Youtube reviews? What about Head-Fi?!

[kimvictor]

Recently, I got bored(well, I'm always bored). So I went on youtube to search "headphone" and "earphones". The results showed me how millions of reviews on various headphones. Now, what I don't get is why are people so confident in saying that the headphone they review is the best? They say everything is the best thing. Beats, Soul, sometimes apple, Zebra, cheap Senns, B&W C5... They all say things like "God! I can't express how good these sound".
 
OK. By now, you probably are thinking "Ok. Another beats hate tread..." But no. What I'm trying to say is "Can we make head-fi more known to the public?" So that people seeking for good headphones/iems will search on head-fi, not youtube for reviews.
 
Thanks.

 

[kimvictor]

I encountered another some what "over hype" online with actual audiophile stuff. A Korean company was selling the AK100 and UERM combo, saying that it retains a perfect signature balance as UERM was tuned masterfully by Capitol Studio. Now, if anyone has owned a AK100 and UERM(I do) they will know that UERM's treble diminishes a good 10db with the AK100. You can EQ them back, but the claim that this company made was clearly wrong. And there were people praising this set up(likely payed by the company to do that). Even measurements shows that UERM is terrible with impedance.

 

[billybob_jcv]

There are also head-fiers that create video reviews on youtube. But - I think what you are asking is literally impossible for several reasons:

1) Anyone with a $20 web cam is now an expert reviewer & video blogger. Anyone that buys anything now does an "unboxing" video. The great unwashed masses of consumers that are the customers buying fashion headphones just want to know how the headphones *look* - they really couldn't care less how they sound - or at best, as long as they go boom-boom more than Apple buds - they are GREAT headphones. None of that is going to change regardless of what head-fi does.

2) I am pretty sure that head-fi is the most popular headphone website in the world. Googling anything related to headphones will usually return head-fi pages in the first page of the search results. It doesn't get much better than that. I am guessing the sites that appear above head-fi in the google search are paying a considerable amount to google to get there. When I google for "headphone reviews", the top results are for cnet & Stereophile, followed by head-fi.

3) The fashion headphone mfrs spend millions on marketing & media. If consumers weren't already making videos about their headphones being GREAT - then they would pay social marketing firms to do it - and I suspect they do that too.

 

[kimvictor]

I get that head-fi is one of the biggest forums, but for audiophiles, not mainstream consumers. Search "good headphones" on google. Head-fi isn't even on the first page of results. I guess you are right in saying that nothing can be done about inexperienced/biased reviewers. And I think fashion headphone brands already use social media to advertise.