Extreme Snake Oil

[mansr]

You gotta be kidding! That much for a capacitor?

Maybe it's a flux capacitor.

 

[mhardy6647]

That PC enclosure fan with red LEDs is a con-man stroke of genius. Really makes people think something's cooking.

In the old days, they would've used an incendescent light bulb (or two), like an Easy-Bake Oven... but that would be too energy-inefficient for 2021.
On the other hand, it would take an LED Easy-Bake oven a long time to make a little brownie.

 

[NYfan2]

I saw this thread today: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ts-chat-with-john-atkinson.27983/#post-968949
And I checked out Ayre Acoustics because I don't know the company, don't know what to think of it, I found these in their webshop:
https://www.ayre.com/product/myrtle-wood-blocks-single-notch-6-pack/
and
https://www.ayre.com/product/myrtle-wood-blocks-double-notch-6-pack/

So according to the description: You’ll be captivated with the improved musicality these wood blocks provide.

but the best one is:
https://www.ayre.com/product/ibe-disc/

This disc is designed to enhance the listening enjoyment of your audio system

 

[Ken1951]

I saw this thread today: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ts-chat-with-john-atkinson.27983/#post-968949
And I checked out Ayre Acoustics because I don't know the company, don't know what to think of it, I found these in their webshop:
https://www.ayre.com/product/myrtle-wood-blocks-single-notch-6-pack/
and
https://www.ayre.com/product/myrtle-wood-blocks-double-notch-6-pack/

So according to the description: You’ll be captivated with the improved musicality these wood blocks provide.

but the best one is:
https://www.ayre.com/product/ibe-disc/

This disc is designed to enhance the listening enjoyment of your audio system

I prefer Natural Finish Cherry for wood block cable lifts. And they have the extra advantage of even more warming of the sound as they age and the color of the blocks warm over time!

 

[Mart68]

I saw this thread today: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ts-chat-with-john-atkinson.27983/#post-968949
And I checked out Ayre Acoustics because I don't know the company, don't know what to think of it, I found these in their webshop:
https://www.ayre.com/product/myrtle-wood-blocks-single-notch-6-pack/
and
https://www.ayre.com/product/myrtle-wood-blocks-double-notch-6-pack/

So according to the description: You’ll be captivated with the improved musicality these wood blocks provide.

but the best one is:
https://www.ayre.com/product/ibe-disc/

This disc is designed to enhance the listening enjoyment of your audio system

''While we don’t have conclusive proof of the mechanism involved, we suspect that it functions by demagnetizing residual fields that build up in your components over time.''

The real problem is that it's only twenty dollar. No potential mug will take that seriously. Needs to be at least a hundred. And at a thousand it would be a 'game changer'.

if you're going to sell foo, do it properly or don't bother. 'We suspect' - FFS.

 

[hmscott]

...but the best one is:
https://www.ayre.com/product/ibe-disc/

This disc is designed to enhance the listening enjoyment of your audio system

"…I “treat” my system with Ayre’s Irrational, But Efficacious! glide-tone disc—another tweak that I was convinced would make no difference whatsoever, but that removed several layers of grunge whether I believed in it or not." - Wes Phillips, Stereophile Ayre Accessories

Perhaps it is an effect best heard 1st hand?

 

[mansr]

but the best one is:
https://www.ayre.com/product/ibe-disc/

This disc is designed to enhance the listening enjoyment of your audio system

That's Machina Dynamica level bullshit.

 

[SIY]

Charlie Hanson made up for his pseudo-scientific quackery in pursuit of money by being a vicious, nasty, and abusive person to anyone who questioned his claims.

 

[mansr]

Charlie Hanson made up for his pseudo-scientific quackery in pursuit of money by being a vicious, nasty, and abusive person to anyone who questioned his claims.

You forgot racist.

 

[SIY]

You forgot racist.

I didn't have any first-hand experience of that.

 

[mansr]

I didn't have any first-hand experience of that.

Here is an example:

The major Japanese companies have never been able to build amazing sounding audio equipment. The only exception has been when they have hired foreigners to help run their programs

Elsewhere in that thread, he has a go at the Chinese. It was a common pattern.

 

[SIY]

Here is an example:


Elsewhere in that thread, he has a go at the Chinese. It was a common pattern.

I'd love to show some examples of Charlie at his finest, but we (the staff at the time at diyAudio) removed the worst stuff and put him in permanent moderation.

 

[Mart68]

That's Machina Dynamica level bullshit.

It all is really though isn't it?

I 've been working on the concept of the Foo Acceptance Level (FAL) - based on the observation that many people will scoff at, say, cable lifters, but get quite irritable if you suggest that the Stillpoint feet they have placed under their DAC don't actually improve its performance.

 

[Count Arthur]

Anyone else remember Peter Belt?

His strange tweaks used to appear in the UK Hi-Fi magazines a fair bit back the 80s and 90s; I'm not sure about later, I stopped reading them.

I believe he passed away a few years back, but there's still a web site: https://pwbelectronics.co.uk/images-of-our-products

 

[audio2design]

In the old days, they would've used an incendescent light bulb (or two), like an Easy-Bake Oven... but that would be too energy-inefficient for 2021.
On the other hand, it would take an LED Easy-Bake oven a long time to make a little brownie.

You can burn things right in front of a high powered LED, especially if they are dark. Quite a bit of power coming out of some of those.

 

[Mart68]

Anyone else remember Peter Belt?

His strange tweaks used to appear in the UK Hi-Fi magazines a fair bit back the 80s and 90s; I'm not sure about later, I stopped reading them.

I believe he passed away a few years back, but there's still a web site: https://pwbelectronics.co.uk/images-of-our-products

Yes remember the Belt tweaks well. Still have a few old magazines from 1989/90 with reviewers eulogising them and saying the principles behind them were going to change the world. Plus ca change.

I think his wife now runs the company.

 

[mhardy6647]

You can burn things right in front of a high powered LED, especially if they are dark. Quite a bit of power coming out of some of those.

Link to a YT video? I I mean, peer reviewed would be nice, but YT'll work.
To be (heh) clear... I am thinking visible light LEDs -- I think most (or at least much) of the power that they consume is dissipated in the form of (visible) light, thus the advantage of LEDs over incandascent bulbs
I am sure IR laser LEDs or whatnot, of suitable power rating would bake a brownie, but not domestic LED bulbs... most of the heat from those seems to stem from the P/S (empirically & anecdotally).
I remember vividly seeing a 4 watt CO2 laser burn (for lack of a better word) a hole in a piece of lumber at a demo at a (the?) Science Museum in Toronto, ca. 1991. The laser was switched on, and a perfectly round hole just sort of appeared in the wood, with a small puff of smoke and a slight smell of burning. It was rather dramatic.

 

[antcollinet]

So if you have a 100W visible light LED, with a narrow beam, and point it at something black (That will absorb most of that light) what do you think happens to the 100W? (I'll admit there are few domestic 100W led lamps - but there are some 40+W ones:

Philips LED 479303 LED Non-Dimmable A40 Super Bright Bulb 5000-Lumen, 6500-Kelvin, 42-Watt (300-Watt Equivalent), E26 Base, 1 Count (Pack of 1), Day Light Delux : Amazon.co.uk: Lighting

Philips LED 479303 LED Non-Dimmable A40 Super Bright Bulb 5000-Lumen, 6500-Kelvin, 42-Watt (300-Watt Equivalent), E26 Base, 1 Count (Pack of 1), Day Light Delux : Amazon.co.uk: Lighting

www.amazon.co.uk

 

[audio2design]

Link to a YT video? I I mean, peer reviewed would be nice, but YT'll work.
To be (heh) clear... I am thinking visible light LEDs -- I think most (or at least much) of the power that they consume is dissipated in the form of (visible) light, thus the advantage of LEDs over incandascent bulbs
I am sure IR laser LEDs or whatnot, of suitable power rating would bake a brownie, but not domestic LED bulbs... most of the heat from those seems to stem from the P/S (empirically & anecdotally).
I remember vividly seeing a 4 watt CO2 laser burn (for lack of a better word) a hole in a piece of lumber at a demo at a (the?) Science Museum in Toronto, ca. 1991. The laser was switched on, and a perfectly round hole just sort of appeared in the wood, with a small puff of smoke and a slight smell of burning. It was rather dramatic.

Sorry, I don't take YT video of me actually burning stuff, but perhaps that could be a channel. The numerous accidental shocks are likely far more interesting. Everything is isolated, but there is still leakage current, not to mention charged up capacitors. I still do the one hand thing (no current across the heart), and when that is not possible, rubber gloves. Could be worse, I could be in a corporate lab trying to figure out how to attach probes behind a wall of plexiglass.

I whipped up an office light, Bridgelux COB from Digikey, putting about 75 watts into it. It reflects off the ceiling and gives a wonderful diffuse light. 75 watts in, probably 40% conversion efficiency, 30 watts out optically, in a <30mm diameter -- that is more that enough to burn things up close to the LED (we are talking < 1cm).

 

[Spkrdctr]

Presented, without comment: View attachment 161420

On WOOD floors!! We all know how wood is the death angel of an electron!