Extreme Snake Oil

[Mnyb]

But surely, you then have to determine whether copper wire or fibre optic cable sounds better.

My home is being upgraded to fibre later this month. I can't wait to hear how much better YouTube videos sound.

The sound quality difference is so obvious that you can record it with a microphone in room and then send it up to YouTube and let their lossy sound algorithm crush everything
And its still audible to your viewers of your channel ? NOT

 

[thewas]

But surely, you then have to determine whether copper wire or fibre optic cable sounds better.

Obviously copper cable sounds warmer and optic cable more transparent....

 

[Mart68]

system building today - approximately 25% of the budget should be spent on foo:

 

[Killingbeans]

Already been discussed but I always get a good laugh when people claim the soundstage gets wide open or the fast rythmic section placement is different just by changing a network switch. The linked video tries to provide "proof".

Hans Beekhuyzen is an endless source of things that look like satire... but sadly aren't.

 

[mhardy6647]

I like how every placebophile argument ends up to "If you reject my baseless conjectures you are just a poor pathetic pleb"

Now that's an unfair assessment!
The argument always ends thus:

"If you reject my baseless conjectures your system is simply not resolving enough."

 

[srkbear]

$459 for a tiny portable DAC that supposedly leverages “K2HD” technology, which apparently amounts to nothing more than upscaling to 192khz. Delta sigma DACs already do this to much higher sampling rates. I think this qualifies as snake oil, if anything for charging $459 for a dongle, no matter what tech it uses. The amp in there barely transcends an iPhone in power. Boo…

https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/iFi_GO_bar_Kensei_K2HD_Tech_Note_2024_Mar.pdf

 

[Killingbeans]

I could be wrong, but it looks like it's more silly than just upscaling. The idea is to add ultrasonic harmonics via some "expert approved" algorithm in order to make the music "more emotional"

And the non-HD K2 technology is just the JVC version of DSD?

 

[Ken1951]

system building today - approximately 25% of the budget should be spent on foo:

So, if you add the 11K on nonsense to the 7K budgeted to speakers as well as the likely 5K one could save with different excellent amplification, the end result would be an absolutely killer system that would destroy the mess on this list.

 

[srkbear]

I could be wrong, but it looks like it's more silly than just upscaling. The idea is to add ultrasonic harmonics via some "expert approved" algorithm in order to make the music "more emotional"

And the non-HD K2 technology is just the JVC version of DSD?

K2HD has been around for over 15 years and is some funky approach to the mastering process, involving upscaling and using higher bit rates before dropping down to Red Book CD formats. Now it seems it’s being leveraged as a whole ecosystem, which seems uncomfortably reminiscent of MQA to me. Not sure how this is any more beneficial than the existing upsampling Delta Sigma DACs perform for considerably less money.

I admit that I own an ifi xDSD Gryphon portable that costs only about $150 more than this dinky thing, and it offers an analog bass and presence boost (what I bought it for), about four times as much power, a digital GUI, volume integration with your phone, crossfeed options for headphones, and about 10 times as many I/Os. $459 for this tiny matchbox with no features except this ineffable “K2HD” subterfuge is to me outrageous and deceptive. And of course, all the corporate funded review sites are already calling it the future of exquisite audio reproduction available now…

 

[Spkrdctr]

It might absorb something way, way above the point of ultrasonics, but so will everything else around it.

It's guaranteed to have a distinct resonance frequency of its own though. It's just a really, really expensive claves, or a really, really expensive helmholtz absorber that operate in a stupid frequency range

Completely pointless exercise mind you. There's nothing that needs to be reduced in the first place.

Killingbeans, you know it has a massive effect on sound in the BGhz range. Yes that is the Bazillion Gigahertz range. Just so you know. I am getting all sciency again!

 

[Mart68]

So, if you add the 11K on nonsense to the 7K budgeted to speakers as well as the likely 5K one could save with different excellent amplification, the end result would be an absolutely killer system that would destroy the mess on this list.

Exactly. Even without the staggering eleven grand apportioned to nonsense, it's still very poor bang for the buck.

 

[Sal1950]

View attachment 325130
Photo courtesy of Mono@Stereo

?!
Keith

 

[Bruce Morgen]

 

[solderdude]

Are there any (cable) manufacturers/sellers that try to sell their wares without claiming they do something better or improve the sound ?

 

[Doodski]

Are there any (cable) manufacturers/sellers that try to sell their wares without claiming they do something better or improve the sound ?

Belden was seemingly OK for years and years and then they too went rogue.

 

[Bruce Morgen]

Are there any (cable) manufacturers that try to sell their wares without claiming they do something better or improve the sound ?

I dunno -- but I'm pretty sure very few are claiming both "Multifilamentary nerve line" and "Shocking Hearing!"

 

[solderdude]

You have to claim 'something' to be different enough so gullible people fall for it.
Consumers all want the dream.... better sound, better VFM, better 'performance'

 

[GXAlan]

Are there any (cable) manufacturers/sellers that try to sell their wares without claiming they do something better or improve the sound ?

McIntosh Speaker Cables

McIntosh speaker cables give you a world class sound experience. Two large conductor groups made from the finest of the fine pure copper are covered in an attractive black mesh jacket and terminated into gold plated, solid brass, spade connectors.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

Incredibly honest description and silly expensive for non lottery winners…

 

[Doodski]

You have to claim 'something' to be different enough so gullible people fall for it.
Consumers all want the dream.... better sound, better VFM, better 'performance'

Not so sure about that @solderdude. You know I have lotsa experience in the consumer electronics sales and service industry. You are not familiar with the cable design/drafting executive sales rep job that I had in the oil and gas industry. I was laying out very thick cables of ~baseball bat size thickness & up to ~100+ m for data COMMs with high current conductors too and we where charging large. They never cared what the expense was. There was no fancy talk of stuff. They cared that a guarantee the cable would work as requested was provided and we charged large for that. We where getting amounts in excess of CDN $50K per 100 m cable. Usually they where about CDN $25 K each. It made the speaker and interconnect stuff look tame. It's about ensuring the cable is the best. They don't need to know why!

 

[solderdude]

Yes, but they were not using it in hifi.
Only in consumer audio there is 'lunacy'.

I have worked both in the audio (incl. high-end audio) and rail-way industry and the reasons for picking cables differ immensely.