Fantastic reviews that are not so "measurement" based. Yes, measurements are important, however, plenty of those resources all over the place. I highly suggest adding this site to your bookmarks. Plus, most of the gear is affordable or halfway affordable. Darko.Audio
Sometimes they can be a bit much expressing their review philosophies, even though I agree with most of them, but I really enjoy them. If you haven’t listened to the Darko Podcast yet give it a shot. It’s my favorite Podcast. He usually has Jeff Dorgay from Tone Audio as a cohost. Great stuff. They also do interviews with people in the industry. The episode with Andrew Jones was great.
I have to disagree a little. I'm not too impressed with his videos, but my main point is that there aren't plenty of measurements all over the place (not the in depth stuff like Stereophile publishes). And without that all you have is opinion, and there is plenty of that, most of it useless. It's useless because what one person thinks about how a component sounds to them in their system in their room doesn't tell me one bit what I'm going to think about it in my system and my room. Don't get me wrong, we all like reading people's thoughts so it's cool if one wants to read his site, but I've learned there is no substitute for me trying something out myself. I will usually seek out user reviews if I want to read something, because then at least you might have thoughts from multiple people. Not too impressed with his You Tube stuff because what he thinks about how his electronic/trance music sounds on his system tells me little what I will think my music will sound like. The stuff he listens to, IMO, isn't the best music to use in reviewing components, not if you are trying to gauge naturalness, tone, and soundstage. Also, he makes some bizarre comparisons sometimes (components that are not comparable in terms of price or quality). So yeah, after watching all that I took a hard pass on his channel.] Maybe I should give the site a shot; it looks like they have different contributors. If you can find a reviewer that has a good ear and you know how their preferences relate to yours, then there may be some value there. Still, different system and a different room make any real conclusions difficult to make.
Another Darko subscriber here. He has released some of my fave audiophile videos because they are often fun, well produced and come from a honest, experience-based perspective rather than retreading tiresome audiophile tropes. I'm also a subscriber of the fact that measurements doesn't show anyone how something sounds, measurements after all are also subjective. Measurements can highlight a defect but that's all. If you like Darko's vids check out Jana's channel Earspace, the girl who's filmed and edited much of Darko's and Stereophile's videos. Not super active but there's some enjoyable videos there.
Leaving Darko's opinions and ears out of it, I have to agree with the above. It's meaningful measurements that are in short supply. What we have in abundance are people (mostly on the Internet) giving opinions about gear. Everyone has an opinion. Moving to what I look for in a reviewer: I like to see reviewers use plenty of acoustic music (from a guitar to drum kit to an orchestra and chorus) to judge music, because I'm looking for proper timbre reproduction. I like to see what kind of room they have. I want to know what equipment they use regularly, and how much they paid for it. And, yes, I like to see how measurements square with what they report hearing.
Measurements can point out likely incompatibilities between components. I'm talking about things like impedance curves and output/input impedances. There are other useful measures that can help one gauge the current capability of an amp. But you are right, they often won't tell you how something sounds. Unfortunately, a subjective experience often doesn't either. It's nice if you want to hear what others think (sometimes I do) but it often won't translate to me. And you'll read vastly different opinions of the same gear or the same recording! So I just don't see subjective reviews as being reliable at all. Interesting reading/watching material maybe, unless you know the reviewer well or you have a lot of reviews out there on one component and you can measure trends in what different people hear. Measurements are much more reliable but they only tell us so much about sound. There is simply no substitute for listening yourself, ideally after you've ensured there are no incompatibilities between the components you are using.
Yeah, thumbs up from me for Darko too. The only thing that I don't like is that despite being a Brit living in Germany he keeps talking about 'bucks' and 'dollars' all the time. Why not Euros?
No, he is a Brit. And he lives in Germany which uses Euros, as do the majority of the surrounding countries.
Why's he got an Aussie twang then? Granted it's not a strong accent which makes me think it's more NZ than Aus.
You're right you know Just found this bio he wrote on 6moons in which he mentions being a kid in Britain and later watching The Tube on TV.
I agree with this. There's only a small handful of outlets publishing audio reviews together with bench testing. By contrast it seems like there's an endless number of bloggers and vloggers and online publishers offering subjective audio reviews, many in the post-Harry Pearson style -- first-person, discursive, subjectivist, not only without measurements but often with a disdain for measurements.
I just read Darko contributor Phil Wright's review of the Klipsch Forte III. I love the sound of them but fail to understand how anyone could review them and not mention their biggest flaw- cabinet vibration that makes male vocals sound like they are singing inside of an acoustic guitar body.
At first I didn't care for him, but in his review of "my" Wyred4 Sound PH1 he nailed it. I'm loving it and my STI-1000. M~
I don't like the fact that he can't appreciate the sonic virtues of vinyl due to it's inability to hang with digital on a dollar for dollar value basis at the entry level. I totally agree that a nice phono setup is not as price competitive as a digital playback system BUT you are denying yourself so much sonic magic by deciding it's not worth it to step up your vinyl rig game. I find you need to spend a minimum of about $3K on TT/arm, $2K-$3K on phono stage, and $1K on cart (total ~$6K) to surpass a ~$3K digital system. However it is so rewarding and worth it. If you spend a little more you keep putting more separation between analog and digital. Yeah, it's a bias of mine but I just don't see eye to eye with people who don't "get" analog and don't "get" tubes
I enjoy the quality of his videos. Not sure, however, as to his reviews. His music isn't my type of music. And I haven't really seen him tear into any products (maybe I missed it). Until I see him actually dissing something the way Inner Fidelity used to, there'll always be a niggling of doubt.
His podcasts with Jeff Dorgay are entertaining. It’s a fun approach to talking about gear. They appreciate products aimed at different markets. They also are quick to acknowledge that not everyone is obsessive about gear and that a lot of “lifestyle” products actually sound really good. One of Darko’s favorite pieces is a pair of Best Buy level Sony noise canceling headphones.