If EVERY hi-fi manufacturer did this... (+ FiiO, IKEA & Triangle)

[@Currawong]

The situation with reviews and product hype is incredibly bad in the IEM world. I've had manufacturers tell me that they constantly have to make new products just to get sales, because as soon as the hype over a product has died down, so do the sales. It now means that there is a constant flood of new, often mediocre IEMs coming out, and few models stick around, or stick around in their present form. It resulted me in deciding not to review IEMs at all any more.

[@audio_tron]

Yes. The nature of the IEM business, as you described it, is fatiguing for the customers too.

[@richardsaila8073]

I even skip all IEM reviews. Boring.

[@salreda7470]

There are many good IEMs out in the real world. But very few GREAT iems come out. Campfire Audio still makes some of the best IEMs to date. I am thinking of the Andromeda are still in my top 3 favorites.

[@Torsdagskvallsmys]

If the product is bad then its logical to develop new products, If the hype is bad, then they should develop better ways to hype. There is a reason why beats by dre are viewed as high end headphones. Even though they are trash. Its a strange world.

[@ryansudding667]

Sjrajan, you should definitely become a KZbinr. You are so articulate and knowledgeable on Hifi.

[@richardsaila8073]

👏🙏👍

[@jakbenardete7707]

Srjan is a treasure for the Hifi community. Thank you John for doing these videos.

[@johntucker5994]

Jon I love when you have Sjrajan on. He has so much knowledge and experience; and as an American, Sjrajan reviews European brands that I might not otherwise hear about. Also, you can tell that Sjrajan, through his experience and natural curiosity, approaches things with a high level of sophistication and nuance. I must confess that I sometimes struggle with Sjrajan's lengthy and, at times, hard to understand, written reviews on 6moons. But, I've learned how to navigate them; and I encourage people to check them out.

[@TombstoneTube]

Always interesting to listen to Srajan.

[@richardsaila8073]

These videos with Srajan are the highlight of your channel John. I like Srajan's written reviews very much because they are pure fun, and no other audiophile author's output compares to his work, but on video his knowledge is even more impressive.

[@Smokej620]

Hey John, I’m so happy you are continuing to do these videos! They are educational and very enjoyable!

[@heldersilva864]

John and Srajan, Congratulations for the outstanding contribute that you both always bring to the audiophile community. I will definitely try the IKEA MITTZON. What a great tip.

[@djeejah]

down to earth reviews and common sense, you guys nailed it. And many thanks to Srajan for his honesty 🙏

[@michaelrossmaessler200]

Second that ! 🙂

[@jordohayes]

As a consumer, I really enjoyed watching all the reviews on the same day. Getting so many perspectives at once motivated me to buy the Meza Alba on launch day. Normally, I would wait for a month or more before making a decision to allow myself to hear more impressions from expert reviewers

[@syanhc]

I was at the London CsnJam last weekend. I attended two talks by Rob Watts the chief guy behind CHORD Electronics. He said the cleanest power supply are batteries because they are not connected to mains and therefore avoid RF all together. I saw the Fiio CD player and the RUR dac. I tested the later and it sounded really nice. I think it's wonderful that high quality audio is more and more available at a price most people can afford. It's never been this good.

[@SuperReview]

I'm surprised to hear that an embargo is viewed as a /new/ thing from someone who's been in media for decades. I've been in media since the '90s, early access + embargo is not a new phenomenon between PR and media. It is admittedly much more common in industries other than audio (e.g. cameras, gaming, automotive). I agree with the point that it is an arrangement that serves marketing... but that is also true of any review sample exchange. If anything, I think the coordinated embargo avalanche exposes / shines a light on this truth of most media and maybe that's why it appears a bit distasteful. I don't mind the transparency. FWIW personally I don't have any problem with a manufacturer stipulating "don't publish before X date" if the information is information I am only getting because of early access. What I do object to is being asked to publish on that specific day -- that's to say, not just "don't publish before this date" but also "don't publish after this date." For me, that crosses a line between their interests and mine as a reviewer. But having a dozen reviews launch on one day doesn't necessarily indicate that that was the arrangement.

[@Kenny-Somafunk]

Exactly the same embargo situation goes on in my previous employment in the cycle industry - road bikes/MTB's/cycle components. It's common/accepted knowledge and not an issue to get worked up about/highlight. Perhaps certain established reviewers are getting their hackles raised at the ease of "so called jumpstart You-Tube reviewers" having products sent to them and bypassing "the established reviewing norms" of what is a rapidly evolving industry

[@arthurwatts1680]

Crowdstrike broke my headphones and now they just keep rebooting ;)

[@beadlesastout]

Many companies now are starting to move away from influencers and KZbin reviewers and are slowly moving back to targeted advertising campaigns due to the absolute flood of KZbinrs/ influencers that don't really have the real numbers of followers or genuine views. The data and KZbin stats are being looked at in more detail now and hardly any influencers have any real sizable audience so companies are actually just wasting money. There's too many KZbin reviewers and influencers that have that entitlement mentality believing just because they make videos that we as the public owes them something. KZbin was designed for people to make their own videos. It's their choice to make videos and you may or may not make money from it. Those that people trust, like John will continue to grow but those who are just after free gear will disappear in the next few years.

[@ChrisWhittenMusic]

Pet peeve about camera reviews - which is one reason I value Darko hi-fi and music reviews. When a new Leica is announced there are probably 10 or 12 videos up that day. Worse, they’ve given the KZbinrs a camera for a few hours in Manhattan or Wetzlar. A few months later actual users are finding bugs and design compromises. Increasingly if you want to be invited to an event and be able to post a day one video, you can’t be critical of any of the company’s products.

[@rosswarren436]

Exactly, meaning "day zero" reviews are mostly worthless and definitely not trustworthy.

[@christopherviers8302]

I fully understand your point of view, but I wouldn't worry too much about there being 20 different product reviews of a single item, all on the same day, devaluing anything... I believe that most people, including myself, have a core group of audiophile reviewers that they subscribe to, are loyal to, and watch religiously... versus just surfing the audiophile reviewer realm willy-nilly...? I won't mention names, so as not to step on anyone's toes, but in reality, there's only about 10 or so reviewers on KZbin that genuinely garner the most attention/trust... with you being in the club...!!! As to free speech vs. heavy-handed business practices/ethics... well, what's a fella to do...? Great episode...!!! I look forward to more of the above...!!! Good stuff...!!!

[@proctermorris6657]

I have to say, I'm not quite sure how you don't understand embargo's. It's very common in product releases.

[@nickburklow5212]

As a consumer - I don't mind the videos all dropping at once. I look to people like you for a subjective opnion. I look at some others ,like Erin's audio corner for objective measurements. Being able to get several opinions from people I watch regularly is helpful in making a purchasing decision. Having them all drop on day 0 is fine, I can always watch them in my own time.

[@NicolaDiNisio]

There is still value in reviews of Amazon territory items. Restocking of items is a cost and sometimes it is cheaper to throw away the item than restocking it.

[@salreda7470]

There are many good IEMs out in the real world. But very few GREAT iems come out. Campfire Audio still makes some of the best IEMs to date. I am thinking of the Andromeda are still in my top 3 favorites.

[@ratkutti]

I was eagerly awaiting your take on the Meze Alba.

[@paulhallford1904]

If I'm not mistaken, isn't the chord companies network switch a rebranded silent angle but more expensive?

[@Voidoid77]

I remember the 80's when TRIO hi-fi components suddenly were re-branded to KENWOOD... I was working in hi-fi retail at that time, & I had the fun task of having to peel-off the backing on a good pile of Kenwood plastic logos and stick them on top of the TRIO logo on *all* our existing Trio stock. As I'm sure you know/remember, John - Kenwood were associated with electrical devices designed exclusively for the kitchen in the U.K. Oh boy, it was so very hard to persuade customers that, "no, it's OK...they're *still* TRIO, but have changed their brand name to match their name in all the territories where their products were sold".

[@keithgregson9573]

>Interesting point about cables keeping them uniform 'copper' throughout, i already have digital speakers driven with AES but now for my second system being passive because i like to build speakers, i purchased second hand MC152 with REF5 i can't afford super expensive cables so i decided to go for FiiO's interconnects throughout including their SPDIF & USB copper, for mains & speaker connects i will use 'stove' copper wire (fat thick stiff ugly stuff) - i would rather put my money in more SB-acoustics or Scanspeak drivers is more fun. For power conditioning i use APC 2200 dual former stage ONLINE 48VDC UPS because in south-africa our mains becomes dodgy. The price of some cables is crazy another word 'ludicrous' - if you can solder & find decent copper or silver loose cable make your own with NEUTRIK XLR connectors, get real don't waste money, nice talk thankU.

[@doctorbritain9632]

I'm sorry but switch mode supplies for medical applications does not just mean 24/7. The medical standards have far more strict grounding rules (body floating) classification and stricter standards for EMC. , 21 CFR Part 820.5, MDSAP, MDR (21 CFR Part 803) and ISO 13485:2016.

[@kjbiz]

Love these chats

[@vladpetric7493]

Typically an output transformer converts high voltage into lower voltage but higher current (for current-vore headphones/most speakers). Tubes are primarily high voltage/low current devices. Yes, the impedance is as well reduced (same factor really), but I feel this explanation is a bit easier to understand.

[@fredericktennant9151]

You are right about the internet being broken, I upgraded my interconnects and speaker cable as I had done some changes to my Hifi I went to eBay and found some long cables (5m ) that came from China they looked great and cheap too. I was surprised on how they did not degrade the sound. I made the mistake of posting my findings on the local Facebook group only to be creamed by some members for buying fake cables, I thought I would look into this and was sent to some web site where the hifi company was selling something similar for 100 times the price (yes 100 times higher) that I paid I had heard of Kimber in the past. Still, I never bothered to investigate them in the past as I was not interested in cables back then so as a result I am reluctant to mention anything cable related on the internet.

[@TyFeague]

That opening topic focused on how manufacturers approach reviews was really interesting. I agree, hi-fi is far too small of an industry to maintain review bombardments. I have a lot of thoughts on the current state of reviewing products. I'd love to hear more from John and Srajan on the topic in a year or so. Have they noticed a shift in communication from manufacturers? How are reviews evolving, especially on platforms like KZbin?

[@EfrimGunduz]

Hi there! Very interesting product Fiio is releasing, and with that I mean the portable CD-player. Do you know if it also can ripp CDs? Would be fantastic if it could. Take care☺️

[@RobertDevine-rg6uo]

I agree. I want to hear a full and proper expert give me as much information about expensive tech.

[@kyleo2113]

On Meze using the strategy. It’s their business to make a profit and they make great products so I am okay with them using whatever means they want to market their product - they should compare waves vs big bang and see which is more successful to their business needs. With KZbin having an archive of videos when people are at a point they are ready to make a purchase they will scan the reviews available from trusted reviewers and make a decision - at least that is what I do.

[@kolouker]

Speaking of brand spin-offs and rebrandings, all your points stand true, but the real reason behind such behaviour is most often tax avoidance/optimization (choose whichever you feel better about). It works like this: You setup a subsidiary in an offshore tax haven, next, you transfer the ownership of all your trademarks and brands, logos, etc. to that subsidiary. Once you have that IP in a tax haven, you make licensing agreements between your mother company and its subsidiary for the use of intellectual property and trademarks. Of course, using these trademarks is oh so expensive that it eats up a solid chunk of what would be a taxable revenue of the mother company. Revenues are transferred to the tax haven, and then can be withdrawn with little or no taxation.

[@TheBebe666]

I could understand why would a company set up an embargo for some tech that will be almost ´´old news´´ or even obsolete in only 6 months or one year ( phones , cpu, gpu..etc ) but good audio gear is good for years and years.

[@jimfarrell4635]

Manufacturers ahould not be attempting to influence reviewers in any way, least of all telling them what to do and when to do it. This is a dangerous trend. Just look at the recent dCS and Tekton scandals. Reviewers need to stand up for themselves. Also, the trend for collaborations with manufacturers and reviewers is an undesirable development, and even reviewers becoming manufacturers like Thomas and Stereo. You can't be both without bias.

[@richardsinger01]

I understand what you're saying about the flood of day 0 reviews causing viewer confusion, or devaluing the reviewers work. However, I don't watch 20 HIFI KZbin channels - far from it - one or two regulars and occasionally a couple of others, so the deluge of day 0 reviews is irrelevant to people like me. Indeed I am unaware of such a thing.

[@sorepaws]

Some of the "technical" discussion is in my opinion somewhat muddled. Why do we match impedance between source and load? it is to reduce potential distortion due to signal reflection and prevent overload on the amplifier. In high frequency systems this is to keep VSWR at 1:1.

[@TheVeganVicar]

Almost all the reviews of the Alba have been favourable, so I suppose I had better add a pair to my burgeoning collection, John.

[@D1N02]

Dedicated switch mode audio power supplies will cost as much as linear ones. The main advantage of switch mode is speed (and efficiency)

[@dilbyjones]

I think it’s Iron Laminations.. not steel but could be wrong . I love LTA gear

[@gregoryeiding5395]

Hem rebranded as Ferrum likely bc of the controversy with Mytek… another great pod!

[@stevenj2380]

I've had it with the toxic mass of reviews (no matter how favorable I mean it feels toxic) filling the screen (and some web sites) as the embargos lift of types of gear I am interested in, The major camera companies' (S, N, P, etc.) have embargos for major camera and lens releases. These camera companies bring favored YT'ers, to wherever in the world. The fly them and house them in hotel to make YT preview videos, to be shown when and after the companies public presentations take place. Lately there has been push back, or explanation of terms of these 'junkets' from those content creators. There was growing feeling as this seemed a bit like 'payola'. 'Shade' started to be thrown' toward these YT'ers from viewers, and from some dissenting or not-so-favored content creators.

[@murraywebster1228]

In pro audio transformers are used to make a balanced signal and often ist the sound characteristic (saturation) a part of the products sound identity

[@D1N02]

2200 euro's For that you can buy dedicated open backed an closed backed headphones and a few sets of IEMS and Earbuds and a great stack :p and a good dongle.

[@dominikalbers6983]

Iam really excited about the Fiio portable CD Player, i orderd the Moondrop Discdream last year and cancelled it 3 mounth later because it was still not shipped. If a company can do it, i bet its fiio!

[@joylessdancer4554]

The amount of upcharge dealers and distribution demand in traditional hifi is way out of proportion. Todays success for tomorrows failure.

[@nicholaswatkins5459]

Chord cables have the spin off brand English Electric probably for the reasons John states, people might not like the idea of their network products so better to give them a different name.

[@IanHewitt-v2u]

Srajan, really odd question and not audio related at all. Wondering who is the manufacturer of your spectacles? They are absolutely superb.

[@Bikecampcook]

A question if I may what make are your glasses?..... Great content keep up the fantastic work.

[@Bass.Overdrive]

My glasses are from Xreal a Chinese company

[@kato2395]

​@@Bass.OverdriveI see another brand to avoid then, thanks for the information!

[@HeberTrigueiro]

This is one of the best audio podcasts ever. Just a pleasure to listen! Thanks so much!

[@florisbackx1744]

4:20 this has been standard practice in most industries already (unfortunately) , it surprises me a professional KZbin creator like yourself is surprised by it. But I agree with your sentiment, I surprised creators are still on that bandwagon, it makes your channel looking straight up marketing puppet even if it isn't. But honestly it's not the embargo, it's the creators all wanting to release it day one. The embargo doesn't say you can't post it a month later, Am I correct?

[@marchuvfulz]

C'mon guys. Product reviewers have always existed in a symbiotic relationship. Reviewers need products to review and manufacturers need product reviews. Both parties are going to try to get what they can from the relationship. Both are going to try to maximize their own benefit. What reviewers owe their listeners is honesty and transparency. Is the reviewer getting the product for free? Or getting any other consideration for the review?

[@saurabbbhardwaj1930]

Just not clear what you two are rambling about on the meze release. It was done well and in a structured manner. There may be 20 reviewers who were sent the product earlier on to test and form their opinion. When the volumes were ready for market, the reviewers were allowed to air their opinions. It's a good process. If I go thru reviews and want to buy a product, it's good that the said product is available for purchase. And whether it's 2 or 20 or 200 reviewers... we all have the ones we trust and gravitate towards. It's a win win for all. And meze comes out with a new product once a blue moon. Have you tried tracking cheaper brands weekly releases? Like kz etc? And this release and review process is well established... even in other sectors like vehicles etc etc

[@matthewhilty4209]

I actually don't mind reviewers being sponsored or hired by a store as long as it is disclosed. What annoys me the most is reviewers only releasing positive reviews not the so-so or negative ones making them undisclosed advertisers. I will watch the video I just want more disclosure at the front of the video saying " Since I only do positive reviews this is an advertisement ".

[@D1N02]

The Ikea ÅFJÄLL is a hundred a piece less and also looks like a matrass (because it is a matrass)

[@TylersEclectic]

Dang, didn’t think of that aspect of the Alba release 😅 great points, enjoyed both of your respective points on reviewers as well. Cheers!

[@RobertDevine-rg6uo]

Too many people jumping on the KZbin gravy train with bad video’s unfortunately.

[@travisylvania6730]

Well I disagree regarding day 1 reviews. It’s definitely better to get 20 reviews than 1-2 reviews for us, the public. It’s always been on the public to manage information overload. Can you imagine if we only had 2-3 reviews of a new product? Talk about gatekeeping by whoever gets the product. Day 1 reviews done by vendors is a separate issue entirely and do not constitute an independent review and don’t factor in. I think it is pretty clear when you have a review from a distributor or not. Audio excellence Canada is a good example of a reviewer who is really up front about being a distributor and still does entertaining and informative videos, with of course clear bias (vs the unconscious bias in everyone). Besides, us KZbin watches don’t subscribe to 20+ audio reviewers, just 3-4.

[@teachonlywhatiseasy]

so the wiim reviews also could have been avoided as anyone can get them and return them on amazon. not a valid reason for anything under 200 USD. end of the day you want revenue from youtube and i get it a stand out review is not possible for iem's that this channel is not known for.

[@Torsdagskvallsmys]

Lol, you hear your own voice becuse his microphone treshhold settings are to low.

[@saltzine]

:: id be more interested in shiirt audio if they didnt have such a shtupit name

[@bpalpha]

WoNkY aSkEw hEadPhoNes! 😠 (pet peeve of mine!)

[@robcammell1069]

Whinge whinge whine

[@neilsnyder7915]

Boy, you gentlemen are obviously not marketing experts. Meze executed their launch with myriad reviews on day 1 of launch. That's exactly the way a product launch should be done. You are both in the dark ages on this issue. You are Way over valuing your worth in the market place. Nobody waits to purchase a product based on a Darko review. Srajan written reviews absolutely slaughter the English language. Terrible sentence structure and a lack of clarity. The man desperately needs an editor.