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

[mansr]

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.

Are you saying there is no market for rhodium plated truck nuts?

 

[amirm]

Are you up to it?

I have a ton of history with these Masterbuilt cables. My ex-partner in another forum decided to go from cables are snake oil to these are the cables you must have. I don't know if anything has changed but at the time Masterbuilt had all these claims about passing double blind tests, physics theories, etc. With their distributor in that forum, I challenged them on all of this. Folks get super angry and bent out of shape as you can imagine.

Here are some of my posts from that time:

This is replying to their distributor:

There were no takers on that $1000 reward.

Responding to my ex-partner's defense of their cables:

To another poster's defense:

This led to this statement from their distributor (in part):

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

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.

I'm a member at Audiokarma too. I like the place. But yeah, you have to know your audience so to speak...Just like when my mom starts talking about religion, I know not to challenge her beliefs.

 

[captain paranoia]

I started a thread on another audio site based on that video and the cables, specifically.

Threads about cables usually get deleted on AK because, as someone has noted on this thread, they're pointless, and usually descend into a slanging match. No new arguments are presented. The topic has been done to death.

 

[NTomokawa]

Audiokarma

AK is a good place for vintage audio equipment lovers, not for talking about objective performance and measurements... Sadly...

 

[NTomokawa]

I have a ton of history with these Masterbuilt cables.

There is just so much wrong in their marketing...

 

[Julf]

Threads about cables usually get deleted on AK because, as someone has noted on this thread, they're pointless, and usually descend into a slanging match. No new arguments are presented. The topic has been done to death.

Indeed. Some people believe in evidence-based facts, other believe in their infallible senses and opinions.

 

[Willem]

And the latter are wrong.

 

[Not Insane]

Are you saying there is no market for rhodium plated truck nuts?

I see a huge opportunity!

 

[SIY]

I see a huge opportunity!

OT question: is your handle a Firesign reference?

 

[Not Insane]

I'm a member at Audiokarma too. I like the place. But yeah, you have to know your audience so to speak...Just like when my mom starts talking about religion, I know not to challenge her beliefs.

I am a member there as well as Audiocircle, Vinylengine and Stefehoffman.tv. Each one has a different flavor than the others. I was "hard banned" from Vinylengine several times over a one year period. That site is the closest thing to the "soup nazi" on the internet I've ever experienced. Meanwhile, I'll sometimes have all the sites up at the same time and noticed something a month or so ago that has been solidly confirmed: Whenever someone posts a subtle accusation against another poster, basically attacking him for even starting to talk about a subject (the subjects vary and are not really the point here), it's ALWAYS AudioKarma. It's like listening to a husband and wife in a bad marriage. One says something that, to an outsider, sounds completely innocuous, but the other calls them on their hidden agenda. I walk on egg shells there. But In Vinylengine, I avoid posting (much). I'm just there to watch. It's really not very active anyway. When the owner of a site clamps down tight on anything that even seems to rub them the wrong way, and bans entire ISP's from even accessing the site, it sort of stymies discussion. But I do get my vinyl fix there.

Stevehoffman members seem to be more music focused. So that is mainly what I discuss there.

I like this site because it gets technical and, as near as I can tell, seems to be more digital focused, but I've only been here a few days.

I joined Audiocircle a couple months ago but don't really post there much. It's primarily because of their interface software. I've been on a LOT of forums since 1997, and theirs is the hardest to get used to I've ever used. And I use Freerepublic.com since 1998. Theirs is perl based and has not changed since then. Very archaic but easier to use (for me) than audiocircle. A key component is that I need to be able to come to a site and quickly navigate to the latest posts and also be able to quickly see if there are any responses to threads I've posted in. Several sites I frequent use the same basic software as is used here. It's my favorite interface these days. And I see the little red number next to the bell. It's right out in the open.

 

[Not Insane]

OT question: is your handle a Firesign reference?

ABSOFRICKINLUTELY!

I collected all their albums in the previous century and downloaded their digital stuff. Give me immortality, or give me death!

 

[Not Insane]

Threads about cables usually get deleted on AK because, as someone has noted on this thread, they're pointless, and usually descend into a slanging match. No new arguments are presented. The topic has been done to death.

I get that, but it seems to be more of a problem there than here. I think it has to do with what I discussed in my post before this one - the discussions are too much like a discussion between a husband and wife in a bad marriage. They are less civil than the same discussion may be in a good marriage. And that comes from experience. I had a 20 year bad marriage followed by a 22 year (so far) good marriage. Night and day, regarding communication.

 

[SIY]

ABSOFRICKINLUTELY!

I collected all their albums in the previous century and downloaded their digital stuff. Give me immortality, or give me death!

I used to crack up my friends when I taught my (then) 5 year old how to respond, "That's me!" to me asking, "Thirsty?" and running through that whole commercial. He never did figure out what Filipino Creamie was...

 

[Not Insane]

I used to crack up my friends when I taught my (then) 5 year old how to respond, "That's me!" to me asking, "Thirsty?" and running through that whole commercial. He never did figure out what Filipino Creamie was...

I miss our old fireworks displays at Communist Martyr's high school.

The guys at Morse Science were all jerks, but the girls were cute.

 

[SIY]

The guys at Morse Science were all jerks...

HEY! THAT'S NOT TRUE!

I wanted to go to the fireworks displays, but I was not going to give the guard a sleeve job.

 

[Not Insane]

HEY! THAT'S NOT TRUE!

I wanted to go to the fireworks displays, but I was not going to give the guard a sleeve job.

Usually I could just slip the guy my entrenchment tool.

 

[captain paranoia]

I get that, but it seems to be more of a problem there than here

This site is dominated by objectivists. There is the occasional subjectivist visitor, but they are made unwelcome quite quickly.

AK is a mixture of subjectivists and objectivists. I recently posted a could of links to ASR reviews there, and got told that this site is 'proven to be rubbish'. That will be a hard subjectivist view...

I'm an engineer, so I'm very much an objectivist, but even I find some ASR posters to be a bit hard-line objectivist (and sometimes they go so far towards the supposed objectivist view, that they come round to subjectivist..). ASR can be a bit smug at times, when considering 'boutique hifi'; it's not a good look, and not an objective, scientific approach, IMHO. We should present facts, but we should not mock or gloat.

AK also has a specific sub forum for 'contentious' topics; threads posted outside that subforum will be moved, closed or deleted. I think that's a pragmatic approach to moderation.

 

[Julf]

We should present facts, but we should not mock or gloat.

You are right. We should not. But sometimes we all get so frustrated with all the blatant woo and snake oil that we have to let off some pressure. Maybe we need a "Poke fun at audiophools" subforum....

 

[Not Insane]

AK also has a specific sub forum for 'contentious' topics; threads posted outside that subforum will be moved, closed or deleted. I think that's a pragmatic approach to moderation.

But you have to be a "paying" member to go there, I believe.

I get all that stuff off my chest at the political forum in Harmonycentral.com. That's where you go for the "full half hour argument".