Just read, that is exactly what Greisinger is saying in your attached comment
As I said, videos per se are not a wrong, using them for performance judgments is.
So if people can't audition locally, your solution to this problem is to use videos instead? How about fostering local dealers, so more would exist, and not less?
You don't buy a watch for its intrinsic performance, do you? Thus seeing a nice unboxing video of a watch is perfectly fine to establish whether you'll be remotely interested in it or not, and then procure it.
How does that relate to a hobby where people (supposedly) buy product because of how they SOUND? Forcing the product's sound performance through several lossy/additive steps doesn't sound coherent to me, as I said before, it defeats the purpose of this whole hobby.
I don't think this topic is as polemic as some are suggesting. These videos will not solve any problems. They will not accurately portray the sound of a system. They are not going to put dealers out of business. Some people simply have fun sharing them, and they may give some insight into a system when combined with how someone describes the sound through writing.
I think people will share these more and more. Some videos will be of higher quality than others. Some may be junk. Systems will be unfairly criticized. People will see the gear and it will be one more tool with which to describe a system. I do not think that people denigrating the videos will have much impact on their popularity.
Basically, the videos are here, and they are not going anywhere. If you don't like them, it's pretty easy to avoid looking at them. I keep referring to Tang's videos because they are pretty basic, but I really enjoy them. And I learn about some of his music in the process. I just don't think this is such a big deal. Let the people who find these videos useful, for whatever reason, enjoy them and make use of them.
No one is fooling themselves into thinking these videos are the tell-all. NO ONE. So why even discuss it? There is no reason. But people are having fun, and it does create more exposure. The limitations and simplicity add depth of entertainment. If we all got professional recording gear to do this we'd be bored and exhausted on it.
Acoustically-coupled cell phone recordings of high-end audio systems make no sense to me personally (except in the narrow and limited scenario where an iPhone is fixed in position in a single system and the same track of music is played at the same volume and one thing (and one thing only) in that same system is changed for an A/B comparison; in this case the recording might be able to illuminate the difference).
I just don’t see how recording the acoustic output of high-end audio systems using the ADC in an iPhone, and then playing back that low quality and low resolution digital recording through the tiny, tinny iPhone speaker, bears any high-fidelity relation to the original analog stereo sound created by a meticulously assembled stereo system with carefully positioned loudspeakers.
Why don’t we all run our expensive and perfectionistically massaged analog signals through the cheap ADC chip in our desktop computers and burn CDs and then compare the overall sounds of our different analog systems by playing the resulting CDs in our cars?
How can I explain how much fun it can be when you feel the music...
go to 6:33 on the video and watch it on a larger screen. I listened to this on my iphone and never saw the effect the subs had on the iphone.
Indeed my listening chair was vibrating.....volume was about at my limit which is about 10'oclock.
Anyway I might have to reconsider these simple videos for there ability to convey power, punch, gestalt
Sorry about the total length as I deleted the original yesterday or else I would have trimmed it way down.
Reference Recording Pomp and Pipes track 4
It all does take a bit of imagination and work to get used to. But it’s worlds better than reading somebody’s written words and it takes a whole lot less imagination and work.
Acoustically-coupled cell phone recordings of high-end audio systems make no sense to me personally (except in the narrow and limited scenario where an iPhone is fixed in position in a single system and the same track of music is played at the same volume and one thing (and one thing only) in that same system is changed for an A/B comparison; in this case the recording might be able to illuminate the difference).
I just don’t see how recording the acoustic output of high-end audio systems using the ADC in an iPhone, and then playing back that low quality and low resolution digital recording through the tiny, tinny iPhone speaker, bears any high-fidelity relation to the original analog stereo sound created by a meticulously assembled stereo system with carefully positioned loudspeakers.
Why don’t we all run our expensive and perfectionistically massaged analog signals through the cheap ADC chip in our desktop computers and burn CDs and then compare the overall sounds of our different analog systems by playing the resulting CDs in our cars?
After this diatribe [...]
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