Stereophile and Audio Cables

[Somafunk]

The first time I heard this, I really thought it was a woman somewhere off in the woods screaming:

I live surrounded pretty much by fields in the wilds of Galloway Scotland and when those noisy f*****s start humping in the fields nearby you know about it,

 

[Doodski]

There ya go Dood, I wasn't sure you were getting it.

OH, I get it fast and strong although I use a softer selling approach that builds and then gets'er done...LoL.

 

[MattHooper]

I am very skeptical about all that kind of stuff.

I don't believe in Big Foot and know they don't exist, but I have seen what appeared to be one in real life. Unfortunately I was driving by myself. I tell myself it had to be a deformed 8 to 10 foot tall bear (it was standing next to a stop sign when my headlights hit it) that stood, walked and ran upright. That was just north of Fouke, Arkansas back in the 80s.

I don't believe that it is possible for Pterodactyls to still exist, but saw one standing on a bridge apparently eating something while we were driving. My most recent ex-wife and her son were with me and both also saw it and freaked out. It took off as we got within about 50 yards of the bridge. It was medium gray, looked just like the pictures I have seen and had a wingspan long enough to cover two lanes of the highway. When taking off, it jumped at least 6 feet high and then started flapping instead of doing a running start. This bridge was in my county in southeast Oklahoma.

I have no way to explain that one and know it isn't possible for us to have really seen one. I looked it up after we got home and apparently many people claim to have seen one. So it was a big WTF?

Seeing something is not proof that it exists. Our eyes can obviously fool us and make us think we are seeing one thing when it has to be something else. I can still clearly picture both the "Big Foot" and "Pterodactyl" that I "saw".

Cool story bruh!

That reminds me of something a little similar.

I mentioned my neighbours who were convinced they could see ghosts.

I work at home doing sound on my computer system on the main floor. To my right is our front hallway to the front door. The door is wood with a window at the top. For YEARS I had this strange thing happen. I'd be staring at my computer working and then I'd notice out of the corner of my eye someone coming to the front door and standing or staring in the window. Since we get solicitors at our door almost daily I'd sigh, get up and walk to the door...but there'd be no one there. This happened so many times I was wondering what the hell was going on.

Well, when I mentioned this to my neighbours you can guess their response: It was a ghost. To them that was the obvious answer. And after all, they'd seen ghosts around my house already.

Naturally given my skeptical inclinations I marked it down to some fully natural explanation I just hadn't yet uncovered.

Then one day I uncovered the explanation! I noticed that figure out of the corner of my eyes again, turned and watched it seem to duck down from the window. So I turned my gaze back to my computer and very slowly started turning my head paying attention to my peripheral vision and...boom...the figure at the door appeared!

It was my glasses! When I turn my head slightly right of my computer, the edge of my glasses produce a diffraction effect of the door frame and window, and it forms a dark head-shaped figure! Exactly what I'd been seeing all those years. And when I continue to turn it appears like the "figure" has just stepped away or ducked down. It's entirely repeatable.

And yet to this day it keeps fooling me. I constantly keep seeing someone at the door way, only to turn and "damn..fooled again."

I told my neighbours how I'd solved the mystery. Of course it didn't dent their belief in ghosts, as they felt they'd had too much other evidence ghosts exist.

 

[Brian Hall]

I live surrounded pretty much by fields in the wilds of Galloway Scotland and when those noisy fuckers start humping in the fields nearby you know about it,

Without a doubt. I'm not sure which is worse here, the foxes, coyotes, bobcats, wild geese, turkeys, frogs or crows. How the heck do frogs get so loud at night?

 

[Brian Hall]

I live surrounded pretty much by fields in the wilds of Galloway Scotland and when those noisy fuckers start humping in the fields nearby you know about it,

Now when I hear them I will think "those noisy fuckers are humping in the woods again".

Perfect phrase and I heard it in a Scottish accent.

 

[Doodski]

The first time I heard this, I really thought it was a woman somewhere off in the woods screaming:

Yeppers, I had a issue maybe ~12 years ago with an alone depressed, lonely and loudly crying Cocker Spaniel that the old crazy woman renter downstairs owned and babied too much. I was relaxing doing stuff on my desktopper PC one day in the afternoon. Door knock, I restrained the golden retriever, answered and opened the door to be met with 2 coppers and a psyche nurse. The coppers where very alert and frustrated, the psyche nurse was inquisitive and assessing. I said I can let you into the top half of the house but the basement renter's quarters are locked. I was sooper tweaked and said it's a small dog that cries when the owner leaves it alone. They took a position as if they needed to confirm that and I said just look in the windows and it'll come when it hears or sees you and cry at you. They did that and confirmed the source of the crying and simply left and never apologized, explained or anything. I was thinking like well excuse me for living and inconveniencing your routine...LoL. I never saw or heard a a peep about it after. It the situation came and went and was gone. I mentioned it to the old crazy lady and she apologized a lot. I understand completely how a animal can cause issues...sigh* Stuff happens.

 

[Doodski]

How the heck do frogs get so loud at night?

I stayed the summer in the Slocan Valley at the cabin and cut down big trees all summer and bucked them up into firewood. I was very tired at the end of the days and went to bed about 8pm to ~hundreds of frogs making a huge racket from the pond and every day woke at like 3:30 or 4 am to ~dozens of very loud chattering squirrels. The frogs where killed by big fat 5 foot long harmless bush snakes and the squirrels I killed with a very accurate 22 long rifle with hollow points and a scope. I shot dozens of them from the trees and they just kept coming back after a couple of days and I just kept killing them. LoL...

 

[beeface]

Doesn't intelligence require some degree of logical thinking?

Stubbornly continuing to believe in something that can easily be proved wrong with real, easily accessible evidence demonstrates a lack of logical thinking.

Can intelligence exist without some degree of logic?

There are many definitions of intelligence. One could argue that creative people like artists are very intelligent, and at that point I'd question the importance of logic in the arts.

 

[Sal1950]

I stayed the summer in the Slocan Valley at the cabin and cut down big trees all summer and bucked them up into firewood. I was very tired at the end of the days and went to bed about 8pm to ~hundreds of frogs making a huge racket from the pond and every day woke at like 3:30 or 4 am to ~dozens of very loud chattering squirrels. The frogs where killed by big fat 5 foot long harmless bush snakes and the squirrels I killed with a very accurate 22 long rifle with hollow points and a scope. I shot dozens of them from the trees and they just kept coming back after a couple of days and I just kept killing them. LoL...

I got a small pond about 50' from my bedroom window. On warm nights they often wake me up with the noise and the whole house vibrating with their croakin.

 

[Doodski]

I got a small pond about 50' from my bedroom window. On warm nights they often wake me up with the noise and the whole house vibrating with their croakin.

It's amazing what they can do when the combined force of their will is @ play! RFLMAO... I did not feel bad at all knowing the snakes where feasting on the froggies. The one snake scared the crap outta me one afternoon as I walked along beside the pond path/overgrown road. I was looking down at the path and I heard a slither sound in the grass, looked and clearly saw it slithering to the pond and with a dunk sound it disappeared into the water. I saw others in days to come and was very happy they where taking care of business. Loved me my snakes at that time.. haha...

 

[Axo1989]

I stayed the summer in the Slocan Valley at the cabin and cut down big trees all summer and bucked them up into firewood. I was very tired at the end of the days and went to bed about 8pm to ~hundreds of frogs making a huge racket from the pond and every day woke at like 3:30 or 4 am to ~dozens of very loud chattering squirrels. The frogs where killed by big fat 5 foot long harmless bush snakes and the squirrels I killed with a very accurate 22 long rifle with hollow points and a scope. I shot dozens of them from the trees and they just kept coming back after a couple of days and I just kept killing them. LoL...

Ok, assuming that isn't parody, that's it for you then. F*ck me dead.

 

[Brian Hall]

There are many definitions of intelligence. One could argue that creative people like artists are very intelligent, and at that point I'd question the importance of logic in the arts.

Creativity does not imply high levels of intelligence, just like a high level of intelligence does not guarantee creativity and I think it can be argued that most "Art" requires suppressing logic to some degree depending on the art form.

As an example, I find it difficult to create new music without first indulging in a bit of pot. After a couple of tokes, it just starts flowing if I am holding an instrument or sitting in front of a synthesizer. Is that because I expect it to be that way or does it really alter brain chemistry in a beneficial way for the intended activity? Either suppressing an area of the brain that interferes with the process or increasing the activity in a different area that enhances creativity.

That brings up the question, do the effects of pot actually make music sound a bit better? It seems to, but maybe I just expect it to. It seems to at least expand the perceived soundstage. The first time I ever smoked pot a friend had just bought the "Some Girls" album by the Rolling Stones. I thought it was the best music I had ever heard. I was very disappointed the next day when I bought my own copy and listened to it. It sounded like crap -- nothing at all like what I had just heard the previous day.

Our brains are weird. I don't think it is really possible to "Know thyself".

 

[Somafunk]

That brings up the question, do the effects of pot actually make music sound a bit better? It seems to, but maybe I just expect it to.

It does for myself, shrooms are very spacial and special as well.

 

[Mnyb]

This is the answer IMHO. Every hobby relies on the artificial expansion of the allegedly Unknown, and the endowment of tiny variations with large meaning. This is done to maximize the space and opportunities for people to explore and have fun - and of course it also expands the market and the profit potential for the trade in items related to the hobby, because it creates new desires that people are willing to pay a good deal of money to try to satisfy.

With non-engineering/science-reated hobbies like, say, vintage toy collecting, this expanded zone of the Unknown makes people feel compelled to collect all the minor variations of a 1950s Matchbox car or the early production run of a 1970s Lego set where one part had a slightly different mold. There the damage, if there is any, is about folks becoming obsessed with completing their collections, which can become very expensive and make the pursuit of purchases more important than enjoying the items themselves.

With audio gear this takes the form of "the journey" - but the nature of the hobby requires an additional kind of damage to be done, and that's damage to scientific truth and engineering knowledge. I find it absolutely, positively implausible that JA honestly believes that all six of the factors he cites could play a role in the sound produced by audio interconnects.

I do think it is perfectly plausible that he might honestly feel that one or two of those items (most likely the 1st and 2nd factors he cites) might make a difference, and he honestly isn't sure about it.

But even with that, he is still consciously and actively participating in and reinforcing a culture in which such uncertainties are never to be investigated to the point where they might be definitively proven or disproven - because that would collapse the artificially large sphere of the allegedly Unknown and pop the balloon that makes an article like Reichert's able to be published at all. There's no way in the world that JA doesn't know his comment will be used as a "good enough" hook for those who Want To Believe to hang their subjectivist hats. To that end, his remark to Archimago about how "what I don't understand is why someone would dismiss any of them out of hand" is just repulsive.

He should of course feel free to post what he wants, but I don't find anything to commend in his comment in that discussion, and the article itself is a bad joke - from "Changing audio cables always changes the sound of my system," early on, it's clear there's no point in reading the rest. I did anyway, in case someone accused me of not being open-minded, but that's 10 minutes of my life I'll never get back, and I can in good faith strongly recommend to others that they not waste their time reading it.

+1

But what can they do now ? Most of the old subjective audio magazines have thier finger in the same cookie jar they have co created this crazy culture together with the market and the brands building products for it

How do they back out of this one gracefully ? They cant so they must then also take on the cable craze in some way that not rock the boat ? They are to deep into it .

I think all the “major players” in this “scene” will just quietly retire and makes place for new thoughts thats a way out ?
It could then get more rational ( go ASR ) or even crazier?

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

They are put in a position that people are supposed to believe them as knowledgeable but what they say is clearly not, and they are payed for this. So what are they? I can't think of anything nice. And we all know they will dismiss the opposing view no matter what.

I was thinking more about audiophiles not reviewers. Reviewers should be held to a higher standard and be challenged on any B.S. But I think we can do better staying on point. If you can’t think of anything nice to say about the reviewers themselves then maybe avoid making them the subject

 

[Beave]

Regarding the Stereophile reviewers, a quote from Upton Sinclair:

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”​

 

[jkasch]

Creativity does not imply high levels of intelligence, just like a high level of intelligence does not guarantee creativity and I think it can be argued that most "Art" requires suppressing logic to some degree depending on the art form.

As an example, I find it difficult to create new music without first indulging in a bit of pot. After a couple of tokes, it just starts flowing if I am holding an instrument or sitting in front of a synthesizer. Is that because I expect it to be that way or does it really alter brain chemistry in a beneficial way for the intended activity? Either suppressing an area of the brain that interferes with the process or increasing the activity in a different area that enhances creativity.

That brings up the question, do the effects of pot actually make music sound a bit better? It seems to, but maybe I just expect it to. It seems to at least expand the perceived soundstage. The first time I ever smoked pot a friend had just bought the "Some Girls" album by the Rolling Stones. I thought it was the best music I had ever heard. I was very disappointed the next day when I bought my own copy and listened to it. It sounded like crap -- nothing at all like what I had just heard the previous day.

Our brains are weird. I don't think it is really possible to "Know thyself".

Coincidentally, I pulled that album out for the first time in several years, last night. Side one sounded compressed, with the soundstage centered between the speakers enough to make me briefly wonder if it was a mono recording. Side two sounded spacious with instruments seeming to extend beyond the speakers.

My brain? Pressing/recording? I don’t know, but I was sober at the time.

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

By definition, an intelligent and honestly mistaken person will change their opinion/beliefs when presented with clear evidence that they were mistaken.

By definition? I think your assertion actually runs contrary to a substantial body of evidence on human nature.

Insisting on maintaining and promoting an obviously wrong belief demonstrates that person is the opposite of intelligent*.

And here you are using a logical fallacy to argue your point. It should be obvious that it isn’t obvious to the person who holds the belief.

Now do you see what I actually did there?

*Or is a lying crook who is only doing it for the money.

Audiophile journalists lying for the money? Seems like a low yield racket

Could a doctor who promotes the idea that washing hands between patients is a waste of a doctor's precious time still be considered intelligent and honestly mistaken given the knowledge that dangerous bacteria exist and can cause harm?

Of course not. 1. I hope the standards of education and training are a bit higher for MDs than audio journalists. 2. Your example is neither controversial nor new. What about old school doctors that are not up on research in nutrition and dismiss keto diets based on dated flawed studies? Can we say the they are stupid or dishonest? Or maybe invested in what they believed to be true for decades?

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

Doesn't intelligence require some degree of logical thinking?

Stubbornly continuing to believe in something that can easily be proved wrong with real, easily accessible evidence demonstrates a lack of logical thinking.

Can intelligence exist without some degree of logic?

Allow me to recommend a terrific book. “The Righteous Mind” science based book on how intelligent honest people can disagree on religion, politics and any number of other seemingly irrational beliefs. Turns out we are not nearly as logical as we think we are.

 

[Justdafactsmaam]

For sure! Thank you. The clincher is her degree included criminology and she was a habitual criminal and never even saw the relationship between her acts and criminology. She blatantly created excuses and eventually was caught red handed at my well paying workplace with 3 stolen prerecorded cassette tapes in her purse as she left the building... I was so bloody red faced frustrated when the 2 managers that I knew and loved dearly brought me to the executive meeting room to tell me about it. I almost had a heart attack at a very young age right then and there. That was the downfall right then and there. Sigh* They never fired me because it was so obvious I was heartbroken that they told me off the record that there was a few women that would appreciate me and told me to get rid of her ASAP. What a day it was!

That is horrible. Sorry you had to endure that. Glad you got through it.