Worst advice you’ve ever heard from a YT audio channel or other AV “Professional”

[Pandaman617]

Just curious to see what your guys experience is with enthusiasts or even professionals who operate on outdated or plainly incorrect audio information or just parrot what others have claimed and pass it off as fact. I’ve got one AV installer/calibrator near me in my small New England area and years ago before I started reading Sound Reproduction, AH articles and YT videos and other credible sources of information I really only knew the basics of how to setup my humble 5.2 system which consisted of a pair of ML Motion 10’s for mains with a Motion 8 for CC, Motion 4’s for surrounds and two Def Tech Supercube II’s ran off a Denon x2300. Not a phenomenal setup but I paid $500 for all of it. Anyway, the installer/calibrator guy told me I shouldn’t need more than one sub and to aggressively absorb my room with bass traps and wall panels especially at the 1st reflection point. Mind you this was all over the phone without him even seeing my specific L shaped room. Luckily before I wasted a ton of money I borrowed a ton of Auralax acoustical treatments from a close friend who had a home studio and it didn’t sound good. It didn’t sound horrible but it clearly wasn’t better. With one sub my 3 row seating area had one seat that had decent low end response with the other two having what I can assume was an 8-12dB null. Anyway years later I’ve got 4 subs ran through a MiniDSP 2x4HD, a much better AVR, exponentially better speakers and more importantly a fundamental understanding of the significance of multisub and proper sub integration. I’m not saying I’m a genius with this stuff but it’s purely through AH and you guys that I’ve went from zero to hero (at least in the eyes of my friends now getting into home theater who often are in awe of REW with a UMIK-2 and actually being able to see FR changes after placement changes).

 

[lovinthehd]

There's only a coupla youtube channels for audio I bother with....mostly AH, ASR and Erin's Audio Corner but I'm still more a reader overall. Generally the subjective only reviewers or "experts" (often just salesmen of a sort) can have some dubious advice, or if they're videos of a system playing that's worthless IMO, but mostly I'd not waste my time with most of the "audio" youtube channels, like I do with most of the magazines/blogs/fora too. Just way too much noise out there.

Sounds like you've done well getting to where you are now....congrats.

 

[Pandaman617]

There's only a coupla youtube channels for audio I bother with....mostly AH, ASR and Erin's Audio Corner but I'm still more a reader overall. Generally the subjective only reviewers or "experts" (often just salesmen of a sort) can have some dubious advice, or if they're videos of a system playing that's worthless IMO, but I'd mostly I'd not waste my time with most of the "audio" youtube channels, like I do with most of the magazines/blogs/fora too. Just way too much noise out there.

Sounds like you've done well getting to where you are now....congrats.

Thanks HD!

 

[Hetfield]

Well I just went through this week running Audyssey through the app for the first time. Watched a video and the guy said not to run the mic in all the positions, nothing in the front or behind. So just the sweet spot, to the left and right. I guess it works for him but I didn't like what it did. I reran Audyssey using all the positions and much better.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

 

[lovinthehd]

Well I just went through this week running Audyssey through the app for the first time. Watched a video and the guy said not to run the mic in all the positions, nothing in the front or behind. So just the sweet spot, to the left and right. I guess it works for him but I didn't like what it did. I reran Audyssey using all the positions and much better.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Just because it's on the internet.... Plenty of good info out there but most of it requires reading....

 

[Pandaman617]

Well I just went through this week running Audyssey through the app for the first time. Watched a video and the guy said not to run the mic in all the positions, nothing in the front or behind. So just the sweet spot, to the left and right. I guess it works for him but I didn't like what it did. I reran Audyssey using all the positions and much better.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

I’ve seen some of these videos with these guys stating information related to Audyssey or Dirac setup and it’s generally what’s worked for them with their specific setup and room and they in turn pass it off as factual information. Blows me away. I get emails all the time from Audiogon advertising cables that cost 1000% more than they should that also claim will improve my sound. I think if the internet filtered out all the snake oil audio websites we would be left with less than a handful, with Audioholics at the top.

 

[ryanosaur]

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I think that sums it up right there.