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Snake Oil Department, Top This

Yeah lots of audiophiles like to tinker with turntables, cartridges , tubes etc. Thats doesnt mean they like music any less than I do who is simply a plug and play listener.
 
I'm 53 my hearing is shot, so R Harley's must be utterly shot. If it was some youthful musical savant, say Jacob Collier, making these claims, I might gives them 'some' weight, but as it stands it's just some partially deaf, trade indoctrinated, fantasist, who makes a living from writing about bullshit. So I'll pass.
 
sceptical1 said:
In the same issue JA mentioned his pathological attraction to the dynamically crippled, so called timbre superior British ls3/5a and clones in his dynaudio review, as if we should be impressed that he has no intention of hearing music reproduced at realistic levels, it's all about not being annoyed, or moved by the performance. If he kept the Dynaudios and listened for a couple of months he would wonder why he listened to that other crap for so long and appreciated it.
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For those who would like to read why I like minimonitors, it's in the introduction to my Dynaudio review at https://www.stereophile.com/content/dynaudio-contour-20-black-edition-loudspeaker

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile
 
RexrothPigeon said:
The audiophile goes to sleep dreaming of a speaker or an amp…
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* Raises hand*

Guilty. I’ve done that occasionally while in speaker purchase fever mode.


RexrothPigeon said:
(or if he's a true psycho, a cable riser or power cord lol)
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Whew! Never done that so I guess I don’t have to check myself into an asylum.

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RexrothPigeon said:
rather than a record, a concert, a song.
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A song is almost often going through my head when my head hits the pillow, sometimes to the point of distraction.

Anyway, I certainly spend a lot more time thinking about audio gear than the average person. Then again from my observations I also spend a lot more time thinking about music and dedicating my attention directly to listening to music (rather than have it just playing in the background to another activity ) than the average person.

But even if that weren’t the case, it would still be fine. Whatever floats our boat. If the mythical audiophile actually exists who has $100,000 system and only 10 recordings he listens to, if he finds that fulfilling…bless him.
 
I enjoy audio and built my circlotron style mono block tube amps and a tube preamp. It was a labor of love, and I bought expensive floor stander speakers to go with. Curiously, I can't recall ever having had a dream about anything audio, in spite of my interest in it.
 
Mart68 said:
My understanding of Peter Belt's ideas is that they were/are entirely intended to be a placebo.

This is why there are so many and they are so odd - like putting a piece of paper under one foot of the turntable, attaching safety pins to the curtains, inserting paper into books so they have an even number of pages.

They are all intended to have a psychological effect on the listener when he is done with the tweaking and sits down to evaluate the results. If one doesn't work one of several probably will. Since they are bizarre they stick in the mind.

I read he got the idea when he had an antique coffee table revarnished. He perceived the new finish improved the sound even though he was aware it couldn't.
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Late reply Mart, but when reviewer James Michael Hughes was espousing utter conviction to PBs tweaks, I was a regular visitor to his gaff and 'heard' all manner of things he demonstrated. Trying some of it at home - no difference at al!!! He' polarised my specs and a couple of prized CDs. I've still got the latter as a reminder :) 'Sounds' fine to me :D
 
Palmer said:
True - I had to roll up a couple of quarters, and bang 'em into the fuse holders. Holds pretty well, so far. Can't get on the bus, though... ;)
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And even if you could (get on the bus) you'd be wasting your time, since by the time you were home your house has burnt down :p
 
Punter said:
From the review linked above

All this from a cable that transfers the AC mains from the wall to the amplifier. Upon it's arrival at the amplifier, the AC passes through a fuse (a FUSE!!!!) then the primary of a power transformer. The resultant energy at the secondary of the transformer is then rectified, smoothed and filtered to achieve DC power for the amplifier circuits. The only property that this cable possesses that could affect the performance of the equipment is resistance which , in the case of a one meter cable would be utterly insignificant.

Additionally, the reviewer obviously knows nothing about studio recording or the post-processing that happens to every bit of final audio prior to mastering.

This reviewer is either a useful shill or an utterly deluded putz, probably both.
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What he claims to hear is absolute impossible. Reflections result in peaks and dips in the frequency response, not just one but it's a series of dips and peaks, so called comb filtering, and a secondary reflection is a sound getting reflected by a boundary to another one by which it is again reflected and then finally reaches the mic. Plus in a reflective environment there are many more reflections. That means a comb filtering mess, plus the comb filtering from his own room, but sure, he claims to hear this specific reflection. And a reflection per se does not "decay" like for instance a room mode as far as i know.
 
Truth Ness said:
What he claims to hear is absolute impossible. Reflections result in peaks and dips in the frequency response, not just one but it's a series of dips and peaks, so called comb filtering, and a secondary reflection is a sound getting reflected by a boundary to another one by which it is again reflected and then finally reaches the mic. Plus in a reflective environment there are many more reflections. That means a comb filtering mess, plus the comb filtering from his own room, but sure, he claims to hear this specific reflection. And a reflection per se does not "decay" like for instance a room mode as far as i know.
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Whether details are there in the original recording or not, changing an AC power cable is not going to affect your ability to perceive them.
 
SuicideSquid said:
Whether details are there in the original recording or not, changing an AC power cable is not going to affect your ability to perceive them.
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Yeah a power cable makes no difference at all, i just wanted to point out how ridiculous those "reviews" are. They more often than not have no clue what they are talking about.
 
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