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Snake Oil Department, Top This

kyuu said:
review a rack? In any case, I can guarantee there's no way it justifies its price tag.

Edit: I somehow missed that this was in the snake oil thread and thought it was a serious request. :facepalm:
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On the French forum that I eventually left, I think they take it even further.

They compare end-grain wooden platforms and claim they can hear differences between wood species (yes, really...).

It leads to some rather... unusual discussions, such as this:

1.jpg


They also enjoy discussing IKEA bamboo boards and, more recently, TCI Podium platforms made from something called Vibratium. (A few of my comments on the subject didn't go down very well and were among the first nails in my coffin on that forum. )

www.tcicables.com

TCI PODIUMS - TCI Cables Ltd

TCI manufacture a range of TCI Podium. They all feature
www.tcicables.com

If you're curious, I can post the links. Just enable your browser's translator if you don't speak Molière's language.
 
I almost forgot to mention this gem from our resident audiophile expert:

"It was when I stacked my switch platforms like a sandwich that things really started to happen. The timbre of the instruments (I mainly listen to classical music) became simply real—almost tangible... truly incredible. After extensive testing, I concluded that using two platforms stacked on top of each other provides the greatest improvement."
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So I placed another custom order to double the number of platforms under all my equipment.

Here's the result.

I should mention that I asked the craftsman not to oil or varnish the platforms so they would retain all of their properties. That turned out to be an excellent decision because I later oiled one of the platforms for comparison, and it became obvious that the sound quality was significantly worse.

The sound of my system, which I was already very happy with, has been truly transformed. The soundstage is incredibly stable. You genuinely get the impression that the musicians are performing right in front of you (an achievement at last! ). The timbre is astonishingly realistic and smooth. What more can I say?
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The audiophile's report:

"I pushed the experiment to its maximum by stacking three 6 cm platforms on top of each other (still untreated, with no oil or varnish, so that the wood fibers can 'breathe' freely).

The conclusion is undeniable: each additional platform brings further improvements in fluidity, tonal refinement, and naturalness."
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The same person also applied these kinds of "optimizations" to a pair of high-end Triangle speakers.

That made me smile, because I genuinely wondered what the point was of Triangle developing their own SPEC spike system if simply placing wooden platforms underneath was supposed to bring such dramatic improvements.

(For the record, I'm quite familiar with the SPEC system. I used to own a pair of Triangle speakers and tried several solutions to protect my wooden floor—not in search of any sonic holy grail.)

As for tweeter height, that's another interesting topic. I'm not sure what the general consensus is among the more technically minded members here regarding speaker height and directivity, but I always found Triangle speakers to be fairly sensitive to listening height. I never measured it, so I won't claim anything definitive, but that was certainly my impression.
 
Aure said:
The audiophile's report:



The same person also applied these kinds of "optimizations" to a pair of high-end Triangle speakers.

That made me smile, because I genuinely wondered what the point was of Triangle developing their own SPEC spike system if simply placing wooden platforms underneath was supposed to bring such dramatic improvements.

(For the record, I'm quite familiar with the SPEC system. I used to own a pair of Triangle speakers and tried several solutions to protect my wooden floor—not in search of any sonic holy grail.)

As for tweeter height, that's another interesting topic. I'm not sure what the general consensus is among the more technically minded members here regarding speaker height and directivity, but I always found Triangle speakers to be fairly sensitive to listening height. I never measured it, so I won't claim anything definitive, but that was certainly my impression.
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All I can say is, thank god he didn't apply any snake oil to those unvarnished slabs of wood. That would have ruined the effect completely.
 
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He probably sold the yet un-snakeoiled wooden stands to the first one who believed that story.
 
I am in the fortunate position to have had a very generous classical composer, pianist, and conductor donate his skull to me upon his rather unfortunate death some months ago. He was aware of my insatiable desire to get the best possible sound from my treasured loudspeakers, and I managed to persuade him, mere moments before he expired (and after drinking a toxin I slipped into his brandy), to donate his skull to me with a view to me performing blind A/B comparisons with other donated skulls acquired in a similar fashion.

Having spent the past months comparing the effects of a wide variety of skulls used as a support for one of my loudspeakers, I can state beyond doubt that his skull produced the richest, most transparent, most MUSICAL portrayal of any classical music played through this speaker that I have ever heard, far more so in fact that the skull donated by a local jazz saxophonist, whose skull, somewhat unsurprisingly, excelled when I played such classics as Coltrane's A Love Supreme.

I will soon be able to supply a wide variety of skulls - hopefully through this most esteemed hi-fi channel, Audio Science Review - to those of you with similar sonic ambitions to my good self.
 

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Kremmen said:
I am in the fortunate position to have had a very generous classical composer, pianist, and conductor donate his skull to me upon his rather unfortunate death some months ago. He was aware of my insatiable desire to get the best possible sound from my treasured loudspeakers, and I managed to persuade him, mere moments before he expired (and after drinking a toxin I slipped into his brandy), to donate his skull to me with a view to me performing blind A/B comparisons with other donated skulls acquired in a similar fashion.

Having spent the past months comparing the effect of a wide variety of skulls used as a support for one of my loudspeakers, I can state beyond doubt that his skull produced the richest, most transparent, most MUSICAL portrayal of any classical music played through this speaker, far more so in fact that the skull donated by a local jazz saxophonist, whose skull, somewhat unsurprisingly, excelled when I played such classics as Coltrane's A Love Supreme.

I will soon be able to supply a wide variety of skulls, hopefully through this most esteemed hi-fi channel, Audio Science Review, to those of you with similar sonic ambitions to my good self.
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Excellent tweak, but I think you're underthinking this. It may well be that those old crania could be put to better use.
I think the cross section of a skull closely approximates that perfect logarithmic spiral of the nautilus shell!
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... as does the famous, nigh legendary, Western Electric 12A horn:
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A pair of closely matched skulls might make outstanding treble horns.
It's testable!
Know any twins? Identical, not fraternal.

:cool:

EDIT: PS I grant that a full Dolby Atmos setup so equipped might be a bit of a challenge. That said, I've yet to meet the true audiophile who's not up for a challenge.
 
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I'm having a potter around my neighborhood later when the light falters. I shall keep my eyes open!
 
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xray said:
You need to use his vertebrae as cable lifters to achieve the best synergy with the skull speaker stands.
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Interesting idea. His spine is currently used as a rather excellent toilet roll stand in my bathroom, but I'll have to give serious consideration to your proposal.

Incidentally, as a corollary of my initial results with his skull used as a speaker stand, I have noticed that compared to using a steel toilet roll stand to hold my toilet rolls, not only can I hold far more rolls using his spine for this purpose, but the whole 'wiping experience' if you will, is far less abrasive and I no longer reach for tubes of Anusol with quite the same frequency. I have determined that this is due to him having been a very gentle, amiable, and empathic fellow when alive.
 
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I wish I had a triangle. The things I could place it on, you wouldn't imagine.. timbre and air being the least of the effects.
 
Aure said:
On the French forum that I eventually left, I think they take it even further.

They compare end-grain wooden platforms and claim they can hear differences between wood species (yes, really...).

It leads to some rather... unusual discussions, such as this:

1.jpg


They also enjoy discussing IKEA bamboo boards and, more recently, TCI Podium platforms made from something called Vibratium. (A few of my comments on the subject didn't go down very well and were among the first nails in my coffin on that forum. )

www.tcicables.com

TCI PODIUMS - TCI Cables Ltd

TCI manufacture a range of TCI Podium. They all feature
www.tcicables.com

If you're curious, I can post the links. Just enable your browser's translator if you don't speak Molière's language.
Click to expand...
What's interesting is when people find they can tear a difference in stuff that shouldn't or technically can't make an audible difference, they don't start noticing that placebo is a possible explanation. They're just amazed at how blocks of wood under their DAC sounds.
 
oh. So I am thinking about the blocks of wood tweak.
Is surface area important? 'Cause -- if it is -- I am thinkin' about poppin' the top of my DAC and filling it with... umm... Mpingo (Dalbergia melanoxylon) wood sawdust.
That oughta do it!

1785004302809.png
 
mhardy6647 said:
Excellent tweak, but I think you're underthinking this. It may well be that those old crania could be put to better use.
I think the cross section of a skull closely approximates that perfect logarithmic spiral of the nautilus shell!
View attachment 547073
View attachment 547072
View attachment 547071
... as does the famous, nigh legendary, Western Electric 12A horn:
View attachment 547070

A pair of closely matched skulls might make outstanding treble horns.
It's testable!
Know any twins? Identical, not fraternal.

:cool:

EDIT: PS I grant that a full Dolby Atmos setup so equipped might be a bit of a challenge. That said, I've yet to meet the true audiophile who's not up for a challenge.
Click to expand...
Fibonacci is with You :cool:
 
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