Extreme Snake Oil

[JSmith]

audiophoolery

JSmith

 

[bambadoo]

Pretty good hearing for a 78 year old reviewer.
Here is his other gear.

Enjoy the Music.com Reviewer's Bio

Enjoy the Music.com Review Magazine

www.enjoythemusic.com

Equipment List
Charisma Audio turntable, arm & cartridge
LampizatOr Amber 4 DAC w/Sony ES CD player (transport)
Sony ES550 tuner (modified)
Coincident Statement Phono Stage
Coincident Statement Line Stage
Tube Magic Canada SET monoblocks (18 wpc)
Coincident Turbo 845 SE integrated amp (28 wpc)
AGD Audion monoblocks (GaNFET Class D, 100 wpc)
Kharma Ceramique 2.2 speakers
Synergistic Research Atmosphere Excite SX cables, power cords
Synergistic Research Foundation SX cables
Synergistic Research PowerCell 8 UEF SE conditioner
Synergistic Research Active Ground Block
LessLoss BlackGround 10X Power Base
Audience Hidden Treasure In-Wall AC 30A dedicated line.
Tweaks & mods from Synergistic Research including Purple Fuses, duplex AC receptacle, carbon fiber duplex covers, MiG footers, record weight, Tranquility POD
Soundeck footers, record mat, damping puck
Massif record weight
Codia Acoustic Design Diagon equipment rack, (Turntable on a wall-mounted shelf)

Every SR product there is, he is "reviewing". Of course a "friend" and a fan boy. Much of what is wrong with this hobby manifests in cases like this.

 

[Galliardist]

Pretty good hearing for a 78 year old reviewer.
Here is is other gear.

Enjoy the Music.com Reviewer's Bio

Enjoy the Music.com Review Magazine

www.enjoythemusic.com

Every SR product there is, he is "reviewing". Of course a "friend" and a fan boy. Much of what is wrong with this hobby manifests in cases like this.

IIRC the worst case measured distortion from a standard fuse that I've seen noted is 0.0033% for a fuse in the signal path at 20Hz. Every single one of his active components would appear to have higher distortion than that (not counting the CD player used as transport).

If this has anything to do with actual sound waves, that fuse will have to do a lot of damage to the sound, just to get noticed!

 

[simbloke]

For $595 if it blows, it better reconstitute itself starting at a quantum level so I don't have to buy another fuse.

Maybe they could sell a version that doesn't blow like mere mortal fuses when something goes wrong!

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

At that point, you’d want to step up to the next level: The ChumpizatOr. Painstakingly designed and built from the ground up (pun intended!). Rest assured those electrons will flow through the Chump (for short) in style for a mere $2995! Do expect roughly 1000 hours before your electrons begin exiting the fuse with maximum self-assurance.

That's the fuse you'd want if you were just some chump with a $100K system and you wanted it to sound like a million dollar system.

 

[notsodeadlizard]

Imagine any capacitors, resistors, relays, transistors e.t.c. ..easily replaceable. What a golden niche market.

It is clear that these fuses are just an expensive toy for those who like to play with such toys.
(I personally do not care, I have not been interested in deviations for a long time)

But you are very close to the truth.

Something similar is done at the design stages.
Especially with resistors and capacitors in feedback circuits.
Because engineers are well aware that a real resistor and an ideal resistor are two very different resistors.
And because SMD component implementations have a lot of nuances.
Not only Douglas Self made such measurements, these are generally well-known facts - SMD resistors of the most common technologies are non-linear devices, and their distortion under certain operating conditions cannot be called insignificant when it comes to perfectionism:

SM graph is for SMD 10K 0805 size resistor.
TH is for a big through hole mounting resistor.
(gen-mon is excitation signal)
Of course, those 0.001% THD+N (which is far away from unthinkable indicators that are so freely operated here) is THD + Johnson noise, but, anyway, one such resistor in the feedback circuit is enough, and the resulting performance will not be better.

When it comes to ppm level distortions, nothing is simple.
Even SMD resistors are getting tricky.
But it is the SMD components make the equipment cheaper, because it is they that make it possible to automate assembly.
And there is some contradiction.
But this is not scary, because all engineering is one huge set of some contradictions.

 

[fpitas]

I bet nobody here has even bothered to buy this fuse and listen to it.

 

[poxymoron]

We can scoff all we like but I think this tells us everything.
If Amir did tables like this then we wouldn't have to read all the sciency stuff and we could spend more time trusting our ears.
Carry on.

 

[voodooless]

The date of the review was April- maybe the 1st?

View attachment 288869

I’m pretty sure the fuse is made out of irony

 

[fpitas]

We can scoff all we like but I think this tells us everything.
If Amir did tables like this then we wouldn't have to read all the sciency stuff and we could spend more time trusting our ears.
Carry on.
View attachment 288966

Gotta admit, that fuse is an over-achiever.

 

[JSmith]

I think this tells us everything.

I can't buy that... fit and finish is not up to par, in the bin.


JSmith

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

We can scoff all we like but I think this tells us everything.
If Amir did tables like this then we wouldn't have to read all the sciency stuff and we could spend more time trusting our ears.
Carry on.
View attachment 288966

yeah that was what I referred to earlier as being solid evidence the whole thing was a big joke! lol...I mean just look at that list of qualities! "Emotionally engaging?????" hahaha...it can't possibly be serious.


...but apparently it is serious!

 

[Adi777]

Yes, I know, without subtitles. I will try to explain.
This gentleman from the video runs a YouTube channel with mocking videos about audiophile wonderful inventions.
From 1:00:52 he read a review from High Fidelity about this "mystery invention". You sit now? If not, better sit
Quote from the review:
"The announcer announcing Frank Sinatra during his performance at The Sands Hotel was clearer in his body and more energetic."
xdddddd

 

[fpitas]

yeah that was what I referred to earlier as being solid evidence the whole thing was a big joke! lol...I mean just look at that list of qualities! "Emotionally engaging?????" hahaha...it can't possibly be serious.


...but apparently it is serious!

Poe's Law. It's so absolutely ridiculous we can't even mock it.

 

[DSJR]

One now deceased VERY outspoken UK maker tried to suggest that a better result over a SR fuse is NO FUSE INLINE AT ALL - in this case, a solid 5mm diameter or whatever copper bar or the fuseholder bypassed altogether. I gather the preference in these people was to have the fuse inline.

Next thing is to question whether these fuses are legal (for insurance purposes should a fire occur which I have seen with gear blowups). Unless I'm mistaken, UK spec fuses have kite marks on them and I'm sure other markets (especially in the EU?) would be similar? These wanky fuses have nothing other than heresay with as far as I can understand, no proper certification, not that that stops a dedicated tweaker with money...

Same for these so called 'grounding boxes' that actually *introduced* rf noise into the system from what I can remember.

 

[notsodeadlizard]

Yes, I know, without subtitles. I will try to explain.
This gentleman from the video runs a YouTube channel with mocking videos about audiophile wonderful inventions.
From 1:00:52 he read a review from High Fidelity about this "mystery invention". You sit now? If not, better sit
Quote from the review:
"The announcer announcing Frank Sinatra during his performance at The Sands Hotel was clearer in his body and more energetic."
xdddddd

Well, how not to envy people who know how to entertain themselves like that?

 

[notsodeadlizard]

Yes, I know, without subtitles. I will try to explain.
This gentleman from the video runs a YouTube channel with mocking videos about audiophile wonderful inventions.
From 1:00:52 he read a review from High Fidelity about this "mystery invention". You sit now? If not, better sit
Quote from the review:
"The announcer announcing Frank Sinatra during his performance at The Sands Hotel was clearer in his body and more energetic."
xdddddd

I just think that making these stupid cables and even listening to some unthinkable fuses is much more interesting than endlessly discussing those who make stupid cables and listen to unthinkable fuses.

All I want to say about this is that these are just different games with different toys.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

So don't read the threads then. shrug.

I think mocking this dumb shit and making it seem as utterly foolish and laughable as possible (and as it deserves) so that maybe people realize that they don't need to waste any money at all on BS and that they don't need to spend thousands and thousands of dollars to have great sound is a worthy endeavour. It's not going to change by ignoring it.

 

[Vincent Kars]

Wonder why you guys spend so much time on this entry level product.
Get a Quantum Science Audio Silver Extreme Level Fuse at £4,200.00 and be done with it

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

Wonder why you guys spend so much time on this entry level product.
Get a Quantum Science Audio Silver Extreme Level Fuse at £4,200.00 and be done with it

One can only imagine the emotional engagement a fuse such as that might provide! Who would need friends or lovers with such a fuse in their sound system?!