The Audiophoolery Thread.

[David G4EBT]

Scroll down the page:

http://www.auralthrillsaudio.com/

So that's where I've been going wrong then.

Silly me.

Now I've solved that problem, there'll be no looking back!

[Boater Sam]

You can Phool some of the people all of the time.
I'm going to start selling virgin clean electrons in packets to go with the burnt in cables and cryo treated 'tubes'. Do you think HP2 or C size would be best?
Now I know where some of the idiots get it from.
Sam.

[Andrewausfa]

That surprises me David, you should have known

I remove the wires connecting speaker to output transformer in all my valve radios, then beat them with a hammer made from finest Persimmon on an anvil orientated to magnetic North until all the crystals are re-aligned. The resulting crisp highs beyond the range of human hearing are a joy to listen to.

Andrew

[camtechman]

Every kink in the cable causes the slowing down of atoms.

Then if you stretch the cable it organises the atoms into a stream vortex.

True, yes true, my parrot told me whilst singing "Stairway To Heaven"

Nurse, can I have some more white powdered crystals for my pipe ?

Remember, whaky backy is for pimps....oops sorry whimps.

[MrBungle]

That’s nothing. Check this one out: http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm

(I’m sure these guys are just trolling but you just don’t know)

[camtechman]

I bought some of them, the middle packet taste the best !

My labrador liked the right hand packet, helped him work Pi out to 10/148 !

[David G4EBT]

Oh well, it's good to have a laugh in a troubled world!

Pebbles indeed!

There are lots more stupid things in the world in which people have the utmost faith.

(The definition of 'faith' is 'a strong and unshakeable belief in something without proof or evidence').

Thought for the day:

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

[MrBungle]

Well said

[ms660]

Gosh, at first I thought someone had nicked Vince's hifi

Lawrence.

[RogerEvans]

I notice that he had his amps on the floor, below the level of the speaker drive units. Surely it is better to have the amps mounted higher so that the electrons go downhill on the way to the speaker, it doesn't matter so much that they have to go uphill on the way back since they have done their useful work by then. Oh drat!!! I have just remembered that the audio is AC, there is another money making opportunity gone down the drain.

Roger

[Refugee]

It is easy.
You first need a dummy load that has an odd number of corners on the former to burn it in and while you do that you must put the earth wire in a coal bunker.

['LIVEWIRE?']

I note that, amongst the other statements on the Aural Thrills Audio site, is one which says that signal currents travel along the surface of a wire (or words to that effect) There is surely some basis in fact for that, as I recall being taught many years ago that interference currents travel along the surface of a wire, rather than inside it. As for the rest of that article, no doubt it does enter the realm of 'audiophoolery', although I'm not qualified to comment knowkledgeably about loudspeaker & speaker cabinet design.

[MrBungle]

This is correct. It's called the skin effect and is dependent on the material and frequency.

Skin depth of copper at about 100KHz (way above audio spectrum) is around 0.2mm which makes the whole problem rather insignificant compared to conductor sizes.

At RF things are different which is why you end up with litz wire etc.

[ms660]

He was probably thinking of skin effect, Litz cables, all suitably broken in of course..

Lawrence.

[dave walsh]

It is all very funny David-thanks! I don't get hostile towards the audio community [as some do] myself [a fool and his money are easily parted and all that] and I don't mock the afflicted. Let's face it, this tendency is not restricted to the audio equipment world alone You may not feel highly qualified on the subject [Livewire] but you have the appropriate title].

When I was at the Audio Jumble on Sunday a chap selling some high end and expensive gear was also giving away copies of an excellent Pink Floyd magazine. When I said it seems impertinent to accept one and not buy anything he said "Oh you do have to purchase an amp" I responded saying "That is a shame" as he tried to keep his face straight but of course, he didn't mean it. He even gave me one for my friend who is delighted with it. I call that "audiogenerous" not such a rare species.

Dave W

[MrBungle]

Another favourite of mine:

https://www.audiosanctuary.co.uk/ver...usb-cable.html

Note: the USB cable is directional.

[crackle]

I am surprised they don't use copper tube if the core of the wire discolours the sound.
Mike

[turretslug]

There's some truly risible stuff out there, frequently associated with price tags that are also risible, too but it's a question of degree, proportion, relative sanity.... Many folk here (including me) will wax lyrical about a well-put together piece of vintage kit, even if it has little material effect on the basic functionality. Those who have worked with professional/military kit probably get quite a liking for aerospace/PTFE-type wiring neatly loomed up, expensive and quality connectors, sturdy machined fittings with stainless fasteners and so on- Argus 25's recent post about a beautifully made monochrome monitor provoked the comment that it would likely have worked as well if it had a single SRBP circuit board and a plastic case. Ampex-Kudelski's VPR-5 was a feast in exotic CNC-ery- but the Japanese outsold and eclipsed it with professional developments of video cassette formats using transports made of folded mild steel rather than expensively machined aviation alloy- but it was very precisely folded mild steel and was good enough nearly all the time for a lot less money. Appreciating quality is a Good Thing, but perfectionism is a slippery slope, as some of the audiophool excess proves.

It's a case of staying grounded (!) and learning to apply appropriate value judgement for return on investment- or creeping madness....

[Boater Sam]

The problem with electricity is that it is noisy.
Stand next to a sub station or under a super grid pylon and you can hear it.
The electricity distribution folks know this and take every precaution to prevent the noise entering our houses by the audio system.
They use very large copper busbars wherever possible.
Audiophiles should do the same, 200mm X 20mm pure drawn and annealed mirror polished copper bar is the minimum size to be used, of course you need 3, one each for live, neutral and earth. They should be fitter with a 13A plug fitted with a crystalline 1 Amp Krypton fuse eutectic alloy welded on with pure silver tails and run below the level of the audio system without insulation as that disturbs the outer atoms and destroys the skin effect.
That should reduce the number of false claims for a while.

[bluepilot]

Originally Posted by RogerEvans

Oh drat!!! I have just remembered that the audio is AC, there is another money making opportunity gone down the drain.

The problem is that if everything isn't at the same height then the electrons will run faster down hill on one half of the cycle but slow down trying to get back up on the other half. This will obviously introduce distortion into the audio signal. Therefore all components of a proper audio system should be at exactly the same height. There is money to be made from audio spirit levels I'm sure.