Extreme Snake Oil

[AdrianusG]

Here is some news for you to worry about or to use to develop a snake oil product. From Science Daily, Shh! Quiet cables set to reveal rare physics events.

Radioactive contaminants, even at concentrations as tiny as one part-per-billion, can mimic the elusive signals that scientists are seeking. Now, a research team at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, working with Q-Flex Inc., a small business partner in California, has produced electronic cables with ultra-pure materials. These cables are specially designed and manufactured to have such extremely low levels of the radioactive contaminants that they will not interfere with highly sensitive neutrino and dark matter experiments. The scientists report in the journal EPJ Techniques and Instrumentation that the cables have applications not only in physics experiments, but they may also be useful to reduce the effect of ionizing radiation interfering with future quantum computers.

"We have pioneered a technique to produce electronic cabling that is a hundred times lower than current commercially available options," said PNNL principal investigator Richard Saldanha. "This manufacturing approach and product has broad application across any field that is sensitive to the presence of even very low levels of radioactive contaminants."

Good to know, can't wait till it's commercially available for my audio

 

[pseudoid]

It's got miles to go before it catches up to the vinyl renaissance thread

Nice segue between the 2 threads.
I recall owning a red coloUred J. Geils Band record album LP; its transparent vinyl had provided more clarity to the mids.

 

[egellings]

That's the only electronic issue that comes to my mind too.

But for me that's mostly based on intuition - "gee those little squiggly things in the tube running the signal move around with vibrations. I'd think that's not a good thing if one can help it."

I haven't the technical knowledge to vet that claim in reality, though. And I'm suspicious of my intuition.

It depends on the quality of the tube's construction and adherence to tight tolerances of the parts that make up the tube. Well made mica supports in the tube which hold the tubes parts in position will tightly grip the parts so that no motion between them is possible--then you get a tube impervious to reasonable amounts of external mechanical disturbance.

 

[Lujiez]

If I was seeking "expert" advice, and I had to choose between Hans Beekhuyzen and a wet piece of cardboard, I'd pick the cardboard in a heartbeat.

Probably a nice enough fella, but holy snazballs is he hopelessly lost in a world of fairy tales!

His latest drivel

 

[antcollinet]

As usual with this sort of stuff, he starts with the un-evidenced statement of "fact" that equipment sounds different when network switches are used. "It clearly does"

Then goes looking for reasons why that "fact" might be.

Then when he finds a hypothesis (which cant be tested because the equipment to do so costs too much - of course) accepts the hypothesis as another "fact".

All these people need to do is realise that even if they perceive a difference in sound, it is not necessarily coming from the equipment, and that the correct way to find out if it is or not is a properly controlled listening test.

Then all this nonsense could end.


How much of the world's human and material resources are wasted on creating, selling and using audio kit that serves absolutely zero purpose. (Except the purpose of transferring money from the pockets of the naive into those of the duplicitous)

 

[Mart68]

He's said it before but he repeats his claim that no-one knew about jitter in the mid 1980s.

If we were to give an annual ASR award for the most misinformation conveyed in a You Tube video, Hans would win every year. He just packs it in there.

 

[Frank2]

As usual with this sort of stuff, he starts with the un-evidenced statement of "fact" that equipment sounds different when network switches are used. "It clearly does"

This means Hans could sell me a switch that makes my bank account look different.. It it has a positive effect, I'm in!

 

[Soria Moria]

Welp, he has to spend his retirement doing something I guess.

 

[Frank2]

The paper he refers to addresses grounding issues. In a good DAC these are tackled in the circuit design, see for instance: https://www.analog.com/en/analog-dialogue/articles/staying-well-grounded.html
So, if he hears sound degradation due to grounding issues in an ethernet switch, he probably did not use a well engineered DAC.

Edit: found a whole thread on this issue, with (a link to) measurements:

Surprise findings on Ethernet cables/cleaners/reclockers

This was posted on another forum (in German): Ethernet Infrastructure Measurements - Switches https://www.open-end-music.com/forum/privatforen/thomas-michael-rudolph-tmr/651284-messungen-von-ethernet-infrastruktur-switches-nur-lesen Use Google translate if you need help reading it. Eric, the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[Anton D]

To me, an interesting side event takes place.

Many purveyors of snake oil offer 30 day return periods, then tout things like a ‘less than one percent return rate’ as proof of effectiveness.

The psychology of product return is interesting to me, as well,

 

[TLEDDY]

GAG A MAGGOT WARNING!

I received my electronic version of “The Absolute Sound” today (yes, yes…I know, but I am addicted!).

This month is the “Recommended Components”issue. I was rather enjoying the various speakers and some other miscellaneous items - and then came to the WIRES section.
I simply crashed and burned, hence my above title.

So, here is an idea: I will load all of the wire reviews into an AI program, then, as new and improved wires hit the market, have my reviews written for me by AI! Then. submit under a nom-de-plume (as yet to be selected), for publication.

Any thoughts, other than you consider me a disgusting, amoral person?

 

[Punter]

GAG A MAGGOT WARNING!

I received my electronic version of “The Absolute Sound” today (yes, yes…I know, but I am addicted!).

This month is the “Recommended Components”issue. I was rather enjoying the various speakers and some other miscellaneous items - and then came to the WIRES section.
I simply crashed and burned, hence my above title.

So, here is an idea: I will load all of the wire reviews into an AI program, then, as new and improved wires hit the market, have my reviews written for me by AI! Then. submit under a nom-de-plume (as yet to be selected), for publication.

Any thoughts, other than you consider me a disgusting, amoral person?

Sounds great! I look forward to the first AI review. We will know if the AI is properly trained if there is plenty of veil lifting

 

[Petevid]

It would be really interesting to hear the good folks of ASR's thoughts on this podcast

Podcast: 10 hi-fi myths busted! w/ Peter Comeau | Darko.Audio

The man from IAG takes aim at some of the misinformation perpetuated by contributors to forums and social media.

darko.audio

 

[fpitas]

Forbidden. Now I'm dying to see it!

 

[fpitas]

Just copy the link and paste it in your browser. ASR is persona non grata.

 

[dartinbout]

You can get there from his site directly. https://darko.audio/

There is a link on his main page. It's 2 hours. If someone has a longer amount of patience for this palaver, could you please summarize this? I'd appreciate it.

 

[olieb]

Forbidden. Now I'm dying to see it!

Look here, paste in browser.
https://darko.audio/2023/10/podcast-10-hi-fi-myths-busted-w-peter-comeau/

And for those like me who do not like to listen lengthy podcasts or videos. From that very page:

Peter Comeau is the Director of Acoustic Design at IAG, the Chinese company that now owns and manages classic British hi-fi brands such as Wharfedale, Mission, Castle, Audiolab and Quad. In recent times, Comeau has designed the 85th Anniversary Wharfedale Linton Heritage (review here), Wharfedale’s new Elysian series and reworked the Mission 770 for modern tastes and sources (review here). Prior to that, Comeau worked for Mission in the late 90s / early 2000s and helped found Heybrook in the late 1970s. This all sums to a loudspeaker designer with many decades of experience. Comeau has been around the block. He’s done things. He’s seen things. He’s heard things.

To my mind, fifty years of professional (and not just hobbyist) loudspeaker design experience makes Peter Comeau an expert in the hi-fi field. And on his third visit to the Darko.Audio podcast, the man from IAG takes aim at 10 hi-fi myths — or what he perceives as the spread of misinformation by armchair experts on forums and comments sections:
1. Hi-res audio sounds better because of its ultrasonic content
2. Supertweeters work because they reveal ultrasonic content
3. Digital is just ones and zeroes and is impervious to interference
4. Analogue sounds better than digital (LP vs. CD)
5. All amps (or DACs) sound the same
6. Valve (tube) amps are only enjoyable to listen to because of their added distortion (and transformers are bad)
7. Speaker cables all sound the same
8. 3-way speakers are better than 2-way (or, conversely, full-range speakers are better than 2-way speakers)
9. DSP can solve all response problems
10. Frequency response (and other specifications) will reliably tell us how a piece of equipment will sound
NOTE! The podcast also features two bonus myths as busted by Comeau.

I expect the usual and will not go there.

 

[fpitas]

Just a taste of the subjects. Quite a mixed bag.

1. Hi-res audio sounds better because of its ultrasonic content

2. Supertweeters work because they reveal ultrasonic content

3. Digital is just ones and zeroes and is impervious to interference

4. Analogue sounds better than digital (LP vs. CD)

5. All amps (or DACs) sound the same

6. Valve (tube) amps are only enjoyable to listen to because of their added distortion (and transformers are bad)

7. Speaker cables all sound the same

8. 3-way speakers are better than 2-way (or, conversely, full-range speakers are better than 2-way speakers)

9. DSP can solve all response problems

10. Frequency response (and other specifications) will reliably tell us how a piece of equipment will sound

 

[fpitas]

Lots of troll bait there. This thread may not last a day.

 

[TonyJZX]

its also a 2hr podcast so that's time you'll never get back

there's a lot to digest in that list (lot of bullshit I'd expect)

a lot of these claims are digital

like DSP... can it solve ALL response issues? well of course not... you're going to get someone who wants to run a tube amp with GR Research Little Giant Killers 2.1 in a igloo and Dirac is going to go comatose...