Snake Oil Department, Top This

[egellings]

I put little fuzzy slippers on my equipment feet in the cold months.

Gotta keep those little tootsies warm.

 

[egellings]

Are they stereo or are they monoblocks?

It says 'monoblock'.

 

[kemmler3D]

That geof kait or what his name is you can also buy bags of gravel to tape to your cables from there

The explanation for the "Clever Little Clock" (https://www.machinadynamica.com/machina42.htm) remains my reference bit of snake oil. Amazes me every time how somebody could come up with something so fractally wrong (i.e. everything from the larger concepts to the details is strikingly incorrect).

I am 80% sure that Machina Dynamica is performance art that happens to make him a few bucks on occasion. It's as absurd as anything you can find in audio, but to me the explanations read as lucid enough that I don't think he believes any of it. To me the tell is that he stays more or less grounded in reality until he starts applying the various scientific concepts to audio... at which point he immediately ramps up the absurdity to 11.

The real snake oil peddlers generally skip the realistic/grounded preamble, or divorce themselves from reality entirely, but also try not to strain credibility beyond what's required to sell the product.

I also don't get the "genuine mental illness / delusion / schizophrenia" vibe from Machina Dynamica like you normally do from stuff like that.

 

[CD2]

I am 80% sure that Machina Dynamica is performance art that happens to make him a few bucks on occasion. It's as absurd as anything you can find in audio, but to me the explanations read as lucid enough that I don't think he believes any of it. To me the tell is that he stays more or less grounded in reality until he starts applying the various scientific concepts to audio... at which point he immediately ramps up the absurdity to 11.

The real snake oil peddlers generally skip the realistic/grounded preamble, or divorce themselves from reality entirely, but also try not to strain credibility beyond what's required to sell the product.

I also don't get the "genuine mental illness / delusion / schizophrenia" vibe from Machina Dynamica like you normally do from stuff like that.

Kait, if you read his comments on audioasylum, is fully aware it's a con. He will occasionally wink at you. Peter and May Belt were possibly sincere.

What audioasylum taught me, though, is that the marks are fully committed to being marks. Questioning only convinces that they have special insight and are onto the latest science. This is the dynamic Kait understands.

 

[egellings]

By 'marks', I understand that to mean 'true believers'.

 

[Alexander Gödde]

Peter and May Belt were possibly sincere.

I can see Machina Dynamica as performance art, but the Belts read like they were years/decades deep into building abstruse systems of explaining the world based on absurd assumptions. They could have gone anti-vaxx, become believers in homeopathy or UFOs etc., but somehow ended up in audio instead.

 

[mhardy6647]

Maybe it should be called the Mandelbrot (sp?) clock.

don't give 'em any ideas...

I will say this about Geoff Kaitt, who is (still) quite active @ audioasylum: He is witty.

Search of General Asylum

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I am not convinced that he isn't* a performance artist more than anything else (FWIW).

Geoff Kait

Geoff Kait. 453 likes · 471 talking about this. Digital creator

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___________________
* note the double negative. Seems most fitting for a character such as he.

 

[kemmler3D]

I can see Machina Dynamica as performance art, but the Belts read like they were years/decades deep into building abstruse systems of explaining the world based on absurd assumptions. They could have gone anti-vaxx, become believers in homeopathy or UFOs etc., but somehow ended up in audio instead.

Yes, totally agree.

Kait seems to know what (e.g.) quantum dots are and how they work, at least on a conceptual level. Then he willfully abuses the audience using a partial explanation of quantum dots.

Here he seems to express doubt in one of his own services. Trying to see if his customers crack up?

The Belt style stuff does not give you the sense that they really know or even WANT to know how anything actually works, same as homeopaths and flat earthers. They far prefer to assert that things don't work the way YOU, the non-believer thinks they do. There is a distinct psychological thread connecting all of that stuff.

 

[SonnySide]

Would you pay $60k for a Music server that looks like a toaster oven?

You have to listen to this nutjob explain the special feature that allows you to control the amplitude and shape of the digital waveform without affecting the ones and zeros, which improves the sound quality.

Wadax Atlantis Reference Music Server

Most of us have experienced the thrill of hearing a favorite album in a fabulous remastering. The best remastering jobs are transformative. You hear a

www.theabsolutesound.com

If I had a component with a special silver plaque with "Manufactured For SonnySide" engraved on it, my expectation bias would be also be heightened.

 

[CD2]

By 'marks', I understand that to mean 'true believers'.

Gull, dupe, sucker, pigeon. David Maurer's 1940 _The Big Con_ is excellent on the psychology of the mark. A key is getting them to believe they're in on something special. He has stories of people who are comprehensively swindled once and fall for a similar con a second time.

 

[voodooless]

He has stories of people who are comprehensively swindled once and fall for a similar con a second time.

That basically describes most of audiophilia

 

[BeeKay]

This all seems to be bordering on mental health issues. I’d add a lack of common sense critical thinking and very poor judgement to the clinical picture. It’s certainly not limited to a group of eccentric audiophiles anymore.

 

[sublemon]

I come back to this periodically whenever I actually start to regain some trust in humanity. Instantly kills it again.

aw--
I never had any direct experience, but I tend to think peter belt believed his stuff and was not really trying to scam people in the usual sense. was pretty kooky. i dunno, maybe I am optimistic.

 

[SonnySide]

"I had been listening to some of the Wadax’s digital Reference system’s components without a supporting structure of commensurate quality. The Wadax digital front end and the four-chassis CH Precision L10 linestage together consume ten chassis. This formidable assemblage presents a challenge for the supporting structure. As the system grew and expanded, I ended up with two Wadax power supplies on the floor behind the rack and the Wadax Reference Transport on an inexpensive MDF rack that I had previously been using to store components not currently in use."

The rack 'improved' the sound of digital players that cost over $150K.

And eliminated the “steely patina” of Manhattan Transfer’s voices? What??? That Wadax stuff has a steely patina?? Funny he didn’t mention that in the video where he showed off those $150k boat anchors.

Thanks but I’ll stick with my $100 Monoprice Monolith rack (and WiiM streamer.)

 

[SonnySide]

Only tangential to snake oil, but the 'Phile's latest opinion piece "in defence of sticker shock" seems to not bother with actual researched costs of product development and retail, only vague theories. Plus a sideways dig at this forum in the statement "Anger, Smugness, and Rigidity found on certain objectivist audio forums"!
"In defense of sticker shock"

I love how he ridicules the show attendee “with a hearing aid (who) asks whether you've tried lifting your power cords off the carpet” as if that brand of snake oil is beneath him.

 

[Truth Ness]

Don't know if it is already known here, but it turns out "burning in" a cable is very different from "breaking in"
And for best sounding results the use of their own "Vidar 2" device is needed.
So according to their own logic they are selling unfinished products worth thousands of $ that perform not as good as they possibly could?
Needless to say i couldn't find a single "fact" that "debunks" any myth in there.

Debunking Cable Myths - Nordost Blog

There’s no shortage of opinions about audio cables in the hi-fi world. Some swear by high-end cable upgrades, while others argue that “a cable is just a cable.” At Nordost, … Continue reading "Debunking Cable Myths"

nordost.com

 

[CD2]

Don't know if it is already known here, but it turns out "burning in" a cable is very different from "breaking in"
And for best sounding results the use of their own "Vidar 2" device is needed.
So according to their own logic they are selling unfinished products worth thousands of $ that perform not as good as they possibly could?
Needless to say i couldn't find a single "fact" that "debunks" any myth in there.

Debunking Cable Myths - Nordost Blog

There’s no shortage of opinions about audio cables in the hi-fi world. Some swear by high-end cable upgrades, while others argue that “a cable is just a cable.” At Nordost, … Continue reading "Debunking Cable Myths"

nordost.com

Gotta keep the electrons in practice! And after playing anything vigorous, give them some R&R with my patented Cable Spa. Wouldn't want to risk overtaxing your interconnects.

 

[Chrysalis99]

Don't know if it is already known here, but it turns out "burning in" a cable is very different from "breaking in"
And for best sounding results the use of their own "Vidar 2" device is needed.
So according to their own logic they are selling unfinished products worth thousands of $ that perform not as good as they possibly could?
Needless to say i couldn't find a single "fact" that "debunks" any myth in there.

Debunking Cable Myths - Nordost Blog

There’s no shortage of opinions about audio cables in the hi-fi world. Some swear by high-end cable upgrades, while others argue that “a cable is just a cable.” At Nordost, … Continue reading "Debunking Cable Myths"

nordost.com

Just another useless piece of nonsense. You've got to be pretty high up there on the gullibility scale to buy into their "burn-in" cable myth. Of course we know there are even bigger fools so its not surprising someone will take it serious.

 

[Chrysalis99]

Old hat shun Mook have been at this for decades I raise you mpingo discs

The Magic of Mpingo

This beats all. How Mook got a patent on a "disc" is beyond my comprehension. They slip some drugs into the patent office coffee that morning? Look at this idiocy:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. Patent No. D364168 is a design patent for an acoustic control unit for stereophonic equipment, commonly known as the "Diamond Resonator," which is marketed by Shun Mook Audio, Inc..

• Patent Type: Design Patent (indicated by the "D" prefix in the number).
• Title: Acoustic control unit for a stereophonic equipment.
• Inventor: Drew Daniels.
• Assignee: Aura Systems, Inc..
• Function/Description: The patented design is used for high-fidelity audio equipment isolation and resonance control. The product consists of a body made of black African ebony (mpingo wood) with a steel shank tipped with a natural diamond point. These "resonators" are placed under audio components (pre-amps, power amps, CD transports, etc.) to filter distortions and enhance sound quality.
• Product Variants: It is available in various sizes, including the Super, Ultra, and Giant Diamond Resonators, which differ in the volume of ebony and the size of the diamond point (e.g., 1/10 carat, 1/4 carat, 1/2 carat).

For further details, you can typically find the full patent specifications and drawings on the Google Patents website or via the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database.

 

[IPunchCholla]

It’s a design patent. It only protects the appearance of a device. But even a patent patent doesn’t mean a device does what it says, just that it is a unique non-obvious mechanism.