In this SIAS 2024 video, I sat down with Mark Ryan (MRS) from Super* Reviews—someone I’ve basically “grown up” with in this hobby—so yeah, I was genuinely honored to do this interview. We talked about how long he’s been reviewing (since he was 13, which is wild), and how he specifically got into audio reviews around 2017. Funny enough, the spark was Apple dropping the 3.5mm jack and the whole AirPods era, which pushed him into trying Bluetooth headphones… and he straight-up says “good riddance” because Bluetooth sucked for him. We also got into his actual review process, and this part is super useful if you’re into IEMs and measurements. He explained how he used to be more “lab mode” because he didn’t have the vocabulary yet, but now he listens more casually, lives with the product for at least a week, then uses frequency response graphs and measurements to confirm (or sometimes complicate) what he’s hearing. We also addressed the whole listening vs. graphs “blood bath” online—his take is basically: use graphs as a tool, don’t be a zealot. To keep it spicy, I asked him for the worst products he’s reviewed (he named three), and we wrapped with SIAS highlights like the SoftEars Enigma and Moondrop Cosmo—especially if you’re into mid-forward, vocal-centric tuning.