from them yeah sure
14:55
there are companies I don't like so much
14:56
or maybe there are companies I like more
14:58
obviously but people look out for people
15:01
who are just just trying to destroy a
15:04
company and every time they post
15:06
anything about them it is negative and
15:07
destructive and they know I'm not and
15:10
the last one look out for people who
15:12
when their argument is countered they
15:14
start attacking the person that's a big
15:16
huge red flag and you should look that
15:19
out it's like good old Margaret that
15:20
just said that she knew where she was
15:22
she knew she'd want an argument when
15:24
people started attacking her personally
15:26
so those are my five things I really
15:28
hate about the audio file kind of
15:31
community audio file kind of the the
15:34
whole hobby
15:35
so I hope this maybe was vaguely useful
15:37
food and thanks for allowing me to have
15:39
my soapbox what do you think comment and
15:41
make the post comments below and tell me
15:44
if you think I'm on the money or there's
15:46
or off the money
English (auto-generated)
What a crushing bore. He ought to add himself to his list of “things”.
SBAF = Schitt's Best Audio Friend
What a guy. He talks about "toxic" people over and over again, not realizing he is the leader of such group. He says this toward the end:
"When their argument is accounted they start to attack the person. "
Let's look at who does that. When I first got notoriety on head-fi due to my review and testing of Schiit Yggy having problems, a storm got created with him and Jude right behind it. Here is what Jude said:
[...]
I post under my real name and credentials and this guy goes out of his way to position me as someone else. This is obviously a personal attack which he says is a sign that you should avoid such people!
Most of his rant is about me without having the courage to use my name. If he had, then people could point out to him the many awards I have given to Schiit products and how the company has transformed itself to produce better engineered products. There was no agenda, and never has been to put down one company and raise another as he says over and over again.
At the end of the day, science and engineering are his enemy because it invalidates much of what he talks about and believes (Toslink cables sounding different to him). So he goes and produces a toxic video to rant about us/me because we are advancing the cause of audio transparency and great engineering.
I can see them being frustrated but we are not the enemy here. The enemy is beveling in your gut instead of spending the time and energy to get educated. Just because you have a body, you don't become a doctor. Just because you have ears, you don't become an expert in audio. These guys need to learn to perform controlled testing. Understand how audio products really work. What can do something that is audible and what doesn't have a chance.
So we will see blogger after blogger rating this way. Meanwhile, we got business to do which is characterize as many audio products we possibly can using reliable, objective data that follows audio science and engineering. They can stew over it or peak here once in a while and understand the real world of audio. Making a video to rant doesn't help and just shows the hypocrisy of the points he is trying to make as I showed above.
"When their argument is accounted they start to attack the person. "
Let's look at who does that. When I first got notoriety on head-fi due to my review and testing of Schiit Yggy having problems, a storm got created with him and Jude right behind it. Here is what Jude said:
[...]
I post under my real name and credentials and this guy goes out of his way to position me as someone else. This is obviously a personal attack which he says is a sign that you should avoid such people!
Most of his rant is about me without having the courage to use my name. If he had, then people could point out to him the many awards I have given to Schiit products and how the company has transformed itself to produce better engineered products. There was no agenda, and never has been to put down one company and raise another as he says over and over again.
At the end of the day, science and engineering are his enemy because it invalidates much of what he talks about and believes (Toslink cables sounding different to him). So he goes and produces a toxic video to rant about us/me because we are advancing the cause of audio transparency and great engineering.
I can see them being frustrated but we are not the enemy here. The enemy is beveling in your gut instead of spending the time and energy to get educated. Just because you have a body, you don't become a doctor. Just because you have ears, you don't become an expert in audio. These guys need to learn to perform controlled testing. Understand how audio products really work. What can do something that is audible and what doesn't have a chance.
So we will see blogger after blogger rating this way. Meanwhile, we got business to do which is characterize as many audio products we possibly can using reliable, objective data that follows audio science and engineering. They can stew over it or peak here once in a while and understand the real world of audio. Making a video to rant doesn't help and just shows the hypocrisy of the points he is trying to make as I showed above.
My butt would hurt too if I had blown so much money on Schiit and Audio GD only to see its true performance revealed on ASR. One could buy a year of Harvard tuition with what was spent on the piles of artisanal headphones and stacks of Schiit in that man's listening room.
He would do well to sell off his piles of Schiit and bubinga wood headphones and perhaps focus on self-improvement or activities involving other humans.
Here are my five pet peeves about the mainstream headphone community represented by Head-Fi and SBAF (no video because I don't want to waste your time):
He would do well to sell off his piles of Schiit and bubinga wood headphones and perhaps focus on self-improvement or activities involving other humans.
Here are my five pet peeves about the mainstream headphone community represented by Head-Fi and SBAF (no video because I don't want to waste your time):
- Silly subjective reviews that draw fine (and probably erroneously delineated) distinctions between products
- A focus on badly engineered artisanal headphones that are often made out of exotic woods and produced only in limited runs on Massdrop
- Discussions of headphone characteristics that headphones cannot possibly have (particularly "soundstaging" and bass "slam")
- Lack of interest in information or science
- Spending loads of money on headphones to earn street cred with . . . other members of the headphone community
Last edited:
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3 db more or less anywhere isnt going to transform that into any less of a bag of spanners.
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Currawong, or as I refer to him CurraWrong, is a moderator at head-fi. He sometimes moderated the Sound Science sub forum in some most peculiar ways. I've a strong distaste for the guy personally. Didn't bother with the video. If he feels strongly about it, it likely is wrong.
Nahh. He doesn't get along with SBAF either.
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