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Stereophile, Atkinson Out, Austin In

andyc56

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This is pretty funny on a number of levels. When I was a young person, I got into EE because of an interest in audio, music and sound reproduction, and this connection has been a passion of mine going on for 40 years or so. Austin has a Ph.D in Physics, and so you might expect him to be passionate about the connection between Physics and sound reproduction. But my conversations with him have shown just the opposite. He has zero knowledge of the Physics of sound reproduction at all, and no desire to acquire it. It's something like getting a degree in finance and having an interest in investing, yet having no interest in connecting the two.
When I've tried to discuss technical grunt-level audio stuff with him, the results were embarrassing.
 
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Kal Rubinson

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When I've tried to discuss technical grunt-level audio stuff with him, the results were embarrassing.
OK but that exchange was in 2006. Things have changed since then and, no doubt, most of us have changed, too.
 

SIY

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I hope to be pleasantly surprised when reviewers are required to use ears-only evaluations and that when they miss clearly audible defects, they're replaced.

Of course, I also hope to win the lottery and to father Rachael Price's children.
 

andyc56

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OK but that exchange was in 2006. Things have changed since then and, no doubt, most of us have changed, too.

He said this:
Jim Austin said:
I did some C++ programming, but that was like 20 years ago

That would've been 1986. Back then, the only "C++" compiler in existence was cfront, which was only available on Unix, and the language wasn't even called "C++" back then, but "C with classes". The first C++ compiler for the PC was Zortech C++, which came out in 1988. So he was literally making stuff up.

But that's not really the full extent of the absurdity. The idea that one would export a WAV file as a CSV and import it into Excel is so absurd as to invite ridicule. But regardless of what one thinks of that absurd idea, I offered to share my source code with him for reading a WAV file, which could have been compiled by him using any number of free C++ compilers at the time. He declined. Shouldn't someone with a Ph.D in Physics be competent enough to do a freshman-level programming assignment when someone is willing to literally hand him the solution?

But hey, "Things have changed since then". LOL. But as they say, "The more things change, the more they remain the same."
 

MRC01

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I hope Stereophile weathers this change better than Innerfidelity has. With Tyll Herstens, Innerfidelity used to have both subjective impressions and objective measurements. Tyll also had engineering knowledge, an experimental attitude, and a fair & transparent approach to reviews. Since he left, I haven't seen any measurements from InnerFidelity and, sadly, their quality and information content has deteriorated.
 

LuckyLuke575

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Stereophile's biggest problem is that they're not doing YouTube reviews.

Z Reviews has more subscribers than Stereophile's officially listed circulation numbers.
Its a crazy observation. I think there's a huge gap on YouTube for objective reviews of audio equipment. It could be a great opportunity for ASR if @amirm was to video record the equipment tests and do live commentary. It would reach so many people, and it would be cool to see the process happen with the AP machine and all. The content is already there, it would just need to be translated to a video format.

I've got nothing against him personally, but the guy who does Z Reviews is a charlatan. If you pay even the slightest attention to the videos you notice that there's nothing there. Its basically watching a dude ranting and raving about audio equipment. If he didn't have the stacks of DAC/AMPs and headphone sitting there, I don't know how many people would pay attention. I think he's ok for promoting product awareness, but its not reviews by any stretch of the imagination IMO.
 

SIY

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It could be a great opportunity for ASR if @amirm was to video record the equipment tests and do live commentary. It would reach so many people, and it would be cool to see the process happen with the AP machine and all. The content is already there, it would just need to be translated to a video format.

I can assure you that watching the process is almost as interesting as watching iron slowly rust.
 

restorer-john

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I think there's a huge gap on YouTube for objective reviews of audio equipment.

Youtube 'reviews' are just tabloid television for the instant gratification, shallow-thinking generation. They'd last 30 seconds watching a test sequence before jumping to the latest cat videos.
 

Blumlein 88

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I can assure you that watching the process is almost as interesting as watching iron slowly rust.
Just requires a little creativity. Like the Australian (or is it New Zealand) fellow who does the entertaining vids on various things electronic.

Amir would have to start with the Pink Panther music. Have animated panthers for each test and come up with a shtick. Now it would take lots of time and would it be best use of time for him? I doubt it.

Now if some forum member has a knack for animation and is willing to animate test result reports for Youtube then it might be a good thing. But as for simply videoing the test procedure......no, iron rusting really is more interesting.
 
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LuckyLuke575

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Just requires a little creativity. Like the Australian (or is it New Zealand) fellow who does the entertaining vids on various things electronic.

Amir would have to start with the Pink Panther music. Have animated panthers for each test and come up with a shtick. Now it would take lots of time and would it be best use of time for him? I doubt it.

Now if some forum member has a knack for animation and is willing to animate test result reports for Youtube then it might be a good thing. But as for simply videoing the test procedure......no, iron rusting really is more interesting.
Of course the entertaining parts would need to be there also, like jokes etc. similar to how Linus Tech Tips makes everything interesting (even when its just putting PC components together).
 

Biblob

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Youtube 'reviews' are just tabloid television for the instant gratification, shallow-thinking generation. They'd last 30 seconds watching a test sequence before jumping to the latest cat videos.
Well this is clearly a generation gap and short-sighted thinking. I for one really like scientific video's because everything is much more clear to me when shown on video and explained this way. I would really like a objective audio-reviewer to get on YT. I think if you could entertain a bit as well, it is a gap for anyone to fill in.
 

Blumlein 88

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I would do it, except I have a face made for radio and a voice made for pantomime.
The Faceless audiophile silent movie reviews of audio gear????? Besides pantomimes usually wear make up or even a mask.

For voice just do the text to speech deal.
https://www.naturalreaders.com/online/
Fun to play with sometimes.
 
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Ron Texas

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I would do it, except I have a face made for radio and a voice made for pantomime.

LOL, this world is full of long mindless YouTube clips from guys with bad voices and the content could be read in one tenth the time, but there is no easy way to monetize it without video. So, we have Z Reviews who does 40 minute unboxings and calls them reviews.
 
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Sal1950

Sal1950

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