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Snake Oil Department, Top This

A/B test: capacitor “aura” and the myth of the English sound

Left: off-the-shelf peasant cap. Right: the same thing in brown paper, bitumen, label, and wax. One sounded 'vulgar and coarse', the other 'noble and English'. Amazing what a costume does.

1471699970145338762.jpg


Here’s a free recipe:
  1. Take a modern electrolytic.
  2. Strip off the plastic sleeve.
  3. Wrap it in the cheapest brown paper you can find.
  4. Seal the ends with bitumen (or epoxy mixed with crushed bakelite, for more authenticity).
  5. Print a grand-sounding label on a laser printer and stick it on.
  6. Stain the paper with something yellowish (eucalyptus tincture works nicely).
  7. Dip the whole assembly in molten wax or shellac.
Voilà - you now have a vintage-looking "British" capacitor that will glue even the most jaded audiophile to the ceiling with joy.
 
tengiz said:
A/B test: capacitor “aura” and the myth of the English sound

Left: off-the-shelf peasant cap. Right: the same thing in brown paper, bitumen, label, and wax. One sounded 'vulgar and coarse', the other 'noble and English'. Amazing what a costume does.

View attachment 474637

Here’s a free recipe:
  1. Take a modern electrolytic.
  2. Strip off the plastic sleeve.
  3. Wrap it in the cheapest brown paper you can find.
  4. Seal the ends with bitumen (or epoxy mixed with crushed bakelite, for more authenticity).
  5. Print a grand-sounding label on a laser printer and stick it on.
  6. Stain the paper with something yellowish (eucalyptus tincture works nicely).
  7. Dip the whole assembly in molten wax or shellac.
Voilà - you now have a vintage-looking "British" capacitor that will glue even the most jaded audiophile to the ceiling with joy.
Click to expand...
Are you telling me the right specimen is new? It really looks like some age old shit from the 60s, leaking and all. People pay good money for that? :facepalm:
 
Ropeburn said:
Are you telling me the right specimen is new? It really looks like some age old shit from the 60s, leaking and all. People pay good money for that? :facepalm:
Click to expand...
This 'objective measurement' nut who staged the deed offered the capacitor on the right for free to be evaluated in the tube amp designed by the golden-eared listener himself. No money exchanged hands - only the aura did.
 
tengiz said:
A/B test: capacitor “aura” and the myth of the English sound

Left: off-the-shelf peasant cap. Right: the same thing in brown paper, bitumen, label, and wax. One sounded 'vulgar and coarse', the other 'noble and English'. Amazing what a costume does.

View attachment 474637

Here’s a free recipe:
  1. Take a modern electrolytic.
  2. Strip off the plastic sleeve.
  3. Wrap it in the cheapest brown paper you can find.
  4. Seal the ends with bitumen (or epoxy mixed with crushed bakelite, for more authenticity).
  5. Print a grand-sounding label on a laser printer and stick it on.
  6. Stain the paper with something yellowish (eucalyptus tincture works nicely).
  7. Dip the whole assembly in molten wax or shellac.
Voilà - you now have a vintage-looking "British" capacitor that will glue even the most jaded :cool:audiophile to the ceiling with joy.
Click to expand...
Maybe my presbyopia fools me, but the cap on the right looks ' monopoled'?
 
tengiz said:
This 'objective measurement' nut who staged the deed offered the capacitor on the right for free to be evaluated in the tube amp designed by the golden-eared listener himself. No money exchanged hands - only the aura did.
Click to expand...
Good heavens. Is this the "aura farming" the kids keep talking about lately?
 
Gold is not needed at all for high current applications. It's good for small signal contacts because it doesn't corrode at all and provides higher conductivity then a corroded contact of any other material would. Best contact would be brightly polished copper, but unfortunately copper loves those little oxygen atoms too much, gets drunk on them, and then fergits how to conduct that 'lectric.
 
tengiz said:
A/B test: capacitor “aura” and the myth of the English sound

Left: off-the-shelf peasant cap. Right: the same thing in brown paper, bitumen, label, and wax. One sounded 'vulgar and coarse', the other 'noble and English'. Amazing what a costume does.

View attachment 474637

Here’s a free recipe:
  1. Take a modern electrolytic.
  2. Strip off the plastic sleeve.
  3. Wrap it in the cheapest brown paper you can find.
  4. Seal the ends with bitumen (or epoxy mixed with crushed bakelite, for more authenticity).
  5. Print a grand-sounding label on a laser printer and stick it on.
  6. Stain the paper with something yellowish (eucalyptus tincture works nicely).
  7. Dip the whole assembly in molten wax or shellac.
Voilà - you now have a vintage-looking "British" capacitor that will glue even the most jaded audiophile to the ceiling with joy.
Click to expand...
Dude -- I'm startin' a boutique!
 
egellings said:
Gold is not needed at all for high current applications. It's good for small signal contacts because it doesn't corrode at all and provides higher conductivity then a corroded contact of any other material would. Best contact would be brightly polished copper, but unfortunately copper loves those little oxygen atoms too much, gets drunk on them, and then fergits how to conduct that 'lectric.
Click to expand...
... and let's not even talk about copper and sulfuric acid gettin' it on...
1757116494677.webp
 
Been browsing this one site, the things people fall for....

6962.jpg


But I'm jealous of people can spend that much on a power cord, something I'd wince paying more than $40 for.
Also $80,000 speaker cables.
 
WideEyedToad said:
Been browsing this one site, the things people fall for....

View attachment 475123

But I'm jealous of people can spend that much on a power cord, something I'd wince paying more than $40 for.
Also $80,000 speaker cables.
Click to expand...


The “TRANSPARENT OPUS” sounds like a fictitious mountain monster they chase in the Appalachia Hills on the Discovery Channel.
 
WideEyedToad said:
Speaker cables, but they're the $60 (around) ones. And RCA cables.
Click to expand...
I'd make it a point not to buy anything from companies sufficiently morally bankrupt to be selling snake-oil-coil, as I like to call their cables.
 
LOL there are different levels of snake oil. Even when I was naive and thought speaker cables matter and maybe even interconnects I never thought power cables could make a difference. Thats snake oil cubed ! Magazines like Stereophile that push this crap are for entertainment purposes only. Thats it. Of course these type of companies pay the bills
 
1757944976718.webp

Only for the looks.
 
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