Extreme Snake Oil

[Andysu]

 

[BadSound]

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has brought the reality of physics closer to me in this thread!

So that the raising of the speaker cables and power lines does not go to waste, I have now given the order to raise the power supply line to my house.

The success is astonishing! I now hear many songs with a completely different sound. The bass in particular is clearer and much tighter. I can only recommend it.

If you have a system that reproduces a special quality, you can take a new step with this. I recommend it.

 

[Alexander Gödde]

Was looking at an "ultra-high-end audio server" (manufacturer linked as a bad example in some article I was reading), and came across this brain-meltingly insane, so far beyond gone it's scary, nonsense:

"But more importantly, digital transfer actually occurs in the analogue domain! The USB encoder has to convert the digital data to voltage square-waves in order to transmit it down the cable, reconverting to the digital domain at the far end. The problem is that producing perfect voltage square-waves is far from simple, even with a purpose built, high-end USB encoder.

Once again – in theory – this shouldn’t matter, as the buffered input clocks and reconstitutes the data. The problem is that this process effectively ‘counts’ data blocks rather than assessing their shape, so that distortion and displacement in the waveform, induced in the analogue domain, remains incorporated in the reconverted digital signal, invisible to the digital encoder. That doesn’t matter in many real-world computing cases, where the raw data is essentially simple binary. But in the case of audio recordings, that data is incredibly time, amplitude and phase sensitive, with small errors rapidly eroding the integrity of the whole."

https://landing.wadax.eu/reference-server/ - scroll down to the "The Breakthrough" section.

The company, Wadax, suggest you spend >200k USD on an audio server + DAC implementing proprietary ways to deal with the above "problem". They provide three knobs for the user to adjust "rise-time and amplitude of the sent signal" as well as the "spacing on the return channel" by ear - depending e.g on the streaming service used! The two monstrous boxes are ideally connected via a proprietary optical interface which adds >20k USD to the cost of the system.

Every time I think no audiophile insanity will ever be able to surprise me ever again, something likes this comes along.

Of course, the entire con would not work without the audiophile "press" playing its part - review of this expensive idiocy in "The Absolute Sound" - https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/wadax-atlantis-reference-music-server/

NB: There is already a thread on this here at ASR,

 

[Salt]

Was looking at an "ultra-high-end audio server" (manufacturer linked as a bad example in some article I was reading), and came across this brain-meltingly insane, so far beyond gone it's scary, nonsense:

"But more importantly, digital transfer actually occurs in the analogue domain! The USB encoder has to convert the digital data to voltage square-waves in order to transmit it down the cable, reconverting to the digital domain at the far end. The problem is that producing perfect voltage square-waves is far from simple, even with a purpose built, high-end USB encoder.

Once again – in theory – this shouldn’t matter, as the buffered input clocks and reconstitutes the data. The problem is that this process effectively ‘counts’ data blocks rather than assessing their shape, so that distortion and displacement in the waveform, induced in the analogue domain, remains incorporated in the reconverted digital signal, invisible to the digital encoder. That doesn’t matter in many real-world computing cases, where the raw data is essentially simple binary. But in the case of audio recordings, that data is incredibly time, amplitude and phase sensitive, with small errors rapidly eroding the integrity of the whole."

https://landing.wadax.eu/reference-server/ - scroll down to the "The Breakthrough" section.

The company, Wadax, suggest you spend >200k USD on an audio server + DAC implementing proprietary ways to deal with the above "problem". They provide three knobs for the user to adjust "rise-time and amplitude of the sent signal" as well as the "spacing on the return channel" by ear - depending e.g on the streaming service used! The two monstrous boxes are ideally connected via a proprietary optical interface which adds >20k USD to the cost of the system.

Every time I think no audiophile insanity will ever be able to surprise me ever again, something likes this comes along.

Of course, the entire con would not work without the audiophile "press" playing its part - review of this expensive idiocy in "The Absolute Sound" - https://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/wadax-atlantis-reference-music-server/

That's all worth a sh... without the highest precision quantum clock generator in combination with (mass free) neutrino transfer interconnect.

Just saying ....

 

[Platypus20]

View attachment 377755

 

[antcollinet]

The problem is that this process effectively ‘counts’ data blocks rather than assessing their shape, so that distortion and displacement in the waveform, induced in the analogue domain, remains incorporated in the reconverted digital signal, invisible to the digital encoder. That doesn’t matter in many real-world computing cases, where the raw data is essentially simple binary. But in the case of audio recordings, that data is incredibly time, amplitude and phase sensitive, with small errors rapidly eroding the integrity of the whole."

What utter nonsense.

 

[pallas]

WADAX writes - Working in conjunction with a leading Japanese optical-engineering corporation to create the fibre-optics, and Neutrik for the connectors, we designed and built the AKASA optical interface.

I don't know about the cable, but what I can see in their photos on the homepage, is that they use a totally standard Neutrik OpticalCON Duo.
A connector and socket anyone can buy on the market.
Neutrik OpticalCON Duo

It's just that they designed a very fancy cover for that connector.
Fancy Conector Image 1 - Fancy Connector Image 2

I often find it kind of interesting to google the addresses of these "elite class companies". (If an address is on the homepage at all...)
One might expect that they reside in a luxury building, office building or mansion, or in a rather clean and high tech industrial area.
But not in a rather middle class suburban area row house...
Goggle Maps - Street View

 

[Purité Audio]

Elite class charlatans, one really does despair.
I was going to say that if you are that gullible and ill- informed then you deserve to be ripped off, but if you can afford £300k for a streamer then the cost probably doesn’t matter that much.
Keith

 

[richard12511]

"That doesn’t matter in many real-world computing cases, where the raw data is essentially simple binary. But in the case of audio recordings, that data is incredibly time, amplitude and phase sensitive, with small errors rapidly eroding the integrity of the whole."

This one bugs me when I see it, as I see it repeated commonly, and it makes no sense to me. Digital audio signals are not all that complex in the grand scheme of things. Often, these "real-world computing cases" are much more complex, and both still end up as binary

 

[Alexander Gödde]

"That doesn’t matter in many real-world computing cases, where the raw data is essentially simple binary. But in the case of audio recordings, that data is incredibly time, amplitude and phase sensitive, with small errors rapidly eroding the integrity of the whole."

This one bugs me when I see it, as I see it repeated commonly, and it makes no sense to me. Digital audio signals are not all that complex in the grand scheme of things. Often, these "real-world computing cases" are much more complex, and both still end up as binary

My mind always boggles at idiocy like that. Binary data is binary data. It does not matter how it is stored as long as that allows recovery of the 1s and 0s.

 

[Count Arthur]

My mind always boggles at idiocy like that. Binary data is binary data. It does not matter how it is stored as long as that allows recovery of the 1s and 0s.

There are 10 types of people, those that understand binary, and those that don't.

 

[mhardy6647]

My mind always boggles at idiocy like that. Binary data is binary data. It does not matter how it is stored as long as that allows recovery of the 1s and 0s.

I mean, that's the whole point of DSP, isn't it? Do artithmetic where it's easy, using efficient tools.
Rather than... oh, I dunno... bucket brigade delay lines, multiplexing, modulating and demodulating, ring oscillators, and stuff like that.

The precision and complexity of, say, mono/backwards compatible stereo MPX FM radio or B&W/backwards compatible broadcast color television is nigh-on mindboggling... but even I would admit that it's rather anachronistic technologically.

source: https://transmitters.tripod.com/stereo.htm

source: https://www.n2prise.org/analog01.htm
Back in the days when men were men ahem when engineers wore skinny black ties, white shirts, and hornrimmed glasses -- instead of dark hued hoodies.

 

[sofrep811]

This one wins. No contest.

Voodoo For You…

Oddly enough, this product is backed up by quite a bit of science, but I love the name. I've known Jan Geschke for a while now, and between our love for Porsche automobiles and fine audio, I agreed to give these a try. Yep, cable elevators.As you may or may not know, we've covered precious [...]

www.tonepublications.com

 

[Punter]

Prepare yourselves for a shock, this reviewer actually undertakes some testing with an SPL meter to evaluate these...

Which are

Acoustic Revive RHR-21 Acoustic Resolution Exciters​

Wow! Unless you couldn't guess, these are passive acoustic room treatment devices. As usual, the manufacturer has to invoke science, namely Helmholz resonance, to explain why these devices do what they supposedly do. Of course, any relation to that science evaporates when the maker starts to describe how they work and what astounding effects they will produce.
The reviewer takes an uncharacteristic amount of effort and time in an attempt to evaluate these pointless doo-dads, including the use of an actual measurement device! The review is a two-parter, the first part being a purely subjective assessment including the "non-audiophile" friend who has a WOW! moment in the presence of these pepper shakers.

"I walked over to pick up the RHR-21s from their positions, and walked back to hand them to him for a look-see when I heard him utter a "Whoa!"
He heard a significant change in the room's sound as I walked across it with the RHR-21s in hand. That took me by surprise. "

First Listen: Acoustic Revive RHR-21 Acoustic Resolution Exciters! Part 1. - Jeff's Place

Greetings friends, I hope you are well! In my Today's Fresh Catch article from last month - here - I mentioned the Acoustic Revive RHR-21 Acoustic Resolution Exciter room conditioning devices. The RHR-21s have a cylindrical shape reminiscent of Cole & Mason salt and pepper mill sets, and are...

jeffsplace.positive-feedback.com

The second part is the most intriguing where he employs a test CD and an SPL meter. Amusingly, he admits that no matter where he placed these novelties in the room, The SPL meter registered zero change. This puzzles him because he can clearly hear the changes in the audio.

"I then repeated the process using two RHR-21s as described in the owner's manual. The results showed no significant differences at any of the frequencies of the Stereophile Test CD 2 in the bass decade, midrange decade, or treble decade when using two RHR-21s. My subjective impressions of not hearing any changes in the low frequencies matched the measured data for the bass decade. However, my subjective impressions of what I was hearing in the presence frequency range (4 kHz to 6 kHz) were not reflected in any of the measured data. Yet my subjective impressions were the same through multiple trials. So here we have a collision of subjective performance perceptions and measured performance in the presence region of the audio spectrum. "

Listening: Acoustic Revive RHR-21 Acoustic Resolution Exciters! Part 2 (update). - Jeff's Place

The Acoustic Revive RHR-21 Acoustic Resolution Exciters are based upon the principle of Helmholtz resonance (HERE). I was not familiar with Helmholtz resonators and their applications, so I decided to look into them a little more before doing any more listening with the RHR-21 Helmholtz...

jeffsplace.positive-feedback.com

Hilariously, he contacts the manufacturer to try and workshop the problem and doesn't really get any kind of useful guidance. I have to admire this reviewers tenacity, he must have wasted hours moving these dopey lumps of metal around his room, all to find out they do nothing but still being determined that they are having some sort of non-measurable effect. If this doesn't perfectly illustrate the plight of the dedicated audiophool, I don't know what would!

 

[Somafunk]

Prepare yourselves for a shock, this reviewer actually undertakes some testing with an SPL meter to evaluate these...

I thought they were the new 2024 Cole & Mason Pepper Grinders……..kinda disappointed to find out they’re not.

 

[AdrianusG]

I thought they were the new 2024 Cole & Mason Pepper Grinders……..kinda disappointed to find out they’re not.

And i Thought they were Blu-tooth speakers, looks can be deceiving

 

[mhardy6647]

so... apropos of nothing...
I "follow" the San Diego Air & Space Museum on Flickr. They have tonnes of cool images, not the least of which are thousands of images from Convair's collection. They run the gamut from PR photos to photo documentation of processes and product development to what look like random snapshots. Many of them are fascinating (OK, yeah, yeah -- I don't get out much).

This one caught my eye today. I feel like it might be a good candidate for a snake oil thread "Caption this" post:

23_0049337 Convair Negative Image by SDASM Archives, on Flickr

Not sayin' any of us need to caption it, but, nonetheless -- don't you want to think that this is what it looks like in R&D at a place like Nordost or AQ?

 

[VintageFlanker]

One moment, please...

"Q: Why do you have a Network Acoustics Muon Pro Ethernet filter in your hifi?

A: Because it makes music sound better.

Here’s the thing about add-on network devices for hifi—if you can’t think of a single reason why an Ethernet filter can effect the analog output of a networked hifi, you may not know as much as you think you know.

Some people think that since the Internet works and we can print a Word doc without error, we have all the proof we need to know that Ethernet filters are snake oil. A bunch of hoo-ha, much ado about nothing."

 

[AdrianusG]

One moment, please...

"Q: Why do you have a Network Acoustics Muon Pro Ethernet filter in your hifi?

A: Because it makes music sound better.

Here’s the thing about add-on network devices for hifi—if you can’t think of a single reason why an Ethernet filter can effect the analog output of a networked hifi, you may not know as much as you think you know.

Some people think that since the Internet works and we can print a Word doc without error, we have all the proof we need to know that Ethernet filters are snake oil. A bunch of hoo-ha, much ado about nothing."

A: Because it makes music sound better.

Ehm... with multiple choice, isn't there supposed to be B ; C and possibly D?, or was this the only choice available?

 

[AaronJ]

A $1600 box that can't figure out how to put the input and output on the same side so you don't have a ridiculous cable snaking around the front is a piece of sh*t design.