[Editorial] The slow decadence of online HiFi content

August 2025 Editorial

YouTubers doing their things

Author: Lucio Cadeddu - TNT-Audio Italy
Published: August, 2025

The advent of YouTube and, above all, its perverse mechanism for monetizing video content has spawned - and not only in our field - a whole race of unknown individuals, sometimes bizarre, sometimes pathetic, desperately trying to increase the views of their videos just to earn a few extra cents. Recently, a whole series of industry figures have also caught on, trying to recycle themselves on this platform, often after having failed miserably on other enterprises (websites, print & on-line magazines, companies, and so on).

There's nothing wrong with that, for goodness sake; you all have to earn your living somehow, except that we're now going beyond the ridiculous, often generating misinformation. Let's proceed in order.

First problem, the length of the videos: since the longer the video, the easier it is for YouTube to insert commercials within it and thus increase monetization, these YouTubers drag out their narrative beyond measure. Having little to say, they ramble on for tens of minutes about absolutely useless aspects, instead of - for example - focusing on explaining the true sonic characteristics of the component under test. They end up posting videos of 30 minutes or more. This isn't a video, it's kidnapping! The less creative ones try to drag out the narrative by speaking very slowly with endless pauses (note this and tell me it's not like that!), thus lending a vaguely thoughtful and often pedantic tone to the immense banalities they're talking about. I tried listening to some of them at double the playback speed (unfortunately YouTube only supports 2x, for now) and even then the pauses are unbearable. The advantage is that a 30-minute rant becomes a 15 minutes one, which is still too long, since the content can typically be condensed into 2-3 minutes.
Second problem, those video titles: since these guys are desperately grasping for clicks and views, it's essential that the title is like-catching or click-bait, as they say in jargon. So it has to be something sensational, possibly provocative. For example, “Let's reveal the secret of this component!”, “Really a giant-killer? Oh, please!”, and so on. No big deal, you might say, journalism is made of these things, so much so that even in newspapers there are so-called headline writers, people who give every article an attractive title. I've always found this practice rather annoying, but on YouTube we've crossed the line of decency.
Third problem, those faces: since the title might not be click-bait enough, it needs to be enriched with a preview, typically the author's face making clownish grimaces of surprise, disgust, etc. You can find some funny examples in this article. Gentlemen, let me ask you: don't you feel a little ridiculous? If you have something intelligent to say - because you do, right? - is it possible that a ridiculous face is needed to convince people to click on your video? You're probably right, but I feel embarrassed in your place, especially since many of you are over forty and you'd need to retain some dignity. It's worrying.
Fourth problem: the context. Often these reviewers/YouTubers perform tests in places and with components/installations that wouldn't allow you to detect any difference even between a €100 speaker and a €100,000 one. The message they send is, needless to say, dangerous: if a reviewer can express opinions with the speakers placed on a dresser, 50 cm apart and placed against the wall, with a turntable in between, the average enthusiast (or young novice!) will conclude that this is the norm, nullifying the effort that many magazines have made in recent years: to make it clear that the environment and the positioning of the speakers influence well over 50% of the final result. Other times they are more honest and, after 30 minutes of cosmic emptiness, not knowing how to end their videos, they simply say that the component is good enough or...interesting. Which is meaningless, to say the least.
Fifth problem, the can openers: this is how I affectionately call all those on YouTube or Facebook who indulge in long sessions of unboxing, that is, opening packages of HiFi components. Oh God, better to call you can openers than unboxers, which sounds like a new men's underwear, right? Now, every job has its dignity, but when I see professionals who humiliate themselves by being coin-operated can openers (that's what you are!), a veil of profound sadness and, let me tell you, despair envelops me. You proclaim yourselves content creators, i.e. creators of content. Which content? The real content is what's inside the box, and you didn't create it, get over it ;-) You simply create digital garbage, yes, and in industrial quantities. You are literally polluting the info-sphere. I hope you are proud of this.

Summarizing, allow me a few thoughts on this phenomenon. Where do I begin? First and foremost, you're all doomed to oblivion, because - as many famous YouTubers are starting to confess - the whole system is collapsing: too many content creators out there, and all suffocated by YouTube's brutal cuts to insert its unbearable ads. With the advent of TikTok and Facebook Reels, where videos are incredibly short, your 30-minute video is already a thing of the past.

Secondly, it's well known that the younger generations can't focus on a single concept for more than 2-3 minutes, so they perceive you as dinosaurs. Not only that, but the first law of marketing is diversification: if you all use the same system to get views (funny faces and sensational headlines) how do you expect to stand out among the others? Will you start to undress yourself, just to attract views? Please don't. Your faces are terrifying enough. How about opening an OnlyFans profile? You can publish naked HiFi components and naked reviewers at the same time. It would be a blast. Credit me for the idea, if you fancy.

Thirdly, it's clear that your target audience can only be older people who grew up on “bread and television” but have been left orphaned by the latter, which they no longer recognize. That's why they're all on YouTube, which is the modern substitute for TV. Because...reading is tiring, listening is easier, right? You'll tell me that YouTube is better than TV because you have the freedom to comment on video content. True, when they allow you this freedom, because often the creators don't allow it. Let's face it: they don't care about your opinions at all; they care about your clicks, to swell (so to speak, eh?) their bank account. And you fall for it.

On the other hand, even the creators themselves are, in most cases, over 40 and are victims of the myth of television: for them, appearing on video is like being on TV, like those tedious news hecklers who can't wait to peek behind the hapless reporter to show they've been caught on camera, so to be able to wave to their friends and relatives at home. To achieve this goal, they even network, inviting each other to each other's channels, and interviewing each other, talking to each other in an endless, boring saga. What will you do when you've all interviewed each other? Pathetic, to say the least. And the overall tone of many videos is pathetic, always too serious, pompous, self-congratulatory and unbearably boring. Or, worse yet, many of you think you're being funny. Think again, you're not.

To all of you dear readers, I ask only one big favour: continue to take the bait they throw at you, but have mercy on me and refrain from pointing out those videos. Frankly, I have many other much more enjoyable things to do than endure hours of rants from old and new idiots on YouTube. As Cicero said to Catiline: “Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?” (“How long, o Catiline, will you abuse our patience?”).

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