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Editorial standards: no marketing handouts, no "10 best", just listening.

The Audio Stuff is an independent audio-equipment review publication and YouTube channel, founded in 2023 in Poland by Jakub Charkiewicz. It 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 when the brand sent it for free.

Reviews published
70
Gear categories covered
7
Free audio tools
16
Highest score on record
9.3/10
Years publishing
3+
Sponsored verdicts
0%

Figures as of , the date of the latest review or guide.

The editorial team: 2 writers, one standard.

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. Portrait of Jakub Charkiewicz, founder & lead reviewer at The Audio Stuff, covers audiophile headphones

    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.

    Every written review also has a video companion 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

    Reviews by Jakub - 66 reviews and 13 buying guides on The Audio Stuff since May 2023.

    All 79 pieces by Jakub

  2. Portrait of Bastien Beauchamp, reviewer at The Audio Stuff, covers music and multimedia production

    Bastien Beauchamp

    Reviewer

    Bastien Beauchamp is an internationally awarded music and multimedia producer who converted into a hi-fi YouTube reviewer. He has a deep fascination for technology and its applications to music.

    His coverage runs from the biology of the ear all the way up to room acoustics - and any piece of hi-fi equipment in between that can influence the sound of music. You can follow him here on The Audio Stuff and on his own YouTube channel, The Bast Audiophile.

    Areas of expertise

    • Music and multimedia production - internationally awarded
    • Ear biology and psychoacoustics
    • Room acoustics and listening-room treatment
    • Headphones and in-ear monitors
    • Hi-fi playback chains - sources, DACs, amplification, speakers

    Reviews by Bastien - 4 reviews on The Audio Stuff since April 2026.

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. How a score is built

    Every score is built from the same five weighted axes, in every category, each judged against the reference unit at the same price tier. The weights never change by category; what changes is which axis separates the products in it.

    • Sound 30% Frequency balance, evenness across the band, treble behaviour, bass extension and control.
    • Technical performance 25% Detail retrieval, soundstage, imaging precision, dynamics, transient speed, and decay.
    • Build & comfort 15% Materials, fit and finish, comfort over multi-hour sessions, cable hardware, daily-use reliability.
    • System fit 15% How forgiving the unit is in real systems: drive requirements, room behaviour, and source pairing.
    • Value 15% Performance relative to the price tier, against the published reference list for that bracket.

    The score is the weighted sum, rounded to one decimal. Where a review's pros and cons cover enough of the axes, its At-a-glance card breaks the score down on these same axes, and the breakdown recombines exactly to the published score.

  4. Score and verdict

    A single 0 to 10 score with a one-word verdict. Each tier owns a score band, and the band is enforced on every build - a review whose number falls outside its verdict's band fails the build rather than shipping.

    • Reference 9.0 - 10.0 The benchmark its category is judged against. Rare by design.
    • Highly Recommended 8.2 - 9.4 Clearly worth the money, with reservations you can live with.
    • Recommended 7.0 - 8.4 Worth buying for the listener it suits, once the trade-offs are read.
    • Mixed 5.5 - 7.4 Real strengths against real costs. Which side wins is your call.
    • Pass 0.0 - 6.4 Not one we would spend our own money on at this price.

    Adjacent bands overlap on purpose: the overlap is the judgment zone where price, competition and reliability decide which side a piece lands on. What the rule forbids is a verdict two tiers away from its number.

  5. 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 one of the published standards listed below.

  1. Listening

  2. Measurement

  3. Loudness

    • ITU-R BS.1770-4 (opens in new tab)

      International Telecommunication Union

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

    • EBU R 128 (opens in new tab)

      European Broadcasting Union

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

  4. Headphones

  5. Speakers

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.

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 carries the same weight 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. Most audio outlets cannot say all three.

  3. Do you accept advertising or affiliate revenue?

    No. The Audio Stuff carries no display advertising, no affiliate links, and no sponsored placements. Nothing on the site can be bought, and no link here earns a commission. Everything is free to read, with no accounts and no paywall. Loaner units are disclosed in the review header, and a brand can neither pay to influence a score nor withdraw anything to retract one.

  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.