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A talk for the local skeptics community
- Thread starter j_j
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kemmler3D
Master Contributor
Rob Watts claims to hear distortion at -300dB.
www.audiosciencereview.com
One of my favorite bits of malarkey because of how superhuman his hearing would have to be if that were true. He could hear a pin drop on Mars from inside his bedroom if this were true.
e: It's also a clear example of someone smart and knowledgeable about audio being taken in by "I know what I heard" and ignoring their own susceptibility to cognitive biases, despite what they know intellectually. We all have brains connected to our ears, so we're all susceptible. If someone that designs DACs for a living can get caught up by this, the rest of us had better be careful!
Canjam SoCal Headphone and Audio Show 2019 Part 2
Then I went to a talk about streaming that was organized by the LA Audio Society: Steve (?) Levy on the left is the president. The person in black was Ying Kit Lee which is one of their technical gurus. By our standards, he needs more education. :) The other two folks were from Qobuz...
www.audiosciencereview.com
One of my favorite bits of malarkey because of how superhuman his hearing would have to be if that were true. He could hear a pin drop on Mars from inside his bedroom if this were true.
e: It's also a clear example of someone smart and knowledgeable about audio being taken in by "I know what I heard" and ignoring their own susceptibility to cognitive biases, despite what they know intellectually. We all have brains connected to our ears, so we're all susceptible. If someone that designs DACs for a living can get caught up by this, the rest of us had better be careful!
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Galliardist
Major Contributor
Maybe a talk like this needs to be a bit of a history lesson. The place to start is with the "discovery" that bell wire wasn't as good as a suitable gauge cable, which leads into a lot of the nonsense: also how "anti-vibration" products developed from turntables actually being prone to acoustic feedback to a marketplace of largely useless products under electronics.
The story of how we got to the point where people pay thousands of dollars for a box of soil has to be more interesting than just presenting that box of soil. It's probably somewhat harder work to put together though.
The story of how we got to the point where people pay thousands of dollars for a box of soil has to be more interesting than just presenting that box of soil. It's probably somewhat harder work to put together though.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #24
That is, actually, part of the talk leading up to the reveal of the true whack-a-doo stuff. And to who said check out the snake oil thread, oh yeah, I'm just looking for favorites here, there's so so so many.
I'm kind of sorry that parts express removed the reviews of the "cryogenic duplex outlet", I think it was "wattgate". It seems, I gather, that when some guy gave this talk in Edinburgh to the Edinburgh Skeptics (who count about 50 EE grad students as active members), and pointed it out in the bar afterwards, well, some drunk EE grad students took it upon themselves to write reviews. Yes, there is a story there, indeed.
Edited to add:
It seems Wattgate has moved on to more reasonable products, perhaps overpriced but built-like-a-concrete-outhouse style. They do still show a $250 duplex outlet, it's rhodium plated. Maybe overbuilt, but no cryo processing or interesting claims, at least.
Old_School_Brad
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It’s likely to go off the rails as soon as he posts something, though..be creative and make a new gmail id
However, a brief 30-minute spelunking session that doesn’t disturb the local fauna would be fine.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #26
It’s likely to go off the rails as soon as he posts something, though..
Actual facts and mathematics are anathema to such boards.
My pet hate is people using static reasoning for dynamic systems which leads to really stupid conclusions, but that is more a problem in record players where sound knowledge (see what I did there?) was more common in the 1970s than today.
Yeah, I know… it just so hard to pick a “favorite”. Because what to pick: the one that is the most ridiculous, the one that is the most devious, the most cunning, the most confusing, the most expensive, the most elaborate..?
As to your talk, I’d probably pick something that at first inspection seems reasonable, but then doesn’t hold up with the slightest scrutiny. Or on the other hand, something that promises so many things it’s a maddening task to debunk them all: for example those ultra expensive audiophile servers. They offer a gish gallop of various audiophile improvements, any of which would take considerable time to properly debug.
Another favorite would probably those mains filters with the wacky coil filters, sprinkling around the terms Quantum and Tesla a lot. You’ll have a field day at these guys: https://audiogroupdenmark.com/
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The C37-"Theory" by Dieter Ennemoser. He produces violins treated with his C37- lacquer, but also sells similar treated speaker drivers and tubes.
DanielT
Master Contributor
Ha ha, those grounding boxes. I'm guessing that it's a farmer who was putting up an electric fence and and in connection with knocking down the grounding spikes:Surely the Entreq grounding boxes with the magic Scandinavian dirt or I mean Diatomaceous Earth.
Ground Boxes - Entreq
www.entreq.com
...then his brain went to work and he saw an opportunity to make money from these grounding boxes.
(which of course, unlike the grounding spikes in the picture above, are snake oil)
My farmer hypothesis, or it is not a hypothesis but just a guess, is based on this:
Yes, Entreq is probably well placed to top the Swedish list of snake oil.
.... the owner of Entreq Sale AB also has an individual company called Entreq which, according to its business description, should be involved in "The music industry, manufacture and sale of accessories for sound systems such as special benches, mains, signal and speaker cables.". What is also interesting is that the individual company also includes grain cultivation and that the owner lives on an agricultural or forestry property of approx. 14 hectares.
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I had a chance to analyze that stuff around the time they were claiming that putting it on the volume control knob was a major sonic improvement. Yes, the knob.
Not surprisingly, it was plain old shellac, repackaged.
For sheer poetry, though, the best fraud was the TEO liquid cable stuff. Ken Hotte was hilarious- over the years, he repeatedly accused me of being part of a government cabal to suppress the miracles of cold fusion.
IIRC, he sold a pre-treated knob for several thousand dollars.
A knob. A wood knob.
Someone has to be a special kind of stupid to go for this stuff. But wherever there's a moron with money, there's a sharp ready to relieve him of it.
Peter belt has to be the mainstay of any talk like this,tbf a lot of his snake oil was at least for free
My favourite bit of “Beltism”
Aligning the slots in screw heads.
Align the slots in all screw heads so that the slots are parallel to the earth’s surface. ALL screws – screws fastening light switches to the wall, screws fastening AC power sockets to the wall, screws fastening shelves to the wall etc. Listen to some music for a short time and then move any of the screw slots away from being parallel to the earth’s surface and see if you can listen to the same music with the same pleasure
Aligning the slots in screw heads.
Align the slots in all screw heads so that the slots are parallel to the earth’s surface. ALL screws – screws fastening light switches to the wall, screws fastening AC power sockets to the wall, screws fastening shelves to the wall etc. Listen to some music for a short time and then move any of the screw slots away from being parallel to the earth’s surface and see if you can listen to the same music with the same pleasure
ZolaIII
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You should start methodical and philosophical pointing out logic including limitations and then send them to another pub with bunch of such from comptional algebra department at least for those in Edinburgh so that we can have proper escalation. Who knows maybe we get a couple of methodists afterwards. Talk about sily people but don't forget to point out the difference between genius and such try to be spirited in the way of examples and trow in some joke, after all it's a lecture. At least I would go something like that.
OK, I hope it would be allowed duplicating my post shared here August 2023;
Turn Table TechDAS Air Force Zero!
Another really crazy(?!) TT, TechDAS Air Force Zero (https://techdas.jp/pages/air-force-zero/), in comparison with my revived TT...
Turn Table TechDAS Air Force Zero!
Another really crazy(?!) TT, TechDAS Air Force Zero (https://techdas.jp/pages/air-force-zero/), in comparison with my revived TT...
We end the year on a high note with a test that includes 7 lines of electrical wire brands, the network player that remasters CDs and finally a resonator behind at least two windows that always influences the perceived sound.
Ah yes I had forgotten that one, the sound is inferior to an old AR but no problem it is more expensive.
But we can also hear the cracking sounds much better.
Ah yes I had forgotten that one, the sound is inferior to an old AR but no problem it is more expensive.
But we can also hear the cracking sounds much better.
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