Neward Thelman
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Danny Ritchie of GR Research may prove to be deadly to the audio industry, and with it, all audio consumers. While Ritchie isn't quite at the level of fraud as the recently convicted Theranos grifter Sunny Balwani, Richie's influence and resulting outcome in the audio world may prove to be far more insidious.
A case in point is Balwani's “endofactor” - Google it; it's hilarious – which bears a remarkable resemblance to Richie's “tube connectors”. Both are snake oil; the main difference being that an endofactor doesn't exist, while Richie's tube connectors surely do exist - as a money making gambit.
So, Richie's selling snake oil to consumers who want to buy it. So what? Where's the harm? Here's the definite harm. Right now, audio companies, especially speaker manufacturers are producing higher quality product overall – at all price levels – than at any time in audio history. The terminals used by audio makers, by and large, and particularly above the lowest tier price point, are of incredibly high quality. Incredibly functional.
Contrary to Richie's carnival-side-show medicine-man tactics, antics, and statements, the single, most important function of speaker terminals is to allow the unimpeded flow of current to the speaker. The way to achieve that's by making sure that you don't lose any current. How do you do that? By making the connection between your speaker cable wire and the speaker terminals as tight as possible.
And, right now, most speaker manufacturers are making that extremely possible by making terminals that are thick and that allow you to turn the knobs to get a really tight, secure connection. Slightly higher priced models have terminals at angles to allow you total access to the connection point, best leverage to turn the connector knobs, and to guard against shorting the leads.
Richie's tube connectors – as he calls them – what a joke – pretty much do the opposite. There's no way to tighten anything. The jacks themselves wiggle around, and can even fall right out of the panel to which they're mounted. The whole thing's a silly, Rube Goldberg con job.
So, how's the audio industry's going to be affected by this one thing? This one endofactor? Here's how. Back in the day, pre-amps came with all kinds of controls. Balance, stereo/mono selectors, stereo/mono blends, tone controls, multiple speaker selectors, etc. That was then. Now - today – when's the last time you saw a balance control on a pre-amp, much less tone controls? There was a persistent belief among audiophiles – driven by influencers - that those controls were the most evil, corrupting, bad, awfulness ever conceived by human kind. Eventually, makers dropped them. They just disappeared.
The super quality terminals that makers put on their products today cost money. If Richie's idea takes hold, manufacturers'll just stop blowing money on quality connectors, and stick some cheapo jacks – like Richie's rube-tube connectors – attribute some magical, mystical properties to them – just as Richie does – and pocket the difference. You and I? We'll get inferior products.
Note: I'll be posting this on Richie's site as well.
A case in point is Balwani's “endofactor” - Google it; it's hilarious – which bears a remarkable resemblance to Richie's “tube connectors”. Both are snake oil; the main difference being that an endofactor doesn't exist, while Richie's tube connectors surely do exist - as a money making gambit.
So, Richie's selling snake oil to consumers who want to buy it. So what? Where's the harm? Here's the definite harm. Right now, audio companies, especially speaker manufacturers are producing higher quality product overall – at all price levels – than at any time in audio history. The terminals used by audio makers, by and large, and particularly above the lowest tier price point, are of incredibly high quality. Incredibly functional.
Contrary to Richie's carnival-side-show medicine-man tactics, antics, and statements, the single, most important function of speaker terminals is to allow the unimpeded flow of current to the speaker. The way to achieve that's by making sure that you don't lose any current. How do you do that? By making the connection between your speaker cable wire and the speaker terminals as tight as possible.
And, right now, most speaker manufacturers are making that extremely possible by making terminals that are thick and that allow you to turn the knobs to get a really tight, secure connection. Slightly higher priced models have terminals at angles to allow you total access to the connection point, best leverage to turn the connector knobs, and to guard against shorting the leads.
Richie's tube connectors – as he calls them – what a joke – pretty much do the opposite. There's no way to tighten anything. The jacks themselves wiggle around, and can even fall right out of the panel to which they're mounted. The whole thing's a silly, Rube Goldberg con job.
So, how's the audio industry's going to be affected by this one thing? This one endofactor? Here's how. Back in the day, pre-amps came with all kinds of controls. Balance, stereo/mono selectors, stereo/mono blends, tone controls, multiple speaker selectors, etc. That was then. Now - today – when's the last time you saw a balance control on a pre-amp, much less tone controls? There was a persistent belief among audiophiles – driven by influencers - that those controls were the most evil, corrupting, bad, awfulness ever conceived by human kind. Eventually, makers dropped them. They just disappeared.
The super quality terminals that makers put on their products today cost money. If Richie's idea takes hold, manufacturers'll just stop blowing money on quality connectors, and stick some cheapo jacks – like Richie's rube-tube connectors – attribute some magical, mystical properties to them – just as Richie does – and pocket the difference. You and I? We'll get inferior products.
Note: I'll be posting this on Richie's site as well.
