Snake Oil Department, Top This

[ClicketEKlack]

Here's a weird one from a century ago:

Wonder if they ever tried to make headphones?

 

[Long Audio Beard]

I just can't resist....

Flora Guard Stainless Door Stop/HiFi Iso Tall

Flora Guard Stainless Door Stop/HiFi Iso Short

These enhance the sound quality of stereo equipment, even if the equipment has no moving parts inside and doesn't vibrate! lol
(Being fair, they could be useful for keeping small components from tipping and sliding from the weight of attached cables. And they certainly look interesting I guess and can hold open a door lol)

 

[Wes]

I can do better than that.

I am marketing audiophile air. We have a type that is the most euphonic for the acoustic interface between your ears and your speakers - Acoustic Audiophile Air.

And we are just introducing a special Electromagnetic Inductive Air that is specifically designed to enhance your air core transformers, which exist between all cables in your system.

Our next product will be a special Digital Air for USB cables.

 

[mansr]

I can do better than that.

I am marketing audiophile air. We have a type that is the most euphonic for the acoustic interface between your ears and your speakers - Acoustic Audiophile Air.

And we are just introducing a special Electromagnetic Inductive Air that is specifically designed to enhance your air core transformers, which exist between all cables in your system.

Our next product will be a special Digital Air for USB cables.

You should team up with KEF: https://us.kef.com/blog/kef-hydro-blaster-improved-wireless-audio-experience-in-a-can

 

[krabapple]

Whatever happened to Machina Dynamica?

That dude was prescient. He embraced post-truth years before it became fashionable.

Oh wait, he's still at it!

https://www.machinadynamica.com/

 

[FrantzM]

Here's a weird one from a century ago:

The idea persists today in the form of ionic tweeters or plasma tweeters. For full range , I don't know any but there a few companies offering "ionic" or "plasma" tweeters. Ionovac, Lanshe, Acapella

More than 10 years ago, I had the opportunity to listen to a hybrid of sort, a stupendously (feel free to use "stupidly") expensive (>$650K) speaker. As any good subjective audiophile I, subscribed to their marketing blurb and thought it was one of the best speaker , I have heard and with the best treble extension ever No mass, only moving ionized air or a flame thus it has be better ... The company that makes these money-grabbing contraptions, is still operating and has a line of horn speakers using the "flame" tweeter, horn-loaded and regular woofers ...

 

[Robin L]

I can do better than that.

I am marketing audiophile air. We have a type that is the most euphonic for the acoustic interface between your ears and your speakers - Acoustic Audiophile Air.

And we are just introducing a special Electromagnetic Inductive Air that is specifically designed to enhance your air core transformers, which exist between all cables in your system.

Our next product will be a special Digital Air for USB cables.

Didn't plasma speakers ooze ozone?

 

[sq225917]

https://flic.kr/p/dVHDNW

 

[noiseangel]

Who wants your cheap ass power $3500 cables when they can have this? https://www.thecableco.com/sukhavati-power-cable.html
$22,500 and a fancy plug will cost you extra.

And if you don' want to skimp on speaker cables https://www.thecableco.com/triple-crown-speaker-cable-pair.html $65,000.

I like going to these sites and add $1.5million in cables hoping they are watching, going all the way to the last step and then leaving.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

You should team up with KEF: https://us.kef.com/blog/kef-hydro-blaster-improved-wireless-audio-experience-in-a-can

I use a dehumidifier in the basement. AC upstairs. I guess I could spray up my nostrils so glasses won't fog up with the mask.

 

[ta240]

You should team up with KEF: https://us.kef.com/blog/kef-hydro-blaster-improved-wireless-audio-experience-in-a-can

That isn't an early April fools joke? I just to joke that I needed to come up with something that would 'treat' the air to 'improve' wifi for audio....

This line is right out of the playbook: "Of course, not everyone will hear the differences but to those of you who can, humidity cannot be understated. " This product is just for the lucky few that can hear the difference.

They have scientific looking formulas so it must work.

 

[Alice of Old Vincennes]

That isn't an early April fools joke? I just to joke that I needed to come up with something that would 'treat' the air to 'improve' wifi for audio....

This line is right out of the playbook: "Of course, not everyone will hear the differences but to those of you who can, humidity cannot be understated. " This product is just for the lucky few that can hear the difference.

They have scientific looking formulas so it must work.

I guess that's why we must move to the desert.

 

[Long Audio Beard]

2.46 ft (0.75m) AudioQuest Diamond USB Cable $649.85

actual reviews:
"In a system that costs $2500, you will hear nothing from this cable. In a system that goes for $25,000 you will hear a massive difference between this and a stock USB cable for music going into a USB DAC. My DAC alone is a $3500 piece. My Amp is $20k. My Speakers are only $3k and my speaker cables are around $1400." and
"an Electrical Engineer so don't talk to me about nut understanding digital signal processing."

#massive-difference #nut-understanding

 

[DonH56]

2.46 ft (0.75m) AudioQuest Diamond USB Cable $649.85

actual reviews:
"In a system that costs $2500, you will hear nothing from this cable. In a system that goes for $25,000 you will hear a massive difference between this and a stock USB cable for music going into a USB DAC. My DAC alone is a $3500 piece. My Amp is $20k. My Speakers are only $3k and my speaker cables are around $1400." and
"an Electrical Engineer so don't talk to me about nut understanding digital signal processing."

#massive-difference #nut-understanding

The question they should ask is why the $25,000 system is so poorly designed as to have high sensitivity to the USB cable.

Interesting if the argument is to state the (high) cost of the equipment and somehow couple that to being an EE. "I'm a doctor, and I smoke Camel, so should you."

 

[Kal Rubinson]

The question they should ask is why the $25,000 system is so poorly designed as to have high sensitivity to the USB cable.

The question I ask is why the only measure of relative excellence/performance is calibrated in $$.

 

[Robin L]

The question I ask is why the only measure of relative excellence/performance is calibrated in $$.

Welllllll . . .

I'd say the high-end rags got some 'splainin' to do.

I always was interested in the biggest bang for the buck. As I mostly listen via headphones, I paid a lot of attention to ASR, seeing as there's so much attention on high performing DACs and headphones amps here. I've got too much time on my hands anyway, and was looking to upgrade my audio experience. I have found that the Drop 6XX, Topping E/L30 + APO EQ is as good as any headphone based system I've owned, up to and including the Stax Lambda Pro/SRM T-1. I think a lot of those improvements are on the source side, digital sound improved [to these ears] over the last 30+ years since I first got the Stax 'earspeakers'. I don't have a functioning Stax system now, but the 2021 Drop/Topping replay has more, better bass. The rest of the sound has more focus and specificity. Stuff like pitches of percussion, or unraveling guitar lines as they cross.

I don't know if Absolute Sound has reviewed Topping gear. I haven't seen see anything in Stereophile. Topping seems to be the one product line that really begs your question. I have to ask myself how much 'fairy dust' is in my recall of the sound of the Stax gear. I also wonder how much of my questioning has to do with over thirty years of reading High-End audio & pro audio publications. For what it's worth, that Stax gear was $2000 in 1988, Drop/Topping $550 in 2021, including the DAC.

So, yeah. I'd ask the same question.

 

[Lambda]

At some point performance is good enough for the average Joe.
Its like buying a fancy sports car or a luxury watch.
People who buy Rolex don't care if Casio F-91W is objectively better.
People who buy Lamborghini don't care if you can make faster laps in a Mazda

My snake oil submission: Schumann Resonators
http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/rr77/rr77_01.html

 

[Speedskater]

The question they should ask is why the $25,000 system is so poorly designed as to have high sensitivity to the USB cable.

Decades ago, audio equipment manufacturing consultant Dick Pierce noticed high-end digital equipment with design problems and SPDIF interconnect systems.

 

[DaveWKC]

At some point performance is good enough for the average Joe.
Its like buying a fancy sports car or a luxury watch.
People who buy Rolex don't care if Casio F-91W is objectively better.
People who buy Lamborghini don't care if you can make faster laps in a Mazda

My snake oil submission: Schumann Resonators
http://www.acoustic-revive.com/english/rr77/rr77_01.html

Seeing crappy and hard to use sites full of errors pushing snake oil based in pseudoscience by people who have no understanding of the actual phenomena they espouse makes me wonder if these buffoons have also convinced themselves somehow that hand-coding their sites with only a terrible high-level understanding of the principles of computer science and coding somehow makes things sound better and improves the overall experience as well. I think that site looks "warm".

 

[Mnyb]

The idea persists today in the form of ionic tweeters or plasma tweeters. For full range , I don't know any but there a few companies offering "ionic" or "plasma" tweeters. Ionovac, Lanshe, Acapella

More than 10 years ago, I had the opportunity to listen to a hybrid of sort, a stupendously (feel free to use "stupidly") expensive (>$650K) speaker. As any good subjective audiophile I, subscribed to their marketing blurb and thought it was one of the best speaker , I have heard and with the best treble extension ever No mass, only moving ionized air or a flame thus it has be better ... The company that makes these money-grabbing contraptions, is still operating and has a line of horn speakers using the "flame" tweeter, horn-loaded and regular woofers ...

Why not tesla coils I gice you arc attack