Snake Oil Department, Top This

[Mart68]

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.

 

[Truth Ness]

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

 

[Truth Ness]

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.

 

[JimBean]

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.

 

[Punter]

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

 

[John Atkinson]

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

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

 

[RexrothPigeon]

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]

“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

 

[SonnySide]

Siltech Master Crown Cable, Interconnect, and Power Cord

The cable and loudspeaker manufacturer Siltech—the name is a composite of “silver” and “technology”—is in the Dutch town of Elst between the cities of

www.theabsolutesound.com

 

[l_lama]

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).

 

[Petrushka]

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.

 

[kemmler3D]

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.

 

[BeeKay]

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.

 

[Alexander Gödde]

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"

Klangloft // Stromtank

Wenn wir Musik aus Lautsprechern hören, dann hören wir nichts ande res als modulierten Strom. Was liegt da näher, als an erster Stelle in der HiFi-Anlage diesen Strom möglichst in seine reinste Form zu bringen? Genau das macht Stromtank mit seiner Stromversorgung aus Hochleistungs-Akkus – mit...

klangloft.de

These have been creeping up more and more in "audiophile" hardware reviews.

 

[Salt]

I present to you: "Stromtank"

Klangloft // Stromtank

Wenn wir Musik aus Lautsprechern hören, dann hören wir nichts ande res als modulierten Strom. Was liegt da näher, als an erster Stelle in der HiFi-Anlage diesen Strom möglichst in seine reinste Form zu bringen? Genau das macht Stromtank mit seiner Stromversorgung aus Hochleistungs-Akkus – mit...

klangloft.de

These have been creeping up more and more in "audiophile" hardware reviews.

And ads, of course ...

 

[Mart68]

I present to you: "Stromtank"

Klangloft // Stromtank

Wenn wir Musik aus Lautsprechern hören, dann hören wir nichts ande res als modulierten Strom. Was liegt da näher, als an erster Stelle in der HiFi-Anlage diesen Strom möglichst in seine reinste Form zu bringen? Genau das macht Stromtank mit seiner Stromversorgung aus Hochleistungs-Akkus – mit...

klangloft.de

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.

 

[bp_reid]

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.

 

[Puddingbuks]

“Thomas and stereo” makes his own amps now. And of course this is a “giant killer”. Oh no wait, it is a killer of the giant killer.

In his “review”, or better said, his promotion video, he uses all kinds of audiophool nonsense. It really is laughable.

My comment on yt:

This is all hype, as if these amps make HUGE differences. Audiophiles think they have magical skills to select equipment, but in any good blind a/b test, they will fail miserably. It is all about the never ending hunt for gear and attention. Look at me, I am special because I only have this “giant killer” amp. Laughable. Spend your money in treating your room to lower reverb, pick some good active speakers and you have 95% of the end result. Maybe use dsp to combat room modes. Amps, dacs, cables, etc. only make for very small differences. Talking about capacitors or combination of capacitors is ridiculous, adding air, opening the soundstage etc.

 

[RickS]

That would be another snake oil scam... a classic rip-off.

Acoustic Revive RGC-24K - Positive Feedback

Acoustic Revive RGC-24K - Artificial Round Conditioner

positive-feedback.com

I don't believe it... it's one of the biggest loads of rubbish I've ever seen...

Needs a summary (notably since really why should members visit that site?), Thanks!

 

[BlueMeanie]

Found another DAC maker who doesn't seem to get the basics of digital audio:

https://sw1xad.co.uk/technology_post/remote-streaming-vs-local-playback-and-why-it-matters/

"The more processes occur on the digital side the more impedance it presents to the signal propagation. Any impedance to signal propagation due to bit-perfect corrective manipulation (caching, buffering and filtering) results in (tiny shifts pico, nano seconds delays) change of signal to time domain relationship. This the cost to pay for the data integrity."

"The larger the distance, the more the buffering & error-correction takes place, the more time domain distortion we get. Remote streaming has the highest potential of those time-domain distortions to take place. Time domain distortions are the mildest form of jitter. However they are equally or even more so devastating to musicality as their effect is beyond repair and no re-clocking (another time domain manipulation) can ever undo that."

"Our DAC products are designed to minimize the distortion between the relationship of signal & time by intentionally omitting the digital filtering (re-clocking or any other explicit manipulation) of a signal in the digital domain. Digital filtering, re-clocking, up sampling & noise shaping are essentially all error-correction processes. And our DACs are free of that, essentially mimicking the analogue playback."

Okay, the other posts in the technology section aren't much better when they talk about the audible effects of silver vs silver coated copper cables or different resistor brands.

Of cause it's all prose without any calculations, values or (gods beware) measurements!

But I'm happy sites like that exists, it's good therapy when I feel a bit tempted by audiophile storytelling.