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today we're talking about
why audio files are full of crap
so sit down
grab a cup of coffee and let's talk
let's talk about why audio files are
full of crap
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today's sponsor comes from sith audio as
usual and it is audiophile resealable
plastic bags some people call them zip
locks put your snacks in here pringles
maybe some rich crackers a sandwich
whole bunch of record player cartridges
can put them all in here because it's
certified to make everything inside it
audiophile audio anything you fit in
here magically makes it an audiophile
component that's what we're going to
talk today about today
we're going to talk today about
why i feel
some okay i'm not going to pigeonhole
everybody paint with super broad strokes
why i feel some
audiophiles are full of
bull crap
or steer crap or heifer crap
any of the cows
that have the crap
reason number one
i hear this and i hear this in the in
the comments and the reason why i'm
making this video is there are themes
and i've heard it in the comments i've
gotten emails about it people are very
passionate about telling me why i'm
wrong and telling other people why
they're wrong here's the number one one
thing that i think uh
why audio files are full of crap number
one i don't know if we're gonna do
numbers that's not how the artist
intended it so if your speakers and this
is mostly due to speakers if your
speakers don't measure a certain way if
they if they're not flat measuring the
argument there is that's not how the
artist intended the music to sound like
that's the argument
really
i would i would argue back were you at
the recording did you hear what the
music sounded like uh coming out of the
studio monitors
did you hear the band go
yep that's it when they agree
to the recording not only that i have
heard anecdotal evidence that some bands
approve the final master listening to it
in a car
or over mp3s and crappy headphones
or even when one of their managers is
holding a phone up
like this
and they're listening to it on the other
end that's how they're approving their
masters not through some crazy hi-fi
stereo they're approving their masters
through car stereo and i wonder how that
car stereo measures i wonder if it's
flat measuring
if there's a bump here or there or if
it's perfect if you weren't at the
recording if you weren't sitting with
the band
when they approved the master maybe they
didn't even approve the master uh
bands for the most part i mean with it
with the exception of like live
performances or where there's a
performance and it's in one space it's
kind of one take and they're not really
slicing things up
outside of that
nobody really knows what the music was
intended to sound like outside of a
concert and here even at a concert so
you're at a concert right maybe it's a
big concert maybe it's a stadium-sized
concert okay and you have the the sound
booth in the middle in front of the
stage right and they're doing sound
check and they're dialing in all the
levels to get it to sound like that
where
at the sound booth because guess what
there's speakers up front there's a
sound system around it doesn't mean
everyone's going to actually hear the
same thing so even
and i'm assuming that the reason why the
sound booth guy is employed is because
the band
approves
his approval so if he just yeah that's
how okay the band probably says yeah
that's how we want it to sound but it
sounds like that in the sound booth or
the sound area in the concert
what if you're to the right to the left
all the way up front all the way up back
in the nosebleed section so even at a
concert a live concert you might not be
listening to it as the artist intended
it because you're not exactly where they
did
the tweaking point being nobody really
knows what it sounded like or what the
artist's intention were
nobody
because they may have approved that
master over a
crappy car stereo
we don't know that
so if anybody ever says your speakers
need to measure a certain way or you
shouldn't have tone controls or you
shouldn't have eq because that's not how
the artist intended it
it's dumb
that's a dumb argument plus it's your
music you can listen to it however you
want to another thing that drives me
crazy is your music is garbage because
i actually do listen to a band called
garbage i saw them in concert with the
linus mars set it was lovely my music is
garbage because it's compressed
yeah so compression you may have heard
of the loudness wars started back in the
uh actually i think it's the 40s so
motown records
a lot of the times would run a
hot record which means they'd bring up
the levels people that would listen to
music through
juke boxes back then would have a
tendency to prefer louder songs our
friends at the beatles
very good band they wanted to be
commercially successful they started to
record their music a little bit louder
and then you know how it goes
it just kept going and going and going
until it it until it finally ended with
my beloved metallica's death magnetic
where it was so compressed sounded like
garbage
okay some people would say that all
metallica our albums sound like garbage
that's fine you do you i'm gonna do me
to say that a
recording or an artist isn't audiophile
all right so let's just what does the
audio file mean what does it mean
what does it mean it's subjective right
it's a moving target right why do some
people get to label their stuff audio
file while others do not is there an
application process i know of only one
certification process is the
audiophile measurement standards and
certification committee and the only
reason i know about that one is because
i started the website as a joke that's
right askmac.org is a joke
about all this okay this is one of my
favorites personally
that speaker is only going to sound good
on a high-end system high-end
and i got this argument when i listened
to the kef ls50s and guess what i didn't
like them
okay i i get to do that some people
don't like things i didn't like the kef
ls50 the comments that i got and there
was an overwhelming theme that only
works with a high-end amplifier okay
perfect well i had a 2500 amplifier on
it is that not good enough well it needs
to be this this
so if and i actually heard this from a
manufacturer
because i gave
anyway a manufacturer told me
that
i'm only going to be able to tell the
differences if i'm on my
high-end system and boy oh boy did i
have a long heated conversation spirited
spirited conversation with them what is
high-end what is a high-end system
what is a high-end amp
and if the product only works best with
a high-end component or high-end amp why
isn't it
certified with some components why don't
you go to their web page and say
it only works with or works best with
works okay with and have a list hey if
you're a manufacturer you're going to
say this does this isn't going to
perform well unless it's with a certain
amp
then maybe you should test it out with a
bunch of amps and tell us which ones it
works best with which ones it works okay
with and which amps you wouldn't
recommend but don't make us the consumer
go out there and guess and go buy a
whole bunch of stuff just to find out
that oh well we didn't find the perfect
pairing for your fico little speaker
if i ever
hear
that you need to be on a high-end system
come on down to cam studios let's talk
about that
face to face
that system all in when i first got
that's the that's the reason why the
channel started is the kef ls50 and the
moon by sim audio 240i
okay that's the reason why this started
and well you didn't have enough power
what
no
no it's 2500 it's 50 watts of clean
power it's got a huge transformer if it
doesn't work it doesn't work
if if it doesn't work tell me what put
it on the side of the box
put it in the owner's manual
tell us what your
fancy
special
snowflake speaker tell us
what amps it works with
so that we can have a more enjoyable
experience by giving you our hard earned
money
here's a good one
hi-fi
high-end starts at x amount
x
some arbitrary number it just starts at
three grand
two grand it just starts there anything
is 19.99 nope they're mid five
two grand
that's hi-fi
who gets to determine this i actually
saw a video and i couldn't make it
through the entirety of the video i saw
a video
that literally and i'm giving you the
reader's digest first the guy said oh
yeah if if your dax less than five
thousand dollars it's just garb it's not
going to be good you you need at least a
5 000 deck really what if it goes on
sale
down to 3 500
okay what if some company was going
through a dealer network and all of a
sudden they decided guess what
we're not going to go through a dealer
network anymore we're going to cut our
prices and sell it 40 less while
increasing our own margin
what happens then
because that that product used to be
five grand now maybe it's 3 500. is that
not good anymore so thinking about hi-fi
and components
based on price
is dumb
there's no magic number there's no magic
threshold that says okay
maybe i'll concede to this that maybe
the finish
you can maybe say this is a high-end
finish on a speaker
if it costs i don't know two grand to
make three grand to make a grand to put
the finish on there whatever it is
you can say that yeah this is a high-end
speaker because it costs a grand to do
this paint job whatever outside of that
no you can't who who who
that sounds like an owl
is determining
what
threshold is high in and think about
technology think about speaker
modeling
electronic crossover modeling enclosure
modeling how to get different sounds i
mean materials think about that so with
all this technology and economies of
scale all of a sudden it's it just that
that's the worst argument that high-end
audio starts at a certain amount of
money don't let anybody tell you that
high-end starts at a certain price
that's crazy that's i i don't know i
don't even know what i don't even have
an analogy for that it's like saying if
the your car has to con has to cost 50
grand for it to be good
really i mean i'm sure there's cars out
there that cost 30 grand they're good
but i don't know okay as soon as i hit
50 grand
we're in the club now
you're in the good car club you're in
the good hi-fi hi-fi equipment club who
who's determining what this what this is
is it the dealers
the
hi-fi dealers that go in and they carry
the expensive
real expensive stuff okay is it them
is it them who's deciding okay
kind of like the tail wagon of the dog
and guess what if that goes on the used
market or even
a demo unit
50
that's what that component's worth 50
sometimes less than 50
on the used market open box you know
maybe 75 85 okay they have
margin in there basically
double
so if it's 2500 there the dealer's
probably getting it for 12.50
double
that's a lot of margin
i've worked in a few industries and
that's a high margin and everybody
everyone is talking about oh it's too
bad that hi-fi hi-fi stores are going
out of business well they shouldn't be
they're making a ton of money compared
to other industries i have zero ties to
the the hi-fi stereo industry or audio
industry in general and i know some
people that even are on this platform
you know i've did this i've been in the
industry for this long that long guess
what i never have
doesn't matter i have ears i've you know
i probably really started listening to
music pretty hard when i was you know
about eight so i have over
like 37 years of listening experience oh
it's through low end audio okay what if
it was really good back then is it still
low end what what about this what about
the cd players that came out like in
1988 all right like a 3 000 cd player
which most people would agree sounds
like garbage now compared to a very low
end ce player now okay so now all of a
sudden that high-end audio file cd
player is bested by it and i know that
might not be a good example but it's dac
technology okay so dak technology back
then that's good
now it's good and cheaper okay so is
that an audiophile deck i don't know
is it
it's not as expensive if we're putting
the threshold anyway i think you get my
point so this topic brings out the
worst in people at least i think it is
i've got an emails i have gotten phone
calls
from somebody who and it was about the
elac and this guy took like i think he
felt like it was his duty
to the rest of the world that he set me
straight and let me know that all the
stuff i was recommending was garbage
literally garbage he would say that in
some of the comments
he was talking about the e-like unify uh
reference no not the reference e-like
unified 2.0
2.0 he calls me because i
mistakenly had
my phone number in the signature line of
my email he calls me i answer we talk
he's going on and on about how no it's
got to be this it's got to be that it's
got to be that and i said how much time
have you spent
a being the elac
unified 2.0 to whatever your high-end
speaker is that you bought at a dealer
and you paid in a ginormous markup on
how many
times how long have you beat him
oh well i haven't
what was your impressions when you heard
the speaker
well i've never heard the speaker
never heard the speaker huh
so if you're out there
type it away you got your fancy in your
pantsy speakers in the other room fancy
fancy audio
stuff on the on the floor
get your audio file monoblocks on the
floor
why can't we get them up but are they
too heavy
do we all make stands that fit them okay
if you've never heard something
don't bash on it it's called contempt
prior to investigation and that's
ignorance personified
okay
it's saying you don't like something
when you've never actually touched it
tasted it felt it hurt it spend any time
with it
just vilifying something that you don't
know anything about that maybe you don't
understand
having ideas about something but not
spending any time with it i think you
know where i'm going
don't crap all over something if you've
never heard it
because you're dumb if you do
it's stupid that's like saying uh
that's like never having a food like
just saying uh you know what meat's
stupid
it tastes like garbage
chicken's dumb
or salad's dumb
spinach is dumb
honey mustard's dumb
try it
try it if you like it you like it if you
don't you don't it's no big deal
so if you want to support the channel
which this problem this video probably
makes a whole bunch of people want to
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binge listen binge you can binge watch
movies and stuff like that binge listen
and fill your soul with happiness on
your
system and if it's audio if you wanted
to be on live video guess what it's
audiophile i'm randy i'm the cheap audio
man
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