Extreme Snake Oil

[egellings]

From experience I associate plaid jackets with bad car sales people or untrustworthy sales people in general. It seems to be the same with snake oil audio sellers.

No offense meant to trustworthy people who like plaid jackets.

Edited to add: At my software company which sold products to banks, I had a strict rule that the sales people were not allowed to wear plaid jackets.

I in general don't like suit-tops (jackets) at all. It's just posturing, trying to look influential or authoritative. Had too many know-nothings wearing them trying to tell me what to do and blowing it badly. For workplace, Dockers pants, a polo shirt and a pullover sweater are as fancy as I get. I ain't here to look purdy; I'm here to play fuh-baw (football). I'm a doer, not a looker. About me: I'm a classist little EE pig. (EE=electrical engineering)

 

[Angsty]

The level of BS is going abnormally high over there...
View attachment 368423

Neodio's sound research method

Neodio's very different approach to Hi-FI explained from A to Z. The secret of the purity of Neodio's sound revealed!

www.neodio.fr

View attachment 368424View attachment 368425

I'd love to see the peer-reviewed AES paper on this. I'll wait.

 

[GeorgeWalk]

Size does matter, but not as much as one may assume.

I thought it was girth?

 

[Salt]

Both, where it fits

 

[Killingbeans]

Not sure if this company has shown up here yet. Entire website is off the rails insane. If possible, matches or exceeds the shamelessness of Synergistic Research.

VoodooLabs

It's a POE's Law scenario, except there are purported excerpts from fawning reviews:

VL WITCHCRAFT™ Speaker Cable Grid 2m

WITCHCRAFT™(english text - deutsche Fassung siehe unten)So you always had this uncanny feeling that your set-up with the world’s best audiophile sources, amps and speakers should be capable of more than what you heard. That musicality, luminosity and lightning fast transients were hidden...

voodoolabs.myshopify.com

Some "Science Facts" for you:

News

Arguably the best sounding interconnectors and speaker cables on the planet. Patented or pat.pend. solutions for clear and highly musical propagation and reproduction of audiophile recordings. Pure carbon in CARBON AGE, paramagnetic field freedom in WITCHCRAFT. Highest Fidelity through 4 valence...

voodoolabs.myshopify.com

Products:

Voodoo Labs Witchcraft + Carbon Age High End Reference Cabling

Arguably the best sounding interconnectors and speaker cables on the planet. Patented or pat.pend. solutions for clear and highly musical propagation and reproduction of audiophile recordings. Pure carbon in CARBON AGE, paramagnetic field freedom in WITCHCRAFT. Highest Fidelity through 4 valence...

voodoolabs.myshopify.com

What a waste of metal 3D printing

 

[Angsty]

There is part of me that says if you are willing to pay $10K for this level of pseudoscience, then you deserve what you get.

 

[FrantzM]

New $95K MSB DAC
What are the chancss of it sounding /measuring better than an RME DAC ?

Or an Apple $9.95 dongle???

Peace.

 

[roog]

There is part of me that says if you are willing to pay $10K for this level of pseudoscience, then you deserve what you get.

I still feel that misinformation is not harmless and if allowed to carry on completely unchecked we will end up with, "the lunatics running the asylum".
I feel uncomfortable just thinking of a world in which flat earthers are the larger majority.

 

[Count Arthur]

we will end up with, "the lunatics running the asylum"

I think that ship has sailed.

 

[anphex]

I wonder if I should just build some blinky beepy gadgets with an arduino and offer myself as a room magnetic field clearner, having a very serious look while I tap some buttons on my gadgets and saying "yes, the audio pollution flux resonance quantum waves are very strong here." Then placing some random metal objects in the room, turning my devices off and sending out a bill for 4959 €.

I'd bet 100 € that I'd get a client in the first week.

 

[ta240]

thanks i make sure to not click on these , they gain from every view …

They also gain every time they are linked in a forum like this...

 

[Leporello]

$370K turntable sound demo
Another one I could never afford

What’s the noise on the left channel right before the music starts? Cannot hear it on the cd version.

 

[ta240]

1. It's like watching someone trying to figure out how things work in the world, before science arose.

2. Gawd I hate f*cking AI narrated videos, which have become the scourge of youtube.

It is extra funny that they push some of these things as 'most important' upgrades. They aren't just saying "Bought the most expensive of everything and still have money left? Try these", They are saying "If you don't have these you are missing out no matter what".

The best way to get me to turn off a video is to have the AI narration.

There is part of me that says if you are willing to pay $10K for this level of pseudoscience, then you deserve what you get.

The trickle down from the way they push these as being 'must have' is that similar products end up in working class systems. It slowly eats away at people's ability for critical thinking.

 

[roog]

I think that ship has sailed.

I think that you might be right, the HiFi forums I used to frequent seem to be led by self appointed experts who are quick to shut down any mention of scientists and engineers as though they have no part to play in creating the equipment in the first place, amazing really!

 

[roog]

It is extra funny that they push some of these things as 'most important' upgrades. They aren't just saying "Bought the most expensive of everything and still have money left? Try these", They are saying "If you don't have these you are missing out no matter what".

The best way to get me to turn off a video is to have the AI narration.


The trickle down from the way they push these as being 'must have' is that similar products end up in working class systems. It slowly eats away at people's ability for critical thinking.

I understand the creators need to spread misinformation, they want to sell stuff, I find it harder to understand the willingness of others to reinforce the message. What do they have to gain, a 'like' in the thread perhaps? (thinks, I need to be careful here!)

I see how it has affected a friend, it is horrible to watch, the belief system is strong.

 

[Spkrdctr]

I believe that the continuous improvement is actually activated by current, even though the fluid is non-conductive,

There it is. The non-scientific belief in voodoo. Non-conductive yet activated by electron flow. I'm impressed at such an amazing grasp of the fine details of electricity and its nuances. Shocked I tell you!

 

[egellings]

Nice use of term, 'shocked' when referring to surprise at an electrical statement.

 

[Angsty]

I understand the creators need to spread misinformation, they want to sell stuff, I find it harder to understand the willingness of others to reinforce the message. What do they have to gain, a 'like' in the thread perhaps? (thinks, I need to be careful here!)

I see how it has affected a friend, it is horrible to watch, the belief system is strong.

This type of misinformation in audio has been around for several decades. I think it got worse as audio moved steadily from DIY hobbyist-centered to consumer-centered. Enthusiasts became disconnected from the physics and electronics and more attached to marketing hype. For example, I don't believe there was much of a market in 1960 for "audiophile" power fuses, as many enthusiasts actually understood the function of a fuse.

 

[egellings]

The next big thing will have to be, what else? fuse holders. You wouldn't house a fancy fuse like that riding in a bog-standard 4-cylnder 3 speed million-of-'em-on-the-road nothingburger of a fuse holder, would you?

 

[Punter]

So we have a dodgy SLS print with a base that is pure theatre. In fact, the base reminds me of a CAD model of a turbocharger inlet wheel that I used to teach in my CAD classes but it's got a few of the blades extended into the stick part. Then we have a bunch of cotton sheathed cables running through a waffle maker at the top.

But why??

In a nutshell, musical signals ARE NOT TRANSPORTED BY THE TRANSFER OF ELECTRONS FROM AN AMP TO A VOICE-COIL.

WOW!

This is wrong, and the people telling you this have no idea what is happening.

Yeh, like injuneers an stuff!

A musical signal is a charge, propagated USING the electrons of the outer shells of atoms as a friendly suggestion where to connect to with light speed. It is called Flux.

Einstein was right!

Flux happens mostly OUTSIDE a cable or in the outermost millimeter. All what happens deeper inside are vortexes ruining the signal. (If you doubt all this, see Sears/Zemansky: University Physics Vol.II.)

Sears and Zemansky FTW!!
from: https://voodoolabs.myshopify.com/products/vl-witchcraft-speaker-cable-grid