• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Snake Oil Department, Top This

Alexander Gödde said:
Fore example, I would not be able to type this into a computer for others across the world to read.
Click to expand...
Can you prove that when you install a £1000 ethernet cable, then I don't see improved contrast in your words on my screen? Hmm?...Hmmmm? (Anti poe emoji incoming...... :p)
 
Speedskater said:
A century ago there were some 2 phase AC power systems, with 90 degrees between phases
Click to expand...
90 or 180? US or EU?

I had valve grinders that were built in 1915 for the early big stem diesel and diesel/steam mining pumps. No one else would or could do the work
before they phased them out. The engines were used in railroad switchers and also as submarine powerplants to power and pump ballast tanks/
and snorkel for fresh air exchange. I worked on a few mining pumps, just never the switcher/submarine variant.

Strange how the US hid what they needed for the war effort in different industries like the RR or mining.

Thanks once again.

Regards
 
MattHooper said:
Interesting.

As someone who still haunts the subjective forum for many years, I’m used to quite a number of subjectivists who are making crazy claims mentioning that they have scientific jobs.

This type of stuff, along with so many other examples, reinforces my view of just how critical the scientific method itself is as well as peer review.

The whole point of course is that scientist are just as subject to biases and going down rabbit holes as anyone else, which is why they apply rigourous controls for those human failings, as well as a system of Having to meet certain standards and being checked by their peers.

Once you start operating outside of that framework, frankly, “ there, be monsters.”

Any scientist can slip down any crazy rabbit hole as soon as they stop actually doing science. We see this all the time, even from great scientists who, after making their mark in real science start to think therefore any of their speculations are substantive. But when they do that outside science and only get the feedback of their audience, they can just start saying crazy shit.

There’s even more amplification of this phenomenon these days via social media and the Internet, amplifying the status of Mavericks and contrarians “ working outside the system.” They think they are freed from stifling orthodoxy or even from “ the general conspiracy against their ideas.” And so operating outside the framework of science down the rabbit hole they go. Cheered on by certain audiences, who like being free of the effort required for expertise, which allows them all to “ know more” than the experts, just going on their intuitions and spit balling.

And unfortunately, as contrarianism, distrust of institutions and conspiracy thinking becomes more prevalent, it is the mavericks working outside the systems who are seen as more insightful, knowledgeable, and trustworthy, over the scientific consensus.

Ugh. This age can really suck in some ways.
Click to expand...
Agree; there are so many Paul Reveres who aren't.
 
MattHooper said:
Ugh. This age can really suck in some ways.
Click to expand...
Ugh, Have you taken a good look in the mirror lately?
You're the biggest apologist for the snake-oil charmers on ASR, Constantly supporting the use of a expensive vinyl front end that can be easily surpassed by a $100 DAC and tube amps that were obsolete many decades ago. You'd do good applying to Jim Austin for a job at Stereophile. :facepalm:
 
Sal1950 said:
Ugh, Have you taken a good look in the mirror lately?
You're the biggest apologist for the snake-oil charmers on ASR, Constantly supporting the use of a expensive vinyl front end that can be easily surpassed by a $100 DAC and tube amps that were obsolete many decades ago. You'd do good applying to Jim Austin for a job at Stereophile. :facepalm:
Click to expand...

That’s a very good argument for ditching internal combustion cars in favour of electric cars Sal, ;)
 
HammersRocco said:
Indeed! <3

Someone over at Hoffman asked about affordable CD players. Back when I decided to come back to CD I wanted to not break the bank, so found two CD players that were very well reviewed in terms of quality, build and price. Found both an Onkyo and a Teac that were very well reviewed objectively and yes, also by the audiophile reviewers.

Apparently, they "punched above their weight". Never thought much of the phrase, until yesterday, when suggesting those to the poster. How does that happen? This is only a hypothesis, of course, but I think it goes like this:

1.- Audiophile reviewer/listener listens to inexpensive player
2.- Compares to their own expensive one
3.- THIS IS THE THING. For some reason, their brains accepts the truth in the moment. They sound the same to them.
4.- But that moment of lucidity fades. They need to explain it in terms of the audiophile view.
5.- So they declare, "punches above its weight" and declare the inexpensive device a rara avis, an anomaly in that world.

Not sure if related to the thread.... but seemed to me - like a reverse snake oil... while still reinforcing the worldview.
Click to expand...
Audiophile reviewers need to be experts at doublethink and other contortions of the mind. E.g. that systems have been "stunningly realistic" for decades and that there still is an infinite number of clearly identifiable gradations in sound improvement beyond that.
 
Spkrdctr said:
Nooooooo! I will keep gasoline forever! LOL I do love gasoline just not enough to drink it......
Click to expand...
But it smells so good. I remember sitting on the hood of my uncles John Deer tractor
and sniffing the gas fumes till I got dizzy and fell off. LOL
 
Heard about this from recent social media insanity victim Russell Brand.

airestech

Explore Aires Tech's advanced EMF protectors for your cell phone and digital lifestyle. Shield against EMF radiation! Better than an EMF blocker.
airestech.com airestech.com
 
ahofer said:
Heard about this from recent social media insanity victim Russell Brand.

airestech

Explore Aires Tech's advanced EMF protectors for your cell phone and digital lifestyle. Shield against EMF radiation! Better than an EMF blocker.
airestech.com airestech.com
Click to expand...
The method for protecting biological objects from the negative influence of technogenic electromagnetic (EM) radiation in a wide range of frequencies, which consists is to create around a biological object (BO) or between it and the source of technogenic EM radiation a special EM field in the form of a fractal coherent matrix, using a fractal-matrix coherent converter to create the field. A coherent transformer is a self-affine lattice (resonator) formed from ringed topological lines, which create a slit-like raster, and is a universal Fourier transformer that harmonizes the amplitude, phase, frequency and polarization vector of external technogenic radiation and the BO's own EM radiation. The shape of the resonator's field is a spatial holographic matrix whose multi-level gradation is a set of annular raster lattices that are symmetric with at least the three orthogonal basis vectors X, Y, Z with a subsequent release to multidimensionality and with the formation of a spatial monostructural form with an infinite number of inherent derivative components.
Click to expand...

fractal coherent matrix???

Shut up and take my money.... Or...


What a load of utter nonsense word salad.
 
That stuff is absolutely nuts.

On a side note: My girlfriend's father's girlfriend is one of those people who believe WiFi signals make her sick.

One time we had them on an overnight visit, and she insisted that we turned off the router before they went to bed, otherwise it'd be impossible for her to sleep well. I said I would... but I forgot.

The morning after she asked me whether the router had been turned off. I lied and said "yes", and then she of course proclaimed that this obviously was the reason why she had experienced a really good night's sleep. I didn't correct her, but my girlfriend and I had a good laugh about it later.
 
Killingbeans said:
On a side note: My girlfriend's father's girlfriend is one of those people who believe WiFi signals make her sick.
Click to expand...

And that hifi freak on 6moons sjraban, "surprisingly" so is his wife.....what's the chances of those two meeting up out of a worldwide population of 8billion+?
 
Somafunk said:
And that hifi freak on 6moons sjraban, "surprisingly" so is his wife.....what's the chances of those two meeting up out of a worldwide population of 8billion+?
Click to expand...

Sadly there's huge online communities designed specifically for spreading this kind of FUD, so I bet the chances of a virtual encounter is pretty good.
 
To laugh or cry... maybe both.

Ideon Absolute Stream meta edition is $24,000 and its optional add-on, the Ideon Alpha Wave LAN Optimizer is $6900

For your $24k you get an off the shelf motherboard, some fancy power supplies and a Linux OS. And of course the power supplies provide enough capacity to drive an amp cause big numbers are impressive to the gullible even though the power draw of a MB, SSD drive and some USB ports is tiny.

What is "cheap" (and comical) is rather then hardwire the Ethernet and USB ports at the chassis end, they use standard cabling with plugs. So that's one extra join/junction (which might be prone to vibrations) but I am sure whomever buys this will use $$$$ external USB and Ethernet cables potentially not knowning that within the chassis the cabling is of a "lessor" quality.

You would think, for the money, they would be using something more "high end" for the internal wiring.

And while maybe not important, why house the SSD drive directly under the USB/ethernet cables... surely you would, for the money, isolate the SSD drive away from other components. And indeed isolate the power supplies with internal walls... to at least give an impression of having given some thought to the internal placement of parts for your $24k.

Anyways, the review highlights all the usual stuff about why you need to spend $24k on a box with one ethernet port, five usb ports, a standard mother board, an SSD drive and a Linux OS (and I am sure a whole host of FOSS [as in free] software joining it all together). For example, its easy to create a computer that works as a Roon server or endpoint as Roon provide the sofware needed for free.

Peter

1729281876542.png
 
Last edited:
I've invented my own snake-oil box: it's just a constant-current DC PSU. Explanation: electronics have mass, and are therefore subject to gravity. If you haven't playe"d music for a while, electrons will "settle" towards the bottom of your cables, reaching "low-energy states". The result is sluggish bass, no "impact" in the midrange, lack of treble "sparkle". The fix is simple: the new Electron Awakener 3000 will push a new set of electrons through your cables, so your system can sounds its best once again.


It'd almost sell itself.

Chris
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Sha1rholder
Not Very Advanced Knowledge about Headphone Amplifiers
Replies
18
Views
2K
DEF
D
Y
Concert hall acoustics links and excerpts
Replies
17
Views
4K
Smaestro
Smaestro
Back
Top Bottom