Extreme Snake Oil

[AdamG]

Only for audiophiles...

Actually I was just reading this and maybe they are on to something here?

JK. But no really maybe?

Ultrasound Can Probe Deep Into The Brain to Relieve Pain

Treating pain in the brain isn't easy – what with it being essential for everything we think and do – but a newly developed, non-invasive method of using ultrasound is showing particular promise, as outlined in a published study.

www.sciencealert.com

I have an ultrasonic cleaner I use for cleaning brass. Now if I can just fit my head in it….

 

[fatoldgit]

To quote the marketing blurb:

“The Audience Flagship frontRow USB interconnects are a true balanced cable design rendering more accurate and phase correct signal information than ever before. Engineered with 4 x frontRow 29 strand, 99.999% Pure OCC conductors in a shielded twin axial geometry, each pair is carefully determined for signal directionality before build."

So I am a simple man but I love my XLR balanced audio and digital cables (and related topology) but its the senders/receivers that make it balanced.. although of course you need the balanced cable to achieve a fully balanced circuit.

But I dont think USB senders/receivers are balanced (certainly not in the audio world) so a cable cant magically make it a balanced circuit... so do they mean some other kind of "balanced" or is this more snake oil/voodoo science to bamboozle punters?

"twin axial geometry" might reduce induced noise but that's not what balanced means... at least in my experience.

Peter

 

[Kal Rubinson]

At the low end (16kHz) is it possible that this would interact with one’s existing speakers in an unpredictable but audible fashion?

Even the higher frequencies will interact with the existing speakers......................if there are higher frequencies. Are they on recordings intentionally? How would the mastering engineers manage them?

 

[Deleted member 58670]

The data path in USB is actually balanced, even with 2$ USB cables…..

 

[coonmanx]

 

[fatoldgit]

The data path in USB is actually balanced, even with 2$ USB cables…..

Ok... I did see several pro-audio articles mentioning USB wasnt balanced but of course balanced in that space might not mean balanced in the USB space.

Which also makes me wonder, given XLR is ~4V and USB is 5V, why you can use XLR cables for many many metres but USB cable lengths are limited.

Peter

 

[fatoldgit]

Solved my mis-conception...or more my mis-remembering.

XLR is balanced differential whereas USB is balanced but not differential..been with XLR cabling so long that the two constructs had merged into one in my head.

Balanced signaling is two conductors (with an optional shield) that have equal impedance to ground. Differential signaling is two conductors (with an optional shield) transmitting the same signal at opposite polarity.

Which explains the "issue" with cable transmission length differences.

Peter

 

[Ron Texas]

@AdamG I think this belongs in the snake oil thread.

 

[Punter]

Must have been a real bitch terminating two runs of cable on solder lugs meant for one! Look at that chunky adhesive-option heat shrink mmmmmmm....

 

[Deleted member 58670]

At least it’s phase correct….!

 

[Chrispy]

Did you really think there was going to be some value in $1300/m (even if Aus or Can $) cable?

 

[terryforsythe]

The longer the cable, the better it works, so get 100m of cable. Then cryo-freeze it in liquid nitrogen for 6 months. After that, burn it in for another 6 months - use "Baby Shark Doo Doo Doo" on a continuous loop at 96 dB for best results. After that you will be audio Nirvana. That is, of course, assuming you have done the same cryo-freeze and burn-in procedure on your power cords, speaker cables, speakers, power condioners, streamer, DAC and amplifier, as well as your home's Romex wiring and circuit breaker panel. For even better results, also cryo-freeze and burn-in all utility wires and transformers between your home and the power station. Don't forget to gain entry into the power station and sprinkle pixie dust on the power generators. If it is a hydro-electric station, replace the water being used to spin the turbines with holy water, preferably sourced from the River Jordan.

 

[DanielT]

A so-called super tweeter, maybe if well implemented from 6-7 kHz.
A small quarter inch tweeter that starts beaming higher up in frequency than a "standard" 1 inch tweeter. BUT Fyne Audio's super tweeter operate from 16 kHz. That plus the ridiculous saying from Fyne that what we don't hear can affect us, if we stick to sound experiences.

If, I say IF and HOW, we are somehow affected by frequencies above 20 kHz is something that research can study. In any case, it is not something that is taken into account or labored with in terms of music recordings, as far as I know anyway.

Furthermore, regarding Fyne Audio, they mixed in cryo-treatment, thus game over. The discussion about that tweeter (and crossover) therefore belongs in this thread.

 

[BDWoody]

Swiss digital fuse-box. Very important stuff.

"Audiophile fuses, by contrast, are precision manufactured in small quantities and make sound quality the priority in various ways, most of which are proprietary. Hi-Fi Tuning does admit to using silver and gold, and other brands might tout great benefit from beeswax, for example."

The Swiss Digital Fuse Box and the Weakest Link - Positive Feedback

Swiss Digital Fuse Box

positive-feedback.com

 

[Purité Audio]

Duct tape and hole punched sticky paper, the other one is what Pritt then rolled in gravel?
Keith

 

[Palladium]

I seen ridiculophiles in China are claiming better audio from external HDD enclosures by hooking an LPS, or claiming audio read from HDDs sound better than SSDs. Or shilling for their old cassette or CD players sound oh-so-different (always better of course, surprise) than modern gear to pump and dump in the used market.

 

[Count Arthur]

I seen ridiculophiles in China are claiming better audio from external HDD enclosures by hooking an LPS, or claiming audio read from HDDs sound better than SSDs. Or shilling for their old cassette or CD players sound oh-so-different (always better of course, surprise) than modern gear to pump and dump in the used market.

I remember people claiming the exact opposite when SSDs first came to market, and were super expensive.

 

[Palladium]

I remember people claiming the exact opposite when SSDs first came to market, and were super expensive.

If you understand how SSDs work, which is modulating bit-perfect digital data from and into voltage levels that has extremely poor SNR in the analog domain inside the flash cells...Its becomes very easy to see why those purely digital "Hi-Fi" gear are so laughably silly.

 

[Deleted member 58670]

I got all my precious audiophile mp3 files on cryo-treated SSD's. All files are of course broken in by playing them 50 times, and the disks themselves were low-level formatted 7 times. I also found that exFAT filesystems sounds bigger, fatter than NTFS. Disk allocation size of 64kbytes is a compromise between perceived speed and decay of sharp subsonic transients.

Now Im' looking for a dual-mono disk storage system to optimize channel separation. Any ideas?

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

Duct tape and hole punched sticky paper, the other one is what Pritt then rolled in gravel?
Keith

Yes the one looks like dipped in hot tarmac when they make road nearby "constructor" of that device.