I did watch the scene and I enjoyed it much more than I expected to. That said, even I couldn't say that it was worthy of 5 stars.
I was really touched from the very beginning with Ethan's honesty in how he considered the issues of bottoming, dick sucking and doing gay for pay porn in general. This is likely one of Ethan's best efforts yet. For one, as Stowe says, Ethan was able to stay harder than usual here and therefore looked more enthused to do the scene. I'm also one who finds his contributions of dirty talk, sultriness, alpha-male type banter and attempts at smooching...to be both entertaining and endearing. (My only remaining wish list for the kissing would be more evidence of tongue.) I really think Ethan could become a natural in the business as Sha himself alludes to in the intro. I guess that's really up to Ethan to decide if he wants to go all in to do everything necessary to reach a level of stardom in the business. Maybe he'll decide it's a priority for him personally and financially and maybe not.
But again I think Ethan did very well here. He's got a great body. I like his swagger. What I really appreciated though from this intro was his commitment to trying to do a good job for his fans. Like the dick sucking for instance. He's very honest that it's not really his thing. Apparently he's just straight enough on the bi-ish spectrum that he doesn't wake up every morning craving to suck a dick. haha Well nobody's perfect.
But I very much respect and admire the fact that he realizes and takes seriously the fact that he's getting paid to entertain an audience. Therefore if he is going to suck a dick on camera he says he's not going to give a sloppy, half-ass effort to the task. Hallelujah! He'll do his best to make it look good and hopefully keep the paying audience and all of his fans happy. If only every model could see things in the same way Ethan does in that regard. *Sigh* haha
As far as the sounds, mics, volume controls, etc... In this particular scene I didn't have as hard of a time hearing Ethan's comments as some of the rest of you. And yet I did. lol I do know what you're referring to. For myself I had the master volume control on my PC set rather high to start with. Another method of volume control that I have I'll mention later...and then I downloaded the scene and had even more volume control at my discretion on the MP3, MP4 video player. I realize though that for those watching on laptops, tablets or telephones even, that you have fewer methods of increasing volume. What I found to be the real impediment to hearing Ethan though was not so much the volume or clarity of sound. It was JJ's excessive screaming and yelling. When I had the volume up high enough to comfortably (and fairly easily) hear Ethan's dirty talk and spontaneous asides, I was getting blasted out of my chair by JJ's moaning and carrying on. So I would have to turn down the volume to accommodate JJ and then I struggled to follow what Ethan was saying.
I will also admit that I am becoming hard of hearing. So I also have two little side-by-side speakers outside of and sitting beside my PC (and which have their own volume controls) both of which I kept from my previous PC and plugged in to my current PC. If I was using only the factory installed speaker that sits inside the monitor itself it would be a quieter, tinny, transistor radio type of gobbledygook.
So in this case, for me personally and my hardware setup with volume, I don't think there was anything here the company could have done better to wire the room for decent sound. This was much more a case (for me) of an experienced porn model like JJ thinking that he has to be not only constantly verbal, but also very loud. And thereby drowning out his scene partner.
In spite of all the verbal theatrics I thought JJ did a good job in the overall scene. And of course I'm liking Ethan even more after this one.