A warning. There is a new web article going aroud that is a crock of schmidt.

[DonH56]

Wow... I couldn't force myself to do more than skim parts. Another guy who feels he must fuel the fires between engineers and musicians, inventing a chasm/schism that does not exist, based upon the premise that because I know something very well (PhD) I must know everything. Yuck.

Minds me of a conversation some years back that degenerated when I tried to explain the difference between sampling rate and time resolution; he was ascribing the better LP sound to that (among other things):

• Him: "I completely understand the theory; I've got a PhD in math so this is child's stuff."
• Me: "The signal reconstruction's time resolution is not limited by the sampling rate. That is not why the LP sounds better."
• Him: "You don't understand why analog is better because you aren't a musician."
• Me: "It's the mix, not the medium. And I play trumpet."
• Him: "How do you know it's not the same mix? My son plays trumpet in school, doesn't mean he's a musician."
• Me: "It says so on the label. That's what "remastered" means. Look up 'loudness wars'. And you tell your son that?"
• Him: "So you don't know. They tried to improve it but it sounds worse because it's digital. And of course not but I've never heard you play."
• Me: "Cause and effect do not follow; CDs are technically superior but remastering means all bets are off."
• Him: "See, you're an engineer, so you obviously don't understand music. That's why I've never heard of you."
• Me: "I am failing to see the relation between my musical abilities and the sound on the CD vs. the LP. I've played around town."
• Him: "Without really understanding how music feels you'll never be nothing more than an engineer. Where?"
• Me: "I've loved music for decades but that's still not relevant. Principal of the <local community orchestra>, few big bands around the area, some pro gigs like the <big professional chorale production> and <musical>."
• Him: "Never heard of any of them. You'll just never understand."

He was finally right....

 

[Cosmik]

...he was crazy effective at garnering public support and legislative funding for a very worthwhile project...

...at the expense of other worthwhile projects...

 

[captain paranoia]

"A warning. There is a new web article going aroud that is a crock of schmidt."

News Flash: The internet is chock full of shit. One more dropping isn't worth bothering about.

https://xkcd.com/386/

 

[Aprude51]

I think you have mis-characterized him. He does believe in some voodoo of course. I don't think it is in audio as much as it is at a deeper level. Quite something to behold really. I think if he did some real science, IE experimentation to confirm or not his ideas he'd learn something. I've a feeling he is more interested in teaching something philosophical without getting his hands dirty.

Some supporting evidence of this point. A quote from a self-published “research” paper of his: “This document has an unorthodox structure to accomplish an unorthodox goal: presenting the scaffolding for a zero-parameter Unified Theory of Life inside several dozen pages.”

https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.00002

 

[Killingbeans]

Taken as a body the articles come across as yet another "science" based new age religion.

Maybe he used this as a grammar checker: New Age Bullshit Generator

 

[Juhazi]

This Softky is just crazy. Fortunately he obviously hasn't found out how to make money with his ideas - yet, other thatn writing articles to websites.

Here in Finland we have an inventor with small company that got a national award for the new patented cable technology. First try was on consumer hifi market, but business is not going well anyway....

https://spindeco.fi/ https://www.taloustutka.fi/company/2765984-1

We at Spindeco have developed a method of generating spin current for over ten years, the last five of which we have collaborated with the University of Eastern Finland. The method has been granted a patent in China and EU. US and India patents are currently pending. As the research progresses, the patent protection will be increased. AV cables productised with the SpinX Cables brand are already available in Finland, Germany and the Netherlands.

 

[Killingbeans]

@Juhazi
Must be one of the most pointless products I've ever seen. From what I can tell the technology supposedly lowers the resistance of normal copper. Even if it works, whish i doubt very (very, very...very) much, why not just use a normal thicker cable?

 

[GrimSurfer]

The tamper proof holotape is a nice touch. Wouldn't want anybody to crack those plastic cans open and find nothing. [Though the manufacturer would likely say that those were the "pure direct" cables.]

 

[Cosmik]

Looks very similar to this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/First4Spares-Metre-Cotton-Covered-Resistant/dp/B0050AOD4E

 

[captain paranoia]

Here in Finland we have an inventor with small company that got a national award for the new patented cable technology.

Well, there's certainly some 'spin' going on there...

 

[GrimSurfer]

Looks very similar to this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/First4Spares-Metre-Cotton-Covered-Resistant/dp/B0050AOD4E

I just cut off the cords to my two irons. My new patch cables should be ready soon!

 

[Juhazi]

But iron cables miss the polarized skin electrons, dude! With spintronics' enormous efficiency gain you could help to save rainforests! Just look how many good green electrons!

 

[AudioSceptic]

I've had the same experience with all of my musician friends.

I remember introducing a musician friend to CD back when the players became inexpensive enough for the average consumer. I plugged a $100USD one into his rather nice system, costing thousands, and he was impressed with how clear and clean the sound was...

He had never heard one, even by the time the price had dropped to $100? When was that?

 

[splattened]

Wow... I couldn't force myself to do more than skim parts. Another guy who feels he must fuel the fires between engineers and musicians, inventing a chasm/schism that does not exist, based upon the premise that because I know something very well (PhD) I must know everything. Yuck.

Minds me of a conversation some years back that degenerated when I tried to explain the difference between sampling rate and time resolution; he was ascribing the better LP sound to that (among other things):

• Him: "I completely understand the theory; I've got a PhD in math so this is child's stuff."
• Me: "The signal reconstruction's time resolution is not limited by the sampling rate. That is not why the LP sounds better."
• Him: "You don't understand why analog is better because you aren't a musician."
• Me: "It's the mix, not the medium. And I play trumpet."
• Him: "How do you know it's not the same mix? My son plays trumpet in school, doesn't mean he's a musician."
• Me: "It says so on the label. That's what "remastered" means. Look up 'loudness wars'. And you tell your son that?"
• Him: "So you don't know. They tried to improve it but it sounds worse because it's digital. And of course not but I've never heard you play."
• Me: "Cause and effect do not follow; CDs are technically superior but remastering means all bets are off."
• Him: "See, you're an engineer, so you obviously don't understand music. That's why I've never heard of you."
• Me: "I am failing to see the relation between my musical abilities and the sound on the CD vs. the LP. I've played around town."
• Him: "Without really understanding how music feels you'll never be nothing more than an engineer. Where?"
• Me: "I've loved music for decades but that's still not relevant. Principal of the <local community orchestra>, few big bands around the area, some pro gigs like the <big professional chorale production> and <musical>."
• Him: "Never heard of any of them. You'll just never understand."

He was finally right....

You tried. Props for at least not making specious arguments about the theoretical technical superiority of digital audio in a vacuum.

 

[Soniclife]

But iron cables miss the polarized skin electrons, dude! With spintronics' enormous efficiency gain you could help to save rainforests! Just look how many good green electrons!

Does the spin reverse in the southern hemisphere?

 

[JJB70]

He will publish a paper announcing he has rediscovered N rays next.

 

[BillG]

He had never heard one, even by the time the price had dropped to $100? When was that?

Apparently not. Mid to Late 80's would have been the period, if I recall correctly...

 

[Hayabusa]

https://www.fairobserver.com/more/s...ital-audio-science-news-william-softky-39078/

fairobserver.com... failobserver maybe?

 

[CDMC]

I have been around a lot of musicians and can’t think of one who was of the opinion that CDs sound awful. As I said, I really think it is best to ignore this...

It is funny how people always want to introduce musicians as a reference point, as if they apparently have special powers. My dad was trained in opera, played piano, guitar, and violin and also experienced with studio recording having done a few albums with people he entertained with. I was always interested in audio and reproduction and was around a lot of musicians, many of who (including my dad) didn't have very nice stereos. When I asked him about it, his observation was that most musicians are not listening to the reproduced sound of the music, but the actual composition of the music, the sound quality really didn't matter.

 

[Zog]

Wow... I couldn't force myself to do more than skim parts. Another guy who feels he must fuel the fires between engineers and musicians, inventing a chasm/schism that does not exist, based upon the premise that because I know something very well (PhD) I must know everything. Yuck.

Minds me of a conversation some years back that degenerated when I tried to explain the difference between sampling rate and time resolution; he was ascribing the better LP sound to that (among other things):

• Him: "I completely understand the theory; I've got a PhD in math so this is child's stuff."
• Me: "The signal reconstruction's time resolution is not limited by the sampling rate. That is not why the LP sounds better."
• Him: "You don't understand why analog is better because you aren't a musician."
• Me: "It's the mix, not the medium. And I play trumpet."
• Him: "How do you know it's not the same mix? My son plays trumpet in school, doesn't mean he's a musician."
• Me: "It says so on the label. That's what "remastered" means. Look up 'loudness wars'. And you tell your son that?"
• Him: "So you don't know. They tried to improve it but it sounds worse because it's digital. And of course not but I've never heard you play."
• Me: "Cause and effect do not follow; CDs are technically superior but remastering means all bets are off."
• Him: "See, you're an engineer, so you obviously don't understand music. That's why I've never heard of you."
• Me: "I am failing to see the relation between my musical abilities and the sound on the CD vs. the LP. I've played around town."
• Him: "Without really understanding how music feels you'll never be nothing more than an engineer. Where?"
• Me: "I've loved music for decades but that's still not relevant. Principal of the <local community orchestra>, few big bands around the area, some pro gigs like the <big professional chorale production> and <musical>."
• Him: "Never heard of any of them. You'll just never understand."

He was finally right....

This reminds me of a piece of wisdom: Never argue with a fool - He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.