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Extreme Snake Oil

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Spkrdctr

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'Cable Cooker'

''Periodic cooking-and-listening tests are essential to determine the optimal conditioning time for each design. For instance, if you cook a new interconnect for 24 hours, listen to it briefly, then give it another 6 to 8 hours on the Cooker.

Repeat this cycle of cooking and listening until you find little or no improvement from the previous test. At that point the cable is probably fully conditioned. Cables that have been in a system for quite some time can improve greatly with a 24 to 36 hour recharge on the Cooker… with speaker cables and power cables, sometimes a bit more…


A"periodic recharge" of a system's cabling every 3 or 4 months insures that a system will be at its optimum performance level… Conditioning is not a one-time phenomenon.

Cables also need to settle in after a bout of cooking. ''


This is idiotic. You will fairly quickly cook them too much and once you have, you have to start over with fresh new uncooked cables. It seems that the assumption is that you can't over cook them. How do they know this? what is the rationale? Mind boggling stupidity.....
 

killdozzer

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This is idiotic. You will fairly quickly cook them too much and once you have, you have to start over with fresh new uncooked cables. It seems that the assumption is that you can't over cook them. How do they know this? what is the rationale? Mind boggling stupidity.....
Well it's simply "al-dente" for the middle class! :)
 
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Spkrdctr

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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.

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I have eaten many brownies from an Easy Bake oven. When very young, my sister cooked them up and they were pretty good for the 1960s.
 

NYfan2

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richard12511

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Well, be it silly or unnecessary, since they are still making and selling the product, it shows there is definitely some demand for it. Btw, there are other brands as well. We need to rmember that not everyone wants to go through the hassle of setting up a PC/NAS etc..... some wants it just plug and play.

IMO, very few people are buying these multi-thousand dollar music players solely to avoid an OS. I get the sense that most are buying these devices because they've been tricked into believing it will offer some sort of sound quality advantage.
 

richard12511

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People who likes melco will have praises for it just like how you are praising apple. For myself, i am not a fan of apple and i dont see any good in it. There is nothing my pc cant do compared to apple.
Difference is, there are legitimate reasons to prefer Mac over PC(UNIX based terminal, more logical file structure, better trackpad, more stable drivers), just as there are legitimate reasons to prefer PC(better gaming support, easier access to low level parts fo the OS and hardware, cheaper, less proprietary nonsense). I own and use both Mac and PC, and I have very real reasons to use both. I can't think of any real reason to use that Melco over a Mac/PC/Linux box. On the flip side, I can think of many reasons to use the actual computers over the Melco: more user friendly OS, cheaper, and oh yeah it's also a computer :p. The main selling point of the Melco seems to be the promise of "better sound", which we know is not true. I get that some might know it offers no sound quality advantage. Perhaps they're purchasing it purely for looks, or "plug & play", but those folks are the minority.
 

audio2design

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People who likes melco will have praises for it just like how you are praising apple. For myself, i am not a fan of apple and i dont see any good in it. There is nothing my pc cant do compared to apple.

Except last .... at least where laptops are concerned. Apple does have by far the lowest failure rate in the industry for laptops. I run a Macbook Pro 16. Relatively light for its size, and the big screen is easy on the eyes. The previous Macbook Pro was a daily user for 6 years and now does duty in the lab. It was not treated gently. I run OSX and a Parallels session. Time is money and they just work day in / day out. I don't see any benefit any more to OSX compared to Windows though perhaps a small productivity advantage to Apple for mundane things (search is much better and Finder is much better than File Manager), but poorer when things get more complex.
 

escksu

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Difference is, there are legitimate reasons to prefer Mac over PC(UNIX based terminal, more logical file structure, better trackpad, more stable drivers), just as there are legitimate reasons to prefer PC(better gaming support, easier access to low level parts fo the OS and hardware, cheaper, less proprietary nonsense). I own and use both Mac and PC, and I have very real reasons to use both. I can't think of any real reason to use that Melco over a Mac/PC/Linux box. On the flip side, I can think of many reasons to use the actual computers over the Melco: more user friendly OS, cheaper, and oh yeah it's also a computer :p. The main selling point of the Melco seems to be the promise of "better sound", which we know is not true. I get that some might know it offers no sound quality advantage. Perhaps they're purchasing it purely for looks, or "plug & play", but those folks are the minority.

Hardware wise, both Macs and PCs are the same till recently when Apple change to their own ARM based processors. Btw, its entirely possible to get an x86 Mac to run windows, just need BIOS hack.

As for Melco, can you show me where there is any evidence that Melco promise better sound? My understanding is ease of use instead.

As for the points you mentioend, they are purely subjective and personal in nature. How do you measure objectively what is more logical? Then more stable drivers?? Can you show me some benchmarks??
 

escksu

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IMO, very few people are buying these multi-thousand dollar music players solely to avoid an OS. I get the sense that most are buying these devices because they've been tricked into believing it will offer some sort of sound quality advantage.

Not everyone is IT savvy. Its called ease of use. I am an IT guy but even I myself sometimes prefer a separate a box that does everything for me and I am ok with paying for it. I don't have the Melco because I don't need one.
 

richard12511

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''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.

I agree. They'd probably sell quite a bit more if they simply increased the price 100x.
 

JRS

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"...10,000 micron buffer conditioner..." - Say what now?

"...should remove the MRS devices from the plastic boxes. Interestingly, the modem is the most sensitive to plastic....," - Uh Huh.

"...but even a stone of the right weight leads to an interesting and thought-provoking result...." I promise you this has provoked no thought whatsoever.

"However, slate knows something! I have not heard such an increase in the energies..." - wooo woooOOOOOooooo

And on and on and on swirling down into the oily vortex.
Wow. After treating hundreds of schizophrenics, this one has the feel that something is a bit amiss. Truly has drunk from the cup of madness, has had "breakdowns" before when he had to sell all his gear, yep I think we got a live one.
 

audio2design

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As for the points you mentioend, they are purely subjective and personal in nature. How do you measure objectively what is more logical? Then more stable drivers?? Can you show me some benchmarks??


Most windows crashes are caused by 3rd party drivers (several reports). Not much of an issue in MAC world.

Anecdotally my most stable PC is a MAC running Parallels VM
 

audio2design

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Lowest??



Different reports you can google around but I never seen one that says apple has lowest failure rate.....

Anyway, what brand you like is not my concern and nothing to do with this topic. To me, only retards use apple. Of course this is just my personal opinion but I am never a fan of apple.

The link you posted has Apple as the most reliable in most of the data posted except from 2009 and some crap from RESCUECOM which does not have a great reputation and would not even fix Apple hardware.

Do a bit more research. Almost every report will call Apple Hardware the most reliable.
 

mansr

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Apple does have by far the lowest failure rate in the industry for laptops.
If that's even true, I can think of several factors several factors that might be skewing the numbers:
  • Macs are expensive. Any comparison should be against similarly priced PC models. Looking at entire brands, any difference between cheap models and high-end ones will be missed.
  • Mac users typically replace their devices as soon as a new model is available. People who buy cheap laptops use them until they break.
  • Getting an Apple device repaired is expensive. Many users will rather live with the flaw until they get a replacement. Just look at all the iPhones with cracked displays.
 
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