The Audiophoolery Thread.

[Andrew2]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

Or how about a BNC cable for £2,000

https://shunyata-uk.com/product/digital-cables/sigma-clock-50/

Strewth. Straight out of Harry Enfield's 'I saw you coming' sketch.

[Radio Wrangler]

Odd, I've put signals over 40GHz up coax cables.
I've measured noise floors right down to the thermal floor at liquid nitrogen temperatures seen through coaxial structures.
I put 300 Watt pulses at a gigahertz with 50ns envelope rise times down coax cables.
I've measured ordinary pulses with 50picosecond rise times along coax cables.

Heck, I even have some in my hifi handling 20kHz audio.

I've never heard of electromagnetic polarisation distortion....

I did use smaller diameter cables above 22GHz to maintain TEM 01 mode. Could this be what he means? He must have very good hearing!

David

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by Station X

Equipment should not have to be repaired or maintained during its designed lifetime. The need for that should be eliminated at the design and manufacturing stages.

I've reground two valves in the last fortnight, albeit in 50 and 80 year old engines, The latter having valve cages to improve maintainability.

We're straying from the subject of audiophoolery though.

The trouble is that the people who design stuff think that the need for repair has been designed out. And maybe even tested out (though it's not possible to test quality into something). But nobody is perfect, especially overconfident young Engineers who haven't seen it all before.

[Craig Sawyers]

I've been involved in space instrumentation, and although most of the team were indeed seasoned to some extent, they were in general (and by old codger standards, ie like me) pretty youthful. And lived and died high reliability. No repair is possible once the blue touchpaper is lit.

The instrument I was Project Manager for (the Mercury Imaging X-Ray Spectrometer, MIXS) was one of ten instruments on board this (launched on October 20th) https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2018/10/BepiColombo_launch_replay

Fast forward to about minute 34 to see the beast go. Or the short video of the launch https://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2018/10/BepiColombo_liftoff

A bit off topic, and many orders of magnitude more expensive than domestic audio, but repair was designed out for sure, and tested out on the ground in a major programme.

Craig

[Craig Sawyers]

I don't know whether this is audiophoolery or just plain stunning given the scale of Japanese engineering to design and manufacture this third of a ton turntable. Allegedly about £300k.
https://www.reddit.com/r/audiophile/comments/bc7s1p/tech_das_air_force_zero_turntable/

[regentone001]

well you know what they say "there is one born every minute" and also "a fool and his money are soon parted". I think they sum things up nicely

[Radio Wrangler]

I bet it sounds awful.

Any record placed on that thing will feel intimidated to the point where it can only squeak.

All that money, all that mass, and it still insists on not having the stylus at the same angle to the groove as it was cut. If there is something wrong with tangential tracking, maybe these people need special records that were cut with pivoted arms to keep things the way they like?

David

[Craig Sawyers]

Agreed. The long out of production Rockport Sirius, and in the same price bracket as above (about £150k), at least had an air bearing parallel tracking arm. You did not have a choice - the deck came with that arm, period.

http://www.thefunkyway.com/gearmus/djgear/decks/RockPort%20system%20III%20sirius%20turntable.html

Craig

[bluepilot]

Homeopathic record washing.

Those of you who like to listen to old shellac records will know that they are often noisy and crackly. A good wash before playing them can improve the sound considerably. However solvents which should ideally be used to remove grease, sticky finger marks etc. as with vinyl records don’t work with shellac as they dissolve the records. I wondered whether it would be possible to improve the washing by using the solvents on a homeopathic basis.

As an experiment I took an old shellac record and left it overnight in a bowl of meths. The next morning there was a load of black gunge in the bottom of the bowl. The meths itself had gone brown as a result of the shellac contained in the record and I assumed that the essence of the music was contained in the meths. The next stage was to transform the essence of music into a homeopathic solution which would not harm the records. I took 1cc of the meths and diluted it with a liter of distilled water. Then I took 1cc of the resulting solution and diluted it with another liter of distilled water and so on. I continued until I had a so-called 12C dilution. The next time I wanted to wash some shellac records I added a few drops of the homeopathic fluid to the washing solution. The results were amazing. I have never before heard a record improved so much by washing.

I experimented a bit and found that the best results are achieved by dissolving a record of the same genre as the records to be washed. Dance music is improved best by dissolving something like a Jack Hylton or an Adolf Steimel record. Classical music is improved best by something like Beethoven or Mozart.

It would be useful to have such a fluid for vinyl records as well. However vinyl doesn’t dissolve in alchohol. I wondered whether my homeopathic shellac solution would also work on vinyl records. To a certain extent the results were promising. However the problem is that there are for example no Jethro Tull records on shellac. The homeopathic solution works OK on classical music. However when I tried to wash a Sex Pistols LP all I got was a load of noise. Even so, if you recognise the limits of the fluid it can produce amazing results.

If anyone is interested I can provide 5ml bottles of washing fluid for normal dance or classical music for £50 each. I also have a limited amount of Elvis fluid for £250 per bottle.

[Craig Sawyers]

I know that is intended to be a pss take, but cleaning of shellac discs is the subject of great interest for archival storage of historical recordings. See the following for the process of taking an old and mouldy shellac disc and restoring it:

https://www.nedcc.org/audio-preservation/cleaning-discs

Even broken or damaged discs and cylinders are recoverable using optical imaging techniques

https://www.nedcc.org/audio-preservation/irene

Craig

[evingar]

Originally Posted by Andrew2

Strewth. Straight out of Harry Enfield's 'I saw you coming' sketch.

Love this from the link.

"Ohno Continuous Cast Copper and PMZ conductors with exotic fluorocarbon dielectrics make for a true reference quality digital cable"

is that Oh no ! I've just blown 2 Grand on a cable and can't hear the difference from my RS Components nickel jobbie !

[Craig Sawyers]

Well - Ohno continuous cast copper was developed by Dr. Atsumi Ohno, a metallurgist working at the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan in 1986. It is almost a zone refining process, which produces long and pure crystals in the ingot. The audio industry latched onto that almost immediately, so it is an "old" technology now, Ohno's patents have expired, and it nowt special or esoteric.

PMZ apparently stands for Precision Matched Z (in other words 50 ohms). And exotic fluorocarbon means PTFE.

So the £2k is multiply bewildering. A sucker born etc.

[yesnaby]

This is one reviewer's setup for testing a power conditioner!

Amplifier -- Esoteric Grandioso S1
•Preamplifier -- Esoteric Grandioso C1
•Sources -- Windows 10 music server with JPlay player, Linn Kazoo control software, JCAT USB and Ethernet cards, JCAT USB Isolator, HDPlex 200W linear power supply, and Apple iPad mini 3; Esoteric Grandioso K1 SACD/CD player and Grandioso G1 Master Clock Generator
•Other electronics -- JL Audio CR-1 active subwoofer crossover
•Speakers -- YG Acoustics Kipod II Signature
•Subwoofers -- JL Audio Fathom f113 v2 (2)
•Interconnects -- Synergistic Research Galileo UEF
•Digital links -- Synergistic Research Galileo LE (USB) and Galileo (BNC), JPlay JCAT (USB)
•Speaker cables -- Synergistic Research Galileo UEF
•Power cords -- Synergistic Research Galileo UEF and Atmosphere Level 3
•Power conditioners and distribution -- Synergistic Research PowerCell 12 UEF SE and QLS power strips
•Isolation devices -- Silent Running Audio: VR fp Isobase. Symposium Acoustics: Osiris Ultimate and Standard Racks, Segue Platform, Roller Block Series 2+ Equipment Support System. Synergistic Research: MIG 2.0s, Tranquility Bases.
•Room treatments and correction -- Synergistic Research: Acoustic Art System, Atmosphere XL4, HFT, and FEQ room-treatment devices. WA-Quantum: Quantum-Sound-Animator.
Misc. -- Synergistic Research Active Grounding Block, Blue fuses, Electronic Circuit Transducers; Mad Scientist Black Discus Audio System Enhancers, Graphene Contact Enhancer; Hi Fidelity MC-0.5 Magnetic Wave Guides; Telos Quantum connector caps, f.oq damping tape.

[Radio Wrangler]

Would I be right in guessing that all of these are each very expensive things?

Just a hunch...

David

[ajgriff]

The blue fuses are only £130 each .....

Alan

[Radio Wrangler]

Oh, I see. The Blue Fuses are Synergistic Research products like all his cables. He seems to have totally immersed himself in their belief system.

I see the nice people at Synergistic also do Black Fuses at £89.95 for people who can't even afford the blue ones. But the black ones must be OK, they get a five star rating.

I thought 13A fuses were supposed to be coloured brown and that black was for all values other than 3A and 13A. So are the blue and black audiophile ones illegal?

David

[ajgriff]

I would think that any discerning audiophile would want to stretch the budget to acquire blue (legal or not) rather than black fuses because:

"The new SR BLUE Quantum Fuse was developed over a two year period and represents Synergistic Research's most advanced UEF Technology to date. At its heart is a completely new UEF/Graphene coating that delivers a dramatic increase in resolution and holographic realism over SR Black"

Obvious isn't it? By the way, each fuse receives the 1,000,000 volt Quantum Treatment. I bet that's an experience not to be missed.

Alan

[evingar]

Originally Posted by ajgriff

I would think that any discerning audiophile would want to stretch the budget to acquire blue (legal or not) rather than black fuses because:

"The new SR BLUE Quantum Fuse was developed over a two year period and represents Synergistic Research's most advanced UEF Technology to date. At its heart is a completely new UEF/Graphene coating that delivers a dramatic increase in resolution and holographic realism over SR Black"

Obvious isn't it? By the way, each fuse receives the 1,000,000 volt Quantum Treatment. I bet that's an experience not to be missed.

Alan

Why don't they blow when you try to put a Million volts across them ? Must be duffo - Obviously not paying enough for a fuse that actually blows

[ajgriff]

Very low current!? Of course the company doesn't disclose what the million volt treatment actually entails. Industrial secret I suppose. Can't have others copying such a revolutionary and obviously beneficial process after all!

Alan

[Radio Wrangler]

Perhaps they have a benchtop Tesla coil and stand a fuse on it for a moment and poke the button, then on to the next fuse. That's an easy way to get the voltage and the streamer length proves the voltage.

The two years of development may have mostly been listening tests to determine how long to press the button to get the best sonic effect and only a few months on deciding just which shade of blue.

What else can we do to electronic components in the hope of making them sound better? Taking them to very low temperatures and to high voltages have been done. Exorcism? Taking them to the moon and back? Taking them to 10% of the speed of light for a while. Hey we could have relativistically-treated resistors!

David