John Darko
YouTube Commenter: Dear John. Thanks for the video about the Wotsit. I was wondering how it compares to the Oojamaflip that you’ve also reviewed. I would be grateful if you could share your thoughts.
Me: Thanks for your comment. I’m not trying to extinguish your curiosity but, equally, I don’t wish to BS you. One change that I’ve made to my work in 2023 is emphasizing how all comparisons discussed in my videos are side-by-side comparisons. It’s why you’ll hear me say “Side-by-side comparison” whilst that same wording is displayed on the screen.
A side-by-side comparison, by definition, necessitates having both products here at the same time: much like the Wotsit vs. Dingus side-by-side seen in the video. If I’ve got it here, I’ll do my damndest to do a side-by-side comparison. Alas, the Oojamaflip that you’re asking about went back to the manufacturer over a year ago.
You weren’t to know that but, equally, viewers must understand that there is always a good reason why I didn’t do the side-by-side comparison that they were after. I can explain why if you’d like.
YTC: Can’t you just give me some base-level comparison impressions instead?
Me: Nope. Sorry, I can’t. It’s difficult enough holding the sound of a product in my head whilst doing side-by-side comparisons across minutes and hours. Would you trust me to hold the sound of a product in my head when I’ve not played music through it for weeks, months or even years? I wouldn’t. Audio memory is incredibly fragile. Yes, I recognise the sound of my Dad’s voice when he phones but the audible differences between amplifiers, DACs, CD players are phono stages are much less pronounced than the differences between human voices. Medium-term memory might be good enough for loudspeakers (I don’t know for sure) but only in the broadest sense: “Speaker A is brighter than Speaker B” or “Speaker B goes deeper in the bass than Speaker A”. Electronics, forget it.
YTC: OK, so what about the Thingamajig? How does that compare to the Wotsit?
Me: I’ve never had the Thingamajig here for review so I’ve no idea. This points us to the main reason why viewers don’t get to see the side-by-side that they were hoping for: I simply don’t have that other piece of gear here.
YTC: Sure, but I just thought you might have heard it on your travels.
Me: I see where you are coming from but the only places I get to hear audio gear beyond the four walls of my listening room are dealer demos and hi-fi shows. And they don’t count. Why not? Let me explain.
Firstly we must ask: what constitutes ‘heard’? Even if a dealer’s listening room is acoustically treated, I’ve no clue about what contributions to the overall sound are being made by every other component in the playback chain. Is that tight bass a result of the amplifier, the loudspeaker or the two working together in electro-mechnical harmony? Is it the CD player? I’ve no earthly idea. Ergo, a dealer demo is not ‘heard’.
That trouble doubles at hi-fi shows where the probability of an acoustically-treated room is close to zero. Even if it were even slightly treated with a few judiciously placed panels, all attendees would still be listening to music through an unknown room and through unknown ancillary gear to render assessments – even rough ones – of individual pieces impossible.
This means the only place I get to isolate a product’s sound is at home. Only then can I say that I’ve ‘heard’ it. And if a product comes home, chances are that it’s being reviewed. And if it’s being reviewed, it’ll be on YouTube. The upshot is that the YouTube Channel indexes everything that I’ve heard (and very little else).
Also: what should be obvious to viewers is that I won’t spend a week on the listening work demanded by a side-by-side comparison to end up not featuring my findings in a video.
YTC: OK. Understood. What about the Doohickey?
Me: A) I’ve not heard it and B) it wouldn’t warrant a side-by-side comparison with the Wotsit because of its price: the Doohickey sells for twice the Wotsit’s asking. Also, did you compare their feature sets?
YTC: Ummmm, no. Should I?
Me: Yes, you have to do some work here. The Wotsit does many things that the Doohickey does not. But the Doohickey offers benefits in other areas. Even when ignoring the price, they seem to be aimed at very different use cases.
YTC: Oh yeah, that reminds me: why didn’t you mention that super obscure feature of the Wotsit?
Me: You’ve almost answered your own question. Firstly, and I think this is obvious: something that I know nothing about cannot be included in a video. Secondly, I try to keep all review videos under 20 minutes. I don’t always succeed but I try. The ideal is 15 minutes. To do that, some features enjoy top billing whilst others must be left out — no video can cover every single line of inquiry.
YTC: So you’re videos are incomplete?
Me: Yes, kind of. I hope I cover enough of the important stuff for people to see my work as “glass half-full”.
The “glass half empty” people who insist on grumbling about the things that I didn’t cover in any given video are reminded that a) my videos come to them free of charge (save having to watch a couple of adverts) and b) they are not entitled to a follow-up from me in the comments section. I try to respond to comments posted in the 12 hours following a video’s publication and priority is given to the polite and the reasonable (I’m old-fashioned like that). After those 12 hours are up, you’re on your own with any follow-up information. Why? I have to move on to writing, shooting and editing the next video…
