---
title: 'Cars and Home Theater Collusion | Featuring Audioholics'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=vGBFdOKXJug'
video_id: 'vGBFdOKXJug'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 9193
---

# Cars and Home Theater Collusion | Featuring Audioholics

> Source: [Cars and Home Theater Collusion | Featuring Audioholics](https://youtube.com/watch?v=vGBFdOKXJug)

## Summary

This live stream features a conversation between Mark (Savagegeese) and Gene DellaSala (Audioholics) about the overlap between car audio and home theater. They discuss the challenges of achieving good sound in cars, the importance of room acoustics, and the state of the audio industry.

### Key Points

- **Guest Introduction** [01:02] — Gene DellaSala, president of Audioholics, introduces himself. He is an electrical engineer who worked on government defense audio systems before starting Audioholics in 1999.
- **Car Audio Struggles** [05:04] — Gene describes his struggle with car audio because his home reference is so high. He found most factory systems atrocious and had to modify his BMW M240i with aftermarket components to get acceptable sound.
- **Why Car Audio is Often Bad** [08:33] — Car audio is not a priority for manufacturers. The budget for a whole audio system in a mainstream car can be under $100. The audio system is designed after the car's packaging, leading to compromises.
- **Good Factory Systems** [12:35] — The Volvo XC90 with Bowers & Wilkins is cited as one of the best factory systems because engineers were involved in the interior design from the start. Other good systems include Bowers in BMW and Burmester in Mercedes.
- **Audioholics' Mission** [17:50] — Gene started Audioholics to pursue the truth in audio and combat snake oil, like expensive cables. He uses measurements to hold manufacturers accountable and raise industry standards.
- **Measurements vs. Listening** [25:11] — Gene argues that measurements are for the 'dating phase' and listening tests are for the 'marriage'. A product should be integrated into a system to see if it sounds good and has the needed features.
- **Advice for Getting into Audio** [30:40] — The biggest factor is the room. Step one is to define the listening space and get reasonably good acoustics. Step two is to focus on getting a good two-channel setup first before building a multi-channel system.
- **Industry Changes Over 20 Years** [34:00] — Loudspeaker and subwoofer performance has improved dramatically. However, features like Dolby Atmos have been watered down in soundbars. AVRs now have less power due to licensing fees for new technologies.
- **Importance of Physical Media** [46:49] — Gene encourages people to get a Blu-ray player because streaming audio is compressed and lacks the dynamic range and bass extension of physical discs. Kaleidescape is the best way to get reference material.
- **Biggest Business Mistakes** [49:01] — Gene's biggest mistake was trying to brand a store with Audioholics in the early 2000s. It pissed off readers and advertisers. He also worried too much about revenue instead of trusting that good content would win.
- **Reigniting Passion** [61:23] — After a period of burnout and depression, Gene reignited his passion for audio by hiring new writers with fresh perspectives and focusing on the positive impact he has on people's purchasing decisions.
- **Influence on Manufacturers** [66:02] — Gene's testing has led to major changes in products from companies like Denon and Marantz. He has relationships with engineers from Yamaha and other major brands who value his feedback.
- **Tesla Audio Systems** [82:23] — Gene has only heard three Tesla systems. His main problem is the reflective cabin due to the glass roof, which creates too many reflections and makes it hard to control the sound.
- **Upgraded Systems That Are Worse** [84:25] — Ford is cited as a brand where upgraded audio systems (like Bang & Olufsen) often test worse than the base system. The calibration is poor, with massive bass swings and a thin sound.
- **Favorite Music Streaming Service** [90:12] — Gene prefers Apple Music over Tidal for spatial audio because Apple has a better implementation and a more consistent level between Atmos and stereo tracks.
- **Test Tracks for Speakers** [90:50] — Gene recommends 'Differently' by Marian Hill for bass and dynamics, and 'Birds' by Dominique Fils-Aimé for vocal clarity and soundstage. He also uses jazz like Pat Metheny for purity of sound.
- **Klipsch as a V-Curve Example** [93:54] — Klipsch is cited as a brand that often has a 'V-curve' sound (lots of bass and treble). Gene did a blind listening test where a Klipsch representative could always pick out their speaker due to its colored sound.
- **Headphone Recommendations** [99:13] — For comfort, Gene recommends Focal Stellia headphones. For wireless, he finds Mark Levinson headphones comfortable. He advises looking at clamping force, especially for people who wear glasses.

### Conclusion

The conversation highlights the shared passion for engineering and performance between car enthusiasts and audiophiles. The key takeaway is that achieving great sound, whether in a car or a home, requires prioritizing the acoustic environment and being wary of marketing hype.

## Transcript

give it a
brief
sure hello everyone I'm going to get
everybody loaded here and uh you know
settled in let a a video sync up which
you know to be fair might be a little
bit off don't freak out this is mostly
going to be a live stream it's like a
live podcast I guess we can put it that
way there's going to be some screen
sharing um and a lot of talk about
different topics about the audio
industry the car industry and I have a
guest on today that uh I'm very very
happy to because this is a man that I've
uh followed on his side of the business
and because I'm an a audio I love audio
video and he's been in the business for
a long time his name is Jean delasala
he's the president of audio holics and
uh Jean why don't you introduce yourself
just to give your background for people
that don't know well first of all Mark I
really appreciate you having me on your
channel um I think it's awesome I love
collabs like this because I think
there's a lot of dual interest I think
if people are into cars performance cars
they definitely overlap they're into
audio especially you're listening to
music in your car right so I think these
kind of collabs are great so real quick
on me I'm an electrical engineer I was a
design engineer um for about seven years
I did government defense audio
communication systems but my passion has
always been home audio and I wanted to
become an audio engineer in college and
then I realized it was really difficult
to get a job that pays well at a college
doing audio so I figured out if any Star
Trek fans are out there I pulled a Kobe
ASI Maru I I beat the no- win scenario
by starting a website in 99 working as
an engineer for about three or four
years until I could turn into profitable
enough to eventually quit my very secure
government job and then do this
full-time and I've been doing it
full-time since 2002 and we're going on
25 years on April 18th this
year that's crazy I I you know and I
think I'm GNA get right into the the
meat and potatoes of this because uh I
don't know if you know this Jean but our
last couple live stream where Jack and I
were on here we went four hours um and
it's it's uh painful for the people
watching but they I I don't it's it it's
gets enjoyable but I'm not going to keep
you here for for four
hours so uh let's let's get into uh one
of the things why obviously car audio
and home theater seems to be a really
common Topic in the automotive Community
there seems to be a huge overlap between
people that love music um I know Misha
he is a guitar player and in periphery a
metal band and he told me this it's like
it's crazy the amount of people that he
meets that are big into like engineering
music and like production also love the
mechanical and Technical part of cars
and there's such an overlap so I I find
it interesting that you also are into
the car world what's your background
with that so I've always loved cars and
I always joke with my wife I'm like man
in 99 if I would have started a car
review website instead of Home Theater
I'd be checking out Lamborghini Diablo
right now you know because I'm at the
very top of the stuff that I'm able to
play with with home audio so I'm a car
Enthusiast um I'm a BMW fan I've owned a
few BMWs I have an m240i I also have an
X5 um and I just love it I you know for
years when I was a kid there were two
I'd go to a magazine you know a
bookstore or I'd go to the uh
supermarkets and two things I'd look for
I'd look for home audio magazines like
stereo review stereo file and then I
would look at Car and Driver Motor Trend
and I would just gawk at the cars the
car that I could never afford I'll
probably never drive I'm obsessed with
the performance metrics and how they
were tested and I just have such a high
respect for people that do car reviews
because you're putting your own risk on
the line right running on a track and
putting the cars to the limits and I
just I love it I just love the
adrenaline feel of high performance
anything when it comes to home theater
when it comes to car performance and I
just love engineering marbles you know I
also like airplanes Aviation I'm h fan
of like the SR71 Blackbird and I follow
all the World War II documentaries and
just how Aviation evolved over the years
so I think there's a lot of overlap
especially being an engineer and I'm
electrically or mechanically inclined I
just like engineering what humans can
produce and do you do you find that you
know obviously you're big into well it's
your job right you test probably
thousands of products at this point um
how do you find when you get in a car do
you like listening to music how's that
overlap for you or do you just not care
you go back home and deal with it I
struggled a lot believe it or not um
because I have such a good reference for
what good sound is in the home that when
I'd go and buy a new car and I would
listen to the system and that most of
the time they'd be atrocious right yeah
um and it would suck because I would
like the car let's say at the time I
would buy like a Nissan Maxima when it
was when Nissan was a really good brand
in my opinion and the car AIO sucked I
you know it was okay if you had the bow
system it was listenable but then I
noticed as Years Gone on some of that
got worse on these cars and then when I
went to a BMW on the two series I um I
bought a used two series and it had the
hormon system in it and I thought it had
the potential but something was wrong in
it right so I contacted hormon because I
have friends there and I'm like there's
too much Center channel in in the system
is there a way to turn it down and it
turns out it wasn't their fault because
BMW uh contracted Harmon to do all their
audio systems but BMW only has certain
budgets I guess they allocate to each
car so like in the two series and I
don't know if that's the case now with
the new two series because I know
nothing about the Mexican Maj German uh
the Mexican May 2 Series compared to the
2018 that I own but back in the day they
put they couldn't put logic 7 in that
car so what they did was they did left
plus right and they dumped it into the
center with no volume control for the
center and that's a good way to kill
Sound Stage you go and you do that kind
of thing without lowering the volume or
having any control of that it kills the
sound stage so what I did was after I
got my second 240 because the first one
got totaled someone rear ended me I
bought it with the regular system
without the Harmon system because I was
going to do my own upgrades and the
regular system was not even listenable
it was just so scathing the tonality of
it you know it just sounded terrible so
I went and I got a moral driver kid and
Jen hurt underseat woofers and I
contacted JL Audio and um I got a DSP
and an amp from them and then I went out
to Miramar and they spent two days
helping me tune the system no Center
Channel by the way so the center channel
was deleted and we set up different
profiles because if you don't have a
center channel you're only going to have
The Sweet Spot basically where you're
sitting when you tune it to the DSP so
if you want to have different sweet
spots for the passenger for the people
in the back you have different DSP
settings and that was a world of I could
actually sit in my m240 now listen to
music and it sounds good it doesn't
sound as good as my home theater but at
least it's reference and it's it's
enjoyable but yeah that's that's a
struggle especially when you do long car
trips and and you um have bad audio but
the one thing I did notice is your your
ears and your brain kind of adapt to
mediocre sound over time so you learn to
live with bad sound until you hear
better right so I mean until you have
reference sound that you can compare it
to most people probably don't pay that
much attention to their car audio
systems that's kind of an afterthought I
think when you're buying a car yeah and
I think that's an interesting part and I
don't want to get two in the weeds with
the the car audio stuff other than yes
we test it um and a lot of that has to
do with uh Brian he's an acoustical
engineer uh who's uh helped me a lot and
obviously Jack with understanding how
car audio is designed because he worked
on the back end so it's going through
and talking to some of these Brands
where the straight answer is why car AIO
is not good is it is not a priority it's
not a priority in terms of budget for
these Brands when they go down the list
of product planning for cars unless you
get to the ultra high end where you know
you're charging $300,000 where you can
most cars are not designed around an
audio system a car they're designed
around packaging of a car so the audio
system gets designed later and thrown in
later and then you get to a lot of the
commodity Brands and when I say it's
actually extends Beyond on that it it's
okay what do we have left over okay now
put some speakers in it what's the
cheapest we can do it for um and you
know I've heard directly from about
certain brands and how much they pay for
a driver set in a car and amplification
and it's it's shockingly low like
shockingly low it's under it can be
under $100 in some cars and under 200
for a whole package for a mainstream car
so when you have that type of budget
your suppliers are going to be like okay
we're just going to do whatever and then
the the Engineers that are designing the
EQ and doing the car you know they got
seats they got reflective surfaces every
car is different they just try to get it
as good as possible where the curve you
know you're you're looking at it like
okay it sounds okay there's nothing
horribly wrong and that's where it's
left um and to your point right you get
used to that and most people because the
bar is set so low for car audio there's
there's an exception there's like 10
cars I could name that are exceptional
and you could tell one we knew that they
were designed from the the start along
with the interior space so they have a
huge Advantage but that that you can
count on one hand how many cars are
actually like that and you just like
hopefully it's not horrible and that's
why we test the cars honestly is just to
have a reference point of like this is
really bad like really bad like the
Honda ridg line was the worst one we
ever tested like it it sound your phone
speaker in a cup probably would sound
better than that I mean I'm not even
joking um but but you know that's the
low point and then there's the Other
Extreme but some middle ground and I
think most of them now bench Mark each
other to the point where in I know we
talked about this on the phone like
Harmon or Samsung Harmon owns like
everything so it's a small group of
people that are doing the work so they
know how to do it and it's just let's
what how much money do we have or how
much are they giving us okay let's just
do that that so um so two comments I
have on on Carl real quick I just saw a
comment that says El asking about the El
audio system I actually had the El audio
system in my Acura 2007 TL Type S and I
met Elliot Shiner on the home theater
creu
um couple of years after I I bought that
car and I was just giving him feedback
he's the one that came up with the
tuning of that system as you guys know
he's he's produced music for the multi
Channel music for the for the Eagles and
other bands and I told him I go you know
what the system sounds good it needs
more base that little 8 inch in the back
is just not doing it but the biggest
downfall of that system was the 3-inch
wizard cone woofer for the center
channel and you just can't get enough
volume out of it and he said that was a
big struggle for him because he wanted a
full range center channel in the dash
but the car vendor would not dedicate
the space for it right but I know
they've upgraded it since then because
my my sister-in-law has a uh one of
their mdxs yeah and that system has been
it's been greatly improved and I think
overall the OEM systems are getting
better and in fact if you look at one
thing I like about the BMW even though
their U stock system isn't that great
the pre-outs on their head units are
flat so all the dsps done in the amp and
the trunk which means you can now put
your own amp and your own DSP without
having to reeq the preamp outputs and
they have a strong I think there was
like 4volt RMS clean coming out of those
um outputs so it's plenty of drive for
you to match it with an amplifier but
not all the vendors are doing that some
of the vendors are putting the DSP into
the head unit and then you're kind of
stuck you can't really do much modding
on that system yeah and I think that's
that's kind of the way we look at it
right nobody is buying a modern car with
all the electronics and what is in most
cars you can't change anything anymore
you can change out some drivers but
you're still limited to uh what the EQ
is baked in in the car and honestly when
you look at even higher end systems now
like Volvo's a good one they have the
XC90 and I say this a lot I know people
are tired of hearing it but the XC90
when they did the Bowers was one of the
best systems we ever tested in large
part you know the engineers were
involved with the interior design of
those cars to start and they chose
really good drivers and the EQ was great
but as the time has gone on the X90 is
like 100 years old now you can see them
with their new headunit design they've
stripped out any EQ that you can do with
that car like there's no eqing even
available it's just like trouble and
base so they got rid of I don't even
remember nine seven band or nine band
not that you can play with it but
they've removed all that for the
mainstream consumer so really what you
see is what you get and nobody's going
to modify these cars honestly it just
it's not worth it anymore um you have to
get to like your level and you know
that's so uncommon um to to to play with
this stuff so it's it's disappointing
but to fair to the manufacturers uh
Acura is a good one they just got rid of
Els and they got rid of yeah they they
just switched over this year and all
their new cars are going to have some
subset of bang and olison um and the the
directive was make it sound like Els
that's what they wanted the you know the
harming try do for less money of course
because it's not a requested feature so
when you go to the MDX Type S which we
had as a long termer they have their
highest end audio system they ever did
it was the ls signature so that was
definitely for the price point on
another level it was pretty close to the
Bowers stuff not as good um but you know
you have that the Bowers in the BMW like
X7 well you can't really get in X5 but
the Bowers is pretty good in there the
Volvo's really good and then you get
into the burms of the higher end
Mercedes which are pretty good um some
of the meridians and the jlr test great
but I mean that's it like really that
that's it it's the all than that they
all very much are all have the same type
of problem they're very base heavy
because they know everybody wants a huge
base curve they want base yeah yep like
the Beat headphones used to be remember
the Beats headphones when they first
came out they were just bass machines
not no tonal accuracy at all um you know
I think you go back to the Volvo case I
believe I heard a demo of a Volvo system
a few years back at CES or CIA and that
was the one that was using dirak
calibration and that's dir got its got
it start in car audio and that was
impressive the amount of DSP magic they
were able to pull off that's not
something um a person could do on his
own just messing with little geq filters
or PQ filters in a car so I I do think
if you're an audio file and you're
choosing a car and they put some thought
into the upgraded audio systems I do
find they tend to be worth the extra
cost because otherwise you're going to
be ripping stuff out you have to take
door panels off and I'd hate to go
through that again that was it when I
saw my car ripped apart in jail audio's
uh Factory I got nervous it was a brand
new car and all my door panels were off
the trunk was out I was like oh my God
are they gonna be able to put this back
together and make it tight again so I
don't know yeah It's Tricky it's a
double-edged sword and cars are you know
if you had it your way you know you
would have no storage in the doors there
would be no you know everything would be
around sound and that's just not
practical for most people the amount of
compromise you have to do to get a good
audio system and a car designed is
that's not what people are looking for
and it and it makes sense I just think
we're looking out for you know we tested
a couple Ford and GMS Ford is the
biggest uh the the
biggest I don't even want to put it this
way but they're the ones that charge the
most for upgraded audio systems that
actually test worse than the Bas like
the standard ones they're they're so
overblown they're horrible they're just
horrible so like that's what we're
really looking for is like do you do you
spend if there's an updated upgraded
audio system is it actually better worth
like $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 more and that
that's all we can do is like try to
protect people from that so there's a
reference point other than that I mean
it's hard to get into it but I'm gonna
I'm going to get shift into a different
question here because sure um I think
this goes into it the personal
philosophies in like your business and
audio um and I know you started a long
time ago and there had to be a reason
why you started this uh and you were in
an era like early 2000s right something
like that I'm old Mark I started in 99 I
just turned 50 so I'm ancient so yeah
audioholics like when was when did you
kick that off yeah 99 is 99 wow okay so
you're on the ground floor and what you
what Jean has tried to do from my
perspective and I I found him for the
very reason I like wanted to do what I
wanted to do with car stuff and that is
there was a level of trying to be honest
where you knew that you still have to
keep manufacturers happy you have to
keep the people around you happy because
you can't just take a dump on a product
and expect the brand to be like oh here
you go you want to test more of our
stuff so there's this slippery slope but
I found that you were one of the few
people at least on the internet that
spawn up something where you were trying
to be real about a lot of products that
you don't need to waste money on um so
that's my perception of it so what's
your how do you fill in the gaps so the
motto on our and I don't want to
shamelessly plug audio Hawks but our
motto has always been pursuing the truth
in audio and then I Chang it to pursuing
the truth in audio and video so I'm
trying to get some video in on that and
the whole reason why I started
audioholics is when I graduated college
as a dou and I was working in Telcom I
was designing you know not audio
amplifiers but like wide bandwidth
amplifiers I knew you know the
properties of amplifiers and what they
do and all that stuff and I started
looking at the marketing claims in
consumer audio and compared to Pro Audio
and compared to what I do for a living
I'm like there's so much nonsense and
how these manufacturers are specking
their products and then I got into the
whole cable thing and I could not
believe that in consumer audio there are
companies out there that are duping
people and putting batteries on cables
and charging $5,000 $110,000 for a pair
of eight foot cables and then they're
coming up with this Butchery of science
claiming that they're solving problems
that don't really exist and it's not
based on the engineering principles that
they're quoting so I started getting in
samples of these cables and I hate to
admit this but I started this when I was
working in telom I had all access to the
test gear there I started measuring them
with Magnetic analyzers I had you know
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth
of test gear at my disposal i' bring
them in at night after I was done
working I'd start measuring and I'd
start writing articles and I started
getting attention I had manufacturers
calling me um a company called Wayne
cerr Believe It or Not is the name of
the company uh they sent me a magnetic
analyzer I had audio Precision send me
test gear and they're like we see that
you're on to something here we want to
support you give you the test gear give
you the tools to do the measurements and
then come up with a set of procedures
that you think are fair when you're
measuring amplifiers or measuring
loudspeakers or measuring cables and try
to keep the manufactur is honest and my
goal wasn't to give people black eyes
per se my goal was to kind of raise the
industry up you know get to what matters
in the industry have the manufacturers
all agree that hey we should have a
minimal set stand standard on what is
good performance and then get rid of the
nonsense get rid of the snake oil the
stuff that doesn't matter that's just
sucking people's money away that they
could be putting into something that
matters like room Acoustics right and I
had a lot of I had a lot of blowback at
first I've had you know companies
threatening me because I was writing
about their cables and people saying I
was never going to make a success in the
business because I'm you know I'm
ruffling too many feathers but then what
really surprised me was the companies
that were doing legit legitimately good
product we're like we are all for this
and I had all these Engineers behind me
I would get like I would get Christmas
cards from Japan from Yamaha from the
engineers I didn't even know existed
because they like my test reports and
then I started uh company started
sending me products to do beta testing
so like Den or Yamaha or just major
companies like that would literally send
me stuff to test before it released to
Market and I was just loving it this is
what this has always been my dream is to
be in audio not to design the stuff
because I know it's a labor of love to
design and I respect the people that
design and I always make sure when I
measure stuff that I fact check with
them that my test reports are accurate
so a lot of these companies would go out
and buy the same test gear to match my
reporting so that way we were Ono one
before I would publish I always wanted
to make sure that I give the best
representation for the product and be as
accurate as I can I know I know I always
sometimes make mistakes and I do my best
to not to minimize those mistakes before
we publ
that makes sense um and I I I get this
question and I think it's becoming more
relevant um
in for you and I think for me I'm not
going to get into me as much but uh the
way that I wanted to start this was for
a lot of the same reasons that you
probably did you wanted to see data you
wanted to see these things that were not
really out there and transparent um and
I get questions a lot from people that
want to get into the media space of like
the tech space or media space and I know
you you know you mentioned like throttle
house and some of these other car people
and all these people in social media
they have a voice um and I think the
biggest thing is if you're really into
something and you're passionate about it
there's an angle to find and there's an
angle to find when you really like to do
something that's not like it it really
takes when you're not happy about
something for me I was unhappy when I
didn't see real transparency with car
things people were never talking about
the details it was always glazed over so
it really charged me to be like I know
how to fill in this space I know how to
do this but it takes you know doing it
and actually saying that you want to do
it are two different things and and I'm
reading more and more about like uh Jen
Z and now Jen Alpha like they like to
watch content they don't like to create
it so a lot of like what we're doing is
becoming the professional resource for
people to gather information to make
educated decisions and when you're
talking about you know cars and audio is
they're nice cities right like they're
not you're not going to you're not going
to fail in life if you don't have a car
or you don't have a nice set of speakers
right so they their wants versus needs
in a lot of cases but when people are
passionate about them and they want to
buy them like a car I take it very
seriously I think what would I want to
know if I was buying a car before I
unload you know $800 to $1,000 a month
on like a new car like on a loan the
same thing with audio gear right like I
can't go out when I look at a set of
loudspeakers there's no way even if I go
into a great store I can't just load up
my room full of a bunch of speakers and
test them it's not practical it's not
practical for me to test 10 amps and
five receivers and bring in three TVs or
three projectors there's not enough time
there's not enough money and enough
resources so I think you know it's a
message for people that are not happy
this is a segue into another
topic some people are not happy with our
results and what we say in our opinions
which is completely fine and I charge
people to really if you don't like it
and we're doing something wrong either
call us out or give us recommendations
or try to start up your own thing like
fill in the gaps where we're not
covering you know because it makes us
better and you're giving another voice
out there for people to you know share
information and maybe we're not doing
something right like I can't do
everything to in the car world I can't
do everything the same way throttle
house is we're not funny like them in
that traditional way we have an obscure
sense of humor we're more engineering
focused and we'd fail if we tried to
copy their formula much like they'd be
very it would be very hard for them to
transition to do something like us so in
your case um I thought it was
interesting because I've been following
like the Forum scene for quite a while
and what you're trying to do and I see
some of the difficulties in because
you've been around for so long now
there's a new generation of people that
are like testing and looking at spec
sheets and num the numbers game because
they don't have access to the product
they have this wide knowledge base so
how do you deal in the course of your
career like the people now in the The
Forum that you're talking about where
another they're constantly doing
specification tests and all these
products and they don't like them and
they're garbage and because you do and
you're doing more testing they're
trashing you personally or giving you a
hard time how do you talk to that and
how do you deal with that type of stuff
I try to stay off those forums I you
know I've tried to engage them in the
past there's one particular Forum that's
that's just like that they do very heavy
measurement Centric Forum um but it's
just it causes a lot of stress and I in
my life as I get older I try to minim
distress and I want to focus on Family
Focus on creating the best content that
I can do and I'm just blessed that I
have so many writers and and people
helping me out that are more
knowledgeable in certain subjects than I
am to get a balanced Viewpoint so I the
only thing I could say to that is when
someone goes and trashes a product
because of a graph a CTA 2034 graph is
not as pristine as it should yet they
haven't heard the product for themselves
and then they make the opinion that they
shouldn't buy the product because of
that one graph I think it's it's doing
them a disservice and I'm going to
actually have subject matter experts on
our channel to talk about this that some
of these measurements while the
measurements are great the measurements
are for the dating phase the listening
test is for the marriage right that's
what really ultimately determines if you
like the product based on your needs and
your room Acoustics and your listening
environment and listening habits and I
don't think we can just dumb things down
to the point where the measurements can
tell you everything especially psycho
acoustically loudspeakers the way they
play in a room is really hard to
understand every aspect of what you're
hearing based on a few graphs as opposed
to maybe an amplifier is a lot a little
easier because it's an electrical signal
you can kind of you know if it's an
ideal voltage source or not or a piece
of wire you know exactly if it's if it's
transmitting that signal without any
propagation loss so I try to keep I
always try to keep the measurements into
context ta like I'll measure a processor
and it'll have some weird stuff going on
in the measurements but if it's 100 DB
below the threshold it's not something
you're going to hear it's just not as
tidy on the bench should you not buy the
product because of that especially if it
has really Advanced base management or
room correction systems that the other
product that doesn't have that anomaly
no that's that's a bad choice I've I've
always said this get the product
integrated into your system and see if
it has the feature set you need and how
it's sound so I think there's a balanc
there needs to be a balanced approach
between having the measurements holding
the manufacturers accountable for the
specs that they produce and also being
able to do the listening test to see how
that translates in your room okay that
that makes sense and I think there the
parallel that I was trying to draw is
the car world is the same right and it's
gotten worse in the car world because as
products get more expensive the
accessibility to the common person
becomes lower and it's it's a shame
because these are passion things a lot
of these cars are passion things and
some of them are not but um I see this a
lot where the products you can tell are
designed by Engineers that don't have a
lot of time to do it they have to get it
out and they have to be like on on a
bench a lot of this stuff works but when
you get into the finer details of um and
I'm I'm doing this NSX project right now
like trying to finish this documentary
that I've said I've had I'm going to be
done in like a year it's been over a
year and I'm going through these
technical documents in this book and one
of the things that they talked about
during the engineering of this car was
uh they had this the the test driver
said there's something wrong with it
like it's disconnected and all the
engineers like we can't measure this
there's no there's no data that proves
what you're saying is right so as they
went along in development they found we
can't measure the problem that you're
having you have to just turn your brain
off to the data for a minute stop trying
to record everything with sensors or you
know and drive the car and feel it and
just feel it and you'll start to
understand that we need to engineer it
two different ways uh and in the case of
audio right it's not just about the
feeling of it it's sitting down and
actually turning your brain off and
listening to it and that's one of the
things that I found and I'm nowhere near
your level or the people you work with
but I found that I can do a set of like
calibrations and measurements and I can
get them to the best that I can and
setting up the room the best that I can
but at the end of the day if something
looks good on the chart and I sit in my
room and I'm like something's not right
and I will I will listen more to my ear
um assuming you have a good ear or
understand what you're listening to I
found that to be I will get it to where
my ear is happy and the measurements
look okay there might be problems but
I'll be happier with the connection to
the equipment just leaving it alone at
that point and stop chasing all the
problems and enjoy it and the same thing
with cars uh if you're constantly trying
to screw with stuff uh you know I don't
like this car because it's not the
fastest thing so I'm going to trade it
to get the next one and the next one and
the next one and I know this is the same
thing with audio and video you know this
tv you know it's the black level aren't
this good here in the color you know
it's on my color meter it's not you know
it's not there's this endless chase that
we get into aside from just being happy
with things um and that's a place where
you and I think because of that
experience we learn it quicker than the
average person so I'm trying to also you
know help people understand that and
I've watched your stuff too and like you
can get really technical like you get
you guys get really technical but you
also are accessible in the fact that
okay you don't need to spend 6,000 or
20,000 on a set of speakers to really
get good sound if your room is not just
a horrible you know tin can um and I
like the way that you guys approach that
so what if you had to give like advice
uh just like ABC advice how would you
say if somebody want to get into audio
kind of like I'm talking about with cars
like what are the first five things that
you should do and just off the top of
your head I think the biggest factor in
getting good a good audio experience is
the room so if you're going to stick
your speakers in a kitchen or you're
gonna stick it in a family room that's
all tile floor and glass you're not
going to get a good experience it's just
really hard if you don't do anything
with the Acoustics of the room I've seen
systems I've gone to people's houses
where they spend 10 grand on a pair of
BS and walk in speakers and it's stuck
in a in this horrible room I measured
the rt60 Decay time it's like a second
and a
half it sounds like an echo chamber
you're better off just putting a sound
barar in there at that point if you're
not going to address the room acousic so
yeah defining where your listening space
is going to be um trying to get
reasonably good Acoustics in there
without you know while having spousal
approval that's step number one then the
next step is I I might be a little
different than most home theater uh
channels where they focus strictly on
multi-channel I'm all about getting the
best two channel first and then building
a system around it like you can see the
speakers behind me those are fully
active rbh speakers this is my kind of
listening space I even spin records here
every system that I set up in in my
house or when I set up for other people
is I make sure I get good Imaging from
the front Sound Stage and I think that's
similar in car audio I'm not an expert
of car audio but I know it's really
important to get good sound staging up
front and in the best systems some some
of those are just two channel like they
don't even use rear fill right if you
get a really good DSP tune so yeah I
would say focus on getting that but if
you're not into music and you just want
to supplement the sound of your TV so
you watch and streaming stuff then you
can go and get a 5.1 or 5.1.4 if you
want to get an Atmos maybe prioritize
Less on the quality of the front Sound
Stage so you can have all the speakers
but at the very minimum I always
recommend two subwoofers because in
small rooms in order to get even base
from seat to seat you can't do that with
one sub you can get good base in a very
narrow area with one sub in a small room
or home theater but having that dual sub
configuration really opens things up so
that way every seat is EQ and then every
seat gets sound more consistent so that
way if you're sitting on the left of the
couch and your wife's sitting on the
right of the couch you're both hearing
similar base level and similar base
quality and Bas is 30% of the experience
bad Bas you don't enjoy the music or the
home
theater um I you know obviously I think
the whole concept of uh Bas management
has changed quite a bit over the years
you know like back in the day before you
had all the EQ ility and all the modern
software you know having one was you
know most people are never going to have
more than one and now you see like at
least in the autofile audio file
Community there's people talking about
four like the best case four and then
like people are putting them in the
ceiling and you know I mean it it's an
interesting transition of how things
have changed over time and I I think
that that's that's the other question I
wanted to ask you about this and I'm
going to go over just a couple things so
people aren't lost in the dark with some
of this measurement stuff that we're
talking about and I don't want to get in
the weeds with it either but in the past
20
years what have you seen the biggest
change aside from the internet and the
business and all the products like in
terms of Technology what have you seen
change and what are the things that are
the most disposable also the most
garbage things that have
happened so I think the industry in
general as a whole is improving right I
mean 20 years ago you couldn't go out to
Mono price and buy a pair of $600
speakers that actually perform decently
it was hard to get a pair of good floor
standing $600 speakers back then so I
think because of companies like Harmon
that did the research that showed hey
this is kind of a recipe for a good
sound you know this is how a speaker
should behave in a room more people
started researching this other brands as
well and they got more serious about not
just voicing a speaker by ear but doing
the measurements first getting a good
blend of the drivers and then of course
doing listening tests and in general I
just think loudspeaker performance has
gotten better over the years subwoofers
especially I mean I'm talking 20 years
ago when I started this whole thing you
know it was hard to get good deep base
and the subwoofers did not perform the
drivers didn't perform as is the way
they do now there's just so much lower
Distortion you've got the ability to EQ
and get rid of the bumps in the base
that was very hard to do I mean just 15
years ago a flagship D and receiver had
one subw for output it had a geq on it
you couldn't do a lot of Base stuff you
had to go and buy a mini DSP and tag it
onto your receiver and fix the base in
your room well now you could do that
with room correction now you could do
that with a lot of subwoofers that have
built-in room correction so I think in
general that aspect has improved the
things that that kind of bother me about
how the industry's changed in the last
couple of years is is The Branding and
the labeling of stuff like Dolby Atmos
like now you can get Dolby Atmos in in a
computer in a laptop you can get it in a
$400 Soundbar it's like they've water
down what the atmos experience is and I
understand why they're trying to
commercialize it and bring it out there
so more people get into it but at the
same time I feel like it takes something
away from the magic if if someone's only
exposure to Dolby Atmos is through a
soundbar through bouncy house speakers
the one that flect up to the ceiling
they're not getting the whole picture
they're not really getting the full
immersive effect so the other problem
too with that is as you add more
features to products like avrs the FI
the thousand AVR from 20 years ago had a
much bigger power supply and capability
than a $1,000 AVR today because now
you're paying licens and fees to Dolby
you're paying licensing fees for HDMI
2.1 to get 8K uh switching in there
anytime you add these new features into
a product you're going to have to cut
what matters most for sound quality and
that's the power supply or the
amplification section so that's why I
started this whole truth and power
campaign a few years ago keeping them
accountable for measurements and
amplifiers because they started
measuring amplifiers rather than FTC I'm
trying I'm trying not to get too in the
weeds with your audience I got you in
the 70s the FTC did full bandwidth power
ratings for two channels driven eight
ohms 4 Ohms well if you look at the fine
print on a lot of these cheap avrs today
they measure it at one channel driven at
one kertz at 10% at six ohms so it gives
you the illusion of more power and
there's just so many caveats so you look
at this receiver it says 250 Watts a
channel the reality is it's more like
90 or 100 watts of channel it's about
half of what they're showing and I just
wish manufacturers would be more honest
about that with people so like you go
into the Best Buy and you get one of
these home theater boxes and it says
like 2,000 Watts it's like pmo which is
like some Dynamic BS power rating it's
not even close to that so that's those
are the kind of things that seem like
they've gotten a little bit worse in the
industry since we've added Atmos and
we've added more Channel counts to
products but in general I think products
are getting better especially the
loudspeakers and subwoofers and room
correction okay yeah and I think that's
a that's a valid point because you see
that um it's not just yeah obviously
it's that makes sense in the audio video
space because you're you're trying to
take something and make it new to people
so it's the marketing magic of trying to
get more people in um while things have
changed they haven't changed all that
much and you see the same thing with
cars right like the cars that what made
people excited for cars 20 years ago was
a Driving Experience right it was about
the physicality the connectedness of the
car and now you look at a modern car um
and it's about how isolated is it how
much can we isolate the Driving
Experience out and then what's the
technology that's the primary goal of
like you know our younger buyers want
screens our younger buyers want
infotainment because they are holding
their phone and the first thing to get
them in is oh I feel comfortable because
I see a screen in the car and I'm not
kidding you that's exactly what they the
manufacturers tell us Point plank it's
not made up so it's this switch of how
do you make an old thing new um and
they're constantly trying to recreate
this and um you know as I do more and
more work on the back end talking
Engineers talking to people designers on
the business side all these things have
to come together right if it was all
engineering this car would car or
product would be you know ridiculous and
it wouldn't be accessible to you
wouldn't sell them right that's the same
thing with cars right if if you made a
car
um that was the perfect car from an
engineering driving perspective you have
five people that would buy it you know
and that's the joke um but it's gotten
to it's it's another extreme too where
you're you're selling all this marketing
versus actually having a product that
makes a lot of sense um and I found that
too over getting back into audio video
again and obviously with the help of
your site is you
know what are most people doing most
people are you know listening to basic
two Channel audio mostly compressed most
people are watching stuff through a TV
they don't have like a dedicated AVR let
alone the space for all these speakers
and then what's their streaming Source
or their source to get content they're
not going to be like discreet like
really high quality um multi- Channel
outputs most people have like a generic
app thing on their TV or a Roku and the
audio is limited there what are you
going to do with it so when you talk
about Hi-Fi right like a really good
Channel system I feel like tier Point
that's the most accessible way to do it
um because you at least you have really
good control of two channel and no
matter what you watch or listen to you
can get sound and set it up out of a two
two speakers um obviously with TV and
movies a center and that's going to be a
huge argument I see people arguing about
Center Channel all the time it's like a
blessing and a curse when you hear a
good setup with a center channel when
everything comes out of it because so
much data comes through there it can
make a huge difference in terms of
dialogue NE legibility and all of that
and I I feel like even like a three
Channel setup for TV and movies is
pretty good but when you get into all
the you know like when you start talking
about Atmos and you start talking about
like four subs or three or you you know
however you're going to do it it gets to
the point where how am I going to do
this yeah yeah you're not going to
convince an average person to go set
this up in a space that most people
don't have in modern homes especially
and this is where I've struggled and I'm
I'm not going to talk to death but I'm
going to get back into like how I got
back into this and got reconnected with
audioholics but I I loved audio as a kid
um my Dad loved movies and TV and he
knew nothing about how to set anything
up I was like an eight-year-old plugging
in RCA cables and a mess and setting up
like a preamp and all this crap I had no
idea there was no internet either and I
just I like that part of it but as I got
older and into it I realized where the
hell am I going to set this stuff up I
had an apartment okay now you can't play
it Loud or you know you have to be
careful and what can you do with the
room not much and then you know I'm
looking for a house and every new house
is like a cavern to find a room that is
the proper size in a pre-built home is
almost impossible because of the high
ceilings and everything and then you get
to the point of like what you're saying
is I could get a monor speaker not to
say that there's anything wrong with it
but something that's like $300 then it's
going to sound just as good as like a
$2,000 set of speakers in a a room with
a 20 foot ceiling it's just yeah it's
really hard
sorry sorry that that that was kind of
my point it's really hard to get people
into it the room the room and the
difficulty and setup look we're not at
the point where you can just plop down a
five channel with a subwofer speaker
system and press a magic button and have
it perfectly calibrated we are there are
some systems that do a decent job that
that get you close and some people will
be satisfied with that but there is some
setup and that's why I think it's
important to work with a partner if
you're buying from a retailer that
actually has technical expertise
sometimes it's worth the extra money to
pay the retail price and get customer
support as opposed to shopping for the
for the cheapest you can get it from
someone that doesn't even know the
products they're just basically
reselling it and I think that's why
there should be a connection with the
dealer even if it's an online dealer
there's some great online companies that
are offering service they're offering
expertise on the products and I think
that's what really helps people get
better into it because half of it is
getting the setup you get the good
equipment in there but if it's
improperly set up you're not getting the
results that you were hoping
for yeah in the TV stuff is the same way
as you know like I I I've cursed this
for a long time and I obviously making
videos uh I have a really good ear for
video and audio great I grew up with
this stuff so I'm like okay now I get to
make it or somewhat try to make it and I
have a better appreciation for
everything that goes into it I also have
appreciation for the fact that I could
spend all this time on calibrated
displays like color calibration trying
to get audio calibrated and make making
a mix and a video that looks as accurate
as I can possibly make it to to do what
I want to do and then you know you don't
know what people are watching and I look
at the the analytics for YouTube and
surprisingly our our viewer base is like
almost half they watch on a TV which is
unbelievable so a lot of people do watch
our stuff on TVs um and a lot of people
are clearly more Enthusiast based but
the other half are watching on a
computer or phone screen so you don't
know what color profile they're in they
could be on a color profile it's
completely incompatible it would look
horrible based on how I did it so the
magic of trying to get something set up
only to have the end user with a product
they don't understand and it goes into
you know 100 700 Hertz mode or 7,000 htz
on their TV with you know frame blending
and all this stuff that ruins the
picture and that nobody knows the
difference either like people don't have
a good ear or eye because there's never
been any real standardization because if
standards you wouldn't be able to them
right so it kind of goes to that
question of you know the gimmicky part
of trying to Sol this marketing to make
it look cool like oh I sold a laptop
with Dolby Atmos wow people like okay
it's got Dolby Atmos I don't even know
what the hell that is but it it's a
feature that they can try to sell as a
value ad um and the car market is
egregious with this too it's the same
thing with the market the the type of
nonsense that they're um that trying to
push um yeah like like the paddle
shifters like do we really need paddle
shifters on our steering wheel I mean
they oh
hello yeah sorry can you still hear me
my audio I could hear you I just can't
see you okay well it my uh somebody's
listening to me on the back end and
they're like nope you're not you're not
going to talk about us I'm going to try
to restart my webcam it I think it
crashed okay so I'll I'll get into the
next question um was while you can't see
me I'm just a black
void um your biggest some lessons oh
sorry go ahead oh I was just GNA finish
one point that I because you asked me
about some of the downfalls recently in
home theater and I think one of the
biggest blows to home theater in the
last few months is the fact that the
retailers like Best Buy are not
supporting Blu-ray anymore so if
People's only experience for home
theater is streaming they're really
missing out because there's a huge
difference in sound quality between
streaming whether whether it's an Apple
TV or Roku Disney plus all that stuff
there's always compromises in the audio
quality because it's compressed and the
streaming versions of these movies
either have limited dynamic range
limited base extension or they have a
lot more compression in the high
channels so I would really encourage
anyone that has a home theater to to get
a Blu-ray player at their very minimum
buy their favorite movie if it's an
Atmos or if you have the budget a
Collide Escape is the way to go that's
just the only way you're going to get
reference material now because streaming
just hasn't caught up until we get
lossless audio and until we don't get
different compromised mixes for
streaming you're never gonna get the
full experience that you got in the in
the movie theater watching a movie on
streaming yeah I'd agree with that and
just just I'm gonna ask you can you
still hear me clearly and see me yeah
okay all right cool I I yeah I I would
agree with that the streaming thing it's
it's it is amazing honestly and I know
you know this when you're working all
the time and you're doing stuff the last
thing you're going to be able to do and
this is really hard for me is go to a
theater or sometimes it's just
convenient to be able to stream anything
you want like I want to see it it's
right there and I'm willing to sacrifice
some of the quality to see it right then
and there but it it it does take away
some of the magic namely um I think when
you look at HDR or not HDR but uh UHD
discs which I know nobody uses like like
it's probably got to be like a 1% of the
market share but I my dad collects all
these movies and he has like all these
movies he doesn't even open he's just a
collector of movies and he loves them
and I now that I've gotten older I never
really understood it as much as I like
it I'm like why do you have all this
stuff that you've never opened and he's
like I you know I collection yeah it's a
collection and now that I'm older I'm
like I want all of it you know I'm not
you I'm not going to go in and just loot
his house but you know I mean like when
when he's gone in a hundred years uh cuz
he's going to live forever I you know I
would like to take and make a room just
for physical that physical media um and
I think when you go and as you know you
you take a UHD disc and you compare it
to the streaming like the same thing
even in a 4K stream it's it's not even
close um in terms of picture quality but
you know if you get used to it right
like you can still enjoy it and I think
that's the balance of it you don't need
a you don't need a $300,000 sports car
to enjoy the Driving Experience right so
that's the same thing goes with audio
and video um and I will go into the next
question I've haded up here what do you
think your your biggest mistakes and
lessons are that you've learned in the
the Decades of doing this now I made a
lot of mistakes running a website
without a marketing degree or anything
like that I would say um the biggest one
was in the early 2000s I tried to Brand
a store with audioholics and I was I
guess I was ahead of the uh I was ahead
of its time because now everybody does
affiliate right so I try to I try to
bring a partner in and run an online
store that was independent from audio
Hawks but they would use my name and it
would sell brands with click to buy on
the reviews and people did not like that
our readers didn't like it we pissed off
our advertisers if they weren't included
in the store and it just it created a
mess for a couple of years and then that
company wouldn't let go of my name
afterwards when I dissolved the
partnership and that was a mess in its
own um I'm glad that that chapter is
over but then all of the sudden in the
last few years you can't survive without
affiliate all the YouTube channels are
monetized they're all run with Channel
Partners everybody's monetizing their
websites you know it's not just banners
anymore the man the advertisers don't
really want the banners they don't see
the value in branding anymore they want
click to buy they want links embedded in
the YouTube videos and it's there's
pressure there because now you have to
perform you have to get enough views in
order for those clicks to work based on
the numbers game so that's kind of
changed the game a little bit and I and
the other thing I see is um other
mistakes I've made is I just didn't
Focus sometimes on I worri too much
about where the next Revenue stream was
going to come in and not just have faith
that the content itself would win you
know and just those kind of challenges I
I would always think like during covid I
was like oh man my business is ruined I
lost 60% of my advertising because
everybody pulled out I was like how am I
going to recover
and then sure enough I had no idea
there'd be a Resurgence in home theater
because people weren't going to the
theaters right they were building home
theaters in their houses so postco was
the best few years we've
had I just couldn't that's amazing do
you think people have a better
appreciation for it now uh 100% yeah
100% every I mean I talk to friends of
mine that are installers and their
business is all boomed after Co because
of that people are putting dedicated
listening spaces look what happened
after Co the movies went direct to
stream right HBO Max had all the new
movies I was loving that I was like man
I hope this doesn't end of course it
ended because people going back to the
theater but for a while that was like
just a cool feature to get a brand new
release literally when it was coming out
on
stream and that's something we've talked
about forever you know that's always
been teased the services that were going
to allow you a direct to home the
theatrical release and I forgot what
company was it was like a $220,000 box
or subscription that you could do that a
long time ago and I remember going with
my dad back in the divix or something
yeah I think it I think it was that yeah
I remember going to CS or some of the
electronic shows when I was a kid and my
dad I remember walking with him I was
probably six years old and we were in
Chicago and um we went to all these like
you know the the uh what do you call it
the um Hotel setups for all the
listening rooms they did in Chicago and
yeah I remember listening to like a set
of theal speakers and some of these
other ones and we're walking home and my
dad's like one day you're going to have
HDTV in your generation one day you're
going to have this stuff and you're
going to see movies at home without
having to go to the theater and it's
funny how it's still you know some of
these prophecies have not been fulfilled
and it makes sense right it's a big
business you're not going to you can't
have one streaming service with every uh
brand on it so so you're now it's worse
than cable was you have to have 75 live
streaming services to get you know where
is that one movie on more money than
yeah it's more I I'm subscribed to like
all the streaming services and when I
look at my monthly bill I'm like this is
way more money than I paid for
cable and like half of them are not even
good like yeah you still get commercials
you still get commercials on some of
them like Hulu you got to spend almost
20 a month if you don't want the
commercials I love American Dad but do I
want to spend 20 a month because I don't
want
commercials yeah yeah exactly yep and
yeah I know saw Amazon is now doing ads
I mean it makes sense right these
companies if they can't get enough
content they need to to get the money to
keep the the business rolling um so I
don't know it's a slippery slope I I
think we're reaching a point of
saturation now with streaming so it'll
be interesting to see what happens with
that like as these Services Fall by the
way side um when there's too much
because people can't afford to be
spending $40 or like the prices keep
going going up 20 40 50 or like Hulu
like $80 with DVR it's it's crazy it is
yeah but don't you think it changed the
way it it changed the way we we digest
content now in in my opinion and I don't
want to get too far off topic movie
quality has suffered over the last few
years I think everything is recycled
plots gender swapping and I everything
seems to be the good stories are going
to stream but then they hook you because
you have to watch serialized content so
you you start on a show and you got to
watch all the seasons to see how it
concludes you can't just jump from one
episode to the other so I just think the
way we've
consumed our media has changed since
covid
particularly yeah it's gone down quite a
bit and I'm not saying that because I'm
you know middle-aged white guy that
everybody says shouldn't have an opinion
anymore um yeah in media space right
especially when it comes to um movies
and film right like the the concept of
if I say something bad about a movie
well that's not for you right I I mean I
get that I'm I think more there is so
much creativity and there's so much
talent out there um but I really do
think it comes down to what makes money
right like the studios don't want to
dump a hundred million doar on a movie
if it's not going to make triple that
back so yeah they're trying to say with
safe topics um that said there is an
unbelievable amount of great like TV I
mean more so than ever um you look at
like the last of us which you know is
you know I mean like literally took a
video game which was a good story to
begin with to be fair but they
translated it perfectly into a story you
care about like and it wasn't it was
just different there's a lot of shows
like that and we could go on and on and
talk about TV and movies but I feel like
it's gotten better but I think the mass
commercial stuff has gotten worse um and
but that to be fair that's also like the
the burnout effect of uh the superhero
stuff I mean it's been played out for
years anyway yeah no I want I want
movies like I want movies like the Sha
Shank Redemption again we're just not
getting movies to that level anymore now
every everybody has to fly and it's all
action and it's just not deep character
development yeah and I think there's a
lot there's a lot more competing for
your eyes and ears now too um you know
like I I talked about I talk about this
a lot with media space because you have
to go back 50 years and there was like
three five channels right five TV
channels and your media was really
Consolidated your messaging was really
Consolidated or you know you'd pick up a
newspaper like oh okay I have three
choices for a newspaper in my town and
that's where you consumed everything now
you're inundated with so much like from
all these spaces and streaming services
and online sites and uh it's going to
get worse I think generationally with
the the concept of quick you know like
the Tik Tok style um just just constant
scrolling stuff I think the attention
span is also going to deplete I don't
know how long form is going to do with
that generational shift will they'll
will the younger generation get more
calmed down and want to watch longer
stuff what's your feeling on that well
my scary here's what scares me is the
reason why I got on YouTube is I saw the
decline of people reading
online and wanting to digest content on
YouTube so back in our Heyday we had our
our editorial site had twice the traffic
that it has today and it still does well
but it had twice the traffic all that
shifted over to YouTube so our YouTube
channel has about the same traffic now
as our editorial site which is crazy but
it's the trend is getting worse now
people are going like you said to Tik
Tok and the attention spans are getting
shorter and shorter and they just don't
want to read like they used to and I'm
guilty of it myself when I go online and
I want to find out about a new car or
whatever I don't go and read the article
I go right to YouTube and look up
channels like yours or throttle housee
and it's just more entertaining right
you want to watch it from your TV so I
think there needs to be a balance of
that and but I'm just not seeing it like
I look at my kids and they're not
reading the content they're on Tik Tok
and they're on YouTube and that's how
they're digesting the information so I
don't really know what the answer is to
that other than supplementary so when I
do a video on audioholics I do put the
editorial in more detail if people want
to read it but I always promote my
YouTube channel back to my website to
try to keep that thing going I I think
there's certain topics that lend well to
written format and supplemental like to
your point audio video stuff it's it's
really hard you're you're never going to
be able to show somebody what a speaker
sounds like right it's impossible I mean
you can show the speaker and take it
apart and like here's the engineering
that goes in it which would serve well
from a video format but frankly I don't
want to watch a 20-minute review to see
a bunch of graphs right it would make
more sense have it written out and your
what scares me about YouTube as well is
there's people on YouTube with binaural
microphones letting you listen to the
speaker through your Beats headphones or
your little desktop speakers thinking
you're getting the same experience and
it's such a disservice it's so dishonest
intellectually it's entertaining but
it's a it's just bad form you cannot do
a listening test through YouTube and
hear a speaker at someone else's house
and get the same
exp it's funny but people take it
seriously I I get people arguing with me
like you talk 20 minutes about that
speaker you never shut up and you never
you never let us hear the speaker I'm
like am I going to sit here and let you
hear a $20,000 pair of peristent
speakers on your earbuds and think
you're going to get that experience
you're going to hear what I'm hearing
and you think the microphones are going
to accurately represent the acoustic
space and what's going on with the
speaker versus what's going on with the
Acoustics and transfer it back to your
speakers it just it doesn't
happen so it's hard to play in a space
like that um and to kind of reconnect
the car world and the product Tech world
and the speaker world right it's really
hard to explain some of these
complicated topics without talking down
to people right I think that's that's
the other thing that we Face we get a
lot of this like oh you guys are
pretentious you know and it it's hard to
help people learn while not talking over
them and making them feel dumb right
because that's what happens with this
stuff and I like I listen to your stuff
I don't ever feel stupid l to it but I'm
like I have no idea what the hell you're
talking about and you know it takes a
lot of work to like get caught up with
that but at the same time you know like
you have to have a middle ground of
trying to help people understand what
you're saying without going over their
head but also not dumbing it down and
watering down the content to the point
of like I don't want to make Tik Tok
videos where I have 30 seconds to show a
dashboard steering wheel a tire and a
wheel and look how cool it is um I don't
care about that and I I I know there's
that game of trying to do that um namely
in the audio space too like look how
cool it is you've dealt with that
forever like look at the Finish or look
at the specs look how much wattage or
whatever um I think there's a place that
you exist and I know you said this and
it hit me when you first said it is
you're you've maxed out what you can do
with the audio video realm of your
business like there's nothing left
you've achieved what you went out to do
so how do you how is that how's that
changed for you knowing that um
personally has it evaporated your joy in
it like what what do you how do you deal
with it dayto day so there was a period
a few years ago where I was just burned
out like I there was I would go to trade
shows I'm like I've already heard it all
I'm not interested in this and like I've
Seen It All I've had so many products in
my house but then I self-reflected and I
realized personally I was having some
struggles of my own like I was dealing
with some depression and I just wasn't
getting excited about things
so then I after I treated that and I
went through my own personal Journey it
kind of re um ignited my passion for
audio and then I got more people
involved that's that's the thing is
getting getting more people involved in
what you do I hired new writers people
that have fresh perspectives you know
getting on YouTube and getting the
reaction out of people and then go into
to trade shows and when people recognize
you and they you know they're
appreciative of your efforts it kind of
gave me like a new appreciation and that
I'm so privileged and honored to have
that I'm able to reach so many people on
these platforms and and help people make
better purchasing decisions kind of like
what you're doing as well that it's kind
of I'm excited about it now I look
forward like I saw at CES they had those
translucent TVs from LG I mean that's
like that's Tony Stark level stuff you
know that stuff that we saw in Avengers
10 years ago that are now coming to
fruition or the fact that we now have
the ability to do multi manage sub room
correction that I was dreaming about 20
years ago that I had to do manually so
there the fact that there's progress
gives me hope and I see that um younger
Generations are getting more into audio
in terms of even if they're listening
with earbuds they are paying attention
to listening and the fact that Apple
music puts so much effort into spatial
audio I never thought we'd see the day
where we would be streaming surround
sound music
that's you know sit back and think about
that 10 years ago that was an an
impossibility you could not do that you
had to go and buy physical disc to do
that so the fact that a major company
like apple is investing in spatial audio
gives me hope that there's future for
this and that there's we just got to
reach the younger generation because
when us old farts die out well me I'm
talking about you're you're younger than
me but when when I die out my
generation has to pass that passion on
to the Next
Generation yeah I think that's those
people yeah I I think it is really super
important and it's one of the things
that's uh drives me more now um I I and
I mentioned this before and I'm it's
just because I've been working on it
with the snsx thing and um I I'm sitting
here thinking to myself how much work
I'm doing like trying to trying to get
this video done and like all the things
that go into it and part of it after a
while is a car is a car but you know
after a while this knowledge goes away
and this is what I told the engineers
like they're all you know and there some
of 60s and 70s right they're they're
been retired and I told
them you know once you're gone and this
knowledge is not shared it's not
relearned you know the the past lessons
are gone so what is it that you know for
me I didn't create these things to like
to your point like I've spent my entire
life supporting product or fixing things
that are wrong with things that are
people creating or trying to make them
better for the people that are creating
them so a lot of my job is to try to
share some of these stories and some of
the knowledge that has gone into them so
people have a better appreciation of
that and that's what gets me excited and
it's more rare let's be real because
most of the products are just out
you know they really are they're just
quick let's get them out we need to sell
a lot in high volume but there are
products out there that really get you
excited and you want people to learn and
understand and there's so much fun to be
had with that and if I can pass along
even other people's work um that's
really that's the best thing I can do at
this point with what I'm trying to do um
and H have you I know you talked to a
lot of people you talked to a lot of
Engineers that do audio and video
um how is it is it mostly just the
people that are working in these smaller
companies that you have access to how do
you view the small versus the big
commodity Brands no that's what that's
what another thing that really blows me
away is is even though our Channel's not
as nearly as big as yours we are watched
by people I don't realize are watching
us I I had an interview with a guy that
did the uh Atmos mixing for the Star
Wars movies he was a fan of my channel I
had no idea we gave him some
consultation because he's making a
mixing studio in his house and he's
going to be producing content on it so
that kind of stuff is amazing I had most
recently last summer I had uh Yamaha
reach out to me and their lead designer
in Japan for their Hi-Fi division one
wanted to come out visit me showcase his
new products sit down with me listen to
music and we spent two days together and
this dude was awesome I mean this is the
guy that's designing the very best audio
equipment that Yamaha makes hanging out
with me drinking saki listening to blues
music I mean I just this is why I do
what I do you know I the fact that I'm
able to have these kind of relationships
and and influence these companies
because they listen to what I say when I
find an anomaly and their product they
go and make changes so it's not just the
small companies which I do work with as
well but the large companies pay
attention I mean large companies like uh
Mor morance and Denon have made major
changes to their products because of my
testing and loudspeakers too we have a
guy that does all of our loudspeakers
James Larsson he's incredibly
resourceful he takes the speakers
outside to do accurate measurements when
he does this stuff the manufacturers
watch it and if there's problems they
try to make improvements to the products
the good companies do that yeah you know
and that's so that's that's just an
awesome thing and and I just have to
tell you the fact that you keep talking
about this NSX project the fact that you
sit in that car and drive it that's like
a dream of mine I would love to drive
that car that's a beautiful car that
must be
awesome yeah it's um I think a lot of
these like NSX specifically uh Jack and
I started doing a video on it like a
year ago and like oh I I wanted do it
like a documentary style thing and then
we interviewed people
that spent their business supporting
this car most of their adult life like
literally servicing and supporting and
and supporting the owner community and
I'm like I cannot tell a story about
this car without getting the Japanese
involved because this is what we do as
in As Americans or in the United States
we we we get these products and we spin
our own stories on them and we make it
like it's our own and we don't get to
hear from the people that actually
worked on them and knew I'm like okay
how old are these guys when can I get
you know can I get a hold of them you
know like and I made the mistake open
opening up that door and um I was not
prepared for the door that I opened uh
however it's probably the this is like
most things with life right like the
hardest things you do the most difficult
things you do whether you enjoy them or
not the Silver Lining is usually you
learn a lot from it and oh yeah and I
know you know this going through
difficulties and running a business
you you learn from mistakes or even not
mistakes you just learn by having to do
more than you normally would have done
um and you learn what you did good and
what you can do better next time and
what you would never do again but I
really love um it to me it's Way Beyond
the car at this point Way Beyond the
driving the car and all that and it's
more about how these things come about
like the stories behind the people and
how they were and this was their life
you know literally some of these dudes
that made this this specific car and it
could be any car to be honest some of
these big cars they've dedicated almost
their entire adult life this was their
one achievement that they had in their
generation and their life that's the
biggest thing that they did and a lot of
the Japanese especially tie a lot of
their identity to that thing that they
did over anything else and I find
that sad but I also find it very
fascinating and compelling that somebody
put this much energy into something and
I have a lot of respect for for that
because we're so spread out right like I
know you and I we're in a million
different directions but if I had to
dedicate to one thing and that one thing
was this car that you know people are
still talking about it's like the
closest thing you can come to like an
art piece or something that hopefully
will live on long after you're gone so
it's it's cool um there's not too many
products you can talk about that you can
pass that stuff on and I'm sure on the
audio video space you know there's some
historic pieces of equipment uh that
people think about and talk about but
it's probably less than some of these
historic cars I would would think do is
that I mean there's classic there's
classic designs there's gold standards
of what audio files consider to be
products that are Timeless right like
JBL has the L100 which when it came out
back in the day wasn't a very good
speaker but it was kind of the gold
standard and JBL actually brought that
speaker back with modern engineering and
it's a much better speaker now with
updated driver Tech and a wave guide but
yeah I mean there there is some of that
there's the funny thing is some of this
audio Nostalgia is what really drives uh
the appreciation for that like old
Macintosh gear Old Macintosh gear sells
for more now than it was sold for when
you bought it in the
70s and so it's I mean it's beautiful
stuff with the blue uh front glass and
the Vu
meters yeah but on a bench some of the
stuff isn't that great it's certainly
not worth the amount of money that
they're asking for it's almost like a P
of jewelry at that point you know but
that's that's how it is the the
perception it's not always it's not
always about the measurements it's not
always about the performance it's about
the perception and how you connect to
the product that really matters and you
could connect with something like a
Macintosh product over like a den
receiver you know Den or so Mass Market
product you don't get that kind of
emotional connection and that that's a
big part of of your experience with
audio and video is the emotional
connection to seeing the product in the
room and um
I don't think uh some of the
manufacturers that that really push the
blind listening test to remove the bias
they don't always factor in the fact
that you have to live with the product
in a room and if you have something that
sounds good in a room but also looks
good that changes your whole perception
of how you experience it and I'm
imagining the same thing with cars I
look at some of the cars today and I
look at like what BMW did with that
Beaver grill that kills me that I just
won't I won't trade my m240 for a car
that has that big grill on the front and
I don't know why they're doing it but
that's everybody's doing that Lexus did
that with the is I had the is- 350 which
in Black looked okay but those grills
keep getting bigger and and it's a
design choice I guess that the industry
kind of stuck with but it created a very
polarized result right I think there's a
lot of BMW enthusiasts that prefer the
older designs over the new designs for
that
reason yeah it's an interesting
discussion with the car stuff and the
car design um because cars are weird in
the fact that they have multi people
have them for multiple reasons right
they can be a vanity piece they can be a
flex they can be you know a status piece
they can be an A2B machine that's like a
toaster you know uh some people are
enthusiasts they just love the car they
don't care how it looks um so there's so
many reasons why people buy cars but
yeah I I think what struck me is there's
and when we did our we did this video
with elcid air Sapphire and the
engineers and the guys that we talked to
and girls they were they had some
interesting things to say and one of the
the brand managers he's like you know
we've gone through this evolution of
additive design big grills uh add-on
pieces for the sake of it nonfunctional
pieces and now you're starting to see
that reverse itself so it's again it
rolls in Trends right like you talked
about the jbls like they're re releasing
a a Heritage or Legacy speaker and
improving it so there's these trends
that we go on um and I think the BMW
thing
is interesting because you know all the
BMWs for a long time look the same like
that generation like after you know they
were all the same and what is every
other brand do they copy that formula so
BMWs and I remember doing one of the
first couple BMW videos like the problem
with BMW is everybody else has done what
they've done so it's been copied out to
the point where they no longer feels and
looks special so I think they picked up
and I'm not saying has anything to do
with you know that mentality but I think
they picked up on it and they're just
like we're no longer going to be copied
we need to throw all that out and just
be seen so you look at the XM that SUV I
don't know if you know what that is it's
like uh no it's it's the V8 one
basically it's like an X7
size uh
hideous um I'm
gonna put this up here just for a
second anyway it's it's an SUV
um that is just disgusting and it kind
of sums up what this is happened to this
brand um I I I'm assuming you can see my
screen
hopefully yeah okay so it it just takes
what you hate oh gosh yeah please and
and turns it into like amplifies it
right and somebody so much bling so much
bling that's not needed for the brand in
my opinion yeah oh here's here's a
perfect example right like somebody had
to make an active
decision
um somebody had to make that active
decision that it was like a big middle
finger right like we're going to be seen
I have the money and I want to be
different and in some cases I don't
think it's working but in other cases I
think it will help and I think it's
going to help other companies stand step
aside or you know separate themselves
you know obviously it's not for you or I
clearly I don't like that but some
people do it's weird well that's what
kills me about like the m240 I have the
2018 and the new version is is a lot
faster because mostly because it has
all-wheel drive right but I don't like
the design cues it like it doesn't blend
like the rear tail lights look like the
sloth from Ice Age and yeah yep it it's
just gawky and it's too the car's bigger
yet there's less space in the back seat
so I'm confused what is it trying to be
is it a sports car is it a
Dan I I don't know I didn't I never
drove it I never compared it to my 240
but my 240 and maybe I'm buyas because I
own it but it's kind of a Timeless car
it's like when the one series came out
it was too small it didn't look right
but the two series had the right
proportions and if you get the M2 which
I couldn't afford at the time the M2 is
gorgeous because it has it's wider it's
like almost like an M4 but it has the it
also has the older engine it doesn't
have the b-58 or at least the old M2
didn't
yeah and that that becomes the problem
you know you get the the newer car with
the better techn well in some cases
better technology better performance and
then you know you get saddled with the
the horrific modern styling of or you
know again the trendy styling of what
what is required from the the current
generation I I know you said you like
the Macintosh connection and I just
thought to myself I'm like I know the
exact thing for you uh as a Macintosh
fan uh get the new Jeep Wagoner with the
Macintosh audio system in there it's a
game changer for sure I saw that at one
of the trade shows yeah I saw that big
plate on the big face plate on the front
yeah yeah the digital face plate yeah we
uh when we tested that I think it was
probably one of the worst audio systems
we had ever
tested the Bas base curve was like I
can't draw it but it was like here and
then it comes down you know I mean it
was I I don't know what they did I have
no idea why they did it somebody made a
clear decision to do it it wouldn't have
slipped through but yeah it was
horrendous um McIntosh is an interesting
company because they have an amazing
Heritage you know they're an American
company they've been around
forever and I this is my personal
opinion I thought they made some good
speakers back in the day in the 70s and
80s they they had a guy Roger Russell
that was largely involved and he did
some great stuff but I feel like in the
modern years when they came out with
these large line of Ray they just they
got a good deal on these two-inch
drivers that were probably desktop p uh
PC speakers and they just put 20 or 30
of them in his big array with big
woofers behind them and every time I
listened to him when it was at a trade
show even in an acoustically control
room there was just no sense of cohesion
to the sound it was just like a wall of
sound and then they just bragged about
how much power was behind it with all
their big amplifiers and I don't know if
it's because they're appealing to the
older audio file older than me and as
you get older obviously your hearing
declines and they're just trying to make
a speaker that's big and bold for them
but I feel like a company like them with
all their resources and all their
Heritage they could be doing
loudspeakers much better than they're
doing them yeah yeah I think that that's
a good point I I think the expectation
level goes up when you have the level of
expertise and Heritage in a brand um
it's a blessing and a curse right
because the expectation goes up like hey
you're one of the best at this you
should be able to do it right and I
don't know that that's really if you
don't have the right people to do it and
some of the right leadership of deciding
what you're going to do or have a Clear
Vision in terms of products like that
sometimes it just it's better off not
doing it if you're not going to really
do it right sometimes um but well
there's been companies there's been
subwoofer companies that try to make
loudspeakers valadin Tred to make
loudspeakers they were
atrocious JL Audio tried to make
loudspeakers for the home and it didn't
work out but JL Audio makes great
subwoofers and they make great
subwoofers for home as well they're just
they're pricey but they sound great they
really are good but I just don't see
them at least in the near future is
becoming a real competitor for making
home loudspeakers full range
loudspeakers and what's the incentive
too I mean I I this is what I was going
to ask you too there's like this level
of saturation and when I was looking to
do speakers in my room which I'm going
to get into with you in just here in a
minute because I I know how much how
much time do you have left just so I can
manage expectations here uh you know
another 10 or I mean is there a good
stream going I don't even know how many
people I let me let me take a look cuz
I've honestly been I don't want to be
boring yeah and I I know like that it's
the tricky part of this um answering the
questions yeah let me go through here
because there is there is quite a bit I
don't know how many are actually
questions
versus I can't even go all the way up
here all right um there are it looks
like there
are one two three four five five Super
chats which which is is good because
sometimes we get insane amount where
you're sitting here for three days
um but there there seems to be a lot of
questions to go through so I will yeah
if you want to go through a couple of
those if any if any of them have pertain
the audio I'd be happy to try to help
out with that okay I'd say maybe another
10 or 15 minutes is good okay yeah let's
start hitting some of the questions
let's start with the the ones that
people you know paid for thank you
everybody obviously
um one guy Tails said come on guys show
some support thank you uh
Brandon he's like what are your thoughts
on the Tesla audio systems uh keep up
the great
content uh Jean have you heard any of
them my brother has the model y he
swears it's a great audio system um I
have not sat and listen to it so I can't
intelligently comment but I do know they
put a lot of effort into their audio
system I know it's proprietary uh it's
not a Harmon system as far as I know
it's Tesla's own and yeah I can't really
give you any comments on
it um I've only heard three of them uh
and I know that they just announced and
I'm not sure I don't don't quote me on
this but I think they just said they're
cutting costs on the model 3 audio
system they're actually cutting taking
money out of it I don't know what that
means if I even heard it right it might
be model y one of the two and it'll
probably happen to both of them to save
money um the the three cars that I heard
had a problem with Reflections
reflectivity when you have a glass roof
there's only so much you can do to
control those Reflections I don't care
what you do and that that's the problem
even on phone calls there is you hear
the Decay time of even talking is like
it's scattering all over and I think
that was my big problem with the audio
systems is I think that they're well
engineered for what they are but to my
to my ear um they they just have a
problem with the interior space that
that's just it it's too too too much
Reflections too many hard surfaces it's
a very reflective cabin and that's
that's what I would leave it at Brandon
now the model S I have not driven so I I
don't know about the model S interior
and and that brings me back one question
to you is I'm not a big fan of the trend
in the industry where you have these
giant glass roofs now like why do I have
to have that in every car and I live in
Florida and you even with the little
Shield that comes on you still get
blasted with the sun you still feel the
heat it doesn't as
well uh it's a a massive wow factor
right like the Lucid air that we did um
the sapphire did not have it wasn't even
an option it was a glass roof but the
regular car that we drove I I was
filming it I was like laying down in the
back seat with a camera trying to show
the scope of this piece of glass and I'm
like this sucks it's not that it doesn't
look cool I mean the visibility the
openness that you get is the same
openness you walk into a house with like
a 20ft ceiling right it's the same con
want tooc in car and gives this but of
if you like audio or trying to quieter
cabin from an engineering point it's
what a nightmare so you lean on all the
noise cancellation quiet it down playing
through the speakers to try to get
rid of some of that noise and you're
trying to have to over insulate other
parts it's a nightmare it looks cool but
that's about it um and I could go on
more but I won't
um Raider blue you mentioned W's
upgraded audio systems are sometimes
worse than the base audio system can you
explain that seems
counterintuitive uh so the the two
recently um that we that we did um one
was I'm pretty sure it was an F-150 and
the I want to say the bronos sport one
of the two that had I'd have to go back
because we've tested so many cars but
the two the F-150 that had the upgraded
bang and ol and the bno play and I think
it was like a $2,000 option um the
amount of money they spent on the
speakers was roughly the same that they
did on the base audio system and the
calibration of however they did the
eqing in the car was horrible uh like
transition from the sub was all messed
up like you you'd have this massive base
swing and like a a 30 DB drop on the
crossover so you have high base and then
you lose all the mid-range and then it's
like this the the frequency responses
like all over the place and it just
sounds it sounds horrible like it does
forget the graphs for a minute yeah it
just sounds like a tin can in there
everything's thin it's all base you
can't dial it out there's no way to dial
it out um it was something that was
thrown in there for the the least amount
of money possible and whoever had to try
to fix it in terms of tuning just
couldn't do it there was no way to do it
and some of those systems and I think
we've called them out we've definitely
called them out in the videos uh about
that you don't spend the money on it
it's really a waste you're not getting
anything other than having the bno name
on it um and they're one of the few
Brands and Chevy's done that before too
but Ford definitely is egregious into
that point and I know they're trying to
fix it I know internally they're trying
to fix it but it hasn't happened yet
yeah and I heard the systems in the
Honda Accord and the Honda um the CRV
and they're really bad in my opinion I
don't know if you listen to them they
got worse Honda used to have decent
audio systems back in the day I don't
know why they cut so much well we know
they cut budget out of it obviously yeah
I think they were Alpine the upper end
were Alpine but they weren't branded
Alpine yeah yeah um yeah they they were
decent it's changed a lot like yeah
whenever you test I think the the new
Bose systems now they're moving over to
bows of course uh bows and then Harmon
stuff on the Acura side but the Bose
stuff surprisingly has gotten better so
like if you listen to the new Accord and
the new Civic and the pilot is average
because it's such a big cabin on the
inside it's such a big space they have
improved over the previous generation so
they're but again that's trying to
compete with the other brands what
they're doing and then you know as you
consolidate down your basically same
Engineers working on the cars so
everything's going to sound the
same um Bose get Bose gets a bad
reputation in home audio uh because
that's really that's not their bread and
butter their bread and butter is you
know the headphones and car audio and
I've heard some really good bow systems
in cars my friend had a C7 Corvette I
thought that system sounded pretty darn
good for what it was yeah surprisingly
JM does a good job in the Corvette Jack
has uh my my uh coworker he's got a C8
um and the audio system is is good for
what it is given the constraints they
have in the car so there's ways to do it
they just have to make it a priority
obviously um Mike said I haven't been
able to catch one of these live streams
in a while keep up the great work um
thanks Mike and we're doing another live
stream Just Jack and I next week so get
ready for a 4our power
session you take bathroom breaks when
you go for four hours I could I could
never last yeah I do because I'm like 90
years old Jack doesn't have you know his
prostates not 50 pounds yet that's me
right
there reach you reach the the the uh
high powered age of 40 and 50 it starts
to become an issue yes um we have uh
Stephen more Savage geese forever thank
you appreciate it thanks for thanks for
coming on uh the Biff just thanks for
the conversation thank you so much for
just coming on listen to us ramble about
stuff um thanks for your focus on
quality and honesty uh I should probably
be studying right now thank you and the
satire we're very sarcastic Jean to a
fault I have to dial it back for my own
self-preservation uh what do we got here
next one uh Matthew thanks Jean for
coming on would love another one of the
these favorite source for good quality
audio now CD digital HD tracks other so
I'm going to say yes on that I like all
good sources of audio I I still spin
records people will make fun of it
there's certain music like 70s 80s
Fusion Jazz that just TR did not
transfer as well digitally as it is on
analog so i' like to just spin a record
sometimes I listen to Apple music
lossless title Amazon HD I still love SA
I know I'm I'm a dinosaur but I probably
have two or 300ds and and sometimes I
just want to sit in my theater room and
put on an sacd Patricia Barber or even
some of the genus's re-releases and I
love listening to that I have some DVD
audio I love the fact that there's
Blu-rays now like one of my favorite
artists Stephen Wilson has I introduced
him to Dolby Atmos he didn't even know
what Dolby Atmos was when he came out
with his album in
2011 now he's mixing all of this stuff
in Atmos and you could buy it on Blu-ray
and I love that because there's artwork
supporting with the music so that's a
great experience if you could get music
in Blu-ray format that's my favorite I
have to say that's my favorite what uh
just to piggyback off this um what
service do you use to listen to your
music streaming service or what what's
your most common way to playback music
if you're listening to it so I have
tidle and apple music and I favor Apple
because I think they did a better job
implementing spatial audio I think
there's too much level difference in
title still going from like you'll
you'll be on an Atmos track and then
it'll go to two channel and the and the
level will jump up 15 DB and scare the
out of you I think Apple's a little
bit more put together when it comes to
that and apple has a better selection of
spatial audio but they're both good
formats stream formats uh do you have
like two or three top tracks that you
listen to like every single set of
speakers that you do like your favorite
three tracks to test something on that
somebody would want to like listen to so
there's this there's this artist called
Maran Hill and there's a song called
differently and that'll determine if
your speakers have good bass or not and
it's just good dynamist good transients
uh Dominic Fe she's a friend of our
Channel she's a Canadian singer French
Canadian singer the track called Birds
it's just beautiful sound for two
channel um you get to hear the clarity
of her vocals you get to hear uh just
decorrelated information so you could
see if you set up a nice wide Sound
Stage those are kind of two tracks I
listen to a lot um I know I just kind of
vary I'm a jazz person so I'll put on
some Pat methen um when he's in like a
three or four piece band because I just
want to know the purity of of how his
guitar
sounds and you know stuff like that some
some of the stuff I listened to is a
little obscure that most people probably
wouldn't like but my my music tastes
vary yeah it makes sense especially
doing what you're doing and you like
you're testing speakers like you have to
have a wide variety content to go
through I mean I'll throw on Drake I'll
tell you what throw on Drake fair trade
that song has infrasonic base if you
have a good subwoofer that I didn't even
know existed in my car when I listen to
it in the car you don't hear it when I
listen to my home theater I'm like holy
cow there's a lot of lowend Base in that
song I just didn't know that existed and
it's actually mixed pretty well like
below 30 or below 20 defin I would I
didn't measure it but I'm saying i'
probably say below 20 there's some stuff
going on track yeah okay interesting
yeah yeah that's cool because everybody
always asks that I know I'm sure you I
could look it up on your website but
that's too much work you know so I'll
just have you tell people here London
Grammar London grammar is another one
London Grammar m is incredibly well uh
produced music and good demo
material makes sense uh Bob Wilson asked
if Macintosh equals VW Conrad Johnson
Volvo Cambridge equals Chevrolet bno BMW
which audio brand is stellantis dumb
question I know man that seems like math
is involved in this one yeah I know I I
I know what you're getting at I'm I'm
trying to think stantis definitely would
be probably
something Jean what would be the most
commodity speaker that is very very base
heavy and very very elevated in the
highs
let me think about that for a minute
like basically just have just like a V
curve just a lot of base and a lot of
travel
yeah
uh it you know there are brands that do
that that that don't follow that
philosophy through their entire line
there's there was a paradigm speaker a
few years back um they don't make it
anymore but it was a v curve it was all
base and travel but then you get the
premiere series now and it's completely
neutral speaker so Clips is probably the
biggest example of the V curve most of
their products are just boom and Sizzle
there's a there are a few exceptions
there's some good products that they
make but a lot of their products are
just lots of Base High sensitivity we've
yeah back in 2010 we did a blind
listening test and we even had the clips
representative come out to see if he
could pick his favorite speaker and he
knew every time the clips came on even
though we level matched it he picked it
every time he knew it yeah so you can't
connect yeah it was so obvious how
colored the sound was in that speaker
and of course he was going to pick that
as his preferred speaker because he sold
it but I couldn't fool him with the
blind test because he was already
familiar with the sound of the speaker
that's unbelievable I mean it makes
sense I guess if you spend your life
listening to One product like or
spending a majority your like right now
you you'd probably be able to pick it
out too I'd be curious to see if you
tune a room if you could tune like five
rooms and you had like a preset set to
compared to your the other people you
work with if you could tell your sound
signature over the other people that set
up rooms like if you did BL you know
room to room you could pick up on it
there's no doubt I mean um we all we all
calibrate the taste at the end of the
day I mean you want to get flat you want
to remove the resonances in the room you
want to have your base linear but you
still have subjective listening
preferences look I set my room curve
where my Bas at 20 htz is you know 5db
above where it is at 100 Hertz there's
people I have reviewers that like it 10
DB or 15 DB higher so sometimes people
come in my room they're like wow your
Basse is amazing and then other times
like I need more base and I notice a lot
of people that think that they need more
bass are the ones that are really into
car audio that have the Dual 18s in the
back of the trunk and they're already
probably have hearing damage because
they're listening at 120 DB eight hours
a day while they're driving so it really
depends on your hearing Acuity you know
your listening preference but yeah I
absolutely say that everybody Tunes
their systems differently and if we did
that if I had different reviewers coming
in tune my system you would you would
hear a difference for sure we all have
you know various
preferences yeah I watched one of your
recent uh I don't know if it's not
technical live yeah I guess it would
have been a live stream um and I'm sorry
I don't know all the the remember all
the names of the people you have but I
know uh Anthony gani was on there which
I went back and watched a lot of his
like seminar stuff on room Acoustics and
room treatments but it was interesting
to see like the the difference and the
mentality of the people that you had on
like the one guy was like I just want
bass right like I don't I getting rid of
it is not negotiable I need Bas I need a
base curve and you know then there was
the more conservative approach well you
know it needs to be a little bit you
know more level than that and everybody
has a different taste and it's much like
ours too right like some people just
want it loud and Brash like the Hellcat
stuff I mean there can be a lot that can
be done with a car that is obnoxious and
fun and and same thing with a system
that is just like turn your guts inside
out with bass um for certain certain uh
music especially it can be a lot of fun
so I don't think there's one straight
answer that's one thing I've learned
from watching you guys there's not like
one right answer on how to do it it's
it's more about what do you like
personally and what can you actually do
realistically and be happy with um and
that's what you really help me with
figure out in my own home
stuff yeah and and you know and even at
the end of the day when you set up your
system there's nothing wrong with using
tone controls or or to have various
profiles so depending on what you're
listening to you might want to adjust
the Bas of the travel up or down um I
have a I have a mode for my wife she
does not like bass unfortunately and it
and it sucks because if I want to play
some deep stuff when she's sleeping no
matter how much sound isolation I did in
my room nothing stopping a 21in
subwoofer from penetrating the walls it
just doesn't happen so I have um a
calibration setting for her that knocks
the base 6db down and I get rid of the
infrasonic because she can't handle the
infrasonic so it's nothing wrong when
having multiple calibration settings
yeah that's smart especially for that
this is the looks like the last question
we got uh morance mm 7 7025 Power Amp
versus parasound a23
plus so those multi-channel uh morance
amps they're decent they're by there may
be a slight step up from what's in their
avrs parason amp is exceptional amp I
mean that's I would choose the Paras if
if the money wasn't you know a
factor makes sense I'm sure you get
these questions like this versus that
and sometimes they're not very
straightforward but sometimes they're
very straightforward I mean if you're if
you're base managing your speakers and
you're not playing it loud you might not
even hear a difference between the two
amps so it really depends on you're
listening but if you're doing full range
and you have low impedance speakers the
parasound is going to drive those
speakers with more
Authority
makes sense um I'm just gonna cut off so
no more uh because we got to get Gan off
here he's not the 4H hour power guy um
uh I have some point yeah I don't want
this guy to starve here I have a giant
head in big ears hard to find over the
ears that are big enough to be
comfortable use Sennheiser 598s for
years
recommendations how do you feel about
headphones I have so many headphones
sitting under my desk that I haven't
even opened to test yet um
I look at the clamping force on
headphones because I have the same
problem I can't wear headphones for too
long especially with glasses and if they
put too much pressure on my head they
drive me nuts I don't know if he's
looked at I like the focal Stellas I
think they're pretty comfortable they're
they're a bit bulky but you know I think
focal makes a comfortable headphone if
you want a wireless headphone the mark
levenson's are actually pretty
comfortable um I'm not too thrilled with
the call Quality on them because it
cancels the noise cancelling when you're
doing a call which is we weird you hear
the cabin when when you're on an
airplane I don't know why they did that
and um yeah I mean that's that would be
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