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    About

    No marketing handouts. No "10 best." Just listening.

    The Audio Stuff exists because most audio reviews don't actually say what they mean. Vague adjectives, recycled marketing copy, and verdicts shaped by who's paying for the ads. We do it differently: 10-point scoring anchored to a published reference list, weeks of real listening on the chain instead of demo-room first impressions, and the honest verdict regardless of who shipped the unit - even if the brand sent it for free, even if they pull ad spend after a negative review.

    Reviews published
    57
    Gear categories covered
    6
    Free audio tools
    12
    Highest score on record
    9.2/10
    Years publishing
    3+
    Sponsored verdicts
    0%

    Who writes the reviews

    The editorial team - one person, accountable.

    Every score and verdict on this site is written and signed off by a named human listed below. No editorial committee, no rotating freelancers, no ghost-written paid placements. Each writer is reachable directly - email, WhatsApp, social - and the responsibility for every published piece traces back to the person who wrote it.

    1. Jakub Charkiewicz

      Founder & lead reviewer Founder

      I founded The Audio Stuff and personally write, listen to, score, and sign off every review carrying my byline. There's no rotating freelancer pool and no ghost-writers - every named writer on the masthead owns their pieces end-to-end, and the catalogue's consistency comes from a shared listening chain and a single published reference list that every score gets anchored against.

      Outside the written pieces, video companions for the bigger reviews go up on the YouTube channel - same gear, same chain, same listening notes. You can reach me directly for review requests, corrections, or anything editorial via email, WhatsApp, or LinkedIn.

      Areas of expertise

      • Audiophile headphones - planar magnetic, dynamic, electrostatic, IEMs
      • Hi-fi loudspeakers and studio monitors
      • R-2R and delta-sigma digital-to-analog converters
      • Headphone amplifiers and integrated amps - Class A, AB, D, and tube
      • Room acoustics, standing-wave measurement, and bass treatment
      • ABX double-blind testing methodology and audio measurement

      Reach Jakub directly

    How reviews are made

    1. Long listening

      Minimum two weeks of daily use, multiple genres, multiple sources. No first-impressions reviews. No demo-room verdicts.

    2. Reference comparisons

      Every piece is compared head-to-head against a maintained list of reference units in its category. The list is published.

    3. Score and verdict

      A single 0 to 10 score with a one-word verdict: Reference, Highly Recommended, Recommended, Mixed, or Pass. No ambiguity.

    4. The honest part

      If a brand sends a unit, the review still gets written even if it's negative. We disclose every loaner unit. We never accept payment to influence a verdict.

    Standards we cite

    Independent sources, not in-house dogma.

    Every methodology choice on this site - level-matching, listening protocol, loudness target, headphone coupler curve, loudspeaker measurement framework - traces back to a published standard or peer-reviewed source. Listed publicly below so the work is auditable, not asked to be trusted.

    1. Listening

      • ITU-R BS.1116-3

        International Telecommunication Union

        Subjective listening test methodology - the gold-standard protocol for double-blind audio comparison.

    2. Measurement

    3. Loudness

      • ITU-R BS.1770-4

        International Telecommunication Union

        LUFS loudness measurement; every A/B comparison is volume-matched to this standard, not by ear.

      • EBU R 128

        European Broadcasting Union

        Programme loudness normalization - keeps reference material at -23 LUFS across albums and genres.

    4. Headphones

      • IEC 60318-1 (711 coupler)

        International Electrotechnical Commission

        Headphone-measurement coupler whose target curve underpins every published headphone FR plot.

      • Harman Target Curve research

        Olive, Welti & Khonsaripour (Audio Engineering Society)

        Listener-preference research informing - but never dictating - the tonality scoring on headphone reviews.

    5. Speakers

      • CTA-2034-A (Spinorama)

        Consumer Technology Association

        Loudspeaker measurement framework: on-axis, listening window, sound power, and directivity index.

      • Sound Reproduction (Floyd E. Toole, 3rd ed.)

        Routledge / Focal Press

        The book underpinning the loudspeaker, room-interaction, and psychoacoustics framing used in every speaker review.

    Spotted a methodology error or want a source corrected? Email the editorial team - we publish corrections in line with the same scoring rubric we publish for the gear.

    FAQ

    About The Audio Stuff.

    Who runs this site, how it differs from the rest of the audio press, and how the editorial process works in practice.

    1. Who runs The Audio Stuff?

      Jakub Charkiewicz - founder, lead reviewer, and the face of the YouTube channel since May 2023. Long-form gear evaluation across headphones, DACs, amps, and speakers, with reference-anchored scoring as the editorial backbone. The site and the channel publish the same verdicts in different formats: written long-form here, video on YouTube.

    2. How are reviews different from typical audio sites?

      Three differences. (1) Every review is anchored to a published reference list so a 9.0 means the same thing across categories. (2) Listening windows are weeks, not minutes - no demo-room verdicts. (3) Negative reviews ship even when the brand sent the unit for free or pays for ads. Most audio outlets cannot say all three.

    3. Do you accept advertising or affiliate revenue?

      Affiliate links may appear in the body of reviews when they do not change the verdict. Display advertising is limited and never targeted by review outcome - a brand cannot pay to influence a score, and a brand cannot pull ads to retract one. All loaner units are disclosed in the review header.

    4. What gear and listening environment is used for reviews?

      A treated stereo room with measured bass behaviour, plus a desktop headphone chain anchored on a reference DAC and amp pair. The exact reference list - the units every new review is judged against - is published per category and updated when a new piece earns Reference status. The same chain, the same room, the same playlist set: review-to-review consistency is the whole point.

    5. Where are the YouTube reviews?

      On the YouTube channel @TheAudioStuff. Each video review on YouTube has a corresponding long-form written review here, and the written version always carries the canonical score and verdict. Video adds visual demonstration; the written piece is the system of record.