Snake oil thread

Post your favorite snake oil here!



This company has to be the most ridiculous one in audio. Gonna have to get me one of those "ATM" ass to mouth modules ahahahaha

 

Another one

 

Classic: http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm

 

This is sheer madness. Is the fellow serious or just taking the piss.

 

Higher price tag = higher performance

All hobby and professional snake oil starts here. This varies a lot depending on the producer and the user.

Sometimes that expensive thing really is the best there is but how often does that happen?

Example

At a work location where I work there is a fancy "Micros" IT system for processing and communicating à-la-carte restaurant and bar orders but it still has bugs and is easily misused. With a pen and bloc note you can be just as quick and effective, have less "technology issues" but the management wants computers to replace competence. Running the tables there is sometimes an utter disaster.

 

And, in a range of items of increasing price, the "improvements," according to many reviewers, are always incremental.

Price-tag-itis is one of the hardest biases to escape. I doubt that I have ever bought the lesser-priced of two consumer items without that nagging doubt about what I'm missing, however much I have satisfied myself that it is just fine. In fact, it is a known sales technique (or, at least, I read it in a book nearly 50 years ago) to appear to try to put the customer off the more expensive item.

 

My solution for Price-tag-itis is to use the gear as if it is attached to my body. Works sometimes. Cure insecurity with emotional dependence.

 

Not trying to start a huge debate here, but just sharing my experiences.

I had my fine share of testing tweaks which purportedly are snake oil, but turned out to affect the setups I've listened to (both or good and for bad). I have to say some of these changes I just couldn't explain, but the differences are well heard among a few people at the venue. Some needed guidance to which aspect of sonic presentation they should focus on, some lesser/or not at all, and the overall agreement to what had changes is fairly consistent.

A few, which some might be familiar to you all:
- Silclear Contact Enhancer - Did improved technicalities of the headphone I was listening, but prolonged periods of listening was fatiguing and "empty", did not had the emotional connection which I usually had with my setup (Sennheiser HD650)
- Enacom AC Line - A difference I could live without - Given the speaker setup I was listening to a less fuzzy, sharper/cleaner presentation.
- Harmonix CD Tuning Sheet - I just don't understand this, but I could hear what it does. Not something I could live without though.
- Harmonix tuning discs/footers - Now these are just small discs with adhesives which you would stick to your wall, or place under the spikes of your speaker stands. I can understand the footers, but the tuning discs that goes on the wall................... It can be a day and night difference if you know what you should be listening for.
- Cables - Especially powercords, which in my experience could break or help build a system E.g. the British plug QED powercord introduced so much bass bloom into my system it made it sickening to listen to over prolonged periods. Later I found it was the British MK plug which did this (as the characteristic carried over to another powercord which I reterminated with the same plug).



And etc...

I do agree with Marv that some of these tweaks command high prices, which in my opinion one should not be so absorbed in tweaks to the extent of spending good money on what should be spent on building a proper system.

Again I have to reiterate, IMO, YMMV, these is just from my *very limited* experience, etc.



ADDENDUM: In my opinion power related tweaks are the hardest to get right, and the most dangerous, unfortunately many I know do stupid things, for example installing US plugs in place of UK plugs without consulting a qualified electrician, leaving cables running out from the wall sockets... etc. No matter the amount of improvement it isn't worth a life, nor voiding the fire insurance for my building.

 

I am curious. Excuse my language as i am a biologist and having said that, life has a tendency to not follow rules and its often been mentioned that we biologists have "physics envy" because of the lack of "laws".
Anyways, can anyone tell me if these tweaks are based on reducing interference from parasitic or unwanted waves that interfere with acoustic waves?

 

wow, this definitely is "super best audio friends".

Where ma pyrates at?

 

I think it's the new interface. Rather lovely

 

That strikes me as the give away.

Listen to music in a different way, and it sounds different. Point someone in the direction of the treble clarity, and they will listen to treble clarity.

Live in a subjective world, it's wonderful, but when something really should not be happening there's only one thing to do, if a person is actually interested, and that is endeavour to find out.

Blind testing? Hey, it's hard work, which is why I seldom actually go there, but there is only one way to find out if the impossible is actually possible. It doesn't have to be postable on Hydrogen audio... it doesn't have to be rigorous science... but, at least get somebody else to make the changes for you in some way that, if not scientifically blind, let alone double blind, is at least not obvious. And for god's sake don't let anybody tell you what to listen for.

Of course, some people get very upset when their certainty vanishes. Welcome to an uncertain world!

 

What you're describing there Thad is similar to the McGurk effect. If you're told something is going to sound different, you're probably (and involuntarily) going to hear a difference in a similar fashion to a different visual element changing your perception of sound.

 

Anyone wondering what the "HOT" internals look like?

 

Article:
$10,000 Ethernet cable promises BONKERS MP3 audio experience
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/0...ng_pleasure_with_this_bonkers_ethernet_cable/

 

What is the large cylinder? Inside....

 

Like Doctor Victor Frankenstein from the Mary Shelley novel?

 

That was both sad and scary, in multiple ways. Posturing neutrality, in this case, seems like complicity.

 

It's a while since I watched a McGurk video, but, iirc, the experiment shows how our eyes over-rule our ears. Even the people who are doing that research and fully know what to expect cannot avoid the effect. So, trained listeners, golden ears and all, now tell us that one amplifier is more bah than fah and vice versa when you can't see them.