It's quite remarkable how today's demon materials were once yesterday's wonder materials. No doubt there are films made by producers of the wonder that is asbestos and how there are so many uses around the home. Probably consigned to the same place as those on the health-giving properties of smoking tobacco.
Audiophoolery is an innocent pastime, if somewhat wasteful of money, but these materials can result in ill-health and death, which is far more serious.
But is audiophoolery quite that wasteful? Certainly we see high prices paid for PX4s and ECC83s with just the right shape of anode and getter, but if I'm being honest, then I have a silly car that is a far worse sink of money.
Yes, we can have a good laugh at £20,000 for 1 metre of speaker cable. Yes, there are people trying it on by offering/advertising such things, but have they ever found anyone daft enough to buy them? Sure, samples turn up for review at esoteric publications and honeyed prose gets poured all over them, but did any money change hands? That is the crucial step, getting someone to pay that much.
But there are people with lifestyles utterly alien to the vast majority of us. There are videos on youtube about a chap going by the moniker of 'Producer Michael' who lives and works in Hollywood. He comes over as a really nice chap and he can laugh at himself. He's into very expensive watches and very expensive cars. One video shows him going to buy a brand new car, I think it was a Rolls-Royce of a newer model than the one he already had. On his wrist was a watch with a higher valuation than the car. He's obviously having great fun, and not suffering any hardship. He could easily spend a fortune on a hifi setup with ludicrously expensive cables, just for the hell of it, if it took his fancy... but as a professional record producer he's probably quite used to what things sound like in the studio before things get distributed. Besides, I expect that when he throws a party, he gets a band to come round and play live
We aren't the target market for £20,000 cables, new Rolls-Royces or wrist-mounted ororaries.
Interesting to watch from a distance, but not things I'd exert myself to get.
The things about audiophools which get me laughing is when the claims and pseudoscience get rolled out. Why not just stick with the unassailable statement "I have one because I just happen to like it". Producer Michael pulls this off perfectly.
Why have pseudoscience when you can have the real thing?
David