Where are the reviews?

[Rataan]

It's interesting to hear DaveF's take on YouTube reviewers, because if you listen to them they are all innocent angels dealing with nasty office drones from faceless corporations. They then go on to tell you all they are trying to do is give 100% unbiased and unpaid reviews (insert ad for VPN and Better Help here), all for the good of the downy-cheeked, wide-eyed Newbies of the Internet. I couldn't keep track of all the brands that are on Andrew Robinson's hate list, most of which I gleaned came from unsatisfactory interactions with his wife, a woman who manages to exude entitlement even while refusing to show her face.

It looks like Jay's Iyagi faced some backlash for a very positive review of an Arendal speaker. The only reason I know is because I saw him on the Audioholics channel defending it. When I was in the market for a major speaker upgrade a year ago, Arendal was at the top of my list, but I found their marketing a little troubling. I just couldn't tell how much was sizzle and how much was steak. I know every one of these influencers swear on their mother's soul they could never be bought, but there are other ways of getting someone to jump on your bandwagon without blatantly paying them. Above all else, influencers need to produce content, and lots of it. A company with a well-funded marketing department that will treat them like royalty and pay for and do most of the logistical work is a dream come true for them. Then there are the intangible perks like access to information and rumors, special treatment at trade shows, etc.

As far as I'm concerned, I only watch YouTube for entertainment and I take all of it with a dump truck load of salt. I know a so-called reviewer has fully jumped the shark when they start flogging Chinese brands like OnePlus phones from a few years back or CFMoto motorcycles now. I must be the smartest guy in the world, because I was one of the only people on Twitter pointing out that OnePlus had been caught red-handed rigging benchmarks, sending customer data to China, and hiring a fraudulent company to process customer credit cards. And yet JerryRigEverything, a guy who I never heard say anything good about an Apple phone, posted a video where he kept saying "Good job, OnePlus!" over and over again. I posted a reasonably restrained response in the comments, but it was probably deleted. I don't know because I never went back to look. Fast forward six or seven years and I did a search of his recent videos to see if he was still flogging them. It seems that he is to some extent, even though the bloom fell off the OnePlus rose some time back in 2018 when dinosaurs roamed. It would seem that once you sell your soul, it is hard to get it back.

[Alex_Pants]

It's interesting to hear DaveF's take on YouTube reviewers, because if you listen to them they are all innocent angels dealing with nasty office drones from faceless corporations. They then go on to tell you all they are trying to do is give 100% unbiased and unpaid reviews (insert ad for VPN and Better Help here), all for the good of the downy-cheeked, wide-eyed Newbies of the Internet. I couldn't keep track of all the brands that are on Andrew Robinson's hate list, most of which I gleaned came from unsatisfactory interactions with his wife, a woman who manages to exude entitlement even while refusing to show her face.

It looks like Jay's Iyagi faced some backlash for a very positive review of an Arendal speaker. The only reason I know is because I saw him on the Audioholics channel defending it. When I was in the market for a major speaker upgrade a year ago, Arendal was at the top of my list, but I found their marketing a little troubling. I just couldn't tell how much was sizzle and how much was steak. I know every one of these influencers swear on their mother's soul they could never be bought, but there are other ways of getting someone to jump on your bandwagon without blatantly paying them. Above all else, influencers need to produce content, and lots of it. A company with a well-funded marketing department that will treat them like royalty and pay for and do most of the logistical work is a dream come true for them. Then there are the intangible perks like access to information and rumors, special treatment at trade shows, etc.

As far as I'm concerned, I only watch YouTube for entertainment and I take all of it with a dump truck load of salt. I know a so-called reviewer has fully jumped the shark when they start flogging Chinese brands like OnePlus phones from a few years back or CFMoto motorcycles now. I must be the smartest guy in the world, because I was one of the only people on Twitter pointing out that OnePlus had been caught red-handed rigging benchmarks, sending customer data to China, and hiring a fraudulent company to process customer credit cards. And yet JerryRigEverything, a guy who I never heard say anything good about an Apple phone, posted a video where he kept saying "Good job, OnePlus!" over and over again. I posted a reasonably restrained response in the comments, but it was probably deleted. I don't know because I never went back to look. Fast forward six or seven years and I did a search of his recent videos to see if he was still flogging them. It seems that he is to some extent, even though the bloom fell off the OnePlus rose some time back in 2018 when dinosaurs roamed. It would seem that once you sell your soul, it is hard to get it back.

Anyone calling themselves an "influencer" and in the same breath describing themselves as "unbiased" or saying they "can't be bought" is a liar. You're an influencer, you're literally trying to influence people to buy a product. You don't do that unless you have something to gain from the act of influencing.

[piaresquared]

To my knowledge, Erin's Audio Corner has respectable integrity. He has frequently purchased loudspeakers with his own money to review and then sold them at a small loss to his Patreon supporters even when he could technically return them under a return policy (like Crutchfield's). I am a Patreon supporter of his, and I've seen this a few times. He also does get speakers on loan from manufacturers, but he has made critical comments (based on his Klippel measurements) on some models, and he has manufacturers who will no longer send him gear. He does place affiliate links on his YouTube page for popular speakers, but according to him this provides just minimal beer and gas money.

I agree with the comment above that his review of the Sierra 1 V2s is what reminded me of Ascend Acoustics fourteen years or so after getting a pair of CBM 170s (which I still have).

On a separate note, I just discovered another YouTube reviewer has been paid off by manufacturers in a way I had not previously heard of. Although he makes all the usual claims about the objectivity and independence of his reviews, he let it slip in a live stream that manufacturers give him free equipment to take clips of his videos and post the clips on their website. So, he's basically a paid spokesman for their products, but conceals this fact and would even protest that it doesn't influence him.

So, it's generally a cesspool out there, but I think Erin might provide a fair, objective, and useful review.