The greater good. Maybe
Still, there are limits to what your Sony BT headphones can reproduce. Complex polyphony can be challenging to single-driver cans, and might result in harmonic distortion that isn't measured with frequency sweeps, or might cause the treble to become choppy when sub bass is also playing. The videos you hear on YouTube will not overcome these problems, nor will they calibrate nor improve the head related transfer function of your Sony cans.
I don't know...they sound RFG (Really F...... Good!) These are designed base monsters as headphones go.
This, plus the next point, are bigger problems than you realize. If you clap your hands in whatever room you happen to be in, how long does it take the sound to decay? A quarter second? At least with headphones you aren't combining your own room acoustics with those of the recording. But the recording cannot do the impulse response of whatever speakers you're listening to any justice. How much is the acoustics of the room coloring the sound? Below 200Hz notwithstanding, does the recorder's uncalibrated mic bring the treble forward?
So if everyone has a different experience in different rooms then all speaker demos are potentially useless (whether live or recorded) unless perfect calibration occurs with expert setups...the actual setups I'm listening to (In videos) are in large rooms (and are setup by people that have a higher level of knowledge than the average user). I agree that watching a recording is less than ideal but you can still get an idea about the potential of a speaker setup and can invite you to a live demo later in better situations.
The sort of subtlety you're hoping to discern can't be achieved by listening to a recording of a recording. You said so yourself with your photocopy illustration earlier. There's too much loss of detail. And again, how can you hear whether the mic is combining direct radiation with early reflections to color the sound? These room interactions might not occur in your own house. Or there might be different interactions not heard by the videographer.
I can get a solid feeling for imaging and presence from a recording on a quality setup and some basic qualitative aspect about individual speaker drivers. will I get everything I need...probably not but I can definitely eliminate what I don't like very quickly. This saves me time and money.
I will concede this point. I'm not one to drink the 24-bit, 192kHz Kool-Aid either. I believe 16-bit, 44kHz, 224kbps MP3s are indistinguishable from lossless, and can only very rarely tell the difference between lossless and 192kbps. And since YouTube uses AAC, which offers better quality audio compared to the same bitrate MP3, YouTube's compression will have a negligible effect.
I'll add a few more to the list. Is the crossover point too low for accurate sound stage? Too high to mask the breakup modes of the mid driver? Do the speakers have a wide enough listening window to accommodate your intended use, or is there a single sweet spot that will leave others in the room hearing acceptable but uninspiring sound? Will the off axis response color early reflections differently in the videographer's room than it would in yours? These are questions a YouTube video cannot ever answer.
Speaker manufacturers do not modify their speakers to fit your house. But if you can fit JBL 4343 speakers in your 10x10 foot room and enjoy it I'm not going to stop you...It's up to the consumer to exercise common sense in determining whether a speaker might work or not work in their respective situations.
