Extreme Snake Oil

[Truth Ness]

Synergistic Research PowerCell SX

By using the company’s unique Galileo-level technology and sophisticated graphene filtration system, the Synergistic Research PowerCell SX is so much more than just another noise-busting power conditioner, argues Ed Selley.

hifiplus.com

''PowerCell SX is, in fact, a cross-pollination of the existing PowerCell 12 and the higher-spec Galileo SX PowerCell. It utilises Active EM Cells, which are intended to project an electromagnetic field that filters and redirects contaminants.

These cells appear as five carbon fibre tubes laid flat at the rear of the chassis. They are 25% denser than the cells used in the standard PowerCell 12. Additionally, they are connected by a sixth flat EM Cell, visible as a black rectangle with two silver stripes. In the standard PowerCell 12, this is tuned to a harmonic of the Earth’s Schumann Resonance frequency of 7.83Hz. In the Synergistic Research PowerCell SX, this is extended to all six cells to enhance the soundstage and reduce listening fatigue.''

Ten thousand dollars.

Random quote from the product description:


"Stabilizing the electromagnetic environment transforms room acoustics, delivering the sonic benefits of acoustic treatment: greater depth, cleaner transients, and tighter focus. In treated rooms, these effects compound.

This is system synergy by design—not marketing."


Hahahahahaha !

 

[JiiPee]

Random quote from the product description:


"Stabilizing the electromagnetic environment transforms room acoustics, delivering the sonic benefits of acoustic treatment: greater depth, cleaner transients, and tighter focus. In treated rooms, these effects compound.

This is system synergy by design—not marketing."


Hahahahahaha !

Hats off to all those behind that article! They are true artists in the age old tradition of snake oil salesmanship.

 

[Thighsofsteel]

Random quote from the product description:


"Stabilizing the electromagnetic environment transforms room acoustics, delivering the sonic benefits of acoustic treatment: greater depth, cleaner transients, and tighter focus. In treated rooms, these effects compound.

This is system synergy by design—not marketing."


Hahahahahaha !

That is just utter bollox.

 

[Palladium]

Random quote from the product description:

Stabilizing the electromagnetic environment

AKA switching off the lights

 

[egellings]

Don't worry you can guarantee anyone buying these things will catalogue their impressions at 20 hours, 50, hours, 200 hours... zzzzzzzzzz.

''72 hours in and the Signature Block is really opening up the sound. I've never heard the bass lines on the album Flaunt The Imperfection by China Crisis sound so good. Rhythmic, properly developed, powerful and beautifully controlled. Can’t wait for the next 72 hours and beyond.''

I've always wondered what "opening up" means in terms of sound quality.

 

[Alan O]

I've always wondered what "opening up" means in terms of sound quality.

I always assumed it was referring to one's wallet.

 

[Mnyb]

Random quote from the product description:


"Stabilizing the electromagnetic environment transforms room acoustics, delivering the sonic benefits of acoustic treatment: greater depth, cleaner transients, and tighter focus. In treated rooms, these effects compound.

This is system synergy by design—not marketing."


Hahahahahaha !

Hifi + ? Rather HiFi - .

A quite new magazine ( I’m getting old ) it started directly in the snakeoil absolute sound camp without even a small hiatus in any kind of credible audio journalism.

 

[egellings]

I always assumed it was referring to one's wallet.

Got it!

 

[chouca]

Why do you care?

I mean, it's a free country.

[...]

There are people for whom a $150K cable is peanuts.... It is a free country, let them enjoy life and don't try to tell them how to spend their money.

Oh, I don't know... some of us have a weird kneejerk negative reaction to blatant dishonesty and hucksterism. I guess we feel like something should be done about it. Call it, I don't know... integrity?

I find this nihilistic attitude of "it's a free country, so why not sell bullshit to suckers" to be really destructive. I mean, don't you want to at least *try* to live in a more honest and rational society?

Sure, in the big scheme of things audiophile gear is relatively harmless, but I guarantee you that the attitude you are arguing for applies to many other, far less harmless domains, which should be readily apparent if you look at the world today.

edit: fixed typo

 

[Morbid_Florist]

"As logic would dictate, when connections are made via a network switch, the quality of its inputs, outputs, oscillators (clocks), power supplies, and pathways affects the sound of everything downstream. It's clearly audible. Everything matters."

"the Nordost QNet7 feeding signal to the Varèse delivered a more open, transparent, weightier sound with superb color and a gorgeous midrange. Bass was also stronger, and, on Aretha's cover, dirtier (as in snarlier) by intention."

www.stereophile.com

 

[Hapo]

...listen to this guy...he is like the poster child audiophool...

...he had me going for a bit...Amir(ASR) tested this and found it broken...I thought it sounded great...

...this is another time when I learned how weak our minds and poor our ears can be...and how important a resource ASR actually is...

EarMen Tradutto Review (DAC)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the EarMen Tradutto stereo DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $770 from the company direct. The Tradutto is extremely heavy for its size, having been machined out of solid metal. The corners are a bit sharp though for my taste. A...

www.audiosciencereview.com

...I swear it had two channels at one point...methinks I would have noticed that...although I could not tell the difference between it and the Modi...

...apparently it could not survive being plugged in and then unplugged for shipping...

...a savvy member on another thread noted that the RCA outputs looked very cheap, period, never mind on a "high end" product...

...the thing is that I thought I could hear a "difference" at first...but would hear the same "difference" when switching back to Schiit Modi...$800 for what...?!?...

...thus, I discovered the Listening Bias described by Amir...

...I had already given up on Tradutto...methinks that "review" I posted provoked Amir...

...now I believe really pricy DACs are snake oil and that no one could really tell the difference in sound between well implemented DACs...

...now I am listening to a technically inferior DAC in Motu 2...it provides functions I want and sounds the same as the Modi 3 to me...

...FWIW I would have bought Motu 4 if I had read Amir(ASR)'s review of Motu 2....but I doubt there would be any audible difference...

 

[gzost]

"As logic would dictate, when connections are made via a network switch, the quality of its inputs, outputs, oscillators (clocks), power supplies, and pathways affects the sound of everything downstream. It's clearly audible. Everything matters."



www.stereophile.com

I had to stop reading at the "Everything matters." No, it doesn't, and certainly not for digital audio data transmission over network. And the author may well perceive an audible difference, but that is not evidence of there actually being one. Also, if anything that the "audiophile network" woo people believe were true then literally nothing in the modern world would work. Reality has an anti-audiophile bias.

 

[AaronJ]

"As logic would dictate, when connections are made via a network switch, the quality of its inputs, outputs, oscillators (clocks), power supplies, and pathways affects the sound of everything downstream. It's clearly audible. Everything matters."

"the Nordost QNet7 feeding signal to the Varèse delivered a more open, transparent, weightier sound with superb color and a gorgeous midrange. Bass was also stronger, and, on Aretha's cover, dirtier (as in snarlier) by intention."

View attachment 535467



www.stereophile.com

Good lord. “In the opinion of this hi-fi reviewer, the debate over the efficacy of audio-quality network switches should be over.”

Well in the opinion of this reader, the opinion of this hi-fi reviewer is as useful as an asshole on my elbow.

 

[Nutul]

Well in the opinion of this reader, the opinion of this hi-fi reviewer is as useful as an asshole on my elbow.

Trying to be as honest as possible: an asshole on the elbow may indeed be somehow useful... at least a little bit more than the two aforementioned opinions.

 

[egellings]

Trying to be as honest as possible: an asshole on the elbow may indeed be somehow useful... at least a little bit more than the two aforementioned opinions.

If you could aim it...

 

[Ruediger]

Others maybe have audiophile power cables.

But these here are cryo-treated. Extreme cold changes the metal in dramatic ways. Better sounding of course.

Disregard the measly plastic plugs and go straight to the Furutech option for only €160 more.

Heißes Eis(en)

Klanglich verspricht Schäffer mit dem bFly-Audio bPower CryoFly eine spürbare Steigerung gegenüber dem ohnehin gut beurteilten Basismodell

www.fairaudio.de

 

[Gregm]

"By using the company's unique Galileo-level technology..."
Isn't this related to satellite navigation? (equation question: How does navigating a satellite help improve a sound reproducton system???)
Anyway, let's not doubt it --rather, if we can solve the equation question above, we might be able to reap some of the touted benefits simply by using a mobile phone satNav app...

 

[RickS]

As part of helping restore some old studio monitors after the owner was no longer able, was given some audio accessories for free. Among them was set of Monster Cable CD stabilizers. He must have liked them as he had half a dozen. One Discus and 5 Discus+. As best I can tell, Discus+ is just a thinner version of the Discus…

He had some even more snakey stuff like UV discs and some Black Hole products. I tried this one in one of my remaining Sony blu-ray players and it made me nervous as it clearly was rubbing. The Discus+ actually loaded and spun. Don’t asked if I wasted any time with listening tests…

Like that “…notify the Customer Service Department…” without any contact info!

 

[Nutul]

If you could aim it...

That I meant...

 

[Hapo]

...I just bought a Krell preamp so I should get these , right....?!?...they look a bit used...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/327161459230?_trkparms=itmf%3D1%26aid%3D1110013%26rkt%3D12%26mech%3D1%26algv%3DSimRXIDWebVICPCWithMultiCPCRecall%26pmt%3D1%26amclksrc%3DITM%26sd%3D318267187331%26sid%3DAQALAAAAEHV6nuMPkDfosdr1%2B2supDk%3D%26itm%3D327161459230%26noa%3D0%26plcampt%3D0%3A12277595012%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIMRXI%26brand%3DKrell%26asc%3D20250821123744%26ao%3D1%26rk%3D11%26pid%3D101196%26b%3D1%26mehot%3Dnone%26lsid%3D0%26meid%3De2570a1900804769b6b86985c7797acd%26pg%3D2332490&_trksid=p2332490.c101196.m2219&itmprp=cksum%3A327161459230e2570a1900804769b6b86985c7797acd%7Cenc%3AAQALAAABELsZI1p3QBkHJe8cy2eL%252F9gTPvzhaNzOnYMcKCqjK37vjAqAXt1QIOrbaCz38e%252FHSwl6C5VjaUQMfXRPV%252BLD4cfoNRQMzvBL%252Fw85rvo9wpl4T4Ja2Ey9bpKhZLNm%252FUWvxpK5DPY%252BjxkIbvD71zoP3wHDvTtRhR0f%252BDlPIe8jFIq9NQYk9mJRc2JE1GCCm9ovFllhaxeL7VrdqiIlzAHbN36yvVDmvTVhubDX6%252Fgoin0jR9O3Ebv%252F1AMoQM8Htanyjs%252FnnEdg9c13hxViPGcPJzQwTe8yvT9L08ifMRh203xLXB1p%252BQN1QmdebpxWN1%252BCjD%252FiiEigDXCeyIH2OAlYAZ%252FsAP5nlQDxKLyM1CbCLsb3%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490&itmmeta=01KSWNWQYN0TF2SQGVJZHX5W9T