The Audiophoolery Thread.

[avocollector]

I am surprised at how little snake oil happens about the earth's magnetic field interferring with audio equipment. Years ago I light heartedly wrote a small item on a guitar player's website about how the earth's magnetic field would interfere with the electron flow in the valves of guitar valve amplifiers - I suggested that any other alignment but north south could retard the flow of electrons in the valves ' thus degrading the tone'. To ensure maximum tone I said they should take a compass along to gigs and align their amplifier with the North South direction.

To my horror I got several emails thanking me for this 'great advice' and telling me how much their sound had improved.

You would wonder sometimes

[Radio Wrangler]

Alignment of cables with ley lines might be good.

April the first isn't far away.

David

[Craig Sawyers]

You mean yours aren't, David?

[Radio Wrangler]

No, up here we have to align things with the main fault lines of the great glen. It's no coincidence that that area was chosen as home by Nessie. Ley lines here are just Johnny-come-latelies.

David

[Refugee]

I think that is called serpentphoolery in that glen.
Do you remember how much they got for the photos of car inner tubes half full of water being towed by a toy boat?

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by avocollector

I am surprised at how little snake oil happens about the earth's magnetic field interferring with audio equipment.

Depressingly, I'm damn sure there is something out there that purports to do something with this - I'm sure I remember seeing it at the Munich High End Show.

Can't remember the manufacturer though - I'll do some digging!

[Craig Sawyers]

Back in the 70's when I was at Southampton University doing laser physics we had a real joker. At this time we had a really pompous electronics lab technician, who lived in his own office fiefdom.

Said joker wrote a letter on the risk of small scale thermonuclear detonations at the focus of high intensity laser beams, and this could be mitigated by locating "a temperature compensated boron rod" in proximity to the focus. It appeared in said technicians inbox - and all hell broke loose. He ran around the labs ordering everyone to turn their lasers off. Other than joker who had put a small grey coloured rod with some wires - and said "it's OK - I already have a temperature compensated boron rod - look here".

Next thing this poor guy did was storm into a department meeting brandishing this piece of paper. Everyone took it completely seriously, and the lasers contingent went off to do some calculations.

Not one of them spotted the date.

Craig

[deliverance]

Grun Coherent Earthing ! sounds very expensive.

[Radio Wrangler]

I can feel a new Smersh Enterprises product coming on.... sets of orthogonal Helmholtz coils with programmable current sources so you can modify the local static field vector to suit your setup. 3-D fluxgate magnetometer to check it's working.

Od course, it won't work at hifi shows due to the system in each room needing a different orientation and helmholtz coils interacting.

David

[The Philpott]

Post 2701:
I recall an orienteering exercise for the scout movement (in the lake district?) was thrown into chaos by what was presumably a sizeable lump of subterranean magnetic rock. The scout leader was not impressed when no-one arrived at the final checkpoint, and had the exercise repeated to establish 'why no-one could read a compass properly'.

[David G4EBT]

Not it's first outing on the forum, but this guy would be well up to the task of writing the marketing blurb to emphasis the features and benefits of 'must-have' adiophoolery gizmos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by The Philpott

Post 2701:
I recall an orienteering exercise for the scout movement (in the lake district?) was thrown into chaos by what was presumably a sizeable lump of subterranean magnetic rock. The scout leader was not impressed when no-one arrived at the final checkpoint, and had the exercise repeated to establish 'why no-one could read a compass properly'.

The Cullin Ridge on Skye is infamous for this effect, being comprised mainly from ferromagnetic rock. At certain points lowering the compass from waist height to the ground can deviate the needle by around 90 degrees.

The other thing that stuffs a magnetic compass is the insistence of walking gear makers in using magnetic closures, for mitts that double as gloves to hydration hoses. I've gone badly wrong navigating through this effect until I worked out what was going wrong (magnetic attachment for hydration pack hose). Depending on where I held the compass in relation to my chest I could get a 15 degree error ( about 250m error in 1km) which can easily navigate you into serious hazard.

Craig

[ex seismic]

Teaching navigation to a bunch of cadets in a classroom, maps supposedly compass orientated were all over the place until it was realised the metal legs of the wooden topped desks were affecting the compasses.

[knobtwiddler]

This could be a good time to show this product off:

https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/shakti-electromagnetic-stabiliser-stone

(I think I posted in the thread a few weeks back about ^ It didn't seem available anywhere at the time (there was a run on EMI-absorbing stones), but now the UK firm in the link has stock, so I have kindly posted it here for you all before it sells out)

The word Shakti means energy. Through an energy conversion, inductive coupling process, the antenna-like circuits within Shakti attract and then resistively convert EMI to non-interfering heat. This increases horsepower and speeds up 0 to 60 times in automotive engines and improves resolution in high definition audio/video systems. No electrical connection is required because all interactions take place through radiated field mutual coupling.

Simply place Shakti units in near proximity to your audio component to obtain performance improvements and prepare to be amazed.

edit: the Amazon reviews are worth reading - https://www.amazon.com/Shakti-Innovations-Stone-Electromagne...lizer/dp/B0030H2O5E#customerReviews

[joebog1]

wowee!!! That BS class A for sure.
If I didnt read that I would not have believed it.

Joe

[Radio Wrangler]

The entire high-end audio industry, its product development, manufacture, marketing and purchasing and use are all powered by BS. Clearly BS is a fuel of very high calorific value!

It would be possible to estimate the energy needed and thereby create a reasonable estimate for the energy density of BS, expressed as the number of joules per word.

This brings to mind that famous answer to the exam question "Is Hell exothermic or endothermic"

David

[bikerhifinut]

Originally Posted by Radio Wrangler

The entire high-end audio industry, its product development, manufacture, marketing and purchasing and use are all powered by BS. Clearly BS is a fuel of very high calorific value!

It would be possible to estimate the energy needed and thereby create a reasonable estimate for the energy density of BS, expressed as the number of joules per word.

This brings to mind that famous answer to the exam question "Is Hell exothermic or endothermic"

David

Never mind Audio, David, I got to thinking if stuff like that really did work, just about every licensed radio Amateur would have one in the shack and thus avoid annoying neighbours with spurious transmissions etc................... of course it may work just too well and prevent any signals reaching the aerials, much like the Vertical telescopic antenna I bought for portable/campervan use that proved to be a very good dummy load. An expensive lesson on the road to knowledge, and now I have success with cheap lengths of wire.
Andy.

[Craig Sawyers]

Originally Posted by knobtwiddler

This could be a good time to show this product off:

https://www.audioaffair.co.uk/shakti-electromagnetic-stabiliser-stone

(I think I posted in the thread a few weeks back about ^ It didn't seem available anywhere at the time (there was a run on EMI-absorbing stones), but now the UK firm in the link has stock, so I have kindly posted it here for you all before it sells out)

edit: the Amazon reviews are worth reading - https://www.amazon.com/Shakti-Innovations-Stone-Electromagne...lizer/dp/B0030H2O5E#customerReviews

I'd love to see someone take one of these apart and see what precisely is in there. Or x-ray one. Like the guy that took apart a Bybee Quantum Purifier and found an 0.2 ohm resistor in there.

The Bybee website says that these devices will reduce noise, which is such twaddle since any resistor in series with whatever will increase noise.

Craig

Craog

such twaddle since any resistor in series with whatever will increase noise.

Take my example, 1V of noise (assume zero impedance for simplicity) into 1k ohm, put a similar resistor is series, and voila half the noise. A bit more in reality with the good old KTBR formula. It will however reduce the signal to noise ratio, naughty naughty.

I am more than ready to be shot down if I have this wrong, unlike the "phools", in fact I would welcome it! That is your proper science.

[Radio Wrangler]

It depends on the temperature of the resistors in the attenuator versus the temperature of the noise entering along with the signal. If the temperatures are equal, then an attenuator has a noise figure equal to its attenuation, in dB.

David