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Snake Oil Department, Top This

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.
Applying for a patent (I'm sure we all recall Professor Pat Pending from 'Wacky Races') is a good way to make a nonsense product seem more credible to those who don't understand what a patent is.
 
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I don't know if this guy is really that serious about it or if someone just wanted to have fun.
Doesn't look like there's a proper strain relief, does it?
Found at reddit headlined
"When the line between snake oil and actual snake get blurred"

Well... i have nothing to add to that


yufa8kyln5ca1.jpg
 
I don't know if this guy is really that serious about it or if someone just wanted to have fun.
Doesn't look like there's a proper strain relief, does it?
Found at reddit headlined
"When the line between snake oil and actual snake get blurred"

Well... i have nothing to add to that


View attachment 501643
The one on the right looks like it just had an interconnect for breakfast.
 
I don't know if this guy is really that serious about it or if someone just wanted to have fun.
Doesn't look like there's a proper strain relief, does it?
Found at reddit headlined
"When the line between snake oil and actual snake get blurred"

Well... i have nothing to add to that


View attachment 501643
I believe a similar picture may have been posted in this or another thread here. They have a resemblance to Slim Jim's in my opinion. Also totally ridiculous and ugly as can be. Simple 12 gauge (or 10 gauge, if you really want overkill) zip cord looks better to me.

I'm sure these cables have all sorts of wonderful benefits, to be worthy of the almost certainly high price.
 
I crossed swords with Kait and the Belts many times on Stereophile forums. Kait was the hawker of the "Clever Little Clock" and I think the Belts were doing the "Teleportation Tweak" or similar. One of the Belt tweaks involved putting a piece of paper with red writing on it, into their refrigerator! This was supposed to remotely improve your audio in some way. From my dealings with them, Kait was the most obvious, knowing fraud. His "quantum dots" and bags of rocks were classic, physical snake oil devices, all with accompanying convoluted pseudoscience explanations. The Belts, beginning with Peter were just a bit further out on the lunatic fringe though. I remember May Belt writing a half-page response to one of my posts on Stereophile which basically said, "if you haven't heard the device/effect, you can't judge". I must admit I found it great sport ripping their silly ju-ju stuff apart! Unfortunately, the Stereophile forums are pretty barren now so I had to come here to debunk and chortle :D
 
I crossed swords with Kait and the Belts many times on Stereophile forums. Kait was the hawker of the "Clever Little Clock" and I think the Belts were doing the "Teleportation Tweak" or similar. One of the Belt tweaks involved putting a piece of paper with red writing on it, into their refrigerator! This was supposed to remotely improve your audio in some way. From my dealings with them, Kait was the most obvious, knowing fraud. His "quantum dots" and bags of rocks were classic, physical snake oil devices, all with accompanying convoluted pseudoscience explanations. The Belts, beginning with Peter were just a bit further out on the lunatic fringe though. I remember May Belt writing a half-page response to one of my posts on Stereophile which basically said, "if you haven't heard the device/effect, you can't judge". I must admit I found it great sport ripping their silly ju-ju stuff apart! Unfortunately, the Stereophile forums are pretty barren now so I had to come here to debunk and chortle :D
Here's a 1987 article by the late J. Gordon Holt on Peter Belt's peculiar ideas and devices: https://www.stereophile.com/content/laffaire-belt

Peter Belt died in 2017: https://www.stereophile.com/content/peter-belt-1930-2017

From Art Dudley's obituary: "One of PWB Electronics' most recent accessories is a Morphic Link Magnetic Bookmark priced at £10, intended to be placed in the user's dictionary. Adjacent to the word link."

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile
 
Here's a 1987 article by the late J. Gordon Holt on Peter Belt's peculiar ideas and devices: https://www.stereophile.com/content/laffaire-belt

Peter Belt died in 2017: https://www.stereophile.com/content/peter-belt-1930-2017

From Art Dudley's obituary: "One of PWB Electronics' most recent accessories is a Morphic Link Magnetic Bookmark priced at £10, intended to be placed in the user's dictionary. Adjacent to the word link."

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile

“John Atkinson felt that he heard a difference between when an LP was "polarized" correctly and incorrectly in a demonstration run by the English magazine Hi-Fi Answers at the show.”

Amazing
 
“John Atkinson felt that he heard a difference between when an LP was "polarized" correctly and incorrectly in a demonstration run by the English magazine Hi-Fi Answers at the show.”

Amazing

See Jim Austin's essay on this subject - "Chips are Still for Chumps" - at https://www.stereophile.com/content/chips-are-still-chumps

He quotes something I wrote 20 years earlier: "I recounted a story John Atkinson had told in a newsletter. A few years before, he found himself convinced by Enid Lumley's demonstration of the pizza-box tripod tweak—at first. She put said device on top of a CD player. 'When she did the test, I did hear the difference,' John told me back then. 'On my own, no difference, which I ascribed to Enid's powers of persuasion.'"

John Atkinson
Technical Editor, Stereophile
 
Not sure whether it is already on the thread or not, but I have a snake-oil idea to share:

Battery-backed power supply which use relay to physically disconnect 'dirty' mains during listening and supply ideal shape from DC-to-AC convertor as long as battery lasts.
Could refer in advertising to ancient practice of tube devices power supply from batteries (probably over 100-year-old, but it is even better for marketing).
 
Not sure whether it is already on the thread or not, but I have a snake-oil idea to share:

Battery-backed power supply which use relay to physically disconnect 'dirty' mains during listening and supply ideal shape from DC-to-AC convertor as long as battery lasts.
Could refer in advertising to ancient practice of tube devices power supply from batteries (probably over 100-year-old, but it is even better for marketing).
Cheaper just to have a motor generator.
 
I don't know if this guy is really that serious about it or if someone just wanted to have fun.
Doesn't look like there's a proper strain relief, does it?
Found at reddit headlined
"When the line between snake oil and actual snake get blurred"

Well... i have nothing to add to that


View attachment 501643
For all the world these look like some kid just got carried away with electrical tape.
 
Not sure whether it is already on the thread or not, but I have a snake-oil idea to share:

Battery-backed power supply which use relay to physically disconnect 'dirty' mains during listening and supply ideal shape from DC-to-AC convertor as long as battery lasts.
Could refer in advertising to ancient practice of tube devices power supply from batteries (probably over 100-year-old, but it is even better for marketing).
Damn, they got me. To my defence, it was way before ASR.

1768752224088.jpeg
 
Not sure whether it is already on the thread or not, but I have a snake-oil idea to share:

Battery-backed power supply which use relay to physically disconnect 'dirty' mains during listening and supply ideal shape from DC-to-AC convertor as long as battery lasts.
Could refer in advertising to ancient practice of tube devices power supply from batteries (probably over 100-year-old, but it is even better for marketing).
I present to you: "Stromtank"


These have been creeping up more and more in "audiophile" hardware reviews.
 
I present to you: "Stromtank"


These have been creeping up more and more in "audiophile" hardware reviews.
And ads, of course ...
 
I present to you: "Stromtank"


These have been creeping up more and more in "audiophile" hardware reviews.
Love the name but was disappointed to discover it doesn't have a turret mounted flamethrower. Or a turret.
 
Damn, they got me. To my defence, it was way before ASR.

View attachment 505272
I have the same setup. Before moving away from a Pro-Ject turntable, I found the Accu Box genuinely made a difference, just not to the S2 UItra.

Feeding a Speed Box S2 from it showed consistently improved speed stability over the wall wart - as measured via the rpm app.

As a bonus, the USB on the back also delivers enough power to run a WiiM Pro Plus.
 
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