This audio cable business is getting out of hand...

[Willem]

Audio expos and magazines are all part of the big fraud about cables, vinyl and tubes with a sonic signature and the need for 'synergy'.

 

[mhardy6647]

I got tired of using my long RCA cables to interconnect small DACs and Amps so decided to get a short one. Saw one on Amazon (by "World's Best Cables') that used Canare Star-Quad cable and Amphenol connectors for just $22 shipped. My time was worth much more than that to make one so I ordered it. It came promptly. When I opened though, I was shocked to see this massive sign in there:

View attachment 27076

Are you kidding me? Even a low-cost cable using proper material spreads such a myth?

It is one thing to see this on multi-thousand dollar cables but on a $22 one?

Inside there is an instruction sheet and it says that again. To their credit they acknowledge that such burn-in will take out of Amazon's 30 day return window so they provide instructions on how to still get a return.

The danger here is that such practices will spread to the general public, not just high-end audiophiles.

Yes, it is also "directional" although here, it is due to the way they utilize the shield at one end so that bit is fine.

I mean -- it* is (as we say in my old line of work) a testable hypothesis.**



_______________________
* i.e., the requirement for 175 hour burn-in.
** The mind boggles. How is performance at, say, 167 hours? 175 hours and 10 minutes? There's a whole dissertation's worth of assessment and analyses that can be done on these 22 buck cables!

 

[mhardy6647]

They just tight enough. Take some effort but you don't get the feeling that you are going to destroy the device to pull then out or push them in.

Unlike the fate suffered by the "CD" inputs on this poor, defenseless little Marantz integrated amp I picked up, years back, from the freebie table at a local NEARC ( http://www.nearc.net/ now "NEVEC") swapmeet.

Marantz PD25 7 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Marantz PD25 6 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

My supposition is that this docile little amplifier was subjected to the death grip of a pair of Noel Lee's monstrous "turbine" RCA cable fittings.

Borrowed image from teh webz; not the actual culprits

 

[Billy Budapest]

Audio expos and magazines are all part of the big fraud about cables, vinyl and tubes with a sonic signature and the need for 'synergy'.

Tubes aren’t a fraud. Rather, they introduce measurable harmonic distortion that some people find pleasing. The same thing with vinyl. If people claim that tubes or vinyl reproduce musical content with greater fidelity than is possible with digital or solid state, they are wrong. However, they are not committing fraud. Rather, they just don’t understand the technology.

I like the way tubes sound, sometimes at least. But I recognize why they sound the way that they do and have no pretense that they are more accurate than well engineered solid state.

 

[MZKM]

Tubes aren’t a fraud. Rather, they introduce measurable harmonic distortion that some people find pleasing

The “tube sound” is mostly due to low [high] output impedance, and thus wattage fluctuates with the speaker impedence, usually adding more bass (warmth) as impedance peaks in ported speakers in the bass; tubes can actually make certain speakers sound brighter.

 

[Julf]

The “tube sound” is mostly due to low output impedance, and thus wattage fluctuates with the speaker impedence, usually adding more bass (warmth) as impedance peaks in ported speakers in the bass; tubes can actually make certain speakers sound brighter.

I assume you meant high impedance rather than low.

By the way, can we, please, on a forum that has "Science" in the name, use the correct term "power" instead of the colloquial "wattage"?

 

[RayDunzl]

Florida Audio Expo dropped Audioholics as their sponsor.

Maybe they'll require a Loyalty Oath, signed at the door, for attendees.

More reason to get my t-shirt printed up, and soon

 

[Darkweb]

Well, lobbies are stronger than I expected:

Florida Audio Expo dropped Audioholics as their sponsor. The reason: their positions against snake oil cables...

I’d kick him out simply for wearing white socks, Teva sandals, and a t shirt tucked into classic fit dockers. Absolute dork gear.

 

[scott wurcer]

and a t shirt tucked into classic fit dockers.

I never tuck my shirt in. I was looking at places in Naples FL once and they offered a sample round of golf on their courses. At one place the starter said don't let the members see your shirt out, f that.

 

[Not Insane]

Already exists:

I got a bunch of those for my PA box. I also got a rack mount power supply and a bunch of 12" power cables. There are five components in the box (Sonic maximisers, compressors, amplifiers). It makes it extremely clean. A single power cord, speaker cables and connectors to the mixer and that's it.

 

[Not Insane]

Are you up to it?

 

[M00ndancer]

Are you up to it?

You should read the YT comments... someone is peddling audio foolery. Not the creator of the video.

 

[NTomokawa]

How did that joke go again? I want to recable my car, time to sell a daughter...

 

[Not Insane]

You should read the YT comments... someone is peddling audio foolery. Not the creator of the video.

That's why I posted it.

I started a thread on another audio site based on that video and the cables, specifically. The thread was deleted because, i dunno, someone's advertiser ox was being gored. I thought those cables were so over the top that they would be fair "snake oil" game.

It begs the question, how expensive do cables have to be before there is a pretty solid consensus that only the very foolish or very, VERY rich would actually buy them? Is a million dollars too little.

 

[M00ndancer]

It begs the question, how expensive do cables have to be before there is a pretty solid consensus that only the very foolish or very, VERY rich would actually buy them?

As long as someone buys them, they can have any price. You have to realize that many of the high-end buyers only buys it for the price and the perceived value it brings to the owner as a refined and rich individual.

 

[Julf]

I started a thread on another audio site based on that video and the cables, specifically. The thread was deleted because, i dunno, someone's advertiser ox was being gored.

You have awoken our curiosity - what site?

 

[Not Insane]

As long as someone buys them, they can have any price. You have to realize that many of the high-end buyers only buys it for the price and the perceived value it brings to the owner as a refined and rich individual.

Yeah. I agree. It's just that this sort of performance enhancement stuff really does seem to be unique to exotic audio. E.g. I don't think there is a lot of snake oil stuff involved in exotic cars. Sure, you may buy 100,000 wheels for your 2 million dollar car, but it's because of their looks. You don't go on the internet saying your Bugatti Chiron now gets 0.04 better lap times or it "feels silkier because of the custom metal formulation". Rather, you show people your car, it looks better than it did, and everybody's happy.

And when it comes to performance parts on race cars (even weekend racers), the prices are not stupid high. Nobody spends $70,000 for lug nuts, or $80,000 for custom colored five point seat belts.

But yes, I understand that with audio sites you may have guys trying to upgrade their cartridge on their Audio Technica ATLP 120 from the AT 95 to an Ortofon blue, posting next to guys that want to know if it's worth it to upgrade from their Clearaudio da Vinci V2 to the Clearaudio Goldfinger Statement. And some posters will tell them what differences to expect between the two cartridges (as if most people on the planet would ever hear any difference).

The former group simply can't relate. At all. They probably paid a lot less for their car, even with chrome lug nuts.

Anyway, at can really create cultural "complications".

BTW, for those that are not aware, the clear audio cartridge/styluses are $7,000 and $16,000 respectively. The AT95 and Ortofon are in the ~$200 and less price range.

Anybody else use a rusty old trailer hitch ball over their turntable spindle to stabilize their vinyl? Think it wears out the bearings?

 

[Julf]

Yeah. I agree. It's just that this sort of performance enhancement stuff really does seem to be unique to exotic audio. E.g. I don't think there is a lot of snake oil stuff involved in exotic cars. Sure, you may buy 100,000 wheels for your 2 million dollar car, but it's because of their looks. You don't go on the internet saying your Bugatti Chiron now gets 0.04 better lap times or it "feels silkier because of the custom metal formulation". Rather, you show people your car, it looks better than it did, and everybody's happy.

Likewise, people who have very expensive mechanical wristwatches don't believe or claim their watches are any more accurate than a cheap quartz casio.

 

[Not Insane]

You have awoken our curiosity - what site?

Audiokarma.org. I've been a member there for over a decade, but it was rough at first. I learned that it's best that, even if someone brings up crosley cruisers, just say you like the colors and move on. i.e. don't dis equipment there, no matter how empirical your evidence. They have a lot of advertisers and they want to keep them.

I've learned to just be nice and offer positive when I have it, and jokes if they matter, and leave the negative - even when it's useful - to the "soon to be banned" and watch the fun.

 

[Not Insane]

Audio expos and magazines are all part of the big fraud about cables, vinyl and tubes with a sonic signature and the need for 'synergy'.

When I took my grandson to the show in Chicago last winter, I warned him that we were going to be hearing a lot of "odd" music at the exotic system demos. You know, stuff that only sells at hi fi shows. I call it bad music recorded really, really well. The first company that did that was Sheffield labs. I have most of their records. It really does show off a hi-fi, but with the exception of the Thelma Houston one, They are not really there to be just listened to. It's about that old addage:

Audiophiles use music to listen to the equipment.
Music lovers use the equipment to listen to the music.

But we are all some mixture of both. And most of the records used at hi-fi shows is used to impress the former.