The Audiophoolery Thread.

[Beobloke]

The items in that catalogue that really grind my gears are the Wilson Audio TuneTot speakers.

Now, let me clarify, Wilson make some great speakers so I'm sure they sound superb - I cannot say as I've not heard them. However, you pay £11,500 for a par of small 2-way speakers and then you then have the choice of paying an EXTRA £398 for grilles or £850 for some metal trim rings to hide the bass driver fixing screws if you don't want the grilles.

And the icing on the cake - the trim rings introduce a resonance in the frequency response at about 3kHz!

[ajgriff]

Originally Posted by Beobloke

And the icing on the cake - the trim rings introduce a resonance in the frequency response at about 3kHz!

Unfortunate too that this frequency happens to fall within the range of frequencies where human hearing is at its most sensitive. Still, I'm sure they look nice.

Alan

[Radio Wrangler]

The job of the trim rings is to make the speakers more expensive, so that owners will know with absolute confidence that they sound better.

David

[Ted Kendall]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

It's just jewellery and art. The people who buy it derive their pleasure from looking at it and knowing it's mine, all mine... and the bragging rights as well. 99% of the joy must come from knowing almost no-one else can afford it.

That's it in a nutshell.

[Stockden]

Hmm, amongst other things:

High End Performance IEC connector - with "Nano Crystal Formula" that "features a special crystalline material that has two 'active' properties. First, it generates negative ions that eliminate static. Second, it converts thermal energy into far infrared." A snip at £222 including VAT!

and a USB cable that gives you "Clear and open highs, elegant midrange textures, powerful but in-control bass, and an enhanced sense of the sheer palpability of the music you’ll enjoy. The GT2Pro series creates real musical experience from the data stored on your computer." - only £150 for this gem.

Why did I never realise that what I was missing was enhanced palpability?

Hugh

[HamishBoxer]

I bought a gold plated lead with similar connectors for less than a £5 inc delivery from the UK.

I do hope SHMBO doesn't get one of those cables for me, I am being selfish, just think of the many bottles of rather good whiskey that could buy. In fact I would prefer a bottle of cooking whiskey, does one cook with it? Never mind it will have to be drunk, a glass of which will make my stereo sound better.

[PaulR]

The prices charged for some of those items would buy several rather fine cars!

[dglcomp]

At least with cables there are few (if any) ongoing costs, although I'm sure there is a market for the regular inspection and conditioning of said cables.

There should be a market for getting regular cables and enclosing them in a "posh" cover so people think they are "special" cables and laugh as they proclaim the audio advantages of using said cable. If they are priced high enough no one will find out the scam as they will not want to waste money by destroying one to see the internals.
I suppose this idea is similar to Monster Cable (the cable the BBC supposedly use yet Canford (suppliers to the TV/Film industry) do not stock it!), but with an even higher profit margin!

[mark_in_manc]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

It's just jewellery and art. The people who buy it derive their pleasure from looking at it and knowing it's mine, all mine... and the bragging rights as well. 99% of the joy must come from knowing almost no-one else can afford it.

How **dull** these people must be!!

(The only snobbery worth having is snobbery^-1 )

[Diabolical Artificer]

High End Performance IEC connector - with "Nano Crystal Formula" that "features a special crystalline material that has two 'active' properties. First, it generates negative ions that eliminate static. Second, it converts thermal energy into far infrared." A snip at £222 including VAT!

and a USB cable that gives you "Clear and open highs, elegant midrange textures, powerful but in-control bass, and an enhanced sense of the sheer palpability of the music you’ll enjoy. The GT2Pro series creates real musical experience from the data stored on your computer." - only £150 for this gem.

Surely this crock of surrealistic hysterical idiosyncratic terminology must contravene a trade description act, it's pure bellicose ostentatious ludicrous libidinous occidental crapetudenous kabelistic shimsham. Had to get creative on the last three, for CKS. Maybe I should take up writing blurb for audio doodads? Don't think I could do it without regurgitating my brain or hanging myself.

Seriously the claims for this audio stuff are just plain wrong, scientifically not to mention morally.

Andy.

[Radio Wrangler]

It goes all the way back to "XXXXXX washes whiter".

The advertising standards people accept that unsupportable claims and superlatives will get used. They assume that the public will not believe them. Advertisers get into trouble when they make statements which can be objectively proven or disproven.

The whole 'high-end' hifi industry is founded on a complete aversion to any form of objectivity, so there is nothing there for advertising standards laws to get a grip on.

I think I'm going to save Andy's phrasing for future enjoyment!

David

[Craig Sawyers]

Alternatively you can demagnetize your CD and DVD collection. Including a large version to demagnetize records

http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/rd3/rd3_01.html

They say "Aluminum is a weak magnetic material, so it is easily influenced by magnetism." which is tosh. Aluminium is paramagnetic, not ferromagnetic.

Craig

[Valvepower]

Hi,

Ah, that’s where I’m going wrong and my amps don’t sound any good as I’m buying sonically bad SCHURTER IEC connectors – he says facetiously! I really should be concentrating on the sonic properties of the connector and not concerning myself with international approvals and rating etc…

Hey, maybe I could get good reviews of a piece of audio equipment using commercial IEC connectors! – he says again facetiously

Regards
Terry

Originally Posted by Stockden

Hmm, amongst other things:

High End Performance IEC connector - with "Nano Crystal Formula" that "features a special crystalline material that has two 'active' properties. First, it generates negative ions that eliminate static. Second, it converts thermal energy into far infrared." A snip at £222 including VAT!

Hugh

[Herald1360]

Doesn't anything that gets slightly warm convert thermal energy into far infrared? Get it hot enough and it'll become visible

[dglcomp]

Originally Posted by Herald1360

Doesn't anything that gets slightly warm convert thermal energy into far infrared? Get it hot enough and it'll become visible

I see it now, speakers with built in infa-red heat lamps, for that warm sound

[Beardyman]

A work colleague reviews Hi-Fi kit for various magazines & some of the stuff he gets to play with is mind boggling in regards cost. He is usually quite critical & will sometimes not get his articles published as it isn't what the manufacturer wants. That's a whole can of worms in itself! As he says, "Facts & measurable parameters go out of the window in favor of a wooden volume knob". He "reviewed" my cutlery box junk amplifier, I was expecting all sorts of cutting remarks. All he wrote was, "Honest with that full, warm, rounded sound we all expect from 87 year old valves. Deceptively loud for 3W RMS per channel, it could have done without the cheapo-nasty MP3/BT/FM gadget". He admits himself there is so much snake oil regarding audio it can be difficult to see the snakes from the grass. He won't entertain things like cable elevators or shielded mains leads, as he said, there are limits a person will go to for an extra income! I think it mostly comes down to people who buy this stuff for huge prices are unwilling to admit they are wrong. It could even be a question of "If you look hard enough you will find what you are expecting whether it is there or not". Psychological? Maybe.

[GrimJosef]

Depends what you call 'far' infrared. All room temperature objects (say 300K) radiate infrared, and if their spectrum is anything like a black-body then the wavelength of peak radiation is around 10 micrometres. As the temperature goes up, the wavelength comes down in inverse proportion. So the surface of the sun, at close to 6000K, has a spectral peak in the yellow-green, close to 0.5 micrometres. The spectrum is very broad of course, so even the sun emits plenty of infrared.

Cheers,

GJ

[GrimJosef]

Originally Posted by Beardyman

... He won't entertain things like ... shielded mains leads ...

Outside the equipment's case I'm with him there. But I've dropped the 50Hz background hum in a customer's equipment by more than 10dB by replacing the mains lead inside the box with a length of the screened stuff. It ran too close to the audio input wiring and the E-field pickup by the latter from the mains live conductor was what seemed to be causing the problem. It was a US piece of kit with the mains transformer primary split so it could be wired for 115V or 230V. I fear the manufacturer hadn't spent much time testing it at 230V.

Cheers,

GJ

[ajgriff]

Originally Posted by Beardyman

It could even be a question of "If you look hard enough you will find what you are expecting whether it is there or not". Psychological? Maybe.

Psychologists call it cognitive dissonance. Quote from Wiki:

"Festinger argued that some people would inevitably resolve dissonance by blindly believing whatever they wanted to believe."

Festinger was one of the proponents of dissonance theory.

Alan