Danny Richie's latest...

[RickS]

On Danny's latest video, he claims to have found a speaker he cannot fix. Apparently, someone sent him a Paradigm 95F tower. To his credit, Danny found the Stereophile review from almost 10 years ago and used it to baseline. While he complains about the cabinet and the drivers though, he hurriedly decides this one is unfixable without even basic forensics on them.

Admittedly, if the original purchaser looked at the Stereophile measurements from 2015, have to wonder why he still bought them. In his analysis, Danny simply throws up his hands and does his usual "buy GR instead". Since GR does not offer any comparable completed speaker, the whole video just seems like a stunt. These speakers are about 100 lbs. each and tall too, so they are not inexpensive to ship either. In any case, Danny could have rejected these speakers up front, but would have missed the opportunity to make a youtube spectacle of them!

 

[Tinker]

"the KING of all Tweaks" Danny Richey said after being inspired by Ron at New Record day. They both are shocked by the improvement of adding the Sparkos op/amp. The best thing he's ever done...EVER. I too am guilty of adding the SS2590 in my DAC and loving it!

 

[Cbdb2]

"the KING of all Tweaks" Danny Richey said after being inspired by Ron at New Record day. They both are shocked by the improvement of adding the Sparkos op/amp. The best thing he's ever done...EVER. I too am guilty of adding the SS2590 in my DAC and loving it!

Danny is a self serving, lying, snake oil selling moron. If thats your proof you have a long way to go to convince anyone here that this Improvement is real.

 

[Tinker]

Danny is a self serving, lying, snake oil selling moron. If thats your proof you have a long way to go to convince anyone here that this Improvement is real.

That's nice. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. It's others trying to convince me that what I hear is not real (even though they haven't tried it themselves) Please...don't try this tweak. It's not for you.

 

[BDWoody]

That's nice. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything.

So, just trolling then?

 

[Tinker]

So, just trolling then?

No, I was just sharing my persective. I thought you'd want to know about "the best tweak ever".

 

[BDWoody]

No, I was just sharing my persective. I thought you'd want to know about "the best tweak ever".

Uh huh.

It'll be less of a bumpy ride if you decide to contribute in good faith.

 

[DanielT]

Now Danny philosophizes about how silver coated copper speaker cables works. What kind of word salad has he now thrown together?

Danny:
Silver coated copper creates a phase shift...higher frequencies tend to travel along the surface while lower wavelengths tend to travel through the wire. According to Danny, this leads to: The higher frequencies are pushed forward in the soundstage.

You can check for yourself, starting at 3:50 into the video:

 

[Killingbeans]

That's nice. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything. It's others trying to convince me that what I hear is not real (even though they haven't tried it themselves) Please...don't try this tweak. It's not for you.

No, I was just sharing my persective. I thought you'd want to know about "the best tweak ever".

My girlfriend's mother religiously follows some North American quack "doctor" who's convinced her that all kinds of food types are poison to her, and she's buying tons of insanely priced supplements that he's selling. She also loves to "share her perspective" on this nonsense all the time.

Some things are just better to leave unshared. The nutty world of op-amp swapping is one of them, IMO.

But honestly, I don't believe Danny is any of the things @Cbdb2 lists. In my eyes he's just a dude who's taken a deep plunge into the placebo rabbit hole. He probably truly believes that he's furthering the advancement of audio reproduction technology, and is supplying his customers with innovative products and good advice. It just makes the whole thing exponentially more sad.

 

[musicforcities]

Now Danny philosophizes about how silver coated copper speaker cables works. What kind of word salad has he now thrown together?

Danny:
Silver coated copper creates a phase shift...higher frequencies tend to travel along the surface while lower wavelengths tend to travel through the wire. According to Danny, this leads to: The higher frequencies are pushed forward in the soundstage.

You can check for yourself, starting at 3:50 into the video:

Sounds like the old skin effect malarkey…which does exist but only at frequencies well above hearing range and then only very marginally until much much higher frequencies. So yes technically very high frequencies will tend to conduct along the outside of a wire. But this has zero relevance to the frequencies used for audio reproduction or the lengths of wire one could ever use inside a building.

And then he implies the completely bonkers notion that AC electricity conducts “faster” in silver than copper. and that the difference is large enough for a 1ft to say 200ft run of wire that we can hear it. Not to mention the implication that such a difference is audible over issues like crossover phase shifts, diffraction patterns between drivers, room reflections, or even driver alignment.

My conclusion from claims like these is either: 1) person making them has bought so deeply into a mystical belief system that they just can’t see what they are saying is nonsense; 2) they are purposefully lying in a cynical attempt to separate consumers from their cash. Or both. One can believe things honestly but dishonestly use such beliefs.

Danny should watch electroboom’s recent video on skin effect.

 

[musicforcities]

Some things are just better to leave unshared. The nutty world of op-amp swapping is one of them, IMO.

Op amp rolling is the new tube rolling. Though op amps do not have the manufacturing variations and distortions of tubes…. I guess it’s possible one op amp could perform differently than another within a circuit. Not necessarily “better” but different. i guess it’s even possible that it might be different enough to be demonstrated in proper series blind testing.

Ps: In my old tube preamp I swear I have heard differences between different tubes. Not in blind testing mind you. So I am fully aware my ears/memory may be deluding me. And in any case, if there are audible differences, I am aware that any preference is due to the different distortion and noise those tubes produce (aka, non-linear equalizer filter). But then again, if I am using that tube preamp it’s for the fun of it.

 

[DanielT]

Sounds like the old skin effect malarkey…which does exist but only at frequencies well above hearing range and then only very marginally until much much higher frequencies. So yes technically very high frequencies will tend to conduct along the outside of a wire. But this has zero relevance to the frequencies used for audio reproduction or the lengths of wire one could ever use inside a building.

And then he implies the completely bonkers notion that AC electricity conducts “faster” in silver than copper. and that the difference is large enough for a 1ft to say 200ft run of wire that we can hear it. Not to mention the implication that such a difference is audible over issues like crossover phase shifts, diffraction patterns between drivers, room reflections, or even driver alignment.

My conclusion from claims like these is either: 1) person making them has bought so deeply into a mystical belief system that they just can’t see what they are saying is nonsense; 2) they are purposefully lying in a cynical attempt to separate consumers from their cash. Or both. One can believe things honestly but dishonestly use such beliefs.

Danny should watch electroboom’s recent video on skin effect.

Danny and his own concocted theories.

You wrote:Not to mention the implication that such a difference is audible over issues like crossover phase shifts, diffraction patterns between drivers, room reflections, or even driver alignment.

Speaking of phase, I remember Amir making a video about it. If you (you may already know what Amir is talking about) or if anyone else is interested, here it is:

Regarding Amir's no* in the title of the video. Thats a no* except for absolute phase, if I remember correctly what Amir brings up.

Plus the thread on the subject:

Does Phase Distortion/Shift Matter in Audio? (no*)

A viewer of my videos and member he suggested that I do a video commenting on a video that Paul McGown did on audibility of phase shifts. Here is Paul's video which was really about a different question (why we need wideband amplifiers) but turned it into phase being an audible problem: Here...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[RickS]

Danny has increased his video posts lately. His "Love GR-Research Products?" video got less than 6K views. Most of his upgrade videos get about 3 times that. So, his viewers are much more interested in seeing a speaker teardown than one about improving GR products. This is notable as few are likely to own the speaker being "upgraded". His cult-like followers lean toward subjectivism and regurgitate his litany as if they were laws of physics. When challenged to provide basic technical reasoning or evidence, rather than challenge Danny or admit their own incompetence, they often fall back to the "it sounds good to me" claim.

While I find some of his upgrade videos interesting, the latest videos that pander to audiophile fantasies are more pleas for attention as he attempts to pivot towards doing reviews. Major online reviewers are adding more measurements to their reviews and are likely eating away his peripheral audience. Many younger youtubers have more subscribers and can still cater to the audiophile bling crowd too. Afaik, they also are not censoring negative comments as Danny is known to do.

 

[SIY]

In my eyes he's just a dude who's taken a deep plunge into the placebo rabbit hole.

I don't believe that for a microsecond. Classic second-tier audio huckster.

 

[Killingbeans]

Possibly. I always assume ignorance before dishonesty. Probably more of a coping mechanism than rational thinking

 

[SIY]

Possibly. I always assume ignorance before dishonesty. Probably more of a coping mechanism than rational thinking

After all this time and all the debunking, there's no way I can attribute it to ignorance.

 

[Old_School_Brad]

That works to the advantage of dishonest people.

Jim

But to the benefit of a healthy mind.
You tend to become a bit cynical when you realize it's not like in the movies, where the hero always wins in the end.
I also approach people like this with the mindset of "they're clueless or ignorant until proven otherwise," and, more often than not, I find that to be the case. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'm not entirely sure, but I see it as the lesser of two evils.

 

[Killingbeans]

That works to the advantage of dishonest people.

Jim

Nahh, I won't buy their nonsense regardless. And the dishonesty will become apparent eventually from their arguments and behaviour.

 

[musicforcities]

Danny and his own concocted theories.

You wrote:Not to mention the implication that such a difference is audible over issues like crossover phase shifts, diffraction patterns between drivers, room reflections, or even driver alignment.

Speaking of phase, I remember Amir making a video about it. If you (you may already know what Amir is talking about) or if anyone else is interested, here it is:

Regarding Amir's no* in the title of the video. Thats a no* except for absolute phase, if I remember correctly what Amir brings up.

Plus the thread on the subject:

Does Phase Distortion/Shift Matter in Audio? (no*)

A viewer of my videos and member he suggested that I do a video commenting on a video that Paul McGown did on audibility of phase shifts. Here is Paul's video which was really about a different question (why we need wideband amplifiers) but turned it into phase being an audible problem: Here...

audiosciencereview.com

That is great video. I am not a crossover phase connoisseur. A well designed crossover for a well designed speaker is fine. And Swapping caps etc is just silly.

I have speakers with 36 part crossovers. And speakers (mordaunt short ms-30i) with first order crossovers with nothing but an inductor on the low and a film cap on the tweeter. In each case, drivers and crossover typologies are designed for each other and work very well. The ms30i has issues as any budget speaker does. But changing the crossovers to higher order just deviates from the design intent, solving some issues like beaming and a bit of woofer break up but at the cost of its relatively amazing imaging.

 

[musicforcities]

The problem there, as I have brought up before, is the conundrum implied by all of the above.

The measurement criteria was derived under blind listening conditions, but you will be listening under sighted conditions.

If sighted listening is by nature so unreliable, how are the measurements going to help predict your experience listening sighted to your loudspeakers?

Either the measurements will help predict what you will perceive under sighted listening or they will not.

If not, what use are they?

But if so, it suggests that sighted listening can be usefully accurate. (that under sighted conditions in your home you will accurately perceive the characteristics that made those speakers sound good under blind conditions.).

But we’ve been down this road before…

This statement contains something like a category error. What your saying is analogous to claiming that if there covid infection rates would be lower if there are fewer covid tests done.