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What is an equivalent product to HiFi snake oil?

ehabheikal

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Horoscopes? Tarot cards? Fortunetellers? The Farmer's Almanac? Nostradamus? Ouija boards? Movies about elves, dragons, hobbits, and unicorns? Hypnotism? Stonehenge?

The power of suggestion can be a mighty strange thing.
Man you totally lost me on movies about elves. Lets be clear, forums, as opposed to social media is one of the last refuges of nerds. Being a proud nerd, i can not sit idle while Lord of the Rings and other fantasies are equated to horoscopes.

;)

Seriously, nerds be here.
 

ehabheikal

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"various substances" probably includes alcohol.
My motto is that If you have no experience of the substance in question you are not valid to talk about its abilities.
Then there's the tolerance side of it. People who smoke every day don't get affected by it the same way and if you use from waking up to going to bed then this state becomes the new norm for you and it's like you're sober.
My bodies "default" tolerance is too high and nowadays I can't get the quality high I want at least not with the stuff I can get my hands on. There was a period when I could get a quality high if I had breaks between. I even two times had an out of body experience. A feat that no one else have had that I know of or have heard of IRL.
In my modest but all to real experience, that the solution to a high tolerance is a decent period of abstinence.
 

bkatbamna

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"Snake oil" is simply something where the marketing lie greatly increases the "perceived value" for the buyer.

Four espresso shots can give me a good jolt for very few $. But if someone packs those espresso shots into a fancy little bottle, calls it MachoMax and claims it energizes you, boosts your sexual power and makes your _ grow... I think *both* selling and buying sides are responsible when scams work.

I always find it fascinating how often in the USA there is this "victim culture", when consumers feign total innocence and blame corporation marketers for making them drink or smoke or vape or whatever. As if they'd never ever heard before it may be an unhealthy buying decision likely to have negative mid term consequences. Luckily, in the case of audio, it only hurts your wallet, not your health...
In the US, it's never anyone's fault for anything. Unless, of course, you open a bottle of soda facing you and get hit in the eye. Then it's the soda company's fault.
 

bkatbamna

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In the past, designer leather goods were well made and had good material and workmanship. Today, they use mediocre materials and indifferent workmanship but people buy anyways because they are Louis Vuitton emblazoned everywhere on it. I looked at a pair of LV shoes and the leather felt like plastic. All for $1200 a pair. I ended up getting Allan Edmonds shoes for half price but, the workmanship and material(horween) was better.
 

sq225917

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Can you imagine how much LV would charge if they used veg tanned Horween rather than that cheap chrome tanned acrylic painted junk they use?
 

BlackH20

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Probiotics, none are regulated by the FDA; in fact, animal products are more regulated than human probiotics because many enter the food chain. The only ones, like any treatment, are those proven in clinical trials. The number of probiotics in a capsule or billions of counts means zero, nothing, nada. First, know what you treating, then you match a probiotic with clinical evidence in published reviewed studies. There is about 2-3 brands in the United States and Canada (which, in Canada, they must prove efficacy). Otherwise, you waste about $30.00 a month on nothing but a placebo, the same with many OTC items; save your cash, and tell your family. 100 probiotics cost a company about $7.00 when they will sell it for nearly $100 and make false claims. Any OTC can say, "May help with," which is legal. Worse than wire because you are putting it in your body. That's my rant!
 

egellings

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Probiotics, none are regulated by the FDA; in fact, animal products are more regulated than human probiotics because many enter the food chain. The only ones, like any treatment, are those proven in clinical trials. The number of probiotics in a capsule or billions of counts means zero, nothing, nada. First, know what you treating, then you match a probiotic with clinical evidence in published reviewed studies. There is about 2-3 brands in the United States and Canada (which, in Canada, they must prove efficacy). Otherwise, you waste about $30.00 a month on nothing but a placebo, the same with many OTC items; save your cash, and tell your family. 100 probiotics cost a company about $7.00 when they will sell it for nearly $100 and make false claims. Any OTC can say, "May help with," which is legal. Worse than wire because you are putting it in your body. That's my rant!
Agree. In the case of the wire, it at least does conduct electrical signals.
 

ROOSKIE

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I read that "snake oil" in the 1800's was actually effective along the line of what it was claimed to do.
How it came to fall from grace and become a derogatory term is interesting.

Anyway, I guess that is how it starts. Folks realize that 12guage cable does in fact do a slightly better job than 20guage and it is even audible --- and the next thing you know we have, cryo-ed-pure silver coated-X-ium core-1,000,000 microstanded-hyperbaric chambered-cable Selling for $10k for 10feet. & then we find out the cable isn't really X-ium cored. Bummer folks.

So many products and services are fake or useless these days but the number jobs required so everyone has a livable level of income keeps going up. I really have no idea how many of us want to be on the knick-knack polishing team for some rich cat for $8.25 and hour. So it is snake oil sales or bust I am afraid.

*EDIT* here is an article about the general 'snake oil' narrative
 
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birdog1960

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Probiotics, none are regulated by the FDA; in fact, animal products are more regulated than human probiotics because many enter the food chain. The only ones, like any treatment, are those proven in clinical trials. The number of probiotics in a capsule or billions of counts means zero, nothing, nada. First, know what you treating, then you match a probiotic with clinical evidence in published reviewed studies. There is about 2-3 brands in the United States and Canada (which, in Canada, they must prove efficacy). Otherwise, you waste about $30.00 a month on nothing but a placebo, the same with many OTC items; save your cash, and tell your family. 100 probiotics cost a company about $7.00 when they will sell it for nearly $100 and make false claims. Any OTC can say, "May help with," which is legal. Worse than wire because you are putting it in your body. That's my rant!
There is actually much research on probiotics especially for antibiotic associated diarrhea https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/probiotics-what-you-need-to-know. If you ever get that condition u want prescription stuff. The ultimate probiotic is a stool enema for clostridium difficile cases that r resistant to easier treatments. It works very well
 

Keith_W

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Snake oil in art is a great subject! I don't know if anybody has mentioned John Cage's 4' 33" yet? It is the only musical composition in the world that you can listen to with your hi-fi system turned off.
 

bkatbamna

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Probiotics, none are regulated by the FDA; in fact, animal products are more regulated than human probiotics because many enter the food chain. The only ones, like any treatment, are those proven in clinical trials. The number of probiotics in a capsule or billions of counts means zero, nothing, nada. First, know what you treating, then you match a probiotic with clinical evidence in published reviewed studies. There is about 2-3 brands in the United States and Canada (which, in Canada, they must prove efficacy). Otherwise, you waste about $30.00 a month on nothing but a placebo, the same with many OTC items; save your cash, and tell your family. 100 probiotics cost a company about $7.00 when they will sell it for nearly $100 and make false claims. Any OTC can say, "May help with," which is legal. Worse than wire because you are putting it in your body. That's my rant!
It's amazing how many people I encounter in my practice who hate on the medical establishment that tell me that it is only interested in prolonging disease in order to sell expensive treatments and at the same time take a bunch of supplements that don't do anything. I tell them that "the ads for all those supplements state in the ad themselves that the supplement you are taking is not meant to treat any disease or condition"
 

birdog1960

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It's amazing how many people I encounter in my practice who hate on the medical establishment that tell me that it is only interested in prolonging disease in order to sell expensive treatments and at the same time take a bunch of supplements that don't do anything. I tell them that "the ads for all those supplements state in the ad themselves that the supplement you are taking is not meant to treat any disease or condition"
hand them this: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-159-12-201312170-00011. but many probiotics are not in this category imo.
 

birdog1960

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They would shrug that off as proof that the medical establishment and the prescription drug industry are in cahoots.
my reply would be that maybe they should find a provider that is more in agreement with their philosophy. provide a list of "alternative" medicine practitioners.
 

MacCali

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In the past, designer leather goods were well made and had good material and workmanship. Today, they use mediocre materials and indifferent workmanship but people buy anyways because they are Louis Vuitton emblazoned everywhere on it. I looked at a pair of LV shoes and the leather felt like plastic. All for $1200 a pair. I ended up getting Allan Edmonds shoes for half price but, the workmanship and material(horween) was better.
Bro Louie is predominately canvass, not even real leather until you get into the crazy prices. It’s really ignorant to want that and basically same crap as your high priced mediocre performance junk.

Longevity is the only factor cited for its use and I have no comment on that or knowledge. But that’s pretty much total trash
 
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