[0:00] give it a
[0:02] brief
[0:22] sure hello everyone I'm going to get
[0:25] everybody loaded here and uh you know
[0:28] settled in let a a video sync up which
[0:31] you know to be fair might be a little
[0:33] bit off don't freak out this is mostly
[0:35] going to be a live stream it's like a
[0:39] live podcast I guess we can put it that
[0:41] way there's going to be some screen
[0:42] sharing um and a lot of talk about
[0:45] different topics about the audio
[0:47] industry the car industry and I have a
[0:50] guest on today that uh I'm very very
[0:53] happy to because this is a man that I've
[0:56] uh followed on his side of the business
[0:59] and because I'm an a audio I love audio
[1:00] video and he's been in the business for
[1:02] a long time his name is Jean delasala
[1:05] he's the president of audio holics and
[1:08] uh Jean why don't you introduce yourself
[1:09] just to give your background for people
[1:11] that don't know well first of all Mark I
[1:13] really appreciate you having me on your
[1:15] channel um I think it's awesome I love
[1:18] collabs like this because I think
[1:19] there's a lot of dual interest I think
[1:22] if people are into cars performance cars
[1:25] they definitely overlap they're into
[1:27] audio especially you're listening to
[1:28] music in your car right so I think these
[1:30] kind of collabs are great so real quick
[1:33] on me I'm an electrical engineer I was a
[1:35] design engineer um for about seven years
[1:38] I did government defense audio
[1:39] communication systems but my passion has
[1:42] always been home audio and I wanted to
[1:45] become an audio engineer in college and
[1:47] then I realized it was really difficult
[1:48] to get a job that pays well at a college
[1:51] doing audio so I figured out if any Star
[1:54] Trek fans are out there I pulled a Kobe
[1:56] ASI Maru I I beat the no- win scenario
[1:59] by starting a website in 99 working as
[2:02] an engineer for about three or four
[2:04] years until I could turn into profitable
[2:06] enough to eventually quit my very secure
[2:08] government job and then do this
[2:11] full-time and I've been doing it
[2:12] full-time since 2002 and we're going on
[2:15] 25 years on April 18th this
[2:19] year that's crazy I I you know and I
[2:22] think I'm GNA get right into the the
[2:24] meat and potatoes of this because uh I
[2:26] don't know if you know this Jean but our
[2:28] last couple live stream where Jack and I
[2:30] were on here we went four hours um and
[2:34] it's it's uh painful for the people
[2:35] watching but they I I don't it's it it's
[2:37] gets enjoyable but I'm not going to keep
[2:39] you here for for four
[2:41] hours so uh let's let's get into uh one
[2:44] of the things why obviously car audio
[2:48] and home theater seems to be a really
[2:50] common Topic in the automotive Community
[2:53] there seems to be a huge overlap between
[2:55] people that love music um I know Misha
[2:58] he is a guitar player and in periphery a
[3:00] metal band and he told me this it's like
[3:02] it's crazy the amount of people that he
[3:04] meets that are big into like engineering
[3:06] music and like production also love the
[3:09] mechanical and Technical part of cars
[3:11] and there's such an overlap so I I find
[3:13] it interesting that you also are into
[3:15] the car world what's your background
[3:17] with that so I've always loved cars and
[3:20] I always joke with my wife I'm like man
[3:21] in 99 if I would have started a car
[3:23] review website instead of Home Theater
[3:25] I'd be checking out Lamborghini Diablo
[3:28] right now you know because I'm at the
[3:29] very top of the stuff that I'm able to
[3:31] play with with home audio so I'm a car
[3:33] Enthusiast um I'm a BMW fan I've owned a
[3:36] few BMWs I have an m240i I also have an
[3:39] X5 um and I just love it I you know for
[3:43] years when I was a kid there were two
[3:45] I'd go to a magazine you know a
[3:47] bookstore or I'd go to the uh
[3:49] supermarkets and two things I'd look for
[3:50] I'd look for home audio magazines like
[3:52] stereo review stereo file and then I
[3:55] would look at Car and Driver Motor Trend
[3:57] and I would just gawk at the cars the
[3:59] car that I could never afford I'll
[4:01] probably never drive I'm obsessed with
[4:03] the performance metrics and how they
[4:05] were tested and I just have such a high
[4:07] respect for people that do car reviews
[4:10] because you're putting your own risk on
[4:12] the line right running on a track and
[4:14] putting the cars to the limits and I
[4:16] just I love it I just love the
[4:18] adrenaline feel of high performance
[4:21] anything when it comes to home theater
[4:22] when it comes to car performance and I
[4:25] just love engineering marbles you know I
[4:27] also like airplanes Aviation I'm h fan
[4:29] of like the SR71 Blackbird and I follow
[4:32] all the World War II documentaries and
[4:35] just how Aviation evolved over the years
[4:36] so I think there's a lot of overlap
[4:38] especially being an engineer and I'm
[4:40] electrically or mechanically inclined I
[4:42] just like engineering what humans can
[4:45] produce and do you do you find that you
[4:48] know obviously you're big into well it's
[4:50] your job right you test probably
[4:52] thousands of products at this point um
[4:55] how do you find when you get in a car do
[4:57] you like listening to music how's that
[5:00] overlap for you or do you just not care
[5:02] you go back home and deal with it I
[5:04] struggled a lot believe it or not um
[5:06] because I have such a good reference for
[5:09] what good sound is in the home that when
[5:12] I'd go and buy a new car and I would
[5:14] listen to the system and that most of
[5:16] the time they'd be atrocious right yeah
[5:19] um and it would suck because I would
[5:21] like the car let's say at the time I
[5:23] would buy like a Nissan Maxima when it
[5:25] was when Nissan was a really good brand
[5:27] in my opinion and the car AIO sucked I
[5:30] you know it was okay if you had the bow
[5:32] system it was listenable but then I
[5:33] noticed as Years Gone on some of that
[5:35] got worse on these cars and then when I
[5:37] went to a BMW on the two series I um I
[5:41] bought a used two series and it had the
[5:43] hormon system in it and I thought it had
[5:46] the potential but something was wrong in
[5:48] it right so I contacted hormon because I
[5:50] have friends there and I'm like there's
[5:52] too much Center channel in in the system
[5:55] is there a way to turn it down and it
[5:57] turns out it wasn't their fault because
[6:00] BMW uh contracted Harmon to do all their
[6:03] audio systems but BMW only has certain
[6:06] budgets I guess they allocate to each
[6:07] car so like in the two series and I
[6:10] don't know if that's the case now with
[6:11] the new two series because I know
[6:12] nothing about the Mexican Maj German uh
[6:16] the Mexican May 2 Series compared to the
[6:18] 2018 that I own but back in the day they
[6:21] put they couldn't put logic 7 in that
[6:23] car so what they did was they did left
[6:25] plus right and they dumped it into the
[6:27] center with no volume control for the
[6:28] center and that's a good way to kill
[6:31] Sound Stage you go and you do that kind
[6:33] of thing without lowering the volume or
[6:35] having any control of that it kills the
[6:36] sound stage so what I did was after I
[6:39] got my second 240 because the first one
[6:41] got totaled someone rear ended me I
[6:44] bought it with the regular system
[6:46] without the Harmon system because I was
[6:47] going to do my own upgrades and the
[6:50] regular system was not even listenable
[6:52] it was just so scathing the tonality of
[6:55] it you know it just sounded terrible so
[6:57] I went and I got a moral driver kid and
[6:59] Jen hurt underseat woofers and I
[7:01] contacted JL Audio and um I got a DSP
[7:05] and an amp from them and then I went out
[7:07] to Miramar and they spent two days
[7:09] helping me tune the system no Center
[7:11] Channel by the way so the center channel
[7:12] was deleted and we set up different
[7:15] profiles because if you don't have a
[7:16] center channel you're only going to have
[7:18] The Sweet Spot basically where you're
[7:20] sitting when you tune it to the DSP so
[7:22] if you want to have different sweet
[7:23] spots for the passenger for the people
[7:25] in the back you have different DSP
[7:27] settings and that was a world of I could
[7:29] actually sit in my m240 now listen to
[7:33] music and it sounds good it doesn't
[7:35] sound as good as my home theater but at
[7:37] least it's reference and it's it's
[7:39] enjoyable but yeah that's that's a
[7:41] struggle especially when you do long car
[7:42] trips and and you um have bad audio but
[7:46] the one thing I did notice is your your
[7:48] ears and your brain kind of adapt to
[7:50] mediocre sound over time so you learn to
[7:53] live with bad sound until you hear
[7:55] better right so I mean until you have
[7:57] reference sound that you can compare it
[7:58] to most people probably don't pay that
[8:01] much attention to their car audio
[8:02] systems that's kind of an afterthought I
[8:04] think when you're buying a car yeah and
[8:07] I think that's an interesting part and I
[8:09] don't want to get two in the weeds with
[8:10] the the car audio stuff other than yes
[8:13] we test it um and a lot of that has to
[8:15] do with uh Brian he's an acoustical
[8:17] engineer uh who's uh helped me a lot and
[8:21] obviously Jack with understanding how
[8:25] car audio is designed because he worked
[8:26] on the back end so it's going through
[8:28] and talking to some of these Brands
[8:30] where the straight answer is why car AIO
[8:33] is not good is it is not a priority it's
[8:35] not a priority in terms of budget for
[8:38] these Brands when they go down the list
[8:40] of product planning for cars unless you
[8:42] get to the ultra high end where you know
[8:44] you're charging $300,000 where you can
[8:46] most cars are not designed around an
[8:47] audio system a car they're designed
[8:49] around packaging of a car so the audio
[8:51] system gets designed later and thrown in
[8:53] later and then you get to a lot of the
[8:55] commodity Brands and when I say it's
[8:58] actually extends Beyond on that it it's
[9:01] okay what do we have left over okay now
[9:03] put some speakers in it what's the
[9:04] cheapest we can do it for um and you
[9:06] know I've heard directly from about
[9:09] certain brands and how much they pay for
[9:11] a driver set in a car and amplification
[9:13] and it's it's shockingly low like
[9:16] shockingly low it's under it can be
[9:18] under $100 in some cars and under 200
[9:20] for a whole package for a mainstream car
[9:22] so when you have that type of budget
[9:25] your suppliers are going to be like okay
[9:27] we're just going to do whatever and then
[9:28] the the Engineers that are designing the
[9:30] EQ and doing the car you know they got
[9:32] seats they got reflective surfaces every
[9:35] car is different they just try to get it
[9:36] as good as possible where the curve you
[9:38] know you're you're looking at it like
[9:40] okay it sounds okay there's nothing
[9:42] horribly wrong and that's where it's
[9:43] left um and to your point right you get
[9:46] used to that and most people because the
[9:49] bar is set so low for car audio there's
[9:52] there's an exception there's like 10
[9:53] cars I could name that are exceptional
[9:56] and you could tell one we knew that they
[9:58] were designed from the the start along
[10:00] with the interior space so they have a
[10:02] huge Advantage but that that you can
[10:04] count on one hand how many cars are
[10:05] actually like that and you just like
[10:07] hopefully it's not horrible and that's
[10:08] why we test the cars honestly is just to
[10:10] have a reference point of like this is
[10:12] really bad like really bad like the
[10:15] Honda ridg line was the worst one we
[10:16] ever tested like it it sound your phone
[10:19] speaker in a cup probably would sound
[10:21] better than that I mean I'm not even
[10:22] joking um but but you know that's the
[10:25] low point and then there's the Other
[10:26] Extreme but some middle ground and I
[10:27] think most of them now bench Mark each
[10:29] other to the point where in I know we
[10:31] talked about this on the phone like
[10:32] Harmon or Samsung Harmon owns like
[10:34] everything so it's a small group of
[10:37] people that are doing the work so they
[10:38] know how to do it and it's just let's
[10:41] what how much money do we have or how
[10:42] much are they giving us okay let's just
[10:44] do that that so um so two comments I
[10:46] have on on Carl real quick I just saw a
[10:48] comment that says El asking about the El
[10:51] audio system I actually had the El audio
[10:53] system in my Acura 2007 TL Type S and I
[10:57] met Elliot Shiner on the home theater
[10:58] creu
[10:59] um couple of years after I I bought that
[11:01] car and I was just giving him feedback
[11:04] he's the one that came up with the
[11:05] tuning of that system as you guys know
[11:07] he's he's produced music for the multi
[11:09] Channel music for the for the Eagles and
[11:11] other bands and I told him I go you know
[11:13] what the system sounds good it needs
[11:15] more base that little 8 inch in the back
[11:17] is just not doing it but the biggest
[11:19] downfall of that system was the 3-inch
[11:21] wizard cone woofer for the center
[11:23] channel and you just can't get enough
[11:25] volume out of it and he said that was a
[11:27] big struggle for him because he wanted a
[11:29] full range center channel in the dash
[11:30] but the car vendor would not dedicate
[11:32] the space for it right but I know
[11:34] they've upgraded it since then because
[11:36] my my sister-in-law has a uh one of
[11:39] their mdxs yeah and that system has been
[11:42] it's been greatly improved and I think
[11:44] overall the OEM systems are getting
[11:46] better and in fact if you look at one
[11:48] thing I like about the BMW even though
[11:50] their U stock system isn't that great
[11:52] the pre-outs on their head units are
[11:54] flat so all the dsps done in the amp and
[11:57] the trunk which means you can now put
[11:59] your own amp and your own DSP without
[12:01] having to reeq the preamp outputs and
[12:03] they have a strong I think there was
[12:05] like 4volt RMS clean coming out of those
[12:08] um outputs so it's plenty of drive for
[12:10] you to match it with an amplifier but
[12:12] not all the vendors are doing that some
[12:13] of the vendors are putting the DSP into
[12:15] the head unit and then you're kind of
[12:17] stuck you can't really do much modding
[12:19] on that system yeah and I think that's
[12:22] that's kind of the way we look at it
[12:23] right nobody is buying a modern car with
[12:25] all the electronics and what is in most
[12:27] cars you can't change anything anymore
[12:29] you can change out some drivers but
[12:30] you're still limited to uh what the EQ
[12:33] is baked in in the car and honestly when
[12:35] you look at even higher end systems now
[12:37] like Volvo's a good one they have the
[12:39] XC90 and I say this a lot I know people
[12:41] are tired of hearing it but the XC90
[12:42] when they did the Bowers was one of the
[12:44] best systems we ever tested in large
[12:46] part you know the engineers were
[12:48] involved with the interior design of
[12:50] those cars to start and they chose
[12:52] really good drivers and the EQ was great
[12:54] but as the time has gone on the X90 is
[12:56] like 100 years old now you can see them
[12:58] with their new headunit design they've
[13:00] stripped out any EQ that you can do with
[13:02] that car like there's no eqing even
[13:04] available it's just like trouble and
[13:05] base so they got rid of I don't even
[13:07] remember nine seven band or nine band
[13:09] not that you can play with it but
[13:11] they've removed all that for the
[13:12] mainstream consumer so really what you
[13:14] see is what you get and nobody's going
[13:16] to modify these cars honestly it just
[13:18] it's not worth it anymore um you have to
[13:20] get to like your level and you know
[13:22] that's so uncommon um to to to play with
[13:26] this stuff so it's it's disappointing
[13:28] but to fair to the manufacturers uh
[13:31] Acura is a good one they just got rid of
[13:32] Els and they got rid of yeah they they
[13:36] just switched over this year and all
[13:38] their new cars are going to have some
[13:39] subset of bang and olison um and the the
[13:42] directive was make it sound like Els
[13:46] that's what they wanted the you know the
[13:48] harming try do for less money of course
[13:52] because it's not a requested feature so
[13:55] when you go to the MDX Type S which we
[13:57] had as a long termer they have their
[13:58] highest end audio system they ever did
[14:00] it was the ls signature so that was
[14:04] definitely for the price point on
[14:05] another level it was pretty close to the
[14:07] Bowers stuff not as good um but you know
[14:10] you have that the Bowers in the BMW like
[14:12] X7 well you can't really get in X5 but
[14:15] the Bowers is pretty good in there the
[14:17] Volvo's really good and then you get
[14:18] into the burms of the higher end
[14:20] Mercedes which are pretty good um some
[14:22] of the meridians and the jlr test great
[14:25] but I mean that's it like really that
[14:27] that's it it's the all than that they
[14:29] all very much are all have the same type
[14:31] of problem they're very base heavy
[14:33] because they know everybody wants a huge
[14:34] base curve they want base yeah yep like
[14:36] the Beat headphones used to be remember
[14:38] the Beats headphones when they first
[14:39] came out they were just bass machines
[14:41] not no tonal accuracy at all um you know
[14:44] I think you go back to the Volvo case I
[14:46] believe I heard a demo of a Volvo system
[14:48] a few years back at CES or CIA and that
[14:52] was the one that was using dirak
[14:53] calibration and that's dir got its got
[14:56] it start in car audio and that was
[14:59] impressive the amount of DSP magic they
[15:01] were able to pull off that's not
[15:02] something um a person could do on his
[15:04] own just messing with little geq filters
[15:06] or PQ filters in a car so I I do think
[15:11] if you're an audio file and you're
[15:12] choosing a car and they put some thought
[15:15] into the upgraded audio systems I do
[15:18] find they tend to be worth the extra
[15:21] cost because otherwise you're going to
[15:23] be ripping stuff out you have to take
[15:24] door panels off and I'd hate to go
[15:27] through that again that was it when I
[15:28] saw my car ripped apart in jail audio's
[15:31] uh Factory I got nervous it was a brand
[15:33] new car and all my door panels were off
[15:35] the trunk was out I was like oh my God
[15:37] are they gonna be able to put this back
[15:38] together and make it tight again so I
[15:41] don't know yeah It's Tricky it's a
[15:43] double-edged sword and cars are you know
[15:45] if you had it your way you know you
[15:47] would have no storage in the doors there
[15:49] would be no you know everything would be
[15:50] around sound and that's just not
[15:52] practical for most people the amount of
[15:54] compromise you have to do to get a good
[15:56] audio system and a car designed is
[15:58] that's not what people are looking for
[15:59] and it and it makes sense I just think
[16:01] we're looking out for you know we tested
[16:03] a couple Ford and GMS Ford is the
[16:05] biggest uh the the
[16:09] biggest I don't even want to put it this
[16:11] way but they're the ones that charge the
[16:13] most for upgraded audio systems that
[16:15] actually test worse than the Bas like
[16:16] the standard ones they're they're so
[16:18] overblown they're horrible they're just
[16:20] horrible so like that's what we're
[16:21] really looking for is like do you do you
[16:23] spend if there's an updated upgraded
[16:25] audio system is it actually better worth
[16:27] like $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 more and that
[16:31] that's all we can do is like try to
[16:32] protect people from that so there's a
[16:34] reference point other than that I mean
[16:36] it's hard to get into it but I'm gonna
[16:38] I'm going to get shift into a different
[16:40] question here because sure um I think
[16:43] this goes into it the personal
[16:46] philosophies in like your business and
[16:48] audio um and I know you started a long
[16:51] time ago and there had to be a reason
[16:52] why you started this uh and you were in
[16:54] an era like early 2000s right something
[16:57] like that I'm old Mark I started in 99 I
[17:00] just turned 50 so I'm ancient so yeah
[17:04] audioholics like when was when did you
[17:06] kick that off yeah 99 is 99 wow okay so
[17:10] you're on the ground floor and what you
[17:12] what Jean has tried to do from my
[17:13] perspective and I I found him for the
[17:16] very reason I like wanted to do what I
[17:17] wanted to do with car stuff and that is
[17:20] there was a level of trying to be honest
[17:22] where you knew that you still have to
[17:24] keep manufacturers happy you have to
[17:25] keep the people around you happy because
[17:28] you can't just take a dump on a product
[17:29] and expect the brand to be like oh here
[17:31] you go you want to test more of our
[17:32] stuff so there's this slippery slope but
[17:36] I found that you were one of the few
[17:37] people at least on the internet that
[17:39] spawn up something where you were trying
[17:41] to be real about a lot of products that
[17:42] you don't need to waste money on um so
[17:45] that's my perception of it so what's
[17:47] your how do you fill in the gaps so the
[17:50] motto on our and I don't want to
[17:51] shamelessly plug audio Hawks but our
[17:53] motto has always been pursuing the truth
[17:55] in audio and then I Chang it to pursuing
[17:57] the truth in audio and video so I'm
[17:58] trying to get some video in on that and
[18:00] the whole reason why I started
[18:02] audioholics is when I graduated college
[18:04] as a dou and I was working in Telcom I
[18:06] was designing you know not audio
[18:09] amplifiers but like wide bandwidth
[18:12] amplifiers I knew you know the
[18:14] properties of amplifiers and what they
[18:16] do and all that stuff and I started
[18:18] looking at the marketing claims in
[18:20] consumer audio and compared to Pro Audio
[18:24] and compared to what I do for a living
[18:25] I'm like there's so much nonsense and
[18:28] how these manufacturers are specking
[18:30] their products and then I got into the
[18:32] whole cable thing and I could not
[18:34] believe that in consumer audio there are
[18:38] companies out there that are duping
[18:39] people and putting batteries on cables
[18:41] and charging $5,000 $110,000 for a pair
[18:44] of eight foot cables and then they're
[18:46] coming up with this Butchery of science
[18:49] claiming that they're solving problems
[18:50] that don't really exist and it's not
[18:53] based on the engineering principles that
[18:55] they're quoting so I started getting in
[18:57] samples of these cables and I hate to
[19:00] admit this but I started this when I was
[19:02] working in telom I had all access to the
[19:05] test gear there I started measuring them
[19:07] with Magnetic analyzers I had you know
[19:09] hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
[19:10] of test gear at my disposal i' bring
[19:12] them in at night after I was done
[19:13] working I'd start measuring and I'd
[19:15] start writing articles and I started
[19:17] getting attention I had manufacturers
[19:19] calling me um a company called Wayne
[19:21] cerr Believe It or Not is the name of
[19:23] the company uh they sent me a magnetic
[19:25] analyzer I had audio Precision send me
[19:27] test gear and they're like we see that
[19:29] you're on to something here we want to
[19:31] support you give you the test gear give
[19:33] you the tools to do the measurements and
[19:35] then come up with a set of procedures
[19:37] that you think are fair when you're
[19:39] measuring amplifiers or measuring
[19:41] loudspeakers or measuring cables and try
[19:43] to keep the manufactur is honest and my
[19:45] goal wasn't to give people black eyes
[19:48] per se my goal was to kind of raise the
[19:50] industry up you know get to what matters
[19:53] in the industry have the manufacturers
[19:55] all agree that hey we should have a
[19:57] minimal set stand standard on what is
[19:59] good performance and then get rid of the
[20:01] nonsense get rid of the snake oil the
[20:03] stuff that doesn't matter that's just
[20:05] sucking people's money away that they
[20:07] could be putting into something that
[20:08] matters like room Acoustics right and I
[20:10] had a lot of I had a lot of blowback at
[20:13] first I've had you know companies
[20:15] threatening me because I was writing
[20:16] about their cables and people saying I
[20:19] was never going to make a success in the
[20:21] business because I'm you know I'm
[20:22] ruffling too many feathers but then what
[20:25] really surprised me was the companies
[20:27] that were doing legit legitimately good
[20:29] product we're like we are all for this
[20:31] and I had all these Engineers behind me
[20:33] I would get like I would get Christmas
[20:35] cards from Japan from Yamaha from the
[20:37] engineers I didn't even know existed
[20:39] because they like my test reports and
[20:42] then I started uh company started
[20:43] sending me products to do beta testing
[20:45] so like Den or Yamaha or just major
[20:48] companies like that would literally send
[20:50] me stuff to test before it released to
[20:52] Market and I was just loving it this is
[20:54] what this has always been my dream is to
[20:56] be in audio not to design the stuff
[20:58] because I know it's a labor of love to
[21:00] design and I respect the people that
[21:02] design and I always make sure when I
[21:05] measure stuff that I fact check with
[21:07] them that my test reports are accurate
[21:09] so a lot of these companies would go out
[21:10] and buy the same test gear to match my
[21:13] reporting so that way we were Ono one
[21:15] before I would publish I always wanted
[21:16] to make sure that I give the best
[21:18] representation for the product and be as
[21:20] accurate as I can I know I know I always
[21:23] sometimes make mistakes and I do my best
[21:25] to not to minimize those mistakes before
[21:27] we publ
[21:29] that makes sense um and I I I get this
[21:33] question and I think it's becoming more
[21:34] relevant um
[21:36] in for you and I think for me I'm not
[21:39] going to get into me as much but uh the
[21:42] way that I wanted to start this was for
[21:43] a lot of the same reasons that you
[21:45] probably did you wanted to see data you
[21:47] wanted to see these things that were not
[21:49] really out there and transparent um and
[21:52] I get questions a lot from people that
[21:53] want to get into the media space of like
[21:56] the tech space or media space and I know
[21:58] you you know you mentioned like throttle
[21:59] house and some of these other car people
[22:01] and all these people in social media
[22:03] they have a voice um and I think the
[22:05] biggest thing is if you're really into
[22:08] something and you're passionate about it
[22:10] there's an angle to find and there's an
[22:13] angle to find when you really like to do
[22:15] something that's not like it it really
[22:17] takes when you're not happy about
[22:18] something for me I was unhappy when I
[22:21] didn't see real transparency with car
[22:23] things people were never talking about
[22:25] the details it was always glazed over so
[22:28] it really charged me to be like I know
[22:30] how to fill in this space I know how to
[22:32] do this but it takes you know doing it
[22:35] and actually saying that you want to do
[22:36] it are two different things and and I'm
[22:39] reading more and more about like uh Jen
[22:41] Z and now Jen Alpha like they like to
[22:45] watch content they don't like to create
[22:46] it so a lot of like what we're doing is
[22:49] becoming the professional resource for
[22:51] people to gather information to make
[22:54] educated decisions and when you're
[22:56] talking about you know cars and audio is
[22:59] they're nice cities right like they're
[23:01] not you're not going to you're not going
[23:03] to fail in life if you don't have a car
[23:05] or you don't have a nice set of speakers
[23:07] right so they their wants versus needs
[23:09] in a lot of cases but when people are
[23:12] passionate about them and they want to
[23:13] buy them like a car I take it very
[23:15] seriously I think what would I want to
[23:17] know if I was buying a car before I
[23:18] unload you know $800 to $1,000 a month
[23:22] on like a new car like on a loan the
[23:23] same thing with audio gear right like I
[23:25] can't go out when I look at a set of
[23:28] loudspeakers there's no way even if I go
[23:30] into a great store I can't just load up
[23:32] my room full of a bunch of speakers and
[23:34] test them it's not practical it's not
[23:36] practical for me to test 10 amps and
[23:38] five receivers and bring in three TVs or
[23:40] three projectors there's not enough time
[23:42] there's not enough money and enough
[23:43] resources so I think you know it's a
[23:47] message for people that are not happy
[23:49] this is a segue into another
[23:51] topic some people are not happy with our
[23:54] results and what we say in our opinions
[23:56] which is completely fine and I charge
[23:58] people to really if you don't like it
[24:00] and we're doing something wrong either
[24:02] call us out or give us recommendations
[24:04] or try to start up your own thing like
[24:06] fill in the gaps where we're not
[24:07] covering you know because it makes us
[24:09] better and you're giving another voice
[24:10] out there for people to you know share
[24:13] information and maybe we're not doing
[24:15] something right like I can't do
[24:16] everything to in the car world I can't
[24:18] do everything the same way throttle
[24:19] house is we're not funny like them in
[24:21] that traditional way we have an obscure
[24:22] sense of humor we're more engineering
[24:23] focused and we'd fail if we tried to
[24:26] copy their formula much like they'd be
[24:28] very it would be very hard for them to
[24:29] transition to do something like us so in
[24:32] your case um I thought it was
[24:34] interesting because I've been following
[24:35] like the Forum scene for quite a while
[24:37] and what you're trying to do and I see
[24:38] some of the difficulties in because
[24:40] you've been around for so long now
[24:42] there's a new generation of people that
[24:43] are like testing and looking at spec
[24:46] sheets and num the numbers game because
[24:48] they don't have access to the product
[24:50] they have this wide knowledge base so
[24:52] how do you deal in the course of your
[24:55] career like the people now in the The
[24:57] Forum that you're talking about where
[24:58] another they're constantly doing
[24:59] specification tests and all these
[25:01] products and they don't like them and
[25:02] they're garbage and because you do and
[25:04] you're doing more testing they're
[25:05] trashing you personally or giving you a
[25:07] hard time how do you talk to that and
[25:09] how do you deal with that type of stuff
[25:11] I try to stay off those forums I you
[25:13] know I've tried to engage them in the
[25:15] past there's one particular Forum that's
[25:17] that's just like that they do very heavy
[25:19] measurement Centric Forum um but it's
[25:23] just it causes a lot of stress and I in
[25:25] my life as I get older I try to minim
[25:28] distress and I want to focus on Family
[25:30] Focus on creating the best content that
[25:33] I can do and I'm just blessed that I
[25:35] have so many writers and and people
[25:37] helping me out that are more
[25:39] knowledgeable in certain subjects than I
[25:40] am to get a balanced Viewpoint so I the
[25:44] only thing I could say to that is when
[25:46] someone goes and trashes a product
[25:47] because of a graph a CTA 2034 graph is
[25:51] not as pristine as it should yet they
[25:54] haven't heard the product for themselves
[25:56] and then they make the opinion that they
[25:58] shouldn't buy the product because of
[25:59] that one graph I think it's it's doing
[26:01] them a disservice and I'm going to
[26:04] actually have subject matter experts on
[26:06] our channel to talk about this that some
[26:08] of these measurements while the
[26:09] measurements are great the measurements
[26:11] are for the dating phase the listening
[26:13] test is for the marriage right that's
[26:15] what really ultimately determines if you
[26:17] like the product based on your needs and
[26:19] your room Acoustics and your listening
[26:21] environment and listening habits and I
[26:24] don't think we can just dumb things down
[26:26] to the point where the measurements can
[26:28] tell you everything especially psycho
[26:30] acoustically loudspeakers the way they
[26:32] play in a room is really hard to
[26:34] understand every aspect of what you're
[26:37] hearing based on a few graphs as opposed
[26:40] to maybe an amplifier is a lot a little
[26:42] easier because it's an electrical signal
[26:43] you can kind of you know if it's an
[26:45] ideal voltage source or not or a piece
[26:47] of wire you know exactly if it's if it's
[26:49] transmitting that signal without any
[26:51] propagation loss so I try to keep I
[26:55] always try to keep the measurements into
[26:57] context ta like I'll measure a processor
[27:00] and it'll have some weird stuff going on
[27:02] in the measurements but if it's 100 DB
[27:05] below the threshold it's not something
[27:07] you're going to hear it's just not as
[27:08] tidy on the bench should you not buy the
[27:11] product because of that especially if it
[27:12] has really Advanced base management or
[27:15] room correction systems that the other
[27:16] product that doesn't have that anomaly
[27:19] no that's that's a bad choice I've I've
[27:22] always said this get the product
[27:24] integrated into your system and see if
[27:25] it has the feature set you need and how
[27:27] it's sound so I think there's a balanc
[27:29] there needs to be a balanced approach
[27:30] between having the measurements holding
[27:32] the manufacturers accountable for the
[27:33] specs that they produce and also being
[27:36] able to do the listening test to see how
[27:38] that translates in your room okay that
[27:42] that makes sense and I think there the
[27:43] parallel that I was trying to draw is
[27:45] the car world is the same right and it's
[27:47] gotten worse in the car world because as
[27:50] products get more expensive the
[27:51] accessibility to the common person
[27:53] becomes lower and it's it's a shame
[27:56] because these are passion things a lot
[27:58] of these cars are passion things and
[27:59] some of them are not but um I see this a
[28:02] lot where the products you can tell are
[28:04] designed by Engineers that don't have a
[28:05] lot of time to do it they have to get it
[28:06] out and they have to be like on on a
[28:10] bench a lot of this stuff works but when
[28:12] you get into the finer details of um and
[28:14] I'm I'm doing this NSX project right now
[28:17] like trying to finish this documentary
[28:18] that I've said I've had I'm going to be
[28:19] done in like a year it's been over a
[28:21] year and I'm going through these
[28:22] technical documents in this book and one
[28:24] of the things that they talked about
[28:26] during the engineering of this car was
[28:28] uh they had this the the test driver
[28:30] said there's something wrong with it
[28:32] like it's disconnected and all the
[28:33] engineers like we can't measure this
[28:35] there's no there's no data that proves
[28:37] what you're saying is right so as they
[28:39] went along in development they found we
[28:41] can't measure the problem that you're
[28:43] having you have to just turn your brain
[28:45] off to the data for a minute stop trying
[28:48] to record everything with sensors or you
[28:50] know and drive the car and feel it and
[28:52] just feel it and you'll start to
[28:54] understand that we need to engineer it
[28:55] two different ways uh and in the case of
[28:57] audio right it's not just about the
[28:59] feeling of it it's sitting down and
[29:01] actually turning your brain off and
[29:02] listening to it and that's one of the
[29:04] things that I found and I'm nowhere near
[29:06] your level or the people you work with
[29:07] but I found that I can do a set of like
[29:10] calibrations and measurements and I can
[29:12] get them to the best that I can and
[29:13] setting up the room the best that I can
[29:15] but at the end of the day if something
[29:17] looks good on the chart and I sit in my
[29:19] room and I'm like something's not right
[29:21] and I will I will listen more to my ear
[29:24] um assuming you have a good ear or
[29:27] understand what you're listening to I
[29:28] found that to be I will get it to where
[29:31] my ear is happy and the measurements
[29:32] look okay there might be problems but
[29:33] I'll be happier with the connection to
[29:35] the equipment just leaving it alone at
[29:37] that point and stop chasing all the
[29:39] problems and enjoy it and the same thing
[29:41] with cars uh if you're constantly trying
[29:43] to screw with stuff uh you know I don't
[29:46] like this car because it's not the
[29:48] fastest thing so I'm going to trade it
[29:49] to get the next one and the next one and
[29:51] the next one and I know this is the same
[29:52] thing with audio and video you know this
[29:54] tv you know it's the black level aren't
[29:57] this good here in the color you know
[29:59] it's on my color meter it's not you know
[30:01] it's not there's this endless chase that
[30:03] we get into aside from just being happy
[30:05] with things um and that's a place where
[30:07] you and I think because of that
[30:09] experience we learn it quicker than the
[30:11] average person so I'm trying to also you
[30:13] know help people understand that and
[30:15] I've watched your stuff too and like you
[30:17] can get really technical like you get
[30:20] you guys get really technical but you
[30:21] also are accessible in the fact that
[30:23] okay you don't need to spend 6,000 or
[30:25] 20,000 on a set of speakers to really
[30:28] get good sound if your room is not just
[30:30] a horrible you know tin can um and I
[30:34] like the way that you guys approach that
[30:36] so what if you had to give like advice
[30:40] uh just like ABC advice how would you
[30:42] say if somebody want to get into audio
[30:44] kind of like I'm talking about with cars
[30:46] like what are the first five things that
[30:47] you should do and just off the top of
[30:49] your head I think the biggest factor in
[30:52] getting good a good audio experience is
[30:54] the room so if you're going to stick
[30:57] your speakers in a kitchen or you're
[30:59] gonna stick it in a family room that's
[31:01] all tile floor and glass you're not
[31:03] going to get a good experience it's just
[31:05] really hard if you don't do anything
[31:07] with the Acoustics of the room I've seen
[31:09] systems I've gone to people's houses
[31:10] where they spend 10 grand on a pair of
[31:12] BS and walk in speakers and it's stuck
[31:14] in a in this horrible room I measured
[31:16] the rt60 Decay time it's like a second
[31:18] and a
[31:19] half it sounds like an echo chamber
[31:22] you're better off just putting a sound
[31:23] barar in there at that point if you're
[31:25] not going to address the room acousic so
[31:26] yeah defining where your listening space
[31:28] is going to be um trying to get
[31:31] reasonably good Acoustics in there
[31:33] without you know while having spousal
[31:36] approval that's step number one then the
[31:38] next step is I I might be a little
[31:41] different than most home theater uh
[31:42] channels where they focus strictly on
[31:45] multi-channel I'm all about getting the
[31:47] best two channel first and then building
[31:50] a system around it like you can see the
[31:51] speakers behind me those are fully
[31:53] active rbh speakers this is my kind of
[31:55] listening space I even spin records here
[31:59] every system that I set up in in my
[32:01] house or when I set up for other people
[32:03] is I make sure I get good Imaging from
[32:04] the front Sound Stage and I think that's
[32:06] similar in car audio I'm not an expert
[32:08] of car audio but I know it's really
[32:10] important to get good sound staging up
[32:12] front and in the best systems some some
[32:14] of those are just two channel like they
[32:15] don't even use rear fill right if you
[32:17] get a really good DSP tune so yeah I
[32:20] would say focus on getting that but if
[32:22] you're not into music and you just want
[32:23] to supplement the sound of your TV so
[32:26] you watch and streaming stuff then you
[32:28] can go and get a 5.1 or 5.1.4 if you
[32:31] want to get an Atmos maybe prioritize
[32:34] Less on the quality of the front Sound
[32:36] Stage so you can have all the speakers
[32:38] but at the very minimum I always
[32:40] recommend two subwoofers because in
[32:42] small rooms in order to get even base
[32:44] from seat to seat you can't do that with
[32:46] one sub you can get good base in a very
[32:49] narrow area with one sub in a small room
[32:52] or home theater but having that dual sub
[32:55] configuration really opens things up so
[32:57] that way every seat is EQ and then every
[33:00] seat gets sound more consistent so that
[33:02] way if you're sitting on the left of the
[33:03] couch and your wife's sitting on the
[33:04] right of the couch you're both hearing
[33:06] similar base level and similar base
[33:08] quality and Bas is 30% of the experience
[33:11] bad Bas you don't enjoy the music or the
[33:14] home
[33:15] theater um I you know obviously I think
[33:18] the whole concept of uh Bas management
[33:22] has changed quite a bit over the years
[33:24] you know like back in the day before you
[33:26] had all the EQ ility and all the modern
[33:28] software you know having one was you
[33:31] know most people are never going to have
[33:32] more than one and now you see like at
[33:34] least in the autofile audio file
[33:35] Community there's people talking about
[33:37] four like the best case four and then
[33:40] like people are putting them in the
[33:41] ceiling and you know I mean it it's an
[33:44] interesting transition of how things
[33:47] have changed over time and I I think
[33:49] that that's that's the other question I
[33:51] wanted to ask you about this and I'm
[33:53] going to go over just a couple things so
[33:55] people aren't lost in the dark with some
[33:56] of this measurement stuff that we're
[33:57] talking about and I don't want to get in
[33:58] the weeds with it either but in the past
[34:00] 20
[34:01] years what have you seen the biggest
[34:04] change aside from the internet and the
[34:05] business and all the products like in
[34:07] terms of Technology what have you seen
[34:09] change and what are the things that are
[34:10] the most disposable also the most
[34:12] garbage things that have
[34:14] happened so I think the industry in
[34:16] general as a whole is improving right I
[34:19] mean 20 years ago you couldn't go out to
[34:21] Mono price and buy a pair of $600
[34:24] speakers that actually perform decently
[34:26] it was hard to get a pair of good floor
[34:28] standing $600 speakers back then so I
[34:31] think because of companies like Harmon
[34:33] that did the research that showed hey
[34:35] this is kind of a recipe for a good
[34:37] sound you know this is how a speaker
[34:39] should behave in a room more people
[34:42] started researching this other brands as
[34:44] well and they got more serious about not
[34:46] just voicing a speaker by ear but doing
[34:48] the measurements first getting a good
[34:49] blend of the drivers and then of course
[34:51] doing listening tests and in general I
[34:54] just think loudspeaker performance has
[34:56] gotten better over the years subwoofers
[34:58] especially I mean I'm talking 20 years
[35:00] ago when I started this whole thing you
[35:03] know it was hard to get good deep base
[35:06] and the subwoofers did not perform the
[35:09] drivers didn't perform as is the way
[35:10] they do now there's just so much lower
[35:12] Distortion you've got the ability to EQ
[35:15] and get rid of the bumps in the base
[35:17] that was very hard to do I mean just 15
[35:19] years ago a flagship D and receiver had
[35:21] one subw for output it had a geq on it
[35:24] you couldn't do a lot of Base stuff you
[35:26] had to go and buy a mini DSP and tag it
[35:29] onto your receiver and fix the base in
[35:31] your room well now you could do that
[35:32] with room correction now you could do
[35:34] that with a lot of subwoofers that have
[35:35] built-in room correction so I think in
[35:38] general that aspect has improved the
[35:41] things that that kind of bother me about
[35:43] how the industry's changed in the last
[35:45] couple of years is is The Branding and
[35:47] the labeling of stuff like Dolby Atmos
[35:50] like now you can get Dolby Atmos in in a
[35:52] computer in a laptop you can get it in a
[35:54] $400 Soundbar it's like they've water
[35:57] down what the atmos experience is and I
[36:00] understand why they're trying to
[36:01] commercialize it and bring it out there
[36:03] so more people get into it but at the
[36:04] same time I feel like it takes something
[36:07] away from the magic if if someone's only
[36:09] exposure to Dolby Atmos is through a
[36:11] soundbar through bouncy house speakers
[36:13] the one that flect up to the ceiling
[36:15] they're not getting the whole picture
[36:17] they're not really getting the full
[36:18] immersive effect so the other problem
[36:21] too with that is as you add more
[36:22] features to products like avrs the FI
[36:25] the thousand AVR from 20 years ago had a
[36:28] much bigger power supply and capability
[36:31] than a $1,000 AVR today because now
[36:33] you're paying licens and fees to Dolby
[36:35] you're paying licensing fees for HDMI
[36:37] 2.1 to get 8K uh switching in there
[36:41] anytime you add these new features into
[36:43] a product you're going to have to cut
[36:44] what matters most for sound quality and
[36:46] that's the power supply or the
[36:47] amplification section so that's why I
[36:50] started this whole truth and power
[36:51] campaign a few years ago keeping them
[36:54] accountable for measurements and
[36:56] amplifiers because they started
[36:57] measuring amplifiers rather than FTC I'm
[37:00] trying I'm trying not to get too in the
[37:01] weeds with your audience I got you in
[37:04] the 70s the FTC did full bandwidth power
[37:06] ratings for two channels driven eight
[37:08] ohms 4 Ohms well if you look at the fine
[37:10] print on a lot of these cheap avrs today
[37:13] they measure it at one channel driven at
[37:15] one kertz at 10% at six ohms so it gives
[37:18] you the illusion of more power and
[37:20] there's just so many caveats so you look
[37:22] at this receiver it says 250 Watts a
[37:24] channel the reality is it's more like
[37:27] 90 or 100 watts of channel it's about
[37:29] half of what they're showing and I just
[37:31] wish manufacturers would be more honest
[37:32] about that with people so like you go
[37:35] into the Best Buy and you get one of
[37:36] these home theater boxes and it says
[37:38] like 2,000 Watts it's like pmo which is
[37:41] like some Dynamic BS power rating it's
[37:44] not even close to that so that's those
[37:47] are the kind of things that seem like
[37:48] they've gotten a little bit worse in the
[37:50] industry since we've added Atmos and
[37:52] we've added more Channel counts to
[37:54] products but in general I think products
[37:57] are getting better especially the
[37:58] loudspeakers and subwoofers and room
[38:01] correction okay yeah and I think that's
[38:03] a that's a valid point because you see
[38:05] that um it's not just yeah obviously
[38:08] it's that makes sense in the audio video
[38:10] space because you're you're trying to
[38:13] take something and make it new to people
[38:14] so it's the marketing magic of trying to
[38:16] get more people in um while things have
[38:19] changed they haven't changed all that
[38:21] much and you see the same thing with
[38:22] cars right like the cars that what made
[38:25] people excited for cars 20 years ago was
[38:28] a Driving Experience right it was about
[38:31] the physicality the connectedness of the
[38:33] car and now you look at a modern car um
[38:36] and it's about how isolated is it how
[38:38] much can we isolate the Driving
[38:40] Experience out and then what's the
[38:42] technology that's the primary goal of
[38:44] like you know our younger buyers want
[38:47] screens our younger buyers want
[38:48] infotainment because they are holding
[38:50] their phone and the first thing to get
[38:51] them in is oh I feel comfortable because
[38:53] I see a screen in the car and I'm not
[38:55] kidding you that's exactly what they the
[38:56] manufacturers tell us Point plank it's
[38:58] not made up so it's this switch of how
[39:01] do you make an old thing new um and
[39:05] they're constantly trying to recreate
[39:07] this and um you know as I do more and
[39:10] more work on the back end talking
[39:12] Engineers talking to people designers on
[39:13] the business side all these things have
[39:15] to come together right if it was all
[39:16] engineering this car would car or
[39:18] product would be you know ridiculous and
[39:21] it wouldn't be accessible to you
[39:23] wouldn't sell them right that's the same
[39:24] thing with cars right if if you made a
[39:26] car
[39:27] um that was the perfect car from an
[39:29] engineering driving perspective you have
[39:30] five people that would buy it you know
[39:32] and that's the joke um but it's gotten
[39:35] to it's it's another extreme too where
[39:37] you're you're selling all this marketing
[39:40] versus actually having a product that
[39:41] makes a lot of sense um and I found that
[39:44] too over getting back into audio video
[39:46] again and obviously with the help of
[39:47] your site is you
[39:50] know what are most people doing most
[39:53] people are you know listening to basic
[39:55] two Channel audio mostly compressed most
[39:58] people are watching stuff through a TV
[40:01] they don't have like a dedicated AVR let
[40:03] alone the space for all these speakers
[40:05] and then what's their streaming Source
[40:07] or their source to get content they're
[40:10] not going to be like discreet like
[40:12] really high quality um multi- Channel
[40:15] outputs most people have like a generic
[40:18] app thing on their TV or a Roku and the
[40:20] audio is limited there what are you
[40:21] going to do with it so when you talk
[40:23] about Hi-Fi right like a really good
[40:26] Channel system I feel like tier Point
[40:28] that's the most accessible way to do it
[40:30] um because you at least you have really
[40:32] good control of two channel and no
[40:34] matter what you watch or listen to you
[40:36] can get sound and set it up out of a two
[40:38] two speakers um obviously with TV and
[40:41] movies a center and that's going to be a
[40:44] huge argument I see people arguing about
[40:45] Center Channel all the time it's like a
[40:47] blessing and a curse when you hear a
[40:49] good setup with a center channel when
[40:51] everything comes out of it because so
[40:52] much data comes through there it can
[40:54] make a huge difference in terms of
[40:55] dialogue NE legibility and all of that
[40:57] and I I feel like even like a three
[40:59] Channel setup for TV and movies is
[41:01] pretty good but when you get into all
[41:03] the you know like when you start talking
[41:05] about Atmos and you start talking about
[41:08] like four subs or three or you you know
[41:10] however you're going to do it it gets to
[41:11] the point where how am I going to do
[41:13] this yeah yeah you're not going to
[41:16] convince an average person to go set
[41:19] this up in a space that most people
[41:20] don't have in modern homes especially
[41:23] and this is where I've struggled and I'm
[41:25] I'm not going to talk to death but I'm
[41:27] going to get back into like how I got
[41:28] back into this and got reconnected with
[41:31] audioholics but I I loved audio as a kid
[41:34] um my Dad loved movies and TV and he
[41:37] knew nothing about how to set anything
[41:38] up I was like an eight-year-old plugging
[41:40] in RCA cables and a mess and setting up
[41:43] like a preamp and all this crap I had no
[41:45] idea there was no internet either and I
[41:46] just I like that part of it but as I got
[41:48] older and into it I realized where the
[41:51] hell am I going to set this stuff up I
[41:52] had an apartment okay now you can't play
[41:54] it Loud or you know you have to be
[41:56] careful and what can you do with the
[41:58] room not much and then you know I'm
[42:00] looking for a house and every new house
[42:01] is like a cavern to find a room that is
[42:04] the proper size in a pre-built home is
[42:07] almost impossible because of the high
[42:08] ceilings and everything and then you get
[42:09] to the point of like what you're saying
[42:11] is I could get a monor speaker not to
[42:14] say that there's anything wrong with it
[42:16] but something that's like $300 then it's
[42:18] going to sound just as good as like a
[42:19] $2,000 set of speakers in a a room with
[42:21] a 20 foot ceiling it's just yeah it's
[42:24] really hard
[42:27] sorry sorry that that that was kind of
[42:28] my point it's really hard to get people
[42:30] into it the room the room and the
[42:33] difficulty and setup look we're not at
[42:34] the point where you can just plop down a
[42:37] five channel with a subwofer speaker
[42:39] system and press a magic button and have
[42:41] it perfectly calibrated we are there are
[42:44] some systems that do a decent job that
[42:46] that get you close and some people will
[42:48] be satisfied with that but there is some
[42:50] setup and that's why I think it's
[42:51] important to work with a partner if
[42:54] you're buying from a retailer that
[42:56] actually has technical expertise
[42:58] sometimes it's worth the extra money to
[43:00] pay the retail price and get customer
[43:02] support as opposed to shopping for the
[43:04] for the cheapest you can get it from
[43:06] someone that doesn't even know the
[43:07] products they're just basically
[43:08] reselling it and I think that's why
[43:10] there should be a connection with the
[43:12] dealer even if it's an online dealer
[43:13] there's some great online companies that
[43:15] are offering service they're offering
[43:18] expertise on the products and I think
[43:20] that's what really helps people get
[43:22] better into it because half of it is
[43:25] getting the setup you get the good
[43:26] equipment in there but if it's
[43:28] improperly set up you're not getting the
[43:30] results that you were hoping
[43:32] for yeah in the TV stuff is the same way
[43:35] as you know like I I I've cursed this
[43:37] for a long time and I obviously making
[43:40] videos uh I have a really good ear for
[43:42] video and audio great I grew up with
[43:44] this stuff so I'm like okay now I get to
[43:46] make it or somewhat try to make it and I
[43:48] have a better appreciation for
[43:49] everything that goes into it I also have
[43:51] appreciation for the fact that I could
[43:53] spend all this time on calibrated
[43:54] displays like color calibration trying
[43:57] to get audio calibrated and make making
[43:59] a mix and a video that looks as accurate
[44:02] as I can possibly make it to to do what
[44:04] I want to do and then you know you don't
[44:06] know what people are watching and I look
[44:07] at the the analytics for YouTube and
[44:10] surprisingly our our viewer base is like
[44:13] almost half they watch on a TV which is
[44:16] unbelievable so a lot of people do watch
[44:18] our stuff on TVs um and a lot of people
[44:20] are clearly more Enthusiast based but
[44:23] the other half are watching on a
[44:24] computer or phone screen so you don't
[44:26] know what color profile they're in they
[44:28] could be on a color profile it's
[44:29] completely incompatible it would look
[44:31] horrible based on how I did it so the
[44:33] magic of trying to get something set up
[44:35] only to have the end user with a product
[44:38] they don't understand and it goes into
[44:40] you know 100 700 Hertz mode or 7,000 htz
[44:44] on their TV with you know frame blending
[44:47] and all this stuff that ruins the
[44:48] picture and that nobody knows the
[44:49] difference either like people don't have
[44:51] a good ear or eye because there's never
[44:53] been any real standardization because if
[44:57] standards you wouldn't be able to them
[44:59] right so it kind of goes to that
[45:02] question of you know the gimmicky part
[45:04] of trying to Sol this marketing to make
[45:06] it look cool like oh I sold a laptop
[45:08] with Dolby Atmos wow people like okay
[45:10] it's got Dolby Atmos I don't even know
[45:12] what the hell that is but it it's a
[45:13] feature that they can try to sell as a
[45:15] value ad um and the car market is
[45:18] egregious with this too it's the same
[45:20] thing with the market the the type of
[45:22] nonsense that they're um that trying to
[45:26] push um yeah like like the paddle
[45:29] shifters like do we really need paddle
[45:31] shifters on our steering wheel I mean
[45:34] they oh
[45:36] hello yeah sorry can you still hear me
[45:39] my audio I could hear you I just can't
[45:41] see you okay well it my uh somebody's
[45:44] listening to me on the back end and
[45:45] they're like nope you're not you're not
[45:48] going to talk about us I'm going to try
[45:50] to restart my webcam it I think it
[45:52] crashed okay so I'll I'll get into the
[45:55] next question um was while you can't see
[45:58] me I'm just a black
[46:00] void um your biggest some lessons oh
[46:04] sorry go ahead oh I was just GNA finish
[46:06] one point that I because you asked me
[46:07] about some of the downfalls recently in
[46:09] home theater and I think one of the
[46:11] biggest blows to home theater in the
[46:13] last few months is the fact that the
[46:15] retailers like Best Buy are not
[46:17] supporting Blu-ray anymore so if
[46:20] People's only experience for home
[46:22] theater is streaming they're really
[46:25] missing out because there's a huge
[46:27] difference in sound quality between
[46:28] streaming whether whether it's an Apple
[46:30] TV or Roku Disney plus all that stuff
[46:34] there's always compromises in the audio
[46:36] quality because it's compressed and the
[46:39] streaming versions of these movies
[46:41] either have limited dynamic range
[46:43] limited base extension or they have a
[46:46] lot more compression in the high
[46:47] channels so I would really encourage
[46:49] anyone that has a home theater to to get
[46:52] a Blu-ray player at their very minimum
[46:54] buy their favorite movie if it's an
[46:56] Atmos or if you have the budget a
[46:58] Collide Escape is the way to go that's
[47:00] just the only way you're going to get
[47:02] reference material now because streaming
[47:04] just hasn't caught up until we get
[47:05] lossless audio and until we don't get
[47:08] different compromised mixes for
[47:10] streaming you're never gonna get the
[47:12] full experience that you got in the in
[47:14] the movie theater watching a movie on
[47:17] streaming yeah I'd agree with that and
[47:20] just just I'm gonna ask you can you
[47:21] still hear me clearly and see me yeah
[47:24] okay all right cool I I yeah I I would
[47:27] agree with that the streaming thing it's
[47:29] it's it is amazing honestly and I know
[47:30] you know this when you're working all
[47:32] the time and you're doing stuff the last
[47:33] thing you're going to be able to do and
[47:35] this is really hard for me is go to a
[47:36] theater or sometimes it's just
[47:38] convenient to be able to stream anything
[47:40] you want like I want to see it it's
[47:41] right there and I'm willing to sacrifice
[47:43] some of the quality to see it right then
[47:45] and there but it it it does take away
[47:47] some of the magic namely um I think when
[47:50] you look at HDR or not HDR but uh UHD
[47:53] discs which I know nobody uses like like
[47:55] it's probably got to be like a 1% of the
[47:57] market share but I my dad collects all
[48:00] these movies and he has like all these
[48:02] movies he doesn't even open he's just a
[48:04] collector of movies and he loves them
[48:05] and I now that I've gotten older I never
[48:07] really understood it as much as I like
[48:08] it I'm like why do you have all this
[48:10] stuff that you've never opened and he's
[48:11] like I you know I collection yeah it's a
[48:14] collection and now that I'm older I'm
[48:15] like I want all of it you know I'm not
[48:17] you I'm not going to go in and just loot
[48:19] his house but you know I mean like when
[48:21] when he's gone in a hundred years uh cuz
[48:24] he's going to live forever I you know I
[48:25] would like to take and make a room just
[48:27] for physical that physical media um and
[48:30] I think when you go and as you know you
[48:33] you take a UHD disc and you compare it
[48:36] to the streaming like the same thing
[48:37] even in a 4K stream it's it's not even
[48:39] close um in terms of picture quality but
[48:42] you know if you get used to it right
[48:44] like you can still enjoy it and I think
[48:47] that's the balance of it you don't need
[48:48] a you don't need a $300,000 sports car
[48:51] to enjoy the Driving Experience right so
[48:54] that's the same thing goes with audio
[48:55] and video um and I will go into the next
[48:59] question I've haded up here what do you
[49:01] think your your biggest mistakes and
[49:02] lessons are that you've learned in the
[49:05] the Decades of doing this now I made a
[49:07] lot of mistakes running a website
[49:09] without a marketing degree or anything
[49:11] like that I would say um the biggest one
[49:15] was in the early 2000s I tried to Brand
[49:17] a store with audioholics and I was I
[49:19] guess I was ahead of the uh I was ahead
[49:22] of its time because now everybody does
[49:24] affiliate right so I try to I try to
[49:27] bring a partner in and run an online
[49:29] store that was independent from audio
[49:31] Hawks but they would use my name and it
[49:33] would sell brands with click to buy on
[49:35] the reviews and people did not like that
[49:38] our readers didn't like it we pissed off
[49:41] our advertisers if they weren't included
[49:42] in the store and it just it created a
[49:44] mess for a couple of years and then that
[49:46] company wouldn't let go of my name
[49:48] afterwards when I dissolved the
[49:49] partnership and that was a mess in its
[49:52] own um I'm glad that that chapter is
[49:55] over but then all of the sudden in the
[49:57] last few years you can't survive without
[49:59] affiliate all the YouTube channels are
[50:00] monetized they're all run with Channel
[50:03] Partners everybody's monetizing their
[50:05] websites you know it's not just banners
[50:07] anymore the man the advertisers don't
[50:09] really want the banners they don't see
[50:11] the value in branding anymore they want
[50:13] click to buy they want links embedded in
[50:16] the YouTube videos and it's there's
[50:18] pressure there because now you have to
[50:19] perform you have to get enough views in
[50:22] order for those clicks to work based on
[50:24] the numbers game so that's kind of
[50:26] changed the game a little bit and I and
[50:28] the other thing I see is um other
[50:31] mistakes I've made is I just didn't
[50:33] Focus sometimes on I worri too much
[50:36] about where the next Revenue stream was
[50:38] going to come in and not just have faith
[50:40] that the content itself would win you
[50:43] know and just those kind of challenges I
[50:46] I would always think like during covid I
[50:48] was like oh man my business is ruined I
[50:51] lost 60% of my advertising because
[50:53] everybody pulled out I was like how am I
[50:54] going to recover
[50:56] and then sure enough I had no idea
[50:57] there'd be a Resurgence in home theater
[50:59] because people weren't going to the
[51:01] theaters right they were building home
[51:03] theaters in their houses so postco was
[51:05] the best few years we've
[51:07] had I just couldn't that's amazing do
[51:10] you think people have a better
[51:11] appreciation for it now uh 100% yeah
[51:14] 100% every I mean I talk to friends of
[51:17] mine that are installers and their
[51:18] business is all boomed after Co because
[51:20] of that people are putting dedicated
[51:22] listening spaces look what happened
[51:24] after Co the movies went direct to
[51:25] stream right HBO Max had all the new
[51:28] movies I was loving that I was like man
[51:30] I hope this doesn't end of course it
[51:32] ended because people going back to the
[51:34] theater but for a while that was like
[51:36] just a cool feature to get a brand new
[51:38] release literally when it was coming out
[51:40] on
[51:41] stream and that's something we've talked
[51:43] about forever you know that's always
[51:45] been teased the services that were going
[51:47] to allow you a direct to home the
[51:49] theatrical release and I forgot what
[51:51] company was it was like a $220,000 box
[51:54] or subscription that you could do that a
[51:55] long time ago and I remember going with
[51:57] my dad back in the divix or something
[52:01] yeah I think it I think it was that yeah
[52:03] I remember going to CS or some of the
[52:04] electronic shows when I was a kid and my
[52:07] dad I remember walking with him I was
[52:09] probably six years old and we were in
[52:10] Chicago and um we went to all these like
[52:14] you know the the uh what do you call it
[52:17] the um Hotel setups for all the
[52:20] listening rooms they did in Chicago and
[52:22] yeah I remember listening to like a set
[52:24] of theal speakers and some of these
[52:26] other ones and we're walking home and my
[52:28] dad's like one day you're going to have
[52:30] HDTV in your generation one day you're
[52:33] going to have this stuff and you're
[52:34] going to see movies at home without
[52:36] having to go to the theater and it's
[52:38] funny how it's still you know some of
[52:41] these prophecies have not been fulfilled
[52:43] and it makes sense right it's a big
[52:45] business you're not going to you can't
[52:47] have one streaming service with every uh
[52:50] brand on it so so you're now it's worse
[52:53] than cable was you have to have 75 live
[52:55] streaming services to get you know where
[52:58] is that one movie on more money than
[53:02] yeah it's more I I'm subscribed to like
[53:04] all the streaming services and when I
[53:05] look at my monthly bill I'm like this is
[53:07] way more money than I paid for
[53:09] cable and like half of them are not even
[53:12] good like yeah you still get commercials
[53:15] you still get commercials on some of
[53:16] them like Hulu you got to spend almost
[53:17] 20 a month if you don't want the
[53:18] commercials I love American Dad but do I
[53:21] want to spend 20 a month because I don't
[53:22] want
[53:24] commercials yeah yeah exactly yep and
[53:27] yeah I know saw Amazon is now doing ads
[53:30] I mean it makes sense right these
[53:31] companies if they can't get enough
[53:34] content they need to to get the money to
[53:36] keep the the business rolling um so I
[53:39] don't know it's a slippery slope I I
[53:42] think we're reaching a point of
[53:43] saturation now with streaming so it'll
[53:45] be interesting to see what happens with
[53:47] that like as these Services Fall by the
[53:48] way side um when there's too much
[53:51] because people can't afford to be
[53:52] spending $40 or like the prices keep
[53:55] going going up 20 40 50 or like Hulu
[53:57] like $80 with DVR it's it's crazy it is
[54:01] yeah but don't you think it changed the
[54:03] way it it changed the way we we digest
[54:06] content now in in my opinion and I don't
[54:08] want to get too far off topic movie
[54:10] quality has suffered over the last few
[54:12] years I think everything is recycled
[54:14] plots gender swapping and I everything
[54:17] seems to be the good stories are going
[54:19] to stream but then they hook you because
[54:21] you have to watch serialized content so
[54:24] you you start on a show and you got to
[54:27] watch all the seasons to see how it
[54:28] concludes you can't just jump from one
[54:30] episode to the other so I just think the
[54:32] way we've
[54:33] consumed our media has changed since
[54:36] covid
[54:37] particularly yeah it's gone down quite a
[54:39] bit and I'm not saying that because I'm
[54:41] you know middle-aged white guy that
[54:43] everybody says shouldn't have an opinion
[54:44] anymore um yeah in media space right
[54:47] especially when it comes to um movies
[54:50] and film right like the the concept of
[54:52] if I say something bad about a movie
[54:54] well that's not for you right I I mean I
[54:56] get that I'm I think more there is so
[54:59] much creativity and there's so much
[55:02] talent out there um but I really do
[55:04] think it comes down to what makes money
[55:06] right like the studios don't want to
[55:08] dump a hundred million doar on a movie
[55:10] if it's not going to make triple that
[55:11] back so yeah they're trying to say with
[55:14] safe topics um that said there is an
[55:17] unbelievable amount of great like TV I
[55:19] mean more so than ever um you look at
[55:22] like the last of us which you know is
[55:26] you know I mean like literally took a
[55:27] video game which was a good story to
[55:29] begin with to be fair but they
[55:30] translated it perfectly into a story you
[55:33] care about like and it wasn't it was
[55:36] just different there's a lot of shows
[55:37] like that and we could go on and on and
[55:39] talk about TV and movies but I feel like
[55:41] it's gotten better but I think the mass
[55:43] commercial stuff has gotten worse um and
[55:46] but that to be fair that's also like the
[55:48] the burnout effect of uh the superhero
[55:52] stuff I mean it's been played out for
[55:54] years anyway yeah no I want I want
[55:58] movies like I want movies like the Sha
[56:00] Shank Redemption again we're just not
[56:01] getting movies to that level anymore now
[56:04] every everybody has to fly and it's all
[56:06] action and it's just not deep character
[56:10] development yeah and I think there's a
[56:12] lot there's a lot more competing for
[56:14] your eyes and ears now too um you know
[56:17] like I I talked about I talk about this
[56:18] a lot with media space because you have
[56:20] to go back 50 years and there was like
[56:24] three five channels right five TV
[56:26] channels and your media was really
[56:27] Consolidated your messaging was really
[56:29] Consolidated or you know you'd pick up a
[56:31] newspaper like oh okay I have three
[56:33] choices for a newspaper in my town and
[56:35] that's where you consumed everything now
[56:37] you're inundated with so much like from
[56:41] all these spaces and streaming services
[56:43] and online sites and uh it's going to
[56:46] get worse I think generationally with
[56:48] the the concept of quick you know like
[56:50] the Tik Tok style um just just constant
[56:54] scrolling stuff I think the attention
[56:56] span is also going to deplete I don't
[56:59] know how long form is going to do with
[57:01] that generational shift will they'll
[57:03] will the younger generation get more
[57:04] calmed down and want to watch longer
[57:06] stuff what's your feeling on that well
[57:08] my scary here's what scares me is the
[57:11] reason why I got on YouTube is I saw the
[57:13] decline of people reading
[57:15] online and wanting to digest content on
[57:18] YouTube so back in our Heyday we had our
[57:22] our editorial site had twice the traffic
[57:24] that it has today and it still does well
[57:27] but it had twice the traffic all that
[57:29] shifted over to YouTube so our YouTube
[57:31] channel has about the same traffic now
[57:34] as our editorial site which is crazy but
[57:37] it's the trend is getting worse now
[57:38] people are going like you said to Tik
[57:40] Tok and the attention spans are getting
[57:41] shorter and shorter and they just don't
[57:43] want to read like they used to and I'm
[57:46] guilty of it myself when I go online and
[57:48] I want to find out about a new car or
[57:50] whatever I don't go and read the article
[57:52] I go right to YouTube and look up
[57:54] channels like yours or throttle housee
[57:57] and it's just more entertaining right
[57:58] you want to watch it from your TV so I
[58:01] think there needs to be a balance of
[58:03] that and but I'm just not seeing it like
[58:05] I look at my kids and they're not
[58:07] reading the content they're on Tik Tok
[58:09] and they're on YouTube and that's how
[58:12] they're digesting the information so I
[58:14] don't really know what the answer is to
[58:15] that other than supplementary so when I
[58:18] do a video on audioholics I do put the
[58:20] editorial in more detail if people want
[58:22] to read it but I always promote my
[58:25] YouTube channel back to my website to
[58:27] try to keep that thing going I I think
[58:30] there's certain topics that lend well to
[58:32] written format and supplemental like to
[58:35] your point audio video stuff it's it's
[58:38] really hard you're you're never going to
[58:39] be able to show somebody what a speaker
[58:42] sounds like right it's impossible I mean
[58:44] you can show the speaker and take it
[58:46] apart and like here's the engineering
[58:47] that goes in it which would serve well
[58:49] from a video format but frankly I don't
[58:51] want to watch a 20-minute review to see
[58:52] a bunch of graphs right it would make
[58:54] more sense have it written out and your
[58:57] what scares me about YouTube as well is
[58:59] there's people on YouTube with binaural
[59:01] microphones letting you listen to the
[59:03] speaker through your Beats headphones or
[59:05] your little desktop speakers thinking
[59:06] you're getting the same experience and
[59:08] it's such a disservice it's so dishonest
[59:11] intellectually it's entertaining but
[59:13] it's a it's just bad form you cannot do
[59:16] a listening test through YouTube and
[59:19] hear a speaker at someone else's house
[59:21] and get the same
[59:23] exp it's funny but people take it
[59:25] seriously I I get people arguing with me
[59:28] like you talk 20 minutes about that
[59:30] speaker you never shut up and you never
[59:32] you never let us hear the speaker I'm
[59:34] like am I going to sit here and let you
[59:36] hear a $20,000 pair of peristent
[59:38] speakers on your earbuds and think
[59:40] you're going to get that experience
[59:41] you're going to hear what I'm hearing
[59:42] and you think the microphones are going
[59:44] to accurately represent the acoustic
[59:46] space and what's going on with the
[59:48] speaker versus what's going on with the
[59:49] Acoustics and transfer it back to your
[59:51] speakers it just it doesn't
[59:53] happen so it's hard to play in a space
[59:56] like that um and to kind of reconnect
[59:58] the car world and the product Tech world
[60:01] and the speaker world right it's really
[60:02] hard to explain some of these
[60:04] complicated topics without talking down
[60:07] to people right I think that's that's
[60:08] the other thing that we Face we get a
[60:10] lot of this like oh you guys are
[60:11] pretentious you know and it it's hard to
[60:15] help people learn while not talking over
[60:18] them and making them feel dumb right
[60:20] because that's what happens with this
[60:21] stuff and I like I listen to your stuff
[60:23] I don't ever feel stupid l to it but I'm
[60:25] like I have no idea what the hell you're
[60:27] talking about and you know it takes a
[60:29] lot of work to like get caught up with
[60:31] that but at the same time you know like
[60:34] you have to have a middle ground of
[60:36] trying to help people understand what
[60:38] you're saying without going over their
[60:39] head but also not dumbing it down and
[60:41] watering down the content to the point
[60:42] of like I don't want to make Tik Tok
[60:44] videos where I have 30 seconds to show a
[60:47] dashboard steering wheel a tire and a
[60:50] wheel and look how cool it is um I don't
[60:52] care about that and I I I know there's
[60:54] that game of trying to do that um namely
[60:57] in the audio space too like look how
[60:58] cool it is you've dealt with that
[60:59] forever like look at the Finish or look
[61:01] at the specs look how much wattage or
[61:03] whatever um I think there's a place that
[61:07] you exist and I know you said this and
[61:09] it hit me when you first said it is
[61:11] you're you've maxed out what you can do
[61:14] with the audio video realm of your
[61:16] business like there's nothing left
[61:17] you've achieved what you went out to do
[61:20] so how do you how is that how's that
[61:23] changed for you knowing that um
[61:26] personally has it evaporated your joy in
[61:29] it like what what do you how do you deal
[61:31] with it dayto day so there was a period
[61:33] a few years ago where I was just burned
[61:35] out like I there was I would go to trade
[61:37] shows I'm like I've already heard it all
[61:39] I'm not interested in this and like I've
[61:41] Seen It All I've had so many products in
[61:43] my house but then I self-reflected and I
[61:46] realized personally I was having some
[61:49] struggles of my own like I was dealing
[61:51] with some depression and I just wasn't
[61:52] getting excited about things
[61:55] so then I after I treated that and I
[61:57] went through my own personal Journey it
[61:59] kind of re um ignited my passion for
[62:02] audio and then I got more people
[62:05] involved that's that's the thing is
[62:06] getting getting more people involved in
[62:09] what you do I hired new writers people
[62:11] that have fresh perspectives you know
[62:14] getting on YouTube and getting the
[62:15] reaction out of people and then go into
[62:17] to trade shows and when people recognize
[62:19] you and they you know they're
[62:20] appreciative of your efforts it kind of
[62:24] gave me like a new appreciation and that
[62:27] I'm so privileged and honored to have
[62:30] that I'm able to reach so many people on
[62:32] these platforms and and help people make
[62:34] better purchasing decisions kind of like
[62:37] what you're doing as well that it's kind
[62:40] of I'm excited about it now I look
[62:42] forward like I saw at CES they had those
[62:44] translucent TVs from LG I mean that's
[62:46] like that's Tony Stark level stuff you
[62:48] know that stuff that we saw in Avengers
[62:51] 10 years ago that are now coming to
[62:53] fruition or the fact that we now have
[62:55] the ability to do multi manage sub room
[62:57] correction that I was dreaming about 20
[63:00] years ago that I had to do manually so
[63:02] there the fact that there's progress
[63:04] gives me hope and I see that um younger
[63:09] Generations are getting more into audio
[63:11] in terms of even if they're listening
[63:13] with earbuds they are paying attention
[63:15] to listening and the fact that Apple
[63:17] music puts so much effort into spatial
[63:19] audio I never thought we'd see the day
[63:21] where we would be streaming surround
[63:22] sound music
[63:24] that's you know sit back and think about
[63:27] that 10 years ago that was an an
[63:28] impossibility you could not do that you
[63:30] had to go and buy physical disc to do
[63:33] that so the fact that a major company
[63:36] like apple is investing in spatial audio
[63:38] gives me hope that there's future for
[63:41] this and that there's we just got to
[63:42] reach the younger generation because
[63:44] when us old farts die out well me I'm
[63:46] talking about you're you're younger than
[63:48] me but when when I die out my
[63:51] generation has to pass that passion on
[63:54] to the Next
[63:55] Generation yeah I think that's those
[63:58] people yeah I I think it is really super
[64:01] important and it's one of the things
[64:02] that's uh drives me more now um I I and
[64:06] I mentioned this before and I'm it's
[64:08] just because I've been working on it
[64:09] with the snsx thing and um I I'm sitting
[64:12] here thinking to myself how much work
[64:14] I'm doing like trying to trying to get
[64:16] this video done and like all the things
[64:17] that go into it and part of it after a
[64:20] while is a car is a car but you know
[64:24] after a while this knowledge goes away
[64:28] and this is what I told the engineers
[64:29] like they're all you know and there some
[64:30] of 60s and 70s right they're they're
[64:32] been retired and I told
[64:34] them you know once you're gone and this
[64:38] knowledge is not shared it's not
[64:40] relearned you know the the past lessons
[64:42] are gone so what is it that you know for
[64:45] me I didn't create these things to like
[64:47] to your point like I've spent my entire
[64:49] life supporting product or fixing things
[64:53] that are wrong with things that are
[64:54] people creating or trying to make them
[64:56] better for the people that are creating
[64:58] them so a lot of my job is to try to
[65:00] share some of these stories and some of
[65:03] the knowledge that has gone into them so
[65:05] people have a better appreciation of
[65:07] that and that's what gets me excited and
[65:10] it's more rare let's be real because
[65:12] most of the products are just out
[65:14] you know they really are they're just
[65:15] quick let's get them out we need to sell
[65:17] a lot in high volume but there are
[65:19] products out there that really get you
[65:20] excited and you want people to learn and
[65:22] understand and there's so much fun to be
[65:23] had with that and if I can pass along
[65:25] even other people's work um that's
[65:28] really that's the best thing I can do at
[65:30] this point with what I'm trying to do um
[65:33] and H have you I know you talked to a
[65:35] lot of people you talked to a lot of
[65:36] Engineers that do audio and video
[65:39] um how is it is it mostly just the
[65:42] people that are working in these smaller
[65:43] companies that you have access to how do
[65:46] you view the small versus the big
[65:47] commodity Brands no that's what that's
[65:49] what another thing that really blows me
[65:52] away is is even though our Channel's not
[65:55] as nearly as big as yours we are watched
[65:57] by people I don't realize are watching
[65:59] us I I had an interview with a guy that
[66:02] did the uh Atmos mixing for the Star
[66:04] Wars movies he was a fan of my channel I
[66:06] had no idea we gave him some
[66:08] consultation because he's making a
[66:09] mixing studio in his house and he's
[66:11] going to be producing content on it so
[66:14] that kind of stuff is amazing I had most
[66:16] recently last summer I had uh Yamaha
[66:19] reach out to me and their lead designer
[66:21] in Japan for their Hi-Fi division one
[66:24] wanted to come out visit me showcase his
[66:26] new products sit down with me listen to
[66:28] music and we spent two days together and
[66:31] this dude was awesome I mean this is the
[66:32] guy that's designing the very best audio
[66:35] equipment that Yamaha makes hanging out
[66:37] with me drinking saki listening to blues
[66:40] music I mean I just this is why I do
[66:43] what I do you know I the fact that I'm
[66:46] able to have these kind of relationships
[66:48] and and influence these companies
[66:50] because they listen to what I say when I
[66:52] find an anomaly and their product they
[66:54] go and make changes so it's not just the
[66:56] small companies which I do work with as
[66:58] well but the large companies pay
[67:00] attention I mean large companies like uh
[67:03] Mor morance and Denon have made major
[67:05] changes to their products because of my
[67:07] testing and loudspeakers too we have a
[67:10] guy that does all of our loudspeakers
[67:12] James Larsson he's incredibly
[67:14] resourceful he takes the speakers
[67:15] outside to do accurate measurements when
[67:18] he does this stuff the manufacturers
[67:20] watch it and if there's problems they
[67:22] try to make improvements to the products
[67:24] the good companies do that yeah you know
[67:26] and that's so that's that's just an
[67:29] awesome thing and and I just have to
[67:30] tell you the fact that you keep talking
[67:32] about this NSX project the fact that you
[67:33] sit in that car and drive it that's like
[67:35] a dream of mine I would love to drive
[67:37] that car that's a beautiful car that
[67:39] must be
[67:40] awesome yeah it's um I think a lot of
[67:44] these like NSX specifically uh Jack and
[67:48] I started doing a video on it like a
[67:51] year ago and like oh I I wanted do it
[67:54] like a documentary style thing and then
[67:55] we interviewed people
[67:57] that spent their business supporting
[68:00] this car most of their adult life like
[68:01] literally servicing and supporting and
[68:03] and supporting the owner community and
[68:04] I'm like I cannot tell a story about
[68:08] this car without getting the Japanese
[68:09] involved because this is what we do as
[68:11] in As Americans or in the United States
[68:13] we we we get these products and we spin
[68:17] our own stories on them and we make it
[68:20] like it's our own and we don't get to
[68:21] hear from the people that actually
[68:23] worked on them and knew I'm like okay
[68:24] how old are these guys when can I get
[68:26] you know can I get a hold of them you
[68:28] know like and I made the mistake open
[68:31] opening up that door and um I was not
[68:34] prepared for the door that I opened uh
[68:37] however it's probably the this is like
[68:40] most things with life right like the
[68:42] hardest things you do the most difficult
[68:44] things you do whether you enjoy them or
[68:45] not the Silver Lining is usually you
[68:47] learn a lot from it and oh yeah and I
[68:51] know you know this going through
[68:52] difficulties and running a business
[68:54] you you learn from mistakes or even not
[68:56] mistakes you just learn by having to do
[68:58] more than you normally would have done
[69:00] um and you learn what you did good and
[69:02] what you can do better next time and
[69:04] what you would never do again but I
[69:05] really love um it to me it's Way Beyond
[69:09] the car at this point Way Beyond the
[69:10] driving the car and all that and it's
[69:13] more about how these things come about
[69:16] like the stories behind the people and
[69:17] how they were and this was their life
[69:20] you know literally some of these dudes
[69:22] that made this this specific car and it
[69:24] could be any car to be honest some of
[69:25] these big cars they've dedicated almost
[69:28] their entire adult life this was their
[69:30] one achievement that they had in their
[69:32] generation and their life that's the
[69:34] biggest thing that they did and a lot of
[69:36] the Japanese especially tie a lot of
[69:38] their identity to that thing that they
[69:41] did over anything else and I find
[69:44] that sad but I also find it very
[69:48] fascinating and compelling that somebody
[69:50] put this much energy into something and
[69:52] I have a lot of respect for for that
[69:54] because we're so spread out right like I
[69:56] know you and I we're in a million
[69:57] different directions but if I had to
[69:59] dedicate to one thing and that one thing
[70:02] was this car that you know people are
[70:04] still talking about it's like the
[70:06] closest thing you can come to like an
[70:07] art piece or something that hopefully
[70:09] will live on long after you're gone so
[70:12] it's it's cool um there's not too many
[70:15] products you can talk about that you can
[70:16] pass that stuff on and I'm sure on the
[70:18] audio video space you know there's some
[70:20] historic pieces of equipment uh that
[70:23] people think about and talk about but
[70:24] it's probably less than some of these
[70:26] historic cars I would would think do is
[70:28] that I mean there's classic there's
[70:30] classic designs there's gold standards
[70:32] of what audio files consider to be
[70:35] products that are Timeless right like
[70:37] JBL has the L100 which when it came out
[70:41] back in the day wasn't a very good
[70:42] speaker but it was kind of the gold
[70:45] standard and JBL actually brought that
[70:47] speaker back with modern engineering and
[70:49] it's a much better speaker now with
[70:51] updated driver Tech and a wave guide but
[70:54] yeah I mean there there is some of that
[70:56] there's the funny thing is some of this
[70:57] audio Nostalgia is what really drives uh
[71:01] the appreciation for that like old
[71:02] Macintosh gear Old Macintosh gear sells
[71:06] for more now than it was sold for when
[71:08] you bought it in the
[71:09] 70s and so it's I mean it's beautiful
[71:12] stuff with the blue uh front glass and
[71:15] the Vu
[71:16] meters yeah but on a bench some of the
[71:18] stuff isn't that great it's certainly
[71:20] not worth the amount of money that
[71:22] they're asking for it's almost like a P
[71:23] of jewelry at that point you know but
[71:25] that's that's how it is the the
[71:27] perception it's not always it's not
[71:28] always about the measurements it's not
[71:30] always about the performance it's about
[71:32] the perception and how you connect to
[71:34] the product that really matters and you
[71:35] could connect with something like a
[71:37] Macintosh product over like a den
[71:39] receiver you know Den or so Mass Market
[71:42] product you don't get that kind of
[71:43] emotional connection and that that's a
[71:46] big part of of your experience with
[71:48] audio and video is the emotional
[71:50] connection to seeing the product in the
[71:51] room and um
[71:54] I don't think uh some of the
[71:55] manufacturers that that really push the
[71:57] blind listening test to remove the bias
[72:00] they don't always factor in the fact
[72:02] that you have to live with the product
[72:04] in a room and if you have something that
[72:06] sounds good in a room but also looks
[72:08] good that changes your whole perception
[72:10] of how you experience it and I'm
[72:12] imagining the same thing with cars I
[72:13] look at some of the cars today and I
[72:16] look at like what BMW did with that
[72:18] Beaver grill that kills me that I just
[72:21] won't I won't trade my m240 for a car
[72:23] that has that big grill on the front and
[72:25] I don't know why they're doing it but
[72:27] that's everybody's doing that Lexus did
[72:29] that with the is I had the is- 350 which
[72:32] in Black looked okay but those grills
[72:34] keep getting bigger and and it's a
[72:37] design choice I guess that the industry
[72:39] kind of stuck with but it created a very
[72:41] polarized result right I think there's a
[72:43] lot of BMW enthusiasts that prefer the
[72:45] older designs over the new designs for
[72:47] that
[72:48] reason yeah it's an interesting
[72:51] discussion with the car stuff and the
[72:53] car design um because cars are weird in
[72:57] the fact that they have multi people
[72:59] have them for multiple reasons right
[73:01] they can be a vanity piece they can be a
[73:03] flex they can be you know a status piece
[73:06] they can be an A2B machine that's like a
[73:08] toaster you know uh some people are
[73:10] enthusiasts they just love the car they
[73:11] don't care how it looks um so there's so
[73:14] many reasons why people buy cars but
[73:16] yeah I I think what struck me is there's
[73:19] and when we did our we did this video
[73:21] with elcid air Sapphire and the
[73:23] engineers and the guys that we talked to
[73:25] and girls they were they had some
[73:28] interesting things to say and one of the
[73:30] the brand managers he's like you know
[73:31] we've gone through this evolution of
[73:33] additive design big grills uh add-on
[73:37] pieces for the sake of it nonfunctional
[73:39] pieces and now you're starting to see
[73:40] that reverse itself so it's again it
[73:42] rolls in Trends right like you talked
[73:43] about the jbls like they're re releasing
[73:45] a a Heritage or Legacy speaker and
[73:47] improving it so there's these trends
[73:50] that we go on um and I think the BMW
[73:53] thing
[73:54] is interesting because you know all the
[73:55] BMWs for a long time look the same like
[73:58] that generation like after you know they
[74:00] were all the same and what is every
[74:01] other brand do they copy that formula so
[74:04] BMWs and I remember doing one of the
[74:06] first couple BMW videos like the problem
[74:08] with BMW is everybody else has done what
[74:10] they've done so it's been copied out to
[74:12] the point where they no longer feels and
[74:15] looks special so I think they picked up
[74:18] and I'm not saying has anything to do
[74:19] with you know that mentality but I think
[74:21] they picked up on it and they're just
[74:23] like we're no longer going to be copied
[74:25] we need to throw all that out and just
[74:26] be seen so you look at the XM that SUV I
[74:30] don't know if you know what that is it's
[74:33] like uh no it's it's the V8 one
[74:35] basically it's like an X7
[74:39] size uh
[74:42] hideous um I'm
[74:47] gonna put this up here just for a
[74:50] second anyway it's it's an SUV
[74:54] um that is just disgusting and it kind
[74:59] of sums up what this is happened to this
[75:04] brand um I I I'm assuming you can see my
[75:08] screen
[75:09] hopefully yeah okay so it it just takes
[75:12] what you hate oh gosh yeah please and
[75:16] and turns it into like amplifies it
[75:19] right and somebody so much bling so much
[75:21] bling that's not needed for the brand in
[75:23] my opinion yeah oh here's here's a
[75:26] perfect example right like somebody had
[75:28] to make an active
[75:30] decision
[75:32] um somebody had to make that active
[75:35] decision that it was like a big middle
[75:38] finger right like we're going to be seen
[75:39] I have the money and I want to be
[75:41] different and in some cases I don't
[75:44] think it's working but in other cases I
[75:45] think it will help and I think it's
[75:46] going to help other companies stand step
[75:48] aside or you know separate themselves
[75:50] you know obviously it's not for you or I
[75:52] clearly I don't like that but some
[75:54] people do it's weird well that's what
[75:56] kills me about like the m240 I have the
[75:59] 2018 and the new version is is a lot
[76:02] faster because mostly because it has
[76:04] all-wheel drive right but I don't like
[76:07] the design cues it like it doesn't blend
[76:09] like the rear tail lights look like the
[76:11] sloth from Ice Age and yeah yep it it's
[76:14] just gawky and it's too the car's bigger
[76:17] yet there's less space in the back seat
[76:19] so I'm confused what is it trying to be
[76:21] is it a sports car is it a
[76:24] Dan I I don't know I didn't I never
[76:26] drove it I never compared it to my 240
[76:29] but my 240 and maybe I'm buyas because I
[76:31] own it but it's kind of a Timeless car
[76:33] it's like when the one series came out
[76:35] it was too small it didn't look right
[76:37] but the two series had the right
[76:39] proportions and if you get the M2 which
[76:41] I couldn't afford at the time the M2 is
[76:43] gorgeous because it has it's wider it's
[76:45] like almost like an M4 but it has the it
[76:48] also has the older engine it doesn't
[76:50] have the b-58 or at least the old M2
[76:52] didn't
[76:54] yeah and that that becomes the problem
[76:55] you know you get the the newer car with
[76:57] the better techn well in some cases
[76:59] better technology better performance and
[77:01] then you know you get saddled with the
[77:03] the horrific modern styling of or you
[77:06] know again the trendy styling of what
[77:08] what is required from the the current
[77:10] generation I I know you said you like
[77:12] the Macintosh connection and I just
[77:13] thought to myself I'm like I know the
[77:15] exact thing for you uh as a Macintosh
[77:18] fan uh get the new Jeep Wagoner with the
[77:21] Macintosh audio system in there it's a
[77:23] game changer for sure I saw that at one
[77:26] of the trade shows yeah I saw that big
[77:29] plate on the big face plate on the front
[77:31] yeah yeah the digital face plate yeah we
[77:34] uh when we tested that I think it was
[77:36] probably one of the worst audio systems
[77:38] we had ever
[77:38] tested the Bas base curve was like I
[77:42] can't draw it but it was like here and
[77:45] then it comes down you know I mean it
[77:47] was I I don't know what they did I have
[77:49] no idea why they did it somebody made a
[77:50] clear decision to do it it wouldn't have
[77:52] slipped through but yeah it was
[77:53] horrendous um McIntosh is an interesting
[77:56] company because they have an amazing
[77:57] Heritage you know they're an American
[77:59] company they've been around
[78:00] forever and I this is my personal
[78:03] opinion I thought they made some good
[78:04] speakers back in the day in the 70s and
[78:06] 80s they they had a guy Roger Russell
[78:09] that was largely involved and he did
[78:11] some great stuff but I feel like in the
[78:14] modern years when they came out with
[78:15] these large line of Ray they just they
[78:17] got a good deal on these two-inch
[78:19] drivers that were probably desktop p uh
[78:21] PC speakers and they just put 20 or 30
[78:23] of them in his big array with big
[78:25] woofers behind them and every time I
[78:27] listened to him when it was at a trade
[78:29] show even in an acoustically control
[78:31] room there was just no sense of cohesion
[78:34] to the sound it was just like a wall of
[78:36] sound and then they just bragged about
[78:38] how much power was behind it with all
[78:39] their big amplifiers and I don't know if
[78:42] it's because they're appealing to the
[78:43] older audio file older than me and as
[78:47] you get older obviously your hearing
[78:48] declines and they're just trying to make
[78:50] a speaker that's big and bold for them
[78:52] but I feel like a company like them with
[78:54] all their resources and all their
[78:56] Heritage they could be doing
[78:57] loudspeakers much better than they're
[78:58] doing them yeah yeah I think that that's
[79:02] a good point I I think the expectation
[79:04] level goes up when you have the level of
[79:06] expertise and Heritage in a brand um
[79:09] it's a blessing and a curse right
[79:10] because the expectation goes up like hey
[79:13] you're one of the best at this you
[79:14] should be able to do it right and I
[79:16] don't know that that's really if you
[79:18] don't have the right people to do it and
[79:19] some of the right leadership of deciding
[79:21] what you're going to do or have a Clear
[79:23] Vision in terms of products like that
[79:25] sometimes it just it's better off not
[79:26] doing it if you're not going to really
[79:29] do it right sometimes um but well
[79:32] there's been companies there's been
[79:33] subwoofer companies that try to make
[79:35] loudspeakers valadin Tred to make
[79:37] loudspeakers they were
[79:38] atrocious JL Audio tried to make
[79:40] loudspeakers for the home and it didn't
[79:42] work out but JL Audio makes great
[79:45] subwoofers and they make great
[79:46] subwoofers for home as well they're just
[79:48] they're pricey but they sound great they
[79:50] really are good but I just don't see
[79:52] them at least in the near future is
[79:54] becoming a real competitor for making
[79:56] home loudspeakers full range
[79:59] loudspeakers and what's the incentive
[80:01] too I mean I I this is what I was going
[80:03] to ask you too there's like this level
[80:04] of saturation and when I was looking to
[80:07] do speakers in my room which I'm going
[80:09] to get into with you in just here in a
[80:11] minute because I I know how much how
[80:13] much time do you have left just so I can
[80:14] manage expectations here uh you know
[80:16] another 10 or I mean is there a good
[80:18] stream going I don't even know how many
[80:19] people I let me let me take a look cuz
[80:21] I've honestly been I don't want to be
[80:23] boring yeah and I I know like that it's
[80:26] the tricky part of this um answering the
[80:30] questions yeah let me go through here
[80:32] because there is there is quite a bit I
[80:34] don't know how many are actually
[80:35] questions
[80:39] versus I can't even go all the way up
[80:42] here all right um there are it looks
[80:45] like there
[80:46] are one two three four five five Super
[80:51] chats which which is is good because
[80:54] sometimes we get insane amount where
[80:56] you're sitting here for three days
[81:00] um but there there seems to be a lot of
[81:03] questions to go through so I will yeah
[81:05] if you want to go through a couple of
[81:06] those if any if any of them have pertain
[81:08] the audio I'd be happy to try to help
[81:10] out with that okay I'd say maybe another
[81:13] 10 or 15 minutes is good okay yeah let's
[81:16] start hitting some of the questions
[81:17] let's start with the the ones that
[81:20] people you know paid for thank you
[81:22] everybody obviously
[81:25] um one guy Tails said come on guys show
[81:29] some support thank you uh
[81:32] Brandon he's like what are your thoughts
[81:34] on the Tesla audio systems uh keep up
[81:37] the great
[81:38] content uh Jean have you heard any of
[81:40] them my brother has the model y he
[81:43] swears it's a great audio system um I
[81:46] have not sat and listen to it so I can't
[81:48] intelligently comment but I do know they
[81:50] put a lot of effort into their audio
[81:52] system I know it's proprietary uh it's
[81:54] not a Harmon system as far as I know
[81:56] it's Tesla's own and yeah I can't really
[82:00] give you any comments on
[82:01] it um I've only heard three of them uh
[82:06] and I know that they just announced and
[82:07] I'm not sure I don't don't quote me on
[82:09] this but I think they just said they're
[82:10] cutting costs on the model 3 audio
[82:12] system they're actually cutting taking
[82:14] money out of it I don't know what that
[82:15] means if I even heard it right it might
[82:17] be model y one of the two and it'll
[82:18] probably happen to both of them to save
[82:20] money um the the three cars that I heard
[82:23] had a problem with Reflections
[82:26] reflectivity when you have a glass roof
[82:29] there's only so much you can do to
[82:30] control those Reflections I don't care
[82:32] what you do and that that's the problem
[82:34] even on phone calls there is you hear
[82:37] the Decay time of even talking is like
[82:40] it's scattering all over and I think
[82:42] that was my big problem with the audio
[82:43] systems is I think that they're well
[82:45] engineered for what they are but to my
[82:47] to my ear um they they just have a
[82:50] problem with the interior space that
[82:52] that's just it it's too too too much
[82:54] Reflections too many hard surfaces it's
[82:56] a very reflective cabin and that's
[82:58] that's what I would leave it at Brandon
[83:01] now the model S I have not driven so I I
[83:03] don't know about the model S interior
[83:05] and and that brings me back one question
[83:07] to you is I'm not a big fan of the trend
[83:09] in the industry where you have these
[83:10] giant glass roofs now like why do I have
[83:13] to have that in every car and I live in
[83:16] Florida and you even with the little
[83:17] Shield that comes on you still get
[83:19] blasted with the sun you still feel the
[83:21] heat it doesn't as
[83:23] well uh it's a a massive wow factor
[83:27] right like the Lucid air that we did um
[83:30] the sapphire did not have it wasn't even
[83:32] an option it was a glass roof but the
[83:34] regular car that we drove I I was
[83:36] filming it I was like laying down in the
[83:37] back seat with a camera trying to show
[83:39] the scope of this piece of glass and I'm
[83:43] like this sucks it's not that it doesn't
[83:45] look cool I mean the visibility the
[83:47] openness that you get is the same
[83:48] openness you walk into a house with like
[83:50] a 20ft ceiling right it's the same con
[83:53] want tooc in car and gives this but of
[83:57] if you like audio or trying to quieter
[84:01] cabin from an engineering point it's
[84:02] what a nightmare so you lean on all the
[84:04] noise cancellation quiet it down playing
[84:07] through the speakers to try to get
[84:09] rid of some of that noise and you're
[84:10] trying to have to over insulate other
[84:11] parts it's a nightmare it looks cool but
[84:14] that's about it um and I could go on
[84:17] more but I won't
[84:19] um Raider blue you mentioned W's
[84:22] upgraded audio systems are sometimes
[84:24] worse than the base audio system can you
[84:25] explain that seems
[84:27] counterintuitive uh so the the two
[84:30] recently um that we that we did um one
[84:34] was I'm pretty sure it was an F-150 and
[84:40] the I want to say the bronos sport one
[84:42] of the two that had I'd have to go back
[84:44] because we've tested so many cars but
[84:46] the two the F-150 that had the upgraded
[84:48] bang and ol and the bno play and I think
[84:51] it was like a $2,000 option um the
[84:55] amount of money they spent on the
[84:56] speakers was roughly the same that they
[84:58] did on the base audio system and the
[85:00] calibration of however they did the
[85:01] eqing in the car was horrible uh like
[85:04] transition from the sub was all messed
[85:06] up like you you'd have this massive base
[85:08] swing and like a a 30 DB drop on the
[85:11] crossover so you have high base and then
[85:13] you lose all the mid-range and then it's
[85:15] like this the the frequency responses
[85:17] like all over the place and it just
[85:18] sounds it sounds horrible like it does
[85:22] forget the graphs for a minute yeah it
[85:24] just sounds like a tin can in there
[85:26] everything's thin it's all base you
[85:28] can't dial it out there's no way to dial
[85:29] it out um it was something that was
[85:31] thrown in there for the the least amount
[85:34] of money possible and whoever had to try
[85:37] to fix it in terms of tuning just
[85:39] couldn't do it there was no way to do it
[85:41] and some of those systems and I think
[85:43] we've called them out we've definitely
[85:44] called them out in the videos uh about
[85:47] that you don't spend the money on it
[85:50] it's really a waste you're not getting
[85:51] anything other than having the bno name
[85:53] on it um and they're one of the few
[85:55] Brands and Chevy's done that before too
[85:57] but Ford definitely is egregious into
[85:59] that point and I know they're trying to
[86:00] fix it I know internally they're trying
[86:02] to fix it but it hasn't happened yet
[86:04] yeah and I heard the systems in the
[86:06] Honda Accord and the Honda um the CRV
[86:09] and they're really bad in my opinion I
[86:11] don't know if you listen to them they
[86:13] got worse Honda used to have decent
[86:15] audio systems back in the day I don't
[86:16] know why they cut so much well we know
[86:19] they cut budget out of it obviously yeah
[86:22] I think they were Alpine the upper end
[86:24] were Alpine but they weren't branded
[86:25] Alpine yeah yeah um yeah they they were
[86:28] decent it's changed a lot like yeah
[86:31] whenever you test I think the the new
[86:33] Bose systems now they're moving over to
[86:35] bows of course uh bows and then Harmon
[86:37] stuff on the Acura side but the Bose
[86:40] stuff surprisingly has gotten better so
[86:44] like if you listen to the new Accord and
[86:46] the new Civic and the pilot is average
[86:49] because it's such a big cabin on the
[86:50] inside it's such a big space they have
[86:52] improved over the previous generation so
[86:55] they're but again that's trying to
[86:56] compete with the other brands what
[86:57] they're doing and then you know as you
[86:59] consolidate down your basically same
[87:01] Engineers working on the cars so
[87:03] everything's going to sound the
[87:05] same um Bose get Bose gets a bad
[87:07] reputation in home audio uh because
[87:09] that's really that's not their bread and
[87:11] butter their bread and butter is you
[87:13] know the headphones and car audio and
[87:16] I've heard some really good bow systems
[87:17] in cars my friend had a C7 Corvette I
[87:21] thought that system sounded pretty darn
[87:22] good for what it was yeah surprisingly
[87:25] JM does a good job in the Corvette Jack
[87:27] has uh my my uh coworker he's got a C8
[87:32] um and the audio system is is good for
[87:34] what it is given the constraints they
[87:36] have in the car so there's ways to do it
[87:38] they just have to make it a priority
[87:40] obviously um Mike said I haven't been
[87:43] able to catch one of these live streams
[87:44] in a while keep up the great work um
[87:46] thanks Mike and we're doing another live
[87:48] stream Just Jack and I next week so get
[87:50] ready for a 4our power
[87:53] session you take bathroom breaks when
[87:55] you go for four hours I could I could
[87:57] never last yeah I do because I'm like 90
[88:00] years old Jack doesn't have you know his
[88:01] prostates not 50 pounds yet that's me
[88:04] right
[88:06] there reach you reach the the the uh
[88:09] high powered age of 40 and 50 it starts
[88:13] to become an issue yes um we have uh
[88:17] Stephen more Savage geese forever thank
[88:19] you appreciate it thanks for thanks for
[88:22] coming on uh the Biff just thanks for
[88:25] the conversation thank you so much for
[88:27] just coming on listen to us ramble about
[88:29] stuff um thanks for your focus on
[88:32] quality and honesty uh I should probably
[88:34] be studying right now thank you and the
[88:37] satire we're very sarcastic Jean to a
[88:39] fault I have to dial it back for my own
[88:44] self-preservation uh what do we got here
[88:46] next one uh Matthew thanks Jean for
[88:49] coming on would love another one of the
[88:51] these favorite source for good quality
[88:53] audio now CD digital HD tracks other so
[88:57] I'm going to say yes on that I like all
[89:00] good sources of audio I I still spin
[89:02] records people will make fun of it
[89:04] there's certain music like 70s 80s
[89:06] Fusion Jazz that just TR did not
[89:09] transfer as well digitally as it is on
[89:12] analog so i' like to just spin a record
[89:14] sometimes I listen to Apple music
[89:17] lossless title Amazon HD I still love SA
[89:22] I know I'm I'm a dinosaur but I probably
[89:24] have two or 300ds and and sometimes I
[89:27] just want to sit in my theater room and
[89:30] put on an sacd Patricia Barber or even
[89:32] some of the genus's re-releases and I
[89:35] love listening to that I have some DVD
[89:38] audio I love the fact that there's
[89:40] Blu-rays now like one of my favorite
[89:42] artists Stephen Wilson has I introduced
[89:45] him to Dolby Atmos he didn't even know
[89:46] what Dolby Atmos was when he came out
[89:48] with his album in
[89:49] 2011 now he's mixing all of this stuff
[89:52] in Atmos and you could buy it on Blu-ray
[89:54] and I love that because there's artwork
[89:56] supporting with the music so that's a
[89:58] great experience if you could get music
[89:59] in Blu-ray format that's my favorite I
[90:02] have to say that's my favorite what uh
[90:05] just to piggyback off this um what
[90:07] service do you use to listen to your
[90:09] music streaming service or what what's
[90:10] your most common way to playback music
[90:12] if you're listening to it so I have
[90:13] tidle and apple music and I favor Apple
[90:16] because I think they did a better job
[90:18] implementing spatial audio I think
[90:20] there's too much level difference in
[90:22] title still going from like you'll
[90:24] you'll be on an Atmos track and then
[90:25] it'll go to two channel and the and the
[90:27] level will jump up 15 DB and scare the
[90:30] out of you I think Apple's a little
[90:32] bit more put together when it comes to
[90:34] that and apple has a better selection of
[90:35] spatial audio but they're both good
[90:37] formats stream formats uh do you have
[90:40] like two or three top tracks that you
[90:42] listen to like every single set of
[90:44] speakers that you do like your favorite
[90:46] three tracks to test something on that
[90:48] somebody would want to like listen to so
[90:50] there's this there's this artist called
[90:51] Maran Hill and there's a song called
[90:54] differently and that'll determine if
[90:56] your speakers have good bass or not and
[90:58] it's just good dynamist good transients
[91:01] uh Dominic Fe she's a friend of our
[91:04] Channel she's a Canadian singer French
[91:06] Canadian singer the track called Birds
[91:10] it's just beautiful sound for two
[91:12] channel um you get to hear the clarity
[91:15] of her vocals you get to hear uh just
[91:17] decorrelated information so you could
[91:19] see if you set up a nice wide Sound
[91:21] Stage those are kind of two tracks I
[91:23] listen to a lot um I know I just kind of
[91:25] vary I'm a jazz person so I'll put on
[91:27] some Pat methen um when he's in like a
[91:30] three or four piece band because I just
[91:32] want to know the purity of of how his
[91:35] guitar
[91:36] sounds and you know stuff like that some
[91:38] some of the stuff I listened to is a
[91:40] little obscure that most people probably
[91:41] wouldn't like but my my music tastes
[91:45] vary yeah it makes sense especially
[91:47] doing what you're doing and you like
[91:49] you're testing speakers like you have to
[91:50] have a wide variety content to go
[91:52] through I mean I'll throw on Drake I'll
[91:54] tell you what throw on Drake fair trade
[91:57] that song has infrasonic base if you
[91:59] have a good subwoofer that I didn't even
[92:02] know existed in my car when I listen to
[92:04] it in the car you don't hear it when I
[92:05] listen to my home theater I'm like holy
[92:07] cow there's a lot of lowend Base in that
[92:09] song I just didn't know that existed and
[92:11] it's actually mixed pretty well like
[92:13] below 30 or below 20 defin I would I
[92:17] didn't measure it but I'm saying i'
[92:19] probably say below 20 there's some stuff
[92:21] going on track yeah okay interesting
[92:24] yeah yeah that's cool because everybody
[92:25] always asks that I know I'm sure you I
[92:27] could look it up on your website but
[92:28] that's too much work you know so I'll
[92:30] just have you tell people here London
[92:33] Grammar London grammar is another one
[92:35] London Grammar m is incredibly well uh
[92:38] produced music and good demo
[92:42] material makes sense uh Bob Wilson asked
[92:46] if Macintosh equals VW Conrad Johnson
[92:49] Volvo Cambridge equals Chevrolet bno BMW
[92:53] which audio brand is stellantis dumb
[92:55] question I know man that seems like math
[92:58] is involved in this one yeah I know I I
[93:01] I know what you're getting at I'm I'm
[93:03] trying to think stantis definitely would
[93:06] be probably
[93:08] something Jean what would be the most
[93:11] commodity speaker that is very very base
[93:15] heavy and very very elevated in the
[93:20] highs
[93:22] let me think about that for a minute
[93:24] like basically just have just like a V
[93:25] curve just a lot of base and a lot of
[93:27] travel
[93:31] yeah
[93:34] uh it you know there are brands that do
[93:37] that that that don't follow that
[93:39] philosophy through their entire line
[93:40] there's there was a paradigm speaker a
[93:42] few years back um they don't make it
[93:45] anymore but it was a v curve it was all
[93:47] base and travel but then you get the
[93:49] premiere series now and it's completely
[93:51] neutral speaker so Clips is probably the
[93:54] biggest example of the V curve most of
[93:57] their products are just boom and Sizzle
[93:59] there's a there are a few exceptions
[94:01] there's some good products that they
[94:02] make but a lot of their products are
[94:03] just lots of Base High sensitivity we've
[94:07] yeah back in 2010 we did a blind
[94:09] listening test and we even had the clips
[94:11] representative come out to see if he
[94:13] could pick his favorite speaker and he
[94:15] knew every time the clips came on even
[94:17] though we level matched it he picked it
[94:19] every time he knew it yeah so you can't
[94:22] connect yeah it was so obvious how
[94:24] colored the sound was in that speaker
[94:26] and of course he was going to pick that
[94:28] as his preferred speaker because he sold
[94:29] it but I couldn't fool him with the
[94:31] blind test because he was already
[94:32] familiar with the sound of the speaker
[94:35] that's unbelievable I mean it makes
[94:37] sense I guess if you spend your life
[94:38] listening to One product like or
[94:40] spending a majority your like right now
[94:42] you you'd probably be able to pick it
[94:43] out too I'd be curious to see if you
[94:45] tune a room if you could tune like five
[94:47] rooms and you had like a preset set to
[94:50] compared to your the other people you
[94:51] work with if you could tell your sound
[94:53] signature over the other people that set
[94:54] up rooms like if you did BL you know
[94:57] room to room you could pick up on it
[94:59] there's no doubt I mean um we all we all
[95:01] calibrate the taste at the end of the
[95:03] day I mean you want to get flat you want
[95:04] to remove the resonances in the room you
[95:06] want to have your base linear but you
[95:09] still have subjective listening
[95:10] preferences look I set my room curve
[95:13] where my Bas at 20 htz is you know 5db
[95:17] above where it is at 100 Hertz there's
[95:20] people I have reviewers that like it 10
[95:22] DB or 15 DB higher so sometimes people
[95:25] come in my room they're like wow your
[95:27] Basse is amazing and then other times
[95:28] like I need more base and I notice a lot
[95:31] of people that think that they need more
[95:32] bass are the ones that are really into
[95:34] car audio that have the Dual 18s in the
[95:36] back of the trunk and they're already
[95:37] probably have hearing damage because
[95:39] they're listening at 120 DB eight hours
[95:41] a day while they're driving so it really
[95:43] depends on your hearing Acuity you know
[95:46] your listening preference but yeah I
[95:48] absolutely say that everybody Tunes
[95:50] their systems differently and if we did
[95:52] that if I had different reviewers coming
[95:54] in tune my system you would you would
[95:56] hear a difference for sure we all have
[95:58] you know various
[96:00] preferences yeah I watched one of your
[96:02] recent uh I don't know if it's not
[96:04] technical live yeah I guess it would
[96:06] have been a live stream um and I'm sorry
[96:08] I don't know all the the remember all
[96:09] the names of the people you have but I
[96:11] know uh Anthony gani was on there which
[96:13] I went back and watched a lot of his
[96:15] like seminar stuff on room Acoustics and
[96:17] room treatments but it was interesting
[96:19] to see like the the difference and the
[96:21] mentality of the people that you had on
[96:23] like the one guy was like I just want
[96:25] bass right like I don't I getting rid of
[96:27] it is not negotiable I need Bas I need a
[96:30] base curve and you know then there was
[96:32] the more conservative approach well you
[96:34] know it needs to be a little bit you
[96:36] know more level than that and everybody
[96:39] has a different taste and it's much like
[96:41] ours too right like some people just
[96:42] want it loud and Brash like the Hellcat
[96:45] stuff I mean there can be a lot that can
[96:48] be done with a car that is obnoxious and
[96:50] fun and and same thing with a system
[96:52] that is just like turn your guts inside
[96:55] out with bass um for certain certain uh
[96:59] music especially it can be a lot of fun
[97:01] so I don't think there's one straight
[97:02] answer that's one thing I've learned
[97:03] from watching you guys there's not like
[97:05] one right answer on how to do it it's
[97:07] it's more about what do you like
[97:08] personally and what can you actually do
[97:11] realistically and be happy with um and
[97:14] that's what you really help me with
[97:16] figure out in my own home
[97:19] stuff yeah and and you know and even at
[97:21] the end of the day when you set up your
[97:23] system there's nothing wrong with using
[97:25] tone controls or or to have various
[97:28] profiles so depending on what you're
[97:30] listening to you might want to adjust
[97:31] the Bas of the travel up or down um I
[97:34] have a I have a mode for my wife she
[97:35] does not like bass unfortunately and it
[97:38] and it sucks because if I want to play
[97:39] some deep stuff when she's sleeping no
[97:42] matter how much sound isolation I did in
[97:43] my room nothing stopping a 21in
[97:45] subwoofer from penetrating the walls it
[97:47] just doesn't happen so I have um a
[97:50] calibration setting for her that knocks
[97:52] the base 6db down and I get rid of the
[97:54] infrasonic because she can't handle the
[97:56] infrasonic so it's nothing wrong when
[97:59] having multiple calibration settings
[98:01] yeah that's smart especially for that
[98:03] this is the looks like the last question
[98:05] we got uh morance mm 7 7025 Power Amp
[98:09] versus parasound a23
[98:11] plus so those multi-channel uh morance
[98:14] amps they're decent they're by there may
[98:17] be a slight step up from what's in their
[98:19] avrs parason amp is exceptional amp I
[98:22] mean that's I would choose the Paras if
[98:24] if the money wasn't you know a
[98:28] factor makes sense I'm sure you get
[98:30] these questions like this versus that
[98:32] and sometimes they're not very
[98:34] straightforward but sometimes they're
[98:35] very straightforward I mean if you're if
[98:38] you're base managing your speakers and
[98:39] you're not playing it loud you might not
[98:40] even hear a difference between the two
[98:42] amps so it really depends on you're
[98:43] listening but if you're doing full range
[98:45] and you have low impedance speakers the
[98:46] parasound is going to drive those
[98:48] speakers with more
[98:50] Authority
[98:51] makes sense um I'm just gonna cut off so
[98:54] no more uh because we got to get Gan off
[98:56] here he's not the 4H hour power guy um
[99:00] uh I have some point yeah I don't want
[99:03] this guy to starve here I have a giant
[99:05] head in big ears hard to find over the
[99:06] ears that are big enough to be
[99:08] comfortable use Sennheiser 598s for
[99:11] years
[99:13] recommendations how do you feel about
[99:15] headphones I have so many headphones
[99:18] sitting under my desk that I haven't
[99:19] even opened to test yet um
[99:21] I look at the clamping force on
[99:23] headphones because I have the same
[99:24] problem I can't wear headphones for too
[99:26] long especially with glasses and if they
[99:28] put too much pressure on my head they
[99:29] drive me nuts I don't know if he's
[99:31] looked at I like the focal Stellas I
[99:34] think they're pretty comfortable they're
[99:35] they're a bit bulky but you know I think
[99:38] focal makes a comfortable headphone if
[99:40] you want a wireless headphone the mark
[99:42] levenson's are actually pretty
[99:43] comfortable um I'm not too thrilled with
[99:46] the call Quality on them because it
[99:48] cancels the noise cancelling when you're
[99:49] doing a call which is we weird you hear
[99:51] the cabin when when you're on an
[99:53] airplane I don't know why they did that
[99:56] and um yeah I mean that's that would be
[99:59] my recommendation always look at the
[100:01] clamping Force if you see a headphone
[100:02] that has a really strong clamping Force
[100:04] if they even specify it that could be
[100:06] problematic if if you're wearing glasses
[100:08] or you have a big head and it just
[100:10] pushes down on
[100:12] you okay yeah that that makes sense too
[100:15] and obviously every again it's like
[100:17] every head and ear size is different and
[100:19] yeah what what you can tolerate have
[100:21] like a really narrow air Canal on my
[100:23] right and so like uh in ear stuff I
[100:26] can't stand it like it just doesn't even
[100:27] sound right so it's weird um how
[100:30] everybody's that the same product's not
[100:32] going to work for everybody sanis has
[100:34] have historically been very comfortable
[100:36] in my experience I had this HD 650s or
[100:38] the 600s I forgot which one it was that
[100:40] was a very comfortable open back
[100:44] headphone yeah sennheiser's like
[100:46] typically if you're like hey I need a
[100:47] headphone you can pretty much recommend
[100:49] most of their
[100:51] are they are they actually Sennheiser
[100:53] anymore like now that they sold off that
[100:55] div division is it still the same
[100:56] Engineers do you know that are doing
[100:57] headphones or is it different now I
[100:59] don't know the intricacies of that I
[101:01] don't really follow that too much so
[101:03] yeah I didn't I'm assuming they still
[101:06] are operating under that brand I I don't
[101:08] know if the engineers are still there or
[101:10] not so yeah I can't tell you okay well
[101:13] I'm gonna get Gan off here there's
[101:14] probably about a 100 more questions I
[101:15] could ask you uh we'll have to do this
[101:17] as a part two at some point um and I
[101:20] think will get more used to this and
[101:22] we'll we'll come up with a plan of what
[101:23] we want to tackle in terms of topics and
[101:25] I'll go through the comments as well and
[101:26] see what people are kind of like digging
[101:28] into and asking but I appreciate you
[101:30] taking the time to talk with me today
[101:32] and like kind of going over the
[101:33] background in history and I think we can
[101:35] get more geeky next time uh so thank you
[101:37] Jean for coming on here thanks for
[101:40] having me I was awesome to be introduced
[101:42] to your audience I you know would
[101:44] welcome future collabs for
[101:46] sure yeah there's so much to learn and
[101:48] you're you're a wealth of knowledge like
[101:50] beond this we're I literally we're
[101:52] probably scrap scraping the the less
[101:54] than a fine piece of dust on a table of
[101:57] like what we can talk about with you so
[101:59] I appreciate it again enjoy your dinner
[102:01] and uh thank you again for coming on
[102:03] here all right can I say until next time
[102:06] keep listening now I can now I can kick
[102:09] you off here this guy's a bomb he he
[102:11] doesn't measure things the way I measure
[102:13] [Laughter]
[102:16] him all right thanks Jean talk to you
[102:19] soon thank you yeah absolutely
[102:21] bye
[102:27] guys so guys uh I am going to uh take
[102:32] just like a small break uh because I
[102:34] know there's a couple questions I want
[102:35] to go through I just don't want to
[102:36] cancel you off I have another 30 minutes
[102:37] so I'm going to talk to Jean here for a
[102:39] second and I will be right
[102:49] back
[105:33] all right uh hopefully everybody can
[105:35] hear me you can let me know I'm back
[105:37] sorry about that delay I'm going to go
[105:39] through some of these last couple uh
[105:42] questions um so yeah if uh I appreciate
[105:46] everybody coming on here I know this is
[105:47] a little bit different we're going to be
[105:48] doing a live stream um um next week Jack
[105:51] and I uh
[105:53] so I think the the the main thing is
[105:57] we're going to try to do two of these a
[105:59] month uh between Jack and I obviously if
[106:01] it's just Jack and I it's going to get
[106:04] extremely tiring because we're only so
[106:06] interesting for so long um and I don't
[106:08] want to just keep rehashing the same
[106:10] thing over and over so we got to keep it
[106:11] pretty uh pretty interesting but the
[106:13] good thing is um with some of this is
[106:16] we're going to start bringing people on
[106:19] more and more terms of uh different uh
[106:22] different Engineers from different
[106:23] brands that that's the goal we're going
[106:25] to be talking about different cars in in
[106:27] really great detail with the people that
[106:29] have created them um because what we're
[106:31] finding is in some of these videos that
[106:33] we're doing it's getting way more
[106:36] complicated to try to interview people
[106:38] out like we're trying to interview
[106:39] people about these cars and their
[106:40] history and it's making the videos uh
[106:42] very difficult to make and you're losing
[106:45] so much because you got to pick and
[106:46] choose what goes in the videos and what
[106:48] doesn't uh so if I have a history like
[106:50] this guy tells me about how he did all
[106:52] this stuff and it's like 30 minutes
[106:54] long I you know it's really hard to
[106:56] justify that putting it in a video about
[106:58] a car but there might be some amazing
[106:59] story so we're going to try to bring
[107:01] some people on so they understand how
[107:03] some of this works um and then uh try
[107:06] try to you know share some of that
[107:08] detail to supplement the video projects
[107:10] that we're doing um and you know like
[107:13] having a guy like Jon um you know we're
[107:16] I want to have him on and in people that
[107:19] he works with so we some of the
[107:21] backend uh
[107:34] details about uh the backend details
[107:37] about how things work and he he's you
[107:39] know essentially an industry expert in
[107:41] terms of
[107:44] um he's an industry expert in terms of
[107:47] how things work and why they work the
[107:49] way they they do and uh I I take a lot
[107:53] of
[107:55] uh how do I put this I think it's super
[107:58] important to have people that have this
[108:00] much experience that can share that
[108:01] level of detail because guys like him um
[108:05] they're not so straight forward like if
[108:07] you work behind a company and this this
[108:09] happens a lot where we meet media that
[108:11] have been working in the media are like
[108:12] for big magazines for a long time and
[108:14] they're not very forthcoming about uh
[108:17] certain things because it's hard for
[108:18] them to be if you work for a big company
[108:20] to be honest with viewers and I think
[108:22] the guys like Jean he can really bring a
[108:23] wealth of knowledge and um other people
[108:26] in the industry that want to be a part
[108:27] of it we want to share other people's
[108:28] stories so that to me that's fun and I
[108:30] think Jean understands that as well so
[108:33] we're going to get him back uh and and
[108:36] some of his crew he made me aware that
[108:39] somebody that he works with is really
[108:40] close to us like proximity wise um and
[108:43] there's some opportunity there to kind
[108:45] of learn more and talk about this stuff
[108:46] and share that information so uh that's
[108:50] that's kind of where we're at with that
[108:51] um I'm going to go through uh and if
[108:54] there's people if you're still watching
[108:56] this obviously I know there's people
[108:57] still on here if there's others that
[108:59] you'd like to hear from or stories that
[109:00] you'd like to hear from please put it in
[109:03] the comments so I can go through and
[109:05] have a better idea of who you want to
[109:07] see um and who you like topics you'd
[109:10] want to you you want to talk about or
[109:12] hear talked about on the back end most
[109:15] more so from you know Brands and people
[109:17] that are designing cars as well
[109:21] um I know that
[109:23] uh there's some questions in here about
[109:26] you know I talked about anx a couple
[109:28] times and the the goal is is if it
[109:30] everything is approved that will be out
[109:32] by the end of um January I've been
[109:34] working on it every single day uh for
[109:36] the past month or so like the editing
[109:39] part and uh I will be kind of you'll see
[109:43] some updates about a week before it
[109:45] comes out like on social media like
[109:47] things you know pictures or whatever so
[109:50] you're you're G to see that coming out
[109:51] as well too uh in terms of uh what to
[109:55] expect um I'm going to go since we're
[109:58] still I'm going to cut this off in about
[110:00] 10 minutes so if there's any more
[110:02] questions throw them at me uh before I I
[110:04] disconnect I I'm going to go through a
[110:06] couple uh pictures of since we're
[110:08] talking about audio stuff and I didn't
[110:11] want to bore jeene with this because he
[110:13] you know he deals with this all the time
[110:15] um but kind of my background story with
[110:19] um how I got back into home theater and
[110:23] how I connected back to the car
[110:25] stuff I I I always loved music and I had
[110:28] a really good ear um and I loved movies
[110:31] obviously so I I just grew up like I I
[110:33] remember sitting there when I set up my
[110:35] dad's stuff when I was like 10 years old
[110:37] and I would literally unplug every
[110:38] speaker and just listen to the sub I
[110:40] would watch a movie and just listen to
[110:42] the whole movie through the subw nothing
[110:44] else and then I would go back and play
[110:46] the same movie cuz you're a kid right
[110:47] what else what the hell else am I going
[110:48] to do in the summer so I plug in one
[110:50] surround sound speaker like it was
[110:52] prologic but I was interested in like
[110:54] how it's separated out so I had this
[110:56] really good ear for the way that the
[110:58] movies were mixed and I would listen to
[111:00] each speaker at a time and that's kind
[111:03] of how I got really into it and same
[111:05] thing with music I I remember I loved my
[111:09] dad listened to oh geez like Linda ronad
[111:11] I was just talking about her today and
[111:13] uh yeah um Johnny matys and some of you
[111:18] know just uh Steve would you know I'd
[111:21] get woken up at 7 in the morning my dad
[111:23] was like blasting this music so I
[111:25] clearly I I heard a lot of that but then
[111:28] I got into I got into like obscure music
[111:31] um I was really big into like hardcore
[111:33] metal early on and then I loved like
[111:34] electronic and just diverse like most
[111:36] people but I remember listening to the
[111:38] old um uh Master of Puppets album and
[111:42] like kill them all back in the day the
[111:43] Metallica stuff and I would literally
[111:46] listen to the sub track from the
[111:50] receiver just to hear the double bass on
[111:52] like how it how it sounded because I
[111:54] wanted to play guitar and drums at that
[111:56] time and that's how I would learn
[111:58] listening to music was just unplugging
[112:00] speakers it was just silliness and I of
[112:03] course I don't do that anymore because
[112:05] uh I don't have the time uh to do that
[112:08] but um that's that's what kind of got me
[112:10] into home theater and all that is just
[112:12] going to that level and I was really
[112:15] excited to get back into it when I had a
[112:16] real job and I had some disposable
[112:18] income and not disposable I'm talking
[112:20] like I could spend like 1,500 on a
[112:22] receiver or like a th000 on speakers you
[112:25] know not like crazy money but I had an
[112:28] apartment that was is it was in the
[112:29] basement and it was just a it had a
[112:31] suspended ceiling it was a really really
[112:34] perfect room size well isolated out it
[112:37] didn't need a lot of room treatments and
[112:38] even back then you couldn't really
[112:39] measure stuff like you could now you
[112:41] needed to get to a professional but I
[112:42] started playing around with that I did
[112:44] projectors in there and I did a painted
[112:46] screen back when people were painting
[112:47] screens on the wall versus buying
[112:49] screens so I was really excited to get
[112:51] into it and then um I'm going to share
[112:53] my screen here uh because you know
[112:56] that's what this is about we're about
[112:57] sharing um so let's go and see what we
[113:02] got
[113:07] here I'll just do my entire screen
[113:09] because that's oh somebody doesn't know
[113:12] how to
[113:13] present what a
[113:15] loser think I'd be on enough conference
[113:17] calls now to to share screen
[113:21] properly okay so let's get this out of
[113:23] here you're not seeing a mirror
[113:26] um let's see if I can find my original
[113:29] room okay so when I moved into a house
[113:31] like I it was really hard to find a
[113:33] place in this area I think it was like
[113:35] 2009 and this this like I wound up
[113:38] getting a house because this is the best
[113:39] one we can find and there was no room in
[113:40] the house to do an audio setup or home
[113:43] theater so I had all this stuff from the
[113:45] apartment and this wound up being my
[113:47] media room and obviously if you don't
[113:49] know anything about about TV or media
[113:51] and all this stuff it's like the worst
[113:52] case scenario and this is where I had my
[113:55] projector cuz I had it in you know my
[113:57] old department so I had this old
[113:59] Panasonic projector which was really
[114:00] great for the era and I had this old
[114:02] yeah this karata screen that I finally
[114:04] bought instead of doing a painted on
[114:05] screen um and I had it in this room and
[114:09] it was like it really killed audio and
[114:12] home theater for me after that like I I
[114:14] this was 2009 and this is how I found
[114:17] Jean stuff CU I was doing a lot of
[114:18] research back then and then I would say
[114:20] living in this house I didn't go back to
[114:23] to a holics and all that for a good
[114:26] seven years because I just never had the
[114:28] space for it um and then hopefully I
[114:32] don't have any nudes of myself in here
[114:34] and then I went into a new place and I'm
[114:37] going to kind so this was the room in
[114:39] the new house that I was in and I'm like
[114:41] okay I'm going to do a meteor room it's
[114:43] more of a rectangular room uh there's
[114:45] carpet there's four walls in a ceiling
[114:47] and one window let's see what I can do
[114:50] um cuz this was the family room in this
[114:51] new house of course another giant space
[114:53] that just sounds like an echo chamber so
[114:55] I wound up just doing this room um I
[114:58] didn't spend a lot of money on gear I'd
[115:00] got emotiva speakers at the time I think
[115:03] they were like $800 or $700 and to be
[115:06] fair they tested really well for the
[115:08] room that I was in um and you know the
[115:11] things that I did do I screwed around
[115:13] with making my own room treatments so
[115:15] this is like really simple right it's
[115:17] really what I cared about was having the
[115:18] two two uh um front speakers and then my
[115:21] Center I could never find a place to put
[115:22] a center because I didn't want to put
[115:24] the TV on the wall and it's just room
[115:26] problems so once I got this all done I
[115:28] really just really enjoyed listening to
[115:30] music in there um and then I got into
[115:33] doing some messing around with room
[115:35] treatment so I got 4inch acoustic foam
[115:37] on and making my own and moving because
[115:39] you can move them around really easily
[115:41] and I could figure out okay if I move it
[115:43] here what happens to the sound in
[115:45] measuring it and that's when I started
[115:46] to get really into it um but the room
[115:49] was all always you know honestly the
[115:51] room was always going to be the limiting
[115:52] factor with it so there wasn't so much I
[115:54] could do and I got it to the place where
[115:55] I really enjoyed it and this was kind of
[115:57] the final place where I was like I gave
[115:59] up on it I was so busy with the video
[116:00] stuff and cars that okay if I wanted to
[116:03] watch a movie I could and it and it was
[116:05] better than what I had before I didn't
[116:06] even set up set up my surrounds in this
[116:08] room because it just it just didn't
[116:09] sound right and I had the couch against
[116:11] the wall um so it it was it is what it
[116:15] was um and now with my dad's stuff the
[116:19] funny part is this is what I remember as
[116:20] a kid this is what I was always stuck
[116:22] with he's like oh can you come I want to
[116:25] get something new can you set this up
[116:27] and I'd find this pile of wires and I
[116:30] look at these wires and I just like I
[116:33] want to die because it it just
[116:35] everything with my dad stuff always
[116:37] wound up being cables and wires that's
[116:38] like an ongoing joke and um I learned so
[116:41] much from like tearing stuff down and
[116:43] putting it back together um that it's
[116:46] just it's a it's a drudgery like for
[116:48] anybody but I really enjoyed the the
[116:50] process of setting it up and then I just
[116:52] recently redid my dad's room his uh LG
[116:55] OLED broke for like the third time so
[116:57] this was like his temporary setup so I
[116:59] kind of redid his room um and shockingly
[117:02] it's got all this horrible like wood
[117:04] paneling but it's almost like a
[117:06] diffusion uh in this room despite it
[117:09] being really weird sounds so good in
[117:12] there and you know it didn't take much
[117:14] to calibrate it out where it's so
[117:15] enjoyable for movies the music is it's a
[117:18] little bit different but I mean it's got
[117:19] a hodgepodge of equipment he's got a
[117:21] Yamaha receiver and like look at all
[117:23] these you can see this down here is his
[117:25] CD players that every time I move them
[117:28] all the CDs fall out inside and I have
[117:30] to take the whole case off because it's
[117:32] a carousel so you know I just set this
[117:35] up recently and I enjoyed doing that
[117:36] which I have to finish um and then I
[117:38] finally did my own room um in my new
[117:41] place and again uh I had a projector
[117:44] which I just gave up on so I used my old
[117:46] screen my Cura which they don't make
[117:48] anymore and I did a short throw
[117:49] projector which it's fine the focus is
[117:52] not great in the corners but it it's
[117:54] good for at night time and you want to
[117:56] watch TV it's you know bookshelf
[117:58] speakers um and then I finally decided I
[118:01] was going to set up my my new room my
[118:03] new media room and this is where I kind
[118:04] of like reconnected with audioholics and
[118:06] like getting into audio again um and I
[118:10] decided I was going to do this room but
[118:12] the story was uh this is kind of where
[118:15] it is before I finished it I always
[118:18] wanted a set of sulk uh sulk front
[118:23] speakers and uh in 2009 of course he
[118:27] started making these and they had the
[118:29] song towers and he he basically wanted
[118:31] to make speakers himself into all the
[118:32] cemetry so it was all handmade it took
[118:34] him like two months to make one set of
[118:36] speakers so they're like really really
[118:38] special physically and so when I was
[118:41] ready to buy him last year I go on to
[118:43] his website and uh see if I can find
[118:48] this
[118:50] if I could
[118:51] type I'll just type it in
[118:58] wrong notice as of September 25th we're
[119:01] no longer accepting orders for speakers
[119:03] we sold our woodworking equipment and no
[119:04] longer have a shop so I waited too long
[119:07] like a fool and uh he didn't make them
[119:10] so I'm like I started looking at digging
[119:12] around and for sure he was done he was
[119:15] retiring but he had one set of speakers
[119:17] left and he found under the stairs and
[119:21] this was all he had left of his business
[119:23] after 20 years and I messaged him I'm
[119:25] like dude they they were used um I
[119:28] didn't make them how I wanted them
[119:29] that's what you did with those I'm like
[119:31] I just wanted to complete that Circle of
[119:34] uh getting these so I drove all the way
[119:36] to Michigan to get the last set from him
[119:40] and this was Jim I'd never talked I'd
[119:42] never met this guy before I really knew
[119:44] nothing about him so I talked to him for
[119:45] like an hour him and his wife about how
[119:47] he ran a speaker business and how
[119:49] difficult it was to do this in this
[119:50] space that everybody wanted everything
[119:52] for nothing big shock and there was no
[119:54] real Market to keep a custom speaker
[119:57] making the woodworking to that level
[119:59] anymore and he just wanted to be happy
[120:01] and retire and spend time with his wife
[120:03] so I got his last set of speakers he
[120:04] refinished them and refurbished them um
[120:07] so I was super excited and I got them
[120:09] for like next to nothing compared to
[120:10] what they were before so once I got them
[120:13] set up I started to redo my room um and
[120:16] doing the measurements and the
[120:17] measurements are decent I and the room
[120:19] like everything uh Jean was saying this
[120:21] the room if you're going to do an audio
[120:22] system the room is everything you can
[120:24] spend maximum amount of money and gear
[120:27] but if your room is horrible it's going
[120:28] to sound like crap so I really I went
[120:30] and spent more time setting up the room
[120:32] and I still don't have it right so now
[120:35] you know this is kind of where it's at I
[120:37] have a diffuser half diffusers absorbers
[120:40] circular or you know curved absorbers um
[120:44] and then I have 3D diffusers and a lot
[120:46] of this is audioholics right like all
[120:47] the people that do room design it's it's
[120:49] basing it on some of their information I
[120:51] did two subs in here um to try to
[120:56] minimize the room and as you can see the
[120:57] room's got a high ceiling so it's not
[120:59] perfect and I think what this what this
[121:01] taught me is doing this is I love music
[121:04] and the room it sounds great in there as
[121:06] good as it's going to sound without
[121:07] spending more money on more treatments
[121:09] um the whole thing is for me you can do
[121:13] all this stuff um and a lot of it is
[121:18] where do you stop
[121:19] and and I learned this too from the car
[121:21] thing like I've always wanted I want
[121:23] this car that car I'm going to change
[121:25] this and then I wound up just
[121:27] around too much and I set myself a goal
[121:29] I'm like I got the speakers I wanted
[121:30] even though they're probably not the
[121:31] best speakers anymore I could get a
[121:33] better speaker there's no doubt about it
[121:35] I could get a better amp I could get a
[121:37] better receiver I could get a better TV
[121:38] but at the there's a point of which
[121:41] where are you happy with it and I feel
[121:43] like I got it to a place with the help
[121:45] of you know like their website of
[121:47] setting it up learning how to calibrated
[121:49] going through that process and I could
[121:50] have done it probably even my old
[121:52] speakers would have been just good
[121:54] enough um and you can do it for a lot
[121:56] less money now you can get a real setup
[121:59] really good sound out of like any room
[122:01] with far less money than you could and
[122:03] really enjoy music and movies if you
[122:04] have the time and to me when I get done
[122:08] like with this or editing or you know
[122:10] filming these cars with Jack it's about
[122:12] the only thing I have to decompress is
[122:14] to like sit there and try to listen to
[122:15] music even that small amount of time or
[122:17] watching a movie and watching some real
[122:19] artist like people that are are just
[122:22] unbelievably talented with something
[122:24] together and see how it's all crafted
[122:25] it's like one of the the few Joys that I
[122:27] get so doing that room um is so
[122:30] important to me same thing with like the
[122:31] car thing you know getting out and
[122:33] driving a car and I'm sure most of you
[122:36] feel the same way um there's something
[122:38] special about just getting out and going
[122:40] for a drive or feeling that connection
[122:41] to the car it's like a a sense of relief
[122:45] or release that you get from that
[122:47] experience
[122:49] uh and that's something that uh the the
[122:51] home theater stuff which is why I have
[122:53] this stream about it and the car stuff
[122:56] are so similar their their ways and
[122:58] Outlets to get away from um your normal
[123:02] your routine the hamster wheel that you
[123:04] get on with life with work and projects
[123:06] and whatever else you have going on it's
[123:08] a it's a special thing so that's why I
[123:10] wanted to share that part of it um and
[123:13] that's why the audio and cars is also
[123:15] important to me because as cars become
[123:17] more of uh a appliances like they're
[123:20] they're so so so dumb down now and like
[123:23] dead inside and in some ways it's great
[123:26] as a commuter because you you it's quiet
[123:28] it's comfortable it's like a peaceful
[123:29] space but there's not a lot of life to
[123:31] it so if there's not a lot of life in a
[123:32] car to drive at least I can sit back and
[123:35] listen to music or at least hopefully
[123:37] enjoy the the audio experience of of
[123:39] driving and trying to find some joy in
[123:41] it so that's why I look at the audio
[123:42] stuff in cars a little bit differently
[123:44] too um not just like what's better you
[123:46] know how much you know how much is the
[123:48] best system it's not about that it's
[123:49] about the enjoyment part the the whole
[123:51] enjoyment part of a car um so I I know
[123:56] there's a couple questions uh I will get
[123:58] to those and I'll go through some more
[124:00] of these
[124:01] questions
[124:03] um bought my 2020 uh Mazda 36 speed
[124:07] manual part of your reviews CDs ripped
[124:09] to flak sounds great I think you guys I
[124:12] think of you guys when I drive it like a
[124:13] monkey on Farm roads yeah the again it's
[124:16] like it's that part of the drive
[124:19] connection to a car it's just that that
[124:21] personal space um it's an interesting
[124:26] psychological thing it's it's depending
[124:29] on where you're driving of course if
[124:30] you're stuck in traffic and you just
[124:32] want a road rage it's different but it's
[124:33] your own personal space there's
[124:35] something special about that car if you
[124:37] can connect with a
[124:38] car um check out Earl Gettys he worked
[124:43] on nvh for Ford he sells his own
[124:45] speakers and pioneered home theater
[124:46] design concept the average guy can impl
[124:48] ment yeah that again it's people like
[124:52] that that are doing this work to make
[124:53] things more accessible and and you know
[124:55] get people interested in new things and
[124:57] new avenues
[124:59] [Music]
[125:00] um because that's part of what's fun
[125:03] right when you experience something you
[125:05] never experienced before it opens up a
[125:07] whole new world to you and I think we're
[125:10] as much as we have all this this
[125:12] knowledge and ways to experience new
[125:14] things thanks to the internet and all
[125:16] social media and all that um I think
[125:19] most people on here would agree or
[125:21] probably if you've been in that point in
[125:22] your life the one of the most memorable
[125:24] things you've ever done either a
[125:25] vacation or a car is the first time you
[125:28] experienced it and you were totally your
[125:30] expectations you had no expectations or
[125:32] you had a ton and you were totally Blown
[125:35] Away by it and it sticks in your brain
[125:37] as like wow that was cool um and some of
[125:40] that was that's why I'm kind of like
[125:41] talking about the audio stuff too is
[125:43] that when you listen to music for the
[125:45] first time uh and you didn't you didn't
[125:48] even like like music but if you listen
[125:50] to it for the first time on something
[125:51] that somebody put a lot of effort into
[125:53] doing like Sound Engineering or like a
[125:55] home theater setup you're like wow that
[125:56] is so cool I would like to listen to all
[125:58] my music and then you go down the rabbit
[126:00] hole of it
[126:02] um love your channel mark thank you
[126:05] please continue to bring much joy to me
[126:06] and so many others just got my an RS3
[126:09] partly due to your review uh that RS3 I
[126:12] you know it's one of those weird cars
[126:14] after we did the video on it that I was
[126:16] just kind of um like oh you know cool
[126:19] car it wasn't what I thought it was
[126:20] going to be but I seriously have gone
[126:22] back over the past year since I did that
[126:24] video and thought about that car more
[126:26] than I care to admit I've like looked at
[126:27] it to see how much it costs and I would
[126:30] not buy one but it is that cool that I
[126:32] would consider owning one if the price
[126:34] was right because the engine experiences
[126:36] was just so so unique not a lot like it
[126:40] um in the industry it's so such a
[126:43] special uh driving
[126:47] car uh mark Jack love it I would be uh
[126:50] would it be possible for you guys to do
[126:51] a midlife crisis video on what top five
[126:53] cars you would consider without spending
[126:55] a shitload of money C6 Z6 s200 996 911
[126:59] what would you pick for a third vehicle
[127:02] um that that's a really good question
[127:04] honestly uh and a all these questions
[127:06] have have meat to them as well it's just
[127:09] the midlife crisis car is really
[127:11] difficult in terms of how much money you
[127:13] have because the there's always
[127:14] something loaded with it the the older
[127:16] ones you get um
[127:19] you know like S2000 if you get an S2000
[127:21] now you can't get long blocks anymore
[127:22] it's getting harder to get parts and
[127:24] granted the car is reliable I can speak
[127:26] to that specifically it's pretty
[127:27] reliable but you know as Parts become
[127:30] more scarce um your enjoyment factor of
[127:33] having a car that you can't get parts
[127:35] for or you have to worry about if you
[127:37] break it you can't drive it 100% if you
[127:39] want it to like you could like a new car
[127:41] that you know you have parts or you can
[127:42] get warranty done on it so it's tricky
[127:45] even with some of these older cars that
[127:47] you may enjoy you may have them as a
[127:49] third car but there's going to be some
[127:51] work that you're going to have to put
[127:52] into them and you're going to have to do
[127:53] your research and that's something I
[127:55] found more so again sorry I keep
[127:57] bringing it up because I'm working on it
[127:58] that anax video like I would love to own
[128:00] that car and I could make you probably a
[128:04] binder full of things that you would
[128:05] have to do to it or prepare to do to it
[128:08] or potentially Buy in advance to keep as
[128:11] a spare part um not to say that it's
[128:13] going to break but there's all these
[128:15] things that you're going to have to do
[128:16] for long-term ownership and the same
[128:18] with a Porsche these things that you
[128:20] have to think about so um Jack and I get
[128:23] together I think that's a really smart
[128:24] idea to talk maybe just do a video about
[128:26] like the cars and then the fine print of
[128:28] like what you would have to do with them
[128:29] as an an ownership experience um because
[128:32] they are there's some affordable amazing
[128:34] cars out there that are you know they're
[128:37] they may not be the fastest thing but
[128:39] they're really enjoyable and that's a
[128:41] list right there that's that's great um
[128:44] but I I'll definitely have to come back
[128:45] to that and give it some more thought
[128:47] dude oh what a story as a former
[128:50] maker of handcrafted stuff thank you
[128:52] also been a follower of you GES for
[128:54] years thanks again Mr Biff uh yeah I'm
[128:57] sorry that story also ran a little long
[128:59] but I wanted to like connect why um you
[129:02] know I don't consider myself an audio
[129:04] file but I do really appreciate music
[129:07] and I do know how things work with sound
[129:09] to a good extent enough to know how to
[129:11] try to set it up um I would never get it
[129:13] it's like uh I talk about this a lot
[129:15] with driving you get to that uh 99th
[129:20] percentile like I've gotten to a lot of
[129:22] things from driving I've gotten to the
[129:24] top and then to get into that 1% to know
[129:27] as much and to be that as competitive
[129:29] and as good as that 1% you just most
[129:31] people never get I I will never get
[129:33] there in terms of driving and in terms
[129:35] of the audio stuff I feel like I'm in
[129:36] the 95 percentile of understanding how
[129:38] things work and how the technical part
[129:40] Works um but that's where I'm going to
[129:42] cap out because I I I'm not going to go
[129:45] into that industry so I lean on other
[129:46] people to help and that that's what
[129:48] awesome about this is getting people to
[129:50] like share that that knowledge so yeah
[129:53] thanks man
[129:55] um Mr AFA how can cars with glass
[129:59] panoramic roofs be set up while for
[130:00] audio the straight answer is they can't
[130:02] it's full of
[130:03] compromise um there there's ways and
[130:06] tricks they do it uh with insulation and
[130:10] uh isolation and noise cancelling that
[130:12] that's it um if you have an entire glass
[130:15] structure around your head there's only
[130:17] so much you can do with speakers uh in
[130:20] terms of where you place them excuse me
[130:23] I got to cough and I don't want to cough
[130:24] in
[130:27] mic all right exaggerated cough but I
[130:30] got it out um yeah it's just you're not
[130:33] going to fix it so you have to decide
[130:35] like if you like audio don't get a car
[130:38] with a glass roof you know that that's
[130:40] it doesn't really get much more
[130:42] complicated than that
[130:44] um let's see what else we got here um
[130:52] I I think really at this point um I'm
[130:55] going to go through some of the
[130:56] questions obviously and see if there's
[130:58] anything that's not in the the the page
[131:00] chat because I I hate when people throw
[131:02] money and then I'm like ignore it
[131:05] um night wish said Mark I love your
[131:08] in-depth and honest reviews let me show
[131:10] that that makes it way easier for people
[131:13] uh great carard I have a 23 alantra and
[131:16] having a blast great carard for the
[131:17] money keep up a good work yeah if you if
[131:19] you've ever if you don't like Hyundai
[131:21] and Kia or you don't like the Elantra
[131:23] and or the way it looks or whatever just
[131:25] ignore it for once and try to get out
[131:27] there and drive it it's one of those
[131:28] cars uh you know we talk about all this
[131:30] audio stuff and speakers like I'm never
[131:31] going to get my hands on a $20,000 set
[131:33] of speakers and bring them in my room
[131:35] it's just not possible but most people
[131:37] can get into an Elantra n even on a test
[131:41] drive to experience how cool that car is
[131:43] for the money like it's it's one of
[131:45] those um that's just fun I'm going to
[131:48] leave it at that
[131:53] um Bobby just turned 40 and his midlife
[131:56] crois mobile is a 22 Mustang GT
[131:58] performance pack I love it I know a lot
[132:00] of people agree that there's that's hard
[132:03] to match the performance of that car
[132:04] namely if you buy it right um it it's
[132:08] very very well done given the size of it
[132:10] it's crazy what they they got out of
[132:11] that car for just how medy it
[132:14] is uh can you make a playlist or extra
[132:17] Channel just for your cut content you
[132:18] weren't able to use in videos doesn't
[132:20] have to be polished or edited it just
[132:22] upload as supplemental extra content
[132:24] yeah that's it I think it's going to get
[132:26] there honestly right now what I'm doing
[132:28] is I'm putting extra stuff on patreon um
[132:30] and it has to go on patreon because you
[132:32] know like right on Q Dan um you know you
[132:38] got guys like Dan and Mr AFA uh who have
[132:42] been on patreon
[132:44] supporting us for a long time um
[132:48] um and like Dan is a guy who even when
[132:53] things have been tough he's he's been
[132:55] around and it's like that support on the
[132:57] back end of knowing that you don't know
[133:00] how long you could do this not just
[133:03] physically but to a certain extent
[133:05] financially where you're trying to run
[133:06] it as a business or not um and trying to
[133:09] do the right thing where you don't piss
[133:10] people off and trying to be real um like
[133:13] those are where that's where that extra
[133:15] content's going to go to be honest if if
[133:17] there is extra content and it's hard
[133:19] because I don't I probably could well I
[133:22] can pop this I don't know if I can
[133:24] up the camera let's see here since the
[133:27] camera keeps discon you can see on the
[133:28] floor over there so I have all my hard
[133:31] drives like here here I have uh 30 or 40
[133:35] of those um because it's just cheap
[133:38] storage I can do like 18 terabytes for
[133:40] 200 bucks versus my old uh NZ or san
[133:44] that was unbelievably expensive for
[133:46] storage uh so I just pile up Western
[133:49] Digital so I go through these drives
[133:50] like and I have to pull out all content
[133:53] it's just becomes a real if I don't do
[133:55] it right away after the video there's no
[133:56] way I'm going to get time to go back and
[133:57] release the content but I think where
[133:59] we're going I said I was going to
[134:01] release all the NSX stuff because
[134:02] there's an insane amount and it's really
[134:04] cool like it's real cool content but
[134:06] some of this the extra content that we
[134:09] get on press trips and all that is not
[134:10] the greatest like some of the interviews
[134:12] are literally cut up just to make them
[134:14] watchable and if I release the
[134:16] supplemental stuff he'd be like what is
[134:19] this how did you get anything out of
[134:21] this um so not all of it is great um I
[134:25] think what we don't do a good job of is
[134:28] um talking about the stuff that we go
[134:29] through in the background like making a
[134:32] video um it's I don't want to say it's
[134:34] inside baseball but some of the stuff
[134:36] that really is difficult and we were
[134:39] Jack and I were talking about this today
[134:41] uh we have this Alexus GX press launch
[134:43] to go to and you know we fly there and
[134:47] um
[134:48] you got like you have a day to shoot a
[134:50] car like literally you show up they dump
[134:52] all the information on you the chief
[134:53] engineer from Lexus is going to be there
[134:55] for it and um we found out they don't
[134:58] have enough cars for all the journalists
[134:59] they invited right they're they have
[135:01] they're pairing you up so you're paired
[135:02] up with somebody else so luckily Jack
[135:04] and I can go together but they want to
[135:06] pair you up with a third person and if
[135:08] you've ever been on this at these events
[135:10] it's it's a nightmare like they they
[135:13] they get you up at 8:30 slam you with a
[135:16] presentation you go on this drive route
[135:17] that takes you know where you know where
[135:18] you're going and then you have to figure
[135:20] out a place to pull over and shoot all
[135:21] this footage and then talk about all the
[135:23] stuff in like like literally a
[135:25] Consolidated one hour period you have to
[135:28] sum up everything you learned try to get
[135:29] an interview in with somebody you've
[135:31] never met before learn all the technical
[135:32] details film a whole video uh drive
[135:36] around in the middle of nowhere for
[135:37] hours and get back and be exhausted on a
[135:39] plane the next day um and then to find
[135:42] out that you have to have somebody else
[135:43] with you so we found out there's going
[135:45] to be a third person with us in a car
[135:47] and I told the the brand rep I'm like
[135:49] how are we supposed to do a good job on
[135:51] your product when I'm going to have to
[135:53] bring somebody else along in the car
[135:56] what are they going to do while we're
[135:57] filming are they going to be okay with
[135:59] standing outside for three hours and the
[136:01] heat are cold while we're standing there
[136:02] shooting Boll and and they're like well
[136:04] we this is all we can do so the
[136:06] constraints of trying to do a good job
[136:08] this industry is not set up for it and I
[136:10] think that's where I get really really
[136:12] frustrated with trying to do this long
[136:15] term is you know
[136:18] you're one piece of the giant you know
[136:20] Cog right you're a small fraction of it
[136:22] so you're not more important than
[136:23] anybody else which I totally understand
[136:25] I'm not asking for that but for me to to
[136:27] continue doing it I I I can't do it like
[136:30] that I can't just travel and blow three
[136:31] days of my life to spend you know five
[136:34] hours cramming something and just to
[136:35] a video out that to me is the worst
[136:37] case scenario and I Know Jack on the
[136:40] business side he he's like dude we got
[136:41] to do some of this stuff it's also if
[136:44] you don't do it then the brands don't
[136:46] want you a part of their launch you
[136:47] don't get get access to the engineers
[136:48] like we'll never get access to the Lexus
[136:50] GX chief engineer the Land Cruiser G
[136:53] engineer ever again ever like he'll come
[136:56] here once and that's it so that's like
[136:58] your window that 30 minutes to talk to
[137:00] this guy um in a big company it's it's
[137:03] really hard to do so um long
[137:07] term uh we're trying to figure out
[137:08] creatively how to keep keep like helping
[137:12] us learn and help people getting engaged
[137:14] and learning about new products even if
[137:16] they're not interesting learning about
[137:17] the people behind them and how they did
[137:18] what they did uh because the next
[137:21] generation of
[137:22] Engineers uh if we can show like okay
[137:26] they did this today somebody's like oh I
[137:28] think that's cool I want to go and make
[137:29] that better and go to school and work
[137:31] for a car company like I'm going to take
[137:32] that I love that I'm going to make that
[137:34] better and we have this Evolution if we
[137:36] can help reach some of those younger
[137:37] people that are are on the fence about
[137:39] getting into this field because it's so
[137:41] saturated showing them some of the
[137:43] actual real stuff that's what I love but
[137:45] it's it's even hard on our end to do
[137:47] that because it's not I guess it's not
[137:49] valued as much as we thought it would be
[137:51] um it's just more of getting like most
[137:54] brands want to do a launch event and
[137:56] send you out with 50 other journalists
[137:58] and have 50 people release a video and
[138:00] articles all at once that's that's the
[138:02] majority of what they want out of these
[138:04] events so um we've been constantly
[138:06] trying to figure out how how we bring
[138:08] value to it and the people that are
[138:10] watching not to waste time we'll also
[138:12] trying to have a little bit of fun and
[138:13] you'll see like that Trailblazer video
[138:15] we did I mean honestly
[138:18] it's not a good car and I wanted to have
[138:20] fun and some of the I wanted to have fun
[138:23] finally just being honest about the fact
[138:25] that it wasn't a good car and I could be
[138:27] sarcastic as hell and nobody would care
[138:29] about it um that's that that gives me
[138:31] great joy but then you have viewers that
[138:33] are like why did you do this you're
[138:34] wasting my time and it's this
[138:36] double-edged swort of how do I stay
[138:37] happy how do I keep jack happy how do we
[138:39] keep potential new people that are going
[138:41] to work for us happy and engaged and
[138:43] learning and then also keeping the
[138:44] viewers happy with the fact that a lot
[138:47] of these cars we're doing are boring as
[138:48] you know how do we make it
[138:50] interesting so that's that's the
[138:52] challenge and that's some of the stuff
[138:54] that we're trying to share on the back
[138:55] end um and that's hard to do it just to
[138:58] be honest and it's going to go to
[139:00] longest answer in history uh a lot of
[139:02] that's going to patreon so Dan thank you
[139:05] again uh long-standing help uh on
[139:08] patreon side he enjoyed it clearly he's
[139:11] using an old Carver and Yamaha ns1000 as
[139:14] a desk as desktop speakers and that
[139:17] makes sense I mean the Yamahas were
[139:19] always pretty good for what that is I
[139:21] I've used stuff like that too I have all
[139:23] my old Yamaha stuff from my first
[139:26] receiver and then I don't remember them
[139:27] I think it was an RX 2500 and I
[139:29] literally just used it to power two
[139:30] bookshelf speakers because it just
[139:32] sounds good it it has no value anymore
[139:35] you could probably find it on the
[139:36] internet for like on eBay it would still
[139:38] work for another 20 years for $100 and
[139:40] just get a good set of bookshelves or
[139:42] like what Dan's doing it'll sound great
[139:44] better than you know any like shitty uh
[139:47] desk Des top speaker you get from Amazon
[139:49] or
[139:50] whatever
[139:52] um yeah I don't want to keep boring
[139:54] people I mean I still got people sitting
[139:56] here being abused by my voice
[140:00] um I'm going to go back and see if I can
[140:02] find a couple more questions and then we
[140:04] uh we will uh kill this so you can have
[140:09] a night to yourself and enjoy yourself
[140:16] um
[140:21] yeah I'm sorry guys I'm just looking for
[140:24] some some questions here to to throw
[140:26] into the mix some regular questions
[140:29] because I'm tired of talking about
[140:31] me real tired of talking about
[140:38] me is it remotely possible to interview
[140:41] someone like Andreas pringer but hide
[140:43] their identity and keep a deeper level
[140:45] of Industry insight as a result I wish
[140:47] leaks moved into video realm at
[140:51] Savage
[140:53] um okay this is the straight answer to
[140:56] this right um Jack was going to uh Jack
[141:01] or actually Andreas was supposed to be
[141:03] at the St event and we were he was going
[141:05] to interview him um these guys are
[141:08] industry guys they've been in their
[141:10] fields for a long time and guys like him
[141:13] there's there's a lot of guys in every
[141:14] brand like Andreas right Andreas is like
[141:17] on the back end now he's he's like the
[141:20] face of the brand for all this stuff and
[141:22] there's a lot of the engineers behind
[141:23] the scenes that are are doing some of
[141:25] the work so he's not as Hands-On as he
[141:27] used to be um but as you get to a
[141:31] certain point in age right like at any
[141:33] job you're not going to be doing some of
[141:34] the dirty work you're going to be moving
[141:35] into different directions where you're
[141:37] better suited um most of these guys that
[141:39] have spent their entire career to build
[141:41] a career and to retire with a brand are
[141:43] not going to sell out their brands
[141:44] they're not even going to risk Being
[141:45] Honest by it unless they've been complet
[141:47] completely scorned um and it's why would
[141:50] you honestly if you were in a career and
[141:53] you had a pension with some brand or you
[141:54] were going to get some kickbacks from
[141:57] like retiring with a brand you know the
[141:58] last thing you're going to do is like
[142:00] hang up your your cleats head home to
[142:02] your uh 10 wives and be like you know
[142:06] Mark from Savage gei wants me to go blur
[142:08] my face and trash the company and tell
[142:10] you all the inside
[142:12] baseball this they're just not going to
[142:14] do it I don't think anybody would do it
[142:15] I think there's stuff to be learned from
[142:16] these guys that they're pretty the real
[142:18] guys will tell you they'll tell you
[142:20] about the stuff and it's about putting
[142:22] it framing it in the right way and we're
[142:24] going to have people coming on here um
[142:27] that you frame it the right way where it
[142:28] doesn't put their job at risk their
[142:30] career at risk and they'll be pretty
[142:31] honest about this is this is why we had
[142:34] to do it this way this is the result
[142:37] maybe not ideal but like anything it's
[142:39] about some type of compromise but I I
[142:41] think there's still stories to be told
[142:43] without completely defacing what you've
[142:45] done or the the culture of work um you
[142:49] know and this is something I didn't get
[142:51] when I was younger like I just I was so
[142:53] idealistic like we got to do the best
[142:54] job possible why aren't we doing it this
[142:56] way and then you realize that as you
[143:00] move up into the business and the bigger
[143:02] it is like there's these the hierarchy
[143:04] of what's important to a business right
[143:07] and after a while it gets watered down
[143:08] and and forgotten like what's important
[143:10] and you you lose the core because you
[143:12] got too many
[143:14] people too many people working too many
[143:16] managers and you just go on this like
[143:18] crash course of everybody's just trying
[143:20] to make more money and do the minimal
[143:22] amount of work possible and that culture
[143:24] gets watered down after a while
[143:26] um and you know that that's just what
[143:30] happens with some of this stuff and I
[143:32] feel like I've been there and I kind of
[143:34] get I get why it is the way that it is
[143:37] um but again it's like anything with
[143:40] life right you find the people that you
[143:43] appe you know you have a connection with
[143:44] that really kind of connect with your
[143:46] message and you you try to share that
[143:48] out with people that view the same thing
[143:51] to a certain
[143:52] extent
[143:54] um let's see what else
[143:58] um you want to have product planners on
[144:00] here that we will that's we've already
[144:03] talked about that we're going to we're
[144:05] going to have product planners and I
[144:06] think they're one of the most
[144:07] interesting people that can tell you
[144:09] what's realistic or not and we met some
[144:11] product planners are salty as hell like
[144:13] this is what we wanted to do um they
[144:17] asked 95% of it because there was no
[144:19] money or if you're a product planner for
[144:21] a brand outside of your your home market
[144:24] like you know like most car companies
[144:26] are if you're a German an American brand
[144:29] rep for a German car company there's a
[144:32] huge difference in what the Americans
[144:34] want versus what the Germans want and
[144:36] it's like this the Japanese are the same
[144:38] way in a lot of part they don't work
[144:40] hand inand like what trying to explain
[144:42] to the Japanese what you know the United
[144:45] States or North America wants is like
[144:48] it's totally different right than their
[144:49] home market so it's it's a lot of push
[144:51] and pull um and you have to have you got
[144:53] to be really patient with it really
[144:54] patient I I don't envy that job that's
[144:57] just most of the time you're set up to
[145:00] fail I hope the video doesn't keep
[145:02] cutting out I don't object performance
[145:06] yet but I'm very confused guess what I'm
[145:08] cutting out the video because my camera
[145:10] just keeps turning off it's probably
[145:13] overheating no probably not it's
[145:15] actually like freezing in here uh just
[145:18] technology um I think I'm just going to
[145:21] I'm going to end it let's see what else
[145:23] we got uh any at the end here uh I know
[145:26] everybody is ready to go to
[145:28] bed
[145:32] um there's there's a few questions at
[145:34] the end I'm just going to randomly pick
[145:36] and
[145:38] click brother Goose you need to get some
[145:42] sun broh get out of the crappy Midwest
[145:45] and come to Santa Barbara
[145:52] do I
[145:53] look like I would fit in in California
[145:56] with this
[145:58] face Maybe Venice Beach you know with
[146:01] this
[146:02] body yeah there's no sun here right now
[146:05] let let me show you what our forecast is
[146:08] for this weekend I'm G to make Jack go
[146:10] outside and film a an
[146:12] equinox see what we got oh yeah this is
[146:15] a good one
[146:18] for uh
[146:20] Monday just what you want you want to
[146:22] see the weather forecast I know it's
[146:24] okay that's what you came on here
[146:27] for Monday and yes that's in Fahrenheit
[146:31] I'm sorry the camera won't focus there
[146:33] negative - 211 so that's what I'm going
[146:35] to send Jack out to do a documentary on
[146:37] the Chevy
[146:38] Equinox
[146:43] um and he's going to freeze to death so
[146:46] yeah it sucks right now this is the
[146:47] worst time of the year January and
[146:48] February that's why we got a bunch of
[146:50] piles to a lot of the cars are going to
[146:52] be the least interesting thing possible
[146:54] because uh half the fleet this is a
[146:57] talking point half of our fleets are
[146:59] pulling cars because they don't want to
[147:01] put they don't want they don't have the
[147:02] budget to put winter tires on the car or
[147:04] All Seasons so they're just pulling cars
[147:06] out of The Fleets now um and uh the
[147:10] Press fleets where we get cars from uh
[147:14] The Fleets are the worst they've ever
[147:15] been in history well past 20 year
[147:18] history they're decimated the budgets
[147:20] have been slashed across all the brands
[147:23] everybody's cutting money from The
[147:25] Fleets uh and and that that so this year
[147:28] is going to be really interesting um I
[147:31] it's just probably a sign of the car
[147:33] economy I think you know we talked about
[147:35] this earlier last year about uh where
[147:38] the the car economy is because you had a
[147:41] you didn't have inventory right so
[147:42] you're seeing these reports that are so
[147:45] ridiculous right now where oh look how
[147:47] many cars they're selling compared to
[147:48] last year yeah well they didn't have
[147:50] inventory of course it looks like
[147:51] they're selling way more because you
[147:52] couldn't get them um but you know now
[147:56] you're getting inventory I think Toyota
[147:58] broke a record for production so they're
[147:59] they're like ramping up so now you're
[148:01] going to have the problem of interest
[148:02] rates like people don't want to be
[148:03] buying a $50,000 car at 7% interest so
[148:07] or 6% interest So It's Tricky like one
[148:10] of these are going to bounce and I think
[148:11] the the brands know that sales are going
[148:12] to be low this year because of that
[148:14] they're not going to be able to move as
[148:15] much uh so I know that the FED is
[148:18] supposed to cut rates twice this year
[148:20] maybe uh again I don't know you know I'm
[148:22] not I'm not an economist but the the
[148:24] rumor mill is like March and December it
[148:27] should be backed down by December and
[148:29] the unless something changes so I think
[148:31] that that'll start to to to kick uh
[148:34] we'll see the economy change and what's
[148:35] going on with cars um but I think good
[148:38] the good thing is if inventories come up
[148:40] and the interest rates drop you won't
[148:41] have this like okay people are going to
[148:42] run to the dealerships and buy up
[148:43] inventory they'll be built up enough
[148:45] where you won't have the price gouging
[148:46] again at least that's what I'm looking
[148:47] forward to at least in you know the fun
[148:50] car stuff cuz I'm tired of it um I got
[148:53] to do we can't get mini from anybody
[148:56] like like we've asked for minis forever
[148:58] and they're just they don't care like
[148:59] BMW doesn't care about it I I they make
[149:02] the cars they don't do media on it so I
[149:05] would love I like minis I think they're
[149:06] fun to drive but I've I have not seen a
[149:09] mini besides from that EV like
[149:11] experiment the last one we did I think
[149:13] was that that was it um
[149:18] uh
[149:20] this it's 8:30 you know most of us go to
[149:23] bed now by 7:30 p.m. when you get to my
[149:25] age and I get up at 5:00 a.m. for my
[149:28] fiber my fiber Aid in my bottle of water
[149:33] no I don't I go to bed really late I
[149:35] have to because I'm one of those guys
[149:37] you know I think I'm really cool staying
[149:39] up till 3: in the morning I live out my
[149:41] uh teenagers at the clubs where people
[149:43] are like oh Mark's here man wow he's
[149:46] here again nobody ever did
[149:50] that
[149:51] um yeah so anyway I'm just rambling I'm
[149:54] gonna I'm G to cut this off but you know
[149:57] again we're going to be doing a live
[149:59] stream next week Wednesday and I will
[150:01] post that up it's just Jack and I will
[150:02] be doing an ass load of question and
[150:04] answer outside the scope of me rambling
[150:07] so if you want to come here next
[150:08] Wednesday and you want to be ultra bored
[150:11] um we're we're really going to knock the
[150:13] ball out of the park so I really
[150:15] appreciate
[150:17] everybody um coming on here and uh if
[150:20] you have any final thoughts or questions
[150:22] please comment now I will give you I
[150:24] wish I could set a timer here I will
[150:26] give you two minutes then I'm going to
[150:29] cut this off if you don't
[150:44] mind okay the timer is been
[150:48] set I will do speedrun thanks Mark you
[150:52] know I say that all the time thanks Mark
[150:53] you're a great guy uh Miata is always
[150:55] the answer yes
[150:57] wagons sorry I don't want to cheat you
[150:59] out of this keep up the live stream
[151:01] Miata is always the answer Clubman JCW
[151:05] is never mentioned yeah I know that's I
[151:07] would love to get one one
[151:10] thanks have a good night keep up the
[151:12] incredible work thanks for sticking with
[151:14] it and being genuine I've thank you does
[151:18] your family member still have the
[151:19] Prelude No that car was ruined my mom
[151:21] destroyed that car thanks Mom I could
[151:23] have had an automatic Prelude right now
[151:25] you know how cool I would
[151:27] be uh everyone says they want wagons but
[151:30] no one ever buys them 100% that's in the
[151:32] marketing material for every
[151:35] brand this guy wants a manual diesel
[151:38] wagon yep yep yeah I'm I'm tell a
[151:41] manufacturer that I would love to see
[151:43] the
[151:45] answer I'm watch watching this while on
[151:47] my Savage geese recommended Bay thank
[151:49] you thank you for giving Toto money they
[151:52] need
[151:53] it
[151:55] uh how is it how bad is it that I've
[151:57] gotten rid of five cars in the past two
[151:59] years you're you got a problem pal real
[152:03] problem you've been banned for
[152:05] Mitsubishi after this bad review no
[152:07] Mitsubishi has been begging
[152:10] me I haven't I didn't even yeah honestly
[152:13] when somebody said are you going to do a
[152:14] mirage I I couldn't believe it was still
[152:16] around but yeah thanks everybody
[152:21] uh the the the Camaro thing is happening
[152:23] this summer Jack's gonna make it happen
[152:26] I just I just promised it for him so
[152:28] he's got to make it happen otherwise you
[152:29] you can get rid of
[152:31] him should I trade my n for a
[152:34] GLI no no don't and I'm gonna leave it
[152:38] at that unless you unless you can get
[152:41] all touch control everything including a
[152:43] steering
[152:45] wheel I really appreciate it guys thank
[152:48] you so much and and everybody if you
[152:51] have your cat watching this I really
[152:52] appreciate your cat thanks again and
[152:55] good evening thanks Jean if you're still
[152:57] out there
[153:12] somewhere