Hi All,
I have been active in the (high end) audio world for about 25 years. My main interest has always been loudspeakers and design. As such, together with a friend of mine, we have created some pretty decent loudspeakers. We did this just for fun.
Contrary of what you might expect, I have not invested in expensive equipment myself, mainly because there is only so much money I am willing (or able for that matter) to spend on it , and I like to listen to the music and not to the equipment.
However, during this time I have run into what I would like to call "Audio Absurdities". By that I mean things that people do (usually this involves spending a lot of money) to make their setup sound better.
One thing you should know of me is that over the years I have become a very skeptical person with regards to audio. But that does not mean I have lost my sense of humor. Hence this tread...
I would like to invite you to post your experience with this type of things. Be it for either generate a good laugh, or warn other readers for costly "audio improvements" that can be categorized being scams.
Have fun or be warned :-)
My first contribution: The Magic Woodblocks
About four years ago I heard from a to remain unnamed person that he had obtained little pieces of wood, about 2" square, varying in thickness depending on application, that should be placed under the equipment's feet. According to the vendor, the wood was from a rare species of trees only to be found in the Amazon. The audible results were claimed to be like "upgrading your equipment to a model twice the price". And that for only US$250 to US$375 per set of three...
http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm (http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm)
The Mpingo Disc is invented by the Shun Mook team. It is made from a combination of Gaboon and Mpingo Ebony, treated with a proprietary process that gives the disc a unique property to regulate the resonance of any sonic component and its transmission. Yet this is a very simple item to use. Just place one to three disc on top of your preamp, CD transport, DA converter, turntable etc, and listen for the wonderful change in your Hi fi system. When this disc is excited by any external acoustic energy, it will resonate throughout the entire audible spectrum, thus overriding unwanted harmonic distortions and at the same enriching the musical reproduction.
Hi All,
To make sure everybody understands correctly:
I am talking about things that have not received proper testing / lack any kind of scientific proof. Basically the "I can not tell why it works, but it just does... Believe me!"
Second contribution...
I was informed of a product described as follows: "A thin dome-shaped object, about 1" in diameter, made of either silver, gold or platinum, that is suspended in a frame (material unknown).
It should be placed against the walls, experimenting with positioning for optimum results". The purpose of this product was to improve room-acoustics for all frequency ranges (but especially bass).
According to this person, who had attended a demonstration of this product, the results were "beyond belief". However, he had not heard any explanation of how it worked.
All this for a very friendly price, depending on the dome's material, up to some US$ 10.000 for a set of 6.
Anything by Peter Belt.
The free ideas are staggeringly daft, but at least they're free - http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/Free_Technique...Techniques.html (http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/Free_Techniques/Free_Techniques.html)
But the products he charges for beggar belief - eg, the so-called "Quantum Clip", which is basically a crocodile clip with a bit of wire attached for £500.
http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/product/quantum/quantum.html (http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/product/quantum/quantum.html)
The description is a triumph of nonsense.
Two words:
Brilliant Pebbles.
Insert anti-marketing/credulity rant here!
With digital audio coming to streaming devices like the Squeezeboxes tons of digital Voodoo comes up on the net.
Sometimes even not funny anymore when you have to read that stuff and see how it turns loose a mass hysteria!
Here is a nice one but much to read. The developer of software based tunings does his magic to a Squeezebox Touch.
While one or two of the changes like switching off the display may indeed change the output signal of a device several other "improvements" are simply silly.
One change that he did in the code is a volume level fix to 100% and his "Core-Team" of "choosen" beta listeners clearly heard the improvement against the max volume setting of the GUI. Some developers of the software caught him there cause it does NOT make a difference if the volume is changed here or there.
Some other things like a Windows server sounds better as Linux cause of better network protocol usage from the PC to the router, half duplex from PC to router sound sbetter also and so on.
We talk about changes at the digital out here btw.
You can read about it here and may start in the middle of the thread. The forum itself lately has gone downhill since some Trolling or Pinheaded members joined but there are some nice guys with a sense of humor
http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.p...742&page=41 (http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=84742&page=41)
Two words:
Brilliant Pebbles.
Insert anti-marketing/credulity rant here!
I am not getting this remark... Would you care to explain?
Thanks & regards,
Peter
Sorry dv1989... I just Googled on Brilliant Pebbles and I am getting it now.
Two words:
Brilliant Pebbles.
Insert anti-marketing/credulity rant here!
I am not getting this remark... Would you care to explain?
Have a look at http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm (http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm)
If you're short on time, the following extracts may be enough for you to reach a conclusion
"Brilliant Pebbles is a unique and comprehensive system for tuning the room and audio system based on special physical properties of highly symmetrical crystal structures ... Brilliant Pebbles comprises a number of precious and semi-precious stones (crystals) selected for their effectiveness. The original glass bottles for Brilliant Pebbles have been replaced by clear zip lock bags, which have a more linear response than glass. We employ a number of highly-specialized, proprietary techniques in the preparation/assembly of Brilliant Pebbles to enhance the crystals' inherent characteristics. The fundamental operating principle of Brilliant Pebbles involves a number of atomic mechanisms in the crystals."
No, but my friend Google would! Alright, it's from http://www.machinadynamica.com/ (http://www.machinadynamica.com/) - which I assume (or very much hope) is a parody site, although it isn't all that far removed from perfectly genuine (as far as audiophool marketing goes) alternatives.
@dv1989
I thought I missed something language wise, but I did a google & found out about it just before I got to read your and SpiderJohn's remarks...
Slightly off-topic, but nevertheless amusing story:
About 12 years ago I had a female colleague (nice gal but sort of a strange type involved in paranormal stuff) who had bought a bag of sea-salt for about $50 that she attached to the back of the CRT monitor of the person opposite to her. The person she obtained it from claimed to be a professor in some vague paranormal area. He also claimed that the bag of salt was treated by him so it would eliminate lethal radiation that was beamed towards her.
Regards,
peter
language wise
Well, I read earlier that English is not your first language, and I can safely say that you have a better grasp of it than many native speakers.
@dv1989:
Thanks for your compliment!
@All - Another one...
Some 10 years ago I visited an audio store in town I had never been before. I got into a conversation with one of the owners. After a little while, he introduced me to the Nordhorst brand they were dealers of. He apparently was very taken with a digital interconnect he had bought (at a discount) to connect his CD-player and external DAC, replacing the AudioQuest interconnect. According to him, the results were astonishing: lower & tighter bass, deeper and wider soundstage / imaging, you name it. And even his wife and kid could easily hear the difference.
I asked him what possibly could cause this result. He pointed out a Nordhorst poster that explained that the cable in question was capable of transporting electrical signals at 98 percent (or something like that) of the speed of light, while competing cables only could go up to 83 percent (or something like that). I replied that this information still did not tell me the WHY. His answer was: "Jitter, man, jitter. This cable eliminates jitter because it is so fast!".
I tried to explain to him that the electrical pulses still arrived in the same order, and with the same time interval, regardless of the speed they were transported, but I was unable to communicate that to him.
When I asked him if he would submit his findings to a blind test, he refused and basically accused me of calling him a liar.
And yet another one:
I can not recall when I heard this story, but I heard it at the Audio shop a friend of mine used to own... He had a client who had spend some serious buck on equipment, and got into the tweaking-fase. I do not know where he got the idea from, but he believed that loudspeaker-cable should be elevated from a re-barred concrete floor by at least 5". He constructed some nice wooden suspensions, and while visiting my friends store, he kept on talking about the unbelievable effect of the "levitated" cables. Since he was a much-valued customer, nobody had the guts to inquire him how that could be the case as all his floors were made of wood...
And another...
After I got my Naim setup, I decided to make a nice rack for it. Made it out of 5 triangle-shaped birch plywood shelfs, aluminum legs and square black marble under the equipment (same size). The marble rested on 3 very low spikes. The top-to-top distance between the birch shelfs was 15cm (5.9").
Just so you all understand... The whole "design" was based on aesthetics...
Some time after finishing the work on it (to me it looked pretty nice), I ran into a topic on a forum about audio-racks, so I posted a picture of my work. After everybody had a good laugh about my opening subject line "Photos of my rack" (I was completely unaware of the fact that a "rack" is slang for specific female body-features - plural), I got some nice remarks.
However, there was this guy that was of opinion that, because of the design and chosen materials, I should be able to experience a significant improvement in sound quality. He also mentioned that if I had used granite in stead of marble, the sonic improvement would be even greater. Any reasonable explanation for these alleged "improvements" I have yet to see...
I have not done any ABX-test on that one (too much trouble), but I can assure you I did not notice any change.
I asked him what possibly could cause this result. He pointed out a Nordhorst poster that explained that the cable in question was capable of transporting electrical signals at 98 percent (or something like that) of the speed of light, while competing cables only could go up to 83 percent (or something like that). I replied that this information still did not tell me the WHY. His answer was: "Jitter, man, jitter. This cable eliminates jitter because it is so fast!".
What I'd like to know is how they actually arrived at those 98% speed-of-light and 83% speed-of-light figures.
@WonderSlug:
I did a Google "http://www.google.com.br/search?hl=pt-BR&q=electrical+conductors+speed+of+light&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=" on it, and came across some interesting articles.
@All: I misspelled the NordHorst brandname - should be Nordost.
While this is probably funny for most people, it is not an absurdity...
A long time ago, I frequented a DIY audio-shop in Amsterdam for a couple of times. The second time I went there, I and a friend of mine were greeted at the door by a fellow that just left with the Dutch equivalent of "Howdy, Folks", identifying the person as a farmer from around the area where I lived. If his accent had not give away his profession, his clothes would have. It's hard to explain, and probably a Dutch thing...
Anyway, when we entered the store, the guys who ran it were pretty exited about the customer that had just left as he had ordered a rather unusually system, and spend some serious money for it. I could understand that it was a reason for them to be joyful, but when they started imitating cows (the sound), I really thought the guys had been smoking something...
It took us a bit of time the get the story from them, but it turned out that the customer had ordered a system that he would use in his cow-stables. At that time, the Dutch government had a (heavily) subsidized experiment for this. Believe it or not, but the milk-production of a cow that is exposed to relaxing (mostly classical as I recall) music increases up to 3% (0.7 liters). It also seems to be true that milk from a relaxed cow tastes better, where the music comes in again.
I asked him what possibly could cause this result. He pointed out a Nordhorst poster that explained that the cable in question was capable of transporting electrical signals at 98 percent (or something like that) of the speed of light, while competing cables only could go up to 83 percent (or something like that). I replied that this information still did not tell me the WHY. His answer was: "Jitter, man, jitter. This cable eliminates jitter because it is so fast!".
What I'd like to know is how they actually arrived at those 98% speed-of-light and 83% speed-of-light figures.
The speed of an electrical signal in a cable is usually in the 70-80% range.
How they got theirs up to 98% - I don't know. The claim that it necessarily reduces jitter is very questionable. In fact almost all arguments involving claims about audible jitter in the digital domain are false.
Of course the spped of signals in a cable matters not for the kinds of distances you find in a listening room.
I asked him what possibly could cause this result. He pointed out a Nordhorst poster that explained that the cable in question was capable of transporting electrical signals at 98 percent (or something like that) of the speed of light, while competing cables only could go up to 83 percent (or something like that). I replied that this information still did not tell me the WHY. His answer was: "Jitter, man, jitter. This cable eliminates jitter because it is so fast!".
What I'd like to know is how they actually arrived at those 98% speed-of-light and 83% speed-of-light figures.
The speed of an electrical signal in a cable is usually in the 70-80% range.
How they got theirs up to 98% - I don't know. The claim that it necessarily reduces jitter is very questionable. In fact almost all arguments involving claims about audible jitter in the digital domain are false.
Of course the spped of signals in a cable matters not for the kinds of distances you find in a listening room.
I agree.
I figure they would base this speed claim off of the conductivity and resistance of the wire. Nevertheless, even if the 98% versus 83% claim were true, given a typical cable length of 1 to 2 meters, that means that the electrical signal gets from source to A/V receiver just 22 to 44 nanoseconds faster. I don't think it would be noticeable at all.
At 300 million meters per second, that is just 3.3 nanoseconds per meter, or 6.6 nanoseconds for 2 meters at 100% of the speed of light. The difference between "fast" and "slow" cables would be on the order of one nanosecond!
Besides, delay is not an issue, only dispersion.
About the cable speed...
If I understand correctly, a (the main?) factor for limiting the theoretical possibility of 100% light speed is the insulator. There are quite a few articles that explain the exact "why", but these goes beyond my understanding.
However, given that the receiving end is completely unaware of when the actual signal started, and that the time it takes for a signal to get from sender to receiver is of no influence on the order or the length of the sent pulses (in a digital situation), I can not see any reason why the speed as a property be responsible for eliminating jitter.
Personally I feel that putting comparative emphasis on the "speed" is more a marketing choice; for many people it will sound impressive. If that results in customers that believe that "faster is better", than the battle is already half won.
Regards,
Peter
CD rings/guards which were thin round rings either rubber or flexible plastic that went on the outside edge of a CD (personally I'd just call them CD rubbers) were in some audio-type magazines back in the 1990s.
They were marketed as "protecting and stabilizing to increase audio quality" for audio CDs during playback since they supposedly raised CDs an insignificant amount off the CD tray. But in reality they caused more problems, could get slightly baked onto the CD leaving residue behind on the outer ring of the disc, and if they broke off whilst inside a CD player it could become damaged.
I can not remember when, but at some time one could buy a black CD marker that one should apply to the outer edge of a CD, coloring it black, claiming improvement on sound. I can not recall the specifics, but it had something to do with canceling reflections.
I believe it was an audiophile magazine that analyzed the markers, and found out they were nothing more than regular permanent markers (the Edding brand if I recall correctly), sold at about 25 times the price of the original.
CD rings/guards which were thin round rings either rubber or flexible plastic that went on the outside edge of a CD (personally I'd just call them CD rubbers) were in some audio-type magazines back in the 1990s.
They were marketed as "protecting and stabilizing to increase audio quality" for audio CDs during playback since they supposedly raised CDs an insignificant amount off the CD tray. But in reality they caused more problems, could get slightly baked onto the CD leaving residue behind on the outer ring of the disc, and if they broke off whilst inside a CD player it could become damaged.
That's quite amusing considering the CDs don't sit on the tray during playback anyways
However, given that the receiving end is completely unaware of when the actual signal started, and that the time it takes for a signal to get from sender to receiver is of no influence on the order or the length of the sent pulses (in a digital situation), I can not see any reason why the speed as a property be responsible for eliminating jitter.
If different frequencies travel at different speeds (dispersion) then over a great enough distance the shape of the pulse can change, making it more difficult to detect the exact time of a pulse edge. That could theoretically increase jitter.
All of this is orders of magnitude below what is actually significant.
This is hear-say, and I have some serious doubts if the actual event really took place...
However, the fact is that at some point a story hit the audio community that CD's sounded better when they were cold, even frozen.
I heard a story from a friend (who had a friend etc...) that someone visited with someone who had a big freezer in his listening room where he stored his CD's at minus 24 degrees Celsius (=minus 11.2 Fahrenheit). His reasoning? "I have a rather "warm" sounding amplifier, and "cool" CD's correct that."
Besides that fact that a CD probably needs about a minute or two to get to room temperature again, I believe that cold "things" actually attract moisture when brought into a warmer environment. That is probably not beneficial to a CD player at all...
If different frequencies travel at different speeds (dispersion) then over a great enough distance the shape of the pulse can change, making it more difficult to detect the exact time of a pulse edge. That could theoretically increase jitter.
All of this is orders of magnitude below what is actually significant.
I believe that to be an incorrect assumption as the time of the pulse will remain the same. Only the beginning and ending of the pulse will be received earlier in time; in between nothing changes.
Regards,
Peter
I believe that to be an incorrect assumption as the time of the pulse will remain the same. Only the beginning and ending of the pulse will be received earlier in time; in between nothing changes.
A pulse is not a single frequency. If you don't believe me, create a square wave in an audio editor, then low-pass it. You will find that the shape is now greatly distorted. You will see the same effect if you apply a frequency-dependent phase shift.
A pulse is not a single frequency. If you don't believe me, create a square wave in an audio editor, then low-pass it. You will find that the shape is now greatly distorted. You will see the same effect if you apply a frequency-dependent phase shift.
Sorry, I did not get the context correctly and I believe you. I am just having trouble relating this to the cable-speed scenario. Can you explain this more detailed?
I agree that the effect is minimal up to a point where discussing it is rather pointless, but a day you do not learn something new is a lost day...
I hope this won't be considered too far off-topic if I expand on this...
Probably the most important situation involving dispersion these days is fiber-optic communications. An optical fiber consists of a long, thin strand of a transparent material (usually fused silica) encased in a coating of a material with a different refractive index. Light entering one end of the fiber travels almost unattenuated to the other end. Its speed is the speed of light in the fiber's material.
The light being used to transmit the information is almost monochromatic, but not quite. The refractive index of the fiber is almost constant over the wavelength range of the light source, but not quite. The combination of the bandwidth of the light source and the dispersion (variation of refractive index with wavelength) results in a broadening of a pulse being transmitted, and the leading and trailing edges of the pulse become less sharp.
All of this limits the combination of data rate and fiber length. The longer the fiber, the lower the maximum data rate, etc. Over the years great strides were made in the technology so that we can now send data at hign rates over hundreds of kilometers before needing to amplify and retransmit the signal.
These effects are miniscule when sending audio data over even hundreds of meters of coaxial cable. Even optical transmission of audio data, with relatively high dispersion plastic fibers and LED light sources, is not affected significantly over distances of tens of meters.
I can not remember when, but at some time one could buy a black CD marker that one should apply to the outer edge of a CD, coloring it black, claiming improvement on sound. I can not recall the specifics, but it had something to do with canceling reflections.
I believe it was an audiophile magazine that analyzed the markers, and found out they were nothing more than regular permanent markers (the Edding brand if I recall correctly), sold at about 25 times the price of the original.
Interestingly, the same method (black magic marker on the outer edge) was applied to certain commercial audio CDs, namely those published by Sony's music group last decade. The reasons were different than cancelling reflections.
Sony stopped making those "special" CDs due to public outcry and some technical issues that arose.
The Blackbody is a high-tech audio accessory which greatly enhances your audio playback experience by addressing the interaction of your audio gear's circuitry with ambient electromagnetic phenomena and modifying this interplay. The Blackbody takes advantage of the quantum nature of particle interaction, and is therefore able to permeate metal, plastic, wood, and other barriers to affect the circuitry inside your components. This altered electromagnetic influence results in profoundly improved sound quality.
A steal at $ 959 only!
http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html (http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html)
Years ago a friend of mine was working at Radio Shack. He once told me that he told a customer that he could not use twinlead to connect his speakers because the twinlead was 300 ohms and the speakers were 8 ohms.
@pdg:
That is a very clear explanation... Thanks!
About too far off-topic... For me it's not a problem at all :-) Hope forum moderators agree too :-)
Thanks again!
Regards,
Peter
Years ago a friend of mine was working at Radio Shack. He once told me that he told a customer that he could not use twinlead to connect his speakers because the twinlead was 300 ohms and the speakers were 8 ohms.
Was your friend in error, or did he "make fun" of the customer?
Years ago a friend of mine was working at Radio Shack. He once told me that he told a customer that he could not use twinlead to connect his speakers because the twinlead was 300 ohms and the speakers were 8 ohms.
Was your friend in error, or did he "make fun" of the customer?
He just didn't know any better.
In Holland there is a pretty "famous" loudspeaker-builder that has some pretty weird "experiments" to prove the quality of his product. He puts a coin on the top of the loudspeaker, and turns up the volume. The fact that the coin does not fall off is proof of quality (no cabinet resonance).
At the time I went there I was greeted by him while he was listening to some vocal music. He moved from the couch, and invited me to sit down and listen to his "best loudspeaker in the world". It sort of puzzles me why he did not hear that the left loudspeaker was connected out-of-phase. After notifying him of that, he corrected it, and I was allowed to play one of my CD's. I noticed that he had also confused the left and right channel.
Besides the fact that he at any given moment stopped my music and played some of his own (that was, according to him, of obviously better quality for testing a loudspeaker of this greatness) he, while discussing his competitors, referred to them as "fumblers in the margin" at best.
His loudspeakers are definitely not the best in the world, and I did not care at all for his disrespectful opinions on his competitors...
This is a nice site, collecting all kinds of audiophile madness:
http://www.ilikejam.org/blog/audio/audiophile.html (http://www.ilikejam.org/blog/audio/audiophile.html)
The Blackbody is a high-tech audio accessory which greatly enhances your audio playback experience by addressing the interaction of your audio gear's circuitry with ambient electromagnetic phenomena and modifying this interplay. The Blackbody takes advantage of the quantum nature of particle interaction, and is therefore able to permeate metal, plastic, wood, and other barriers to affect the circuitry inside your components. This altered electromagnetic influence results in profoundly improved sound quality.
A steal at $ 959 only!
http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html (http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html)
I spent a few minutes looking at the lessloss site - oh my! $4686 for a "power conditioner", of course to be used with 2 "Dynamic Power Filtering" cables which can be yours for the low low price of $1149 each. For maximum benefit one should have a separate power conditioner for each component. Of course the cost is justified by the use of "tankwood". I guess I should not be surprised but sometimes you see something that just takes your breath away.
"Audio Absurdities" would be a great title for a monthly column in an audio magazine! ...If only there were a skeptical-scientific audio magazine. And of course, they might offend potential advertisers.
"The Audio Critic" magazine when it was still in print form often had columns similar to your "Audio Absurdities" like the semi-regular "Hip Boots". Unfortunately the last printed issue was in the Summer of 2003. Now we only see an occasional web article. But then Peter Aczel is in his mid-eightieths.
http://www.theaudiocritic.com/cwo/Back_Issues/ (http://www.theaudiocritic.com/cwo/Back_Issues/)
Um.... magic dots which can be covered by white paper. I had a friend who used to use 'magic dots on white paper' adn everything looked and sounded better to him too. I wonder if these are related.
http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina47.htm (http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina47.htm)
(found this following links from Greynol's post above)
I was just reminded of this one on another forum:
http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html (http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html)
It's been around for a while, so it's not an April Fool's joke.
Please close this thread before I die laughing. I haven't laughed so much since last time I peeked at the machinadynamica site some time ago, I see they have some new "products" now too. I'd really like to think they're spoof sites and they have no customers, otherwise they just reinforce two sayings: "there's one born every minute" and "a fool and his money...".
What's this obsession with "quantum" whatever being involved? Actually the quantum teleportation upgrade from machina surely takes the biscuit for gullibility?
"Quantum" is one of the words up there with the likes of classics like "energy", "ions", "waves", etc. which are clearly defined terms that nevertheless pseudoscientists use out of context, out of their actual meaning and use them to confuse, sound "sciency" and pretend that they know what they're talking about.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y5D7q1O1Uk (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y5D7q1O1Uk)
That was right after Chopra bastardized terms like "locality", "entanglement" and of course "quantum". He's one of the most egregious offenders btw. It's not just audio. It's everywhere.
No thread of this sort would be complete without the Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable (http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302031508&sr=8-1).
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41T0NHP6wdL.jpg)
That's not quite a Cat-5 is it? If you look through the submitted pictures on the amazon link, someone make a Portal gun using them. Cool.
The customer reviews on that cable on Amazon are hilarious.
Please close this thread before I die laughing. I haven't laughed so much since last time I peeked at the machinadynamica site some time ago, I see they have some new "products" now too. I'd really like to think they're spoof sites and they have no customers, otherwise they just reinforce two sayings: "there's one born every minute" and "a fool and his money...".
What's this obsession with "quantum" whatever being involved? Actually the quantum teleportation upgrade from machina surely takes the biscuit for gullibility?
I have friends that are (or once were) heavily involved in the "paranormal" world. The same thing happens there, but usually at a lower price-level. There are companies out there that prey on gullible people, and make big money that way. I think it pretty much started with people that have an interest in paranormal stuff, and they turned out to be easy victims. Just through in a few "educated-sounding" terms, some pretty outrageous explanations that no-one can either prove or disprove and add some completely meaningless, irrelevant or nonexistent titles. Mix that and you have a good recipe for things that sell in that community.
Now I believe the same companies have found (some time ago already) a new market... Maybe the level of gullibility is lower, but we are talking about people that ARE WILLING TO SPEND BIG BUCKS on improvements. And, again, it works! People buy into that kind of mambo-jumbo and spend their hard-earned money on nothing short of utterly BS products, recommended to them by "knowledgeable" people.
CD rings/guards which were thin round rings either rubber or flexible plastic that went on the outside edge of a CD (personally I'd just call them CD rubbers) were in some audio-type magazines back in the 1990s.
They were marketed as "protecting and stabilizing to increase audio quality" for audio CDs during playback since they supposedly raised CDs an insignificant amount off the CD tray. But in reality they caused more problems, could get slightly baked onto the CD leaving residue behind on the outer ring of the disc, and if they broke off whilst inside a CD player it could become damaged.
That's quite amusing considering the CDs don't sit on the tray during playback anyways
On some Pioneer models, it would. The disc would be upside-down on a turning platter, meaning that you could not use those plastic disc clamps.
I actually heard a «disc clamp» kind of thing that made an audible difference. I mean, a «WTF?» level of difference. Never had the chance to check out the details, but I suspect there was some resonance rattling off in the player itself. (Hm ... if I had such a CD ring, I'd try the trick on my early DVD-player ...)
I can not remember when, but at some time one could buy a black CD marker that one should apply to the outer edge of a CD, coloring it black, claiming improvement on sound. I can not recall the specifics, but it had something to do with canceling reflections.
I believe it was an audiophile magazine that analyzed the markers, and found out they were nothing more than regular permanent markers (the Edding brand if I recall correctly), sold at about 25 times the price of the original.
Obvious fraud. The ones that
did deliver the sonic bliss, were the
green ones.
On some Pioneer models, it would. The disc would be upside-down on a turning platter, meaning that you could not use those plastic disc clamps.
I actually heard a «disc clamp» kind of thing that made an audible difference. I mean, a «WTF?» level of difference. Never had the chance to check out the details, but I suspect there was some resonance rattling off in the player itself. (Hm ... if I had such a CD ring, I'd try the trick on my early DVD-player ...)
I didn't realise that. Wouldn't you just have a continuous scraping sound as the disc rotated on the surface it was sitting on though? Plus all that friction wouldn't be good would it?
The Blackbody is a high-tech audio accessory which greatly enhances your audio playback experience by addressing the interaction of your audio gear's circuitry with ambient electromagnetic phenomena and modifying this interplay. The Blackbody takes advantage of the quantum nature of particle interaction, and is therefore able to permeate metal, plastic, wood, and other barriers to affect the circuitry inside your components. This altered electromagnetic influence results in profoundly improved sound quality.
A steal at $ 959 only!
http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html (http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html)
I this this product is based on this idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body). "A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation. "
I doubt that this company has discovered this *idealized* (theoretical?) object and even if they had, i don't understand what possible difference it could make to the sound of my equipment.
On some Pioneer models, it would. The disc would be upside-down on a turning platter, meaning that you could not use those plastic disc clamps.
I actually heard a «disc clamp» kind of thing that made an audible difference. I mean, a «WTF?» level of difference. Never had the chance to check out the details, but I suspect there was some resonance rattling off in the player itself. (Hm ... if I had such a CD ring, I'd try the trick on my early DVD-player ...)
I didn't realise that. Wouldn't you just have a continuous scraping sound as the disc rotated on the surface it was sitting on though? Plus all that friction wouldn't be good would it?
My first CD player (a radio shack deal back in 1986 or so) was so sensitive to vibrations that if you closed the door to my dorm room, the player would lose it's tracking (i opened it up once an found the insides of it mostly empty). I remember that those pioneer players that you had to lay the disk upside down in were early models too. That might have been their solution to that problem and i can see a disc clamp helping with that as well. Also, putting a CD in those things was kinda like placing a record on it's mat and might have eased the transition for people used to vinyl by making playing a CD feel similar.
The Blackbody is a high-tech audio accessory which greatly enhances your audio playback experience by addressing the interaction of your audio gear's circuitry with ambient electromagnetic phenomena and modifying this interplay. The Blackbody takes advantage of the quantum nature of particle interaction, and is therefore able to permeate metal, plastic, wood, and other barriers to affect the circuitry inside your components. This altered electromagnetic influence results in profoundly improved sound quality.
A steal at $ 959 only!
http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html (http://www.lessloss.com/blackbody-p-200.html)
I this this product is based on this idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body). "A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation. "
I doubt that this company has discovered this *idealized* (theoretical?) object and even if they had, i don't understand what possible difference it could make to the sound of my equipment.
You really aren't following along are you? All that nasty electromagnetic radiation floating around ruins the sound from your megabucks sound system. This gadget absorbs it all and purifies the sound, isn't it obvious?
It took us a bit of time the get the story from them, but it turned out that the customer had ordered a system that he would use in his cow-stables. At that time, the Dutch government had a (heavily) subsidized experiment for this. Believe it or not, but the milk-production of a cow that is exposed to relaxing (mostly classical as I recall) music increases up to 3% (0.7 liters). It also seems to be true that milk from a relaxed cow tastes better, where the music comes in again.
I do volunteer work for a public radio station. We get a lot of people who say they play classical for the cows.
I this this product is based on this idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body). "A black body is an idealized physical body that absorbs all incident electromagnetic radiation. "
I doubt that this company has discovered this *idealized* (theoretical?) object and even if they had, i don't understand what possible difference it could make to the sound of my equipment.
You really aren't following along are you? All that nasty electromagnetic radiation floating around ruins the sound from your megabucks sound system. This gadget absorbs it all and purifies the sound, isn't it obvious?
Oh, right. I'm sorry Antz. I'll try to pay more attention next time. I've put one of those ladybug shaped radiation absorbers on the back of my LCD monitor to absorb all the electrons that escape from it and it's been making the fonts on the screen hard to read due to an occurrence of the Helvetica Scenario coupled with Quark Induction.
On some Pioneer models, it would. The disc would be upside-down on a turning platter, meaning that you could not use those plastic disc clamps.
I didn't realise that. Wouldn't you just have a continuous scraping sound as the disc rotated on the surface it was sitting on though? Plus all that friction wouldn't be good would it?
No: Put the disc upside down on a «turntable» platter. The platter rotates.
On some Pioneer models, it would. The disc would be upside-down on a turning platter, meaning that you could not use those plastic disc clamps.
I didn't realise that. Wouldn't you just have a continuous scraping sound as the disc rotated on the surface it was sitting on though? Plus all that friction wouldn't be good would it?
No: Put the disc upside down on a «turntable» platter. The platter rotates.
I had one of those Pioneer players, a Pioneer PD-S 802 (http://listeninn.com/catalog/images/Used-CD-Players/Pioneer%28PD-S802%29%20enlarge1.jpg). The first generation of this 'stable platter mechanism' drive would have the problem that the laser would deattach itself after some time, prompting it to fall on the CD. My drive was a member of the second generation without this problem. Still, after only 4 years you couldn´t use the player anymore because the laser emitter had deteriorated.
On some Pioneer models, it would. The disc would be upside-down on a turning platter, meaning that you could not use those plastic disc clamps.
I actually heard a «disc clamp» kind of thing that made an audible difference. I mean, a «WTF?» level of difference. Never had the chance to check out the details, but I suspect there was some resonance rattling off in the player itself. (Hm ... if I had such a CD ring, I'd try the trick on my early DVD-player ...)
I didn't realise that. Wouldn't you just have a continuous scraping sound as the disc rotated on the surface it was sitting on though? Plus all that friction wouldn't be good would it?
The mechanism (spindle) that the disk sits on rises up and lifts the CD a few mm off the tray. So, no scraping.
The first generation of this 'stable platter mechanism' drive would have the problem that the laser would deattach itself after some time, prompting it to fall on the CD.
We only said the platter was stable!