Please do not link to headphonesty site

[Mnyb]

You can read the original on Benchmark medias own site as a white paper

 

[A Surfer]

Now I really want to visit the site to see it for myself.

 

[stefanovesa]

well done. Facebook is becoming a nightmare populated by AI groups

 

[stalepie2]

I think I remember this site when browsing for headphone reviews in the past, unless I'm thinking of Headfonia and some others. But how is it known for sure that it's AI content? Are there tools to test for that, or the articles are found in part from other sources?

Were the articles always the same quality in years past, before it would likely have been using AI-generated content? Are the names of the "writers" there proven to be fake people?

I ask in part because a lot of the web seems to have suspect content that I figure is AI-helped or entirely AI-generated. When I use ChatGPT through Copilot and click on some of the sources it gives me, sometimes it's to an article that is suspect.

Here is a chat I had with Copilot, saved in screenshots, about this issue:

https://imgur.com/a/Dw1rTFw

As per Copilot's recommendation, I tried GPTZero and copy and pasted an article into its scanner and it said
"We are highly confident this text is a mix of AI and human
84/130 Sentences likely AI generated"

https://imgur.com/a/q2PHqKq

 

[Herbert Shooler]

well done its garbage like most audio sites, in fact any who DONT measure..

 

[thewas]

Thank you @amirm , it is one of the most annoying audio websites currently with seemingly a lot of AI generated content and questionable resources:

Modern Measurement Tools Are Tricking Audiophiles Into Trusting Bad Data, Warns Veteran Speaker Designer

https://www.****************/2025/10/measurement-tools-tricking-audiophiles-warns-speaker-designer/ Comment/opinion from Andrew Jones UK loudspeaker designer. I think he has some valid points to consider in loudspeaker measuring. This site is not one I follow closely I rarely use headphones...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Modern Measurement Tools Are Tricking Audiophiles Into Trusting Bad Data, Warns Veteran Speaker Designer

https://www.****************/2025/10/measurement-tools-tricking-audiophiles-warns-speaker-designer/ Comment/opinion from Andrew Jones UK loudspeaker designer. I think he has some valid points to consider in loudspeaker measuring. This site is not one I follow closely I rarely use headphones...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[mns3dhm]

Headphonesty seems to bear the characteristics of contemporary AI technology on its sleeves. Some things posted there are entirely rational whereas others are more like survey results derived by asking idiots for their opinions and then summarizing them for the readers ‘benefit’. Non discerning visitors could actually become more ignorant by reading and taking some of that nonsense seriously.

 

[see_no_evil]

As goes headphonesty, so goes pretty much the entire Internet. Been on farcebook recently?

Being surrounded is not a good enough reason to give up.

On a subject, thanks for making ASR better place for people in this hobby @amirm

 

[kemmler3D]

I think I remember this site when browsing for headphone reviews in the past, unless I'm thinking of Headfonia and some others. But how is it known for sure that it's AI content? Are there tools to test for that, or the articles are found in part from other sources?

Were the articles always the same quality in years past, before it would likely have been using AI-generated content? Are the names of the "writers" there proven to be fake people?

I ask in part because a lot of the web seems to have suspect content that I figure is AI-helped or entirely AI-generated. When I use ChatGPT through Copilot and click on some of the sources it gives me, sometimes it's to an article that is suspect.

Here is a chat I had with Copilot, saved in screenshots, about this issue:

https://imgur.com/a/Dw1rTFw

As per Copilot's recommendation, I tried GPTZero and copy and pasted an article into its scanner and it said
"We are highly confident this text is a mix of AI and human
84/130 Sentences likely AI generated"

https://imgur.com/a/q2PHqKq

I'm not sure about the articles (the headlines are so dumb I can't bring myself to actually read them) but they manage to get at least one blatantly AI-generated "cartoon" into my facebook feed every day.

I'm not sure whether the site used to have some standards and recently went completely over to the dark side, or what. But at this point they're not even pretending to be legitimate. Every single article is rage / engagement bait, and they are playing both sides, trying to stir up objectivists and subjectivists alike, sometimes pitting one camp of subjectivists against another.

There is no editorial point of view or apparent grasp of facts.

@amirm is doing the right thing banning them, if reposts of their bait show up here, it will only be spreading the chum into otherwise cleaner waters.

There is enough to do responding to people who legitimately believe nonsense, without spending time refuting people who don't even believe the nonsense they're posting.

 

[krabapple]

I mean, hey, I gave ASR a heads up about this awhile ago

what is the *deal* with Headphonesty?

Please use a Seinfeld voice when reading the subject The internet machine keeps pointing me at this effing site, with its buzzfeedish clickbaity article titles and questionable claims mixed with good audio science. For example, they recently claimed quite correctly that you can already hit...

www.audiosciencereview.com

What bemuses me is that it comes complete with a (fake, I guess) origin story and 'team' of people running it.

People are the worst.

 

[jimmyjames8]

I mean, hey, I gave ASR a heads up about this awhile ago

what is the *deal* with Headphonesty?

Please use a Seinfeld voice when reading the subject The internet machine keeps pointing me at this effing site, with its buzzfeedish clickbaity article titles and questionable claims mixed with good audio science. For example, they recently claimed quite correctly that you can already hit...

www.audiosciencereview.com

What bemuses me is that it comes complete with a (fake, I guess) origin story and 'team' of people running it.

People are the worst.

Mike Nesmith (of The Monkeys) said long ago that "basically people are just no damn good."

 

[Liberal Democracy]

Please consider the latest security review from the USA when patronising sites that are based in the US.

Its far more damaging than a AI forged social media audiophile trap .

It would be great to see ASR relocated to European servers.

 

[xanalog]

As went Kansas; so did our old/trusted WWW
Next generation will probably be saying the same thing about AI.

 

[Nango]

I do respect this decision, but ....... eeeemmm, what is wrong with AI created content? Is it toxic as such?

 

[bogart]

I do respect this decision, but ....... eeeemmm, what is wrong with AI created content? Is it toxic as such?

A fair question - I'd say that while it's not toxic as such, the upper limit of what it can accomplish is to restate/distill existing good information.

Median quality AI created content (i.e. "typical content") is more likely to confuse than help, though. It can mix concepts, gloss over details, come to unsupported conclusions, etc. Even though people can do that just as easily as a language model can, there's no "teaching" the language model in the same way that a visitor here can learn.

In this specific case, the prohibited site appears to be a cynical, low-effort trap to generate ad revenue based on controversy and powered by AI content.

 

[respice finem]

I do respect this decision, but ....... eeeemmm, what is wrong with AI created content? Is it toxic as such?

It can IMHO be toxic, because it can mix truth with well, not truth, and, perhaps more importantly, because many people are less lucky with critical thinking and regard AI "drivel" as verified facts. And if one AI (or LLM) will start to train itself on what another wrote, the chaos will be perfect. Which is probably already happening worldwide...

 

[kemmler3D]

I do respect this decision, but ....... eeeemmm, what is wrong with AI created content? Is it toxic as such?

like @bogart said, in this case it's just evidence of lack of effort or interest in accuracy of information on the part of Headphonesty.

In general I personally think AI content is toxic as such because it's 1) inherently plagiaristic and therefore unethical to publish, especially with a profit motive, and 2) it's mostly used to avoid paying someone to create something, and I think society is worse off when it diverts its resources from artists, musicians, and writers to GPUs.

 

[Bleib]

I follow on FB only because of the memes which can sometimes be funny.. obviously the "info" which they provide is not exactly factchecked so I rarely actually click on any links

But there was one which I would have wanted discussed here by people with deeper knowledge than myself. Supposedly someone at Benchmark says that most DACs have a design problem.. and the way to solve it is by cutting the audio by 3-4dB to give it headroom so it continues to sound correct

 

[bogart]

like @bogart said, in this case it's just evidence of lack of effort or interest in accuracy of information on the part of Headphonesty.

In general I personally think AI content is toxic as such because it's 1) inherently plagiaristic and therefore unethical to publish, especially with a profit motive, and 2) it's mostly used to avoid paying someone to create something, and I think society is worse off when it diverts its resources from artists, musicians, and writers to GPUs.

I enjoy agreeing with @kemmler3D as I often do!

I commissioned an illustrator to make a card for me to give my wife the year of our first anniversary. I told the illustrator our nicknames for each other, and she drew a card with those as 'characters' - that card means so much more to us because of the human effort that went into it. I think I paid $50 or $75 to our friend - not life changing money, but an appreciation of that human touch. I could have spent a dollar on image gen tokens instead, and that card would be in the trash today.

Raising a glass to human contributions worth keeping, and avoiding disposable dreck!

 

[Gremlins]

Well, similar to the so called 'reviewers' on YouTube, when vidéos After videos os Always the 'best' i have heard topics .. Always same positive comments, ... All community managers for all brands .. one product, one good vidéo until the next one the day after ... Same as AI stuff imyo ...
Look at stevehuffphoto or tharmanar or so many others ... Useless but still there with nothing new ...