In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud

[Axo1989]

That's just a damn dirty trick

Or a slippery one.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

So who wants to join me in my new business venture: audiophile quality bananas?

With associated mud-filled grounding boxes

 

[Grimoire]

With associated mud-filled grounding boxes

Connected with banana plugs?

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Connected with banana plugs?

Quoted so I could “like” it again!

 

[tmtomh]

Connected with banana plugs?

Thank you! Having just visited ASR for the first time today and reading the thread from the beginning just now, I was starting to worry about us as a collective when it was already the 2nd page of the thread and about 18 hours after the OP and no one had used the banana plugs joke yet. Whew!

 

[Chrispy]

Reminds me of the test Mark H at avsforum did with the aluminum foil for speaker wire....

 

[mhardy6647]

Did all y'all ever see the wires that Mapleshade (the late Pierre Sprey's side hustle) sold... maybe still sells?
Doesn't look like they still offer the power cords I rememember: basically two pieces of copper wire stuck between two lengths of Scotch Magic Tape... kind of terrifying, actually.
The current Mapleshade speaker wire looks relatively normal... but they do have a link to power products from someone else in DC that make bananas and carrots look like pretty reasonable design choices.

OMEGA MIKRO - Audio Cables, DIY Audio INTERCONNECTS

Omega Mikro and Clearview Interconnects, speaker cables, power cords and accessories by Ron Bauman of inSound Audio Inc and Pierre Sprey of Mapleshade.

www.omegamikro.com

 

[dtaylo1066]

The bananas are, presumably, all Cavendish. The plantain, however... there you may be onto something!

https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/full/10.1094/PHYTO-07-20-0311-RVW

My protoge at work was a huge banana eater. She was depressed right before I retired when I informed her of the disease hitting bananas. That has been happening for about 5 years or more, and most consumers are oblivious.

 

[dtaylo1066]

I am not sure why they are called banana plugs, as I do not know of any straight bananas, though they of course taper at both ends.

This thread is driving me bananas, and is really muddying up the often clear waters of ASR!

 

[Mr. Swordfish]

The testers were cheating.

It's clear from the picture that the banana was not peeled, so they were relying on the skin effect to provide additional conductivity.

 

[Palladium]

Did all y'all ever see the wires that Mapleshade (the late Pierre Sprey's side hustle) sold... maybe still sells?
Doesn't look like they still offer the power cords I rememember: basically two pieces of copper wire stuck between two lengths of Scotch Magic Tape... kind of terrifying, actually.
The current Mapleshade speaker wire looks relatively normal... but they do have a link to power products from someone else in DC that make bananas and carrots look like pretty reasonable design choices.

OMEGA MIKRO - Audio Cables, DIY Audio INTERCONNECTS

Omega Mikro and Clearview Interconnects, speaker cables, power cords and accessories by Ron Bauman of inSound Audio Inc and Pierre Sprey of Mapleshade.

www.omegamikro.com

View attachment 511373

This looks like something that I can find from a trash pile.

 

[RandomEar]

I am not sure why they are called banana plugs, as I do not know of any straight bananas, though they of course taper at both ends.

There, straight banana. Hope this helps

This thread is driving me bananas, and is really muddying up the often clear waters of ASR!

Sure does!

 

[Arindal]

The interesting thing about this experiment on diyaudio, is that it apparently started somewhen in 2024, but only a few days ago appeared as ´breaking news´ on several audio-related sites, flooding newsfeeds, discover and social media.

Seemingly more of a social experiment, how a.i. driven websites and algorithms are copycatting each other when it comes to turning old forum experiments into valuable clickbait headlines, and flooding everything with one and the same compiled story. No surprise it first surfaced on headphonesty in my feed.

So one result is at least interesting: which audio website and social media channels to ban in order to avoid such ´content´.

 

[delta76]

the mud was clearly not cryogenically treated, what a wasted chance

 

[Arindal]

the mud was clearly not cryogenically treated,

What about supra conducting mud?

 

[BeeKay]

So who wants to join me in my new business venture: audiophile quality bananas?

It’s ’grade' not quality. Don’t confuse your future customers

 

[BeeKay]

What about supra conducting mud?

And what about banana lifters?

 

[BeeKay]

Venture capital isn’t that much, probably. Marketing guys needed next.

 

[delta76]

too bad this will not hurt the cable companies and will not change many (if at all) mind of audiophiles. Typical excuses - the setup is imperfect/faulty (Speakers, DAC/amp etc. are not resolving enough), I can clearly hear the differences...

thumb up to tomshardware to set up a test to prove what we already know (or maybe not, never thought about mud!), but we need much more than this to change the audiophool world

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

I think there is too much focus on the bananas, and too many are ignoring the money making opportunity of mud based interconnects. Different mineral content, different hydration levels, the fussiness of "watering" your interconnects... seems tailor made for a certain type of audiophile. Just introducing new mineral formulations would mean a new great level of improvement anytime. Don't notice a difference? Wrong hydration level, so user error. And you really should have gotten the version with a higher sand/clay ratio given your McIntosh gear.

The dirt particles CLEARLY would give the sound a very natural character, for what is more natural than Mother Earth?

The advertising copy pretty much writes itself. Muddy cables = clean sound!!!!