Even I have my limits.......

[Covenanter]

How very silly! Right up there with directional cables, directional fuses (which work the other way round in the Southern hemisphere), wood blocks for holding your speaker cables off the floor ... shall I go on?

Chris

 

[Tear Drop]

Fwiw if anyone considers my responses to lack the appropriate humour it is because I see these types of products merely as being further down a particular spectrum and see little humour in any of them; nor do I wish implicitly to laugh at anyone who is fooled by the charlatans selling products on that spectrum.

Awww, booo.

 

[SiUK]

you'll be telling us that Santa Claus isn't real next!

 

[proffski]

I'll bet that Russ Andrews will make a better product. Cryo treated, demagnetised, depoliarised, planet oriented, built to the highest standards... ***** Material from WHF to boot. Bargain!

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

How very silly! Right up there with directional cables, directional fuses (which work the other way round in the Southern hemisphere), wood blocks for holding your speaker cables off the floor ... shall I go on?

Chris

FWIW I shall shortly be launching an entire line of hifi enhancement products based on the superior audio qualities of dessicated Pink Fairy Armadillo [yes, there is such a creature] manure. The manure of the Pink Fairy Armadillo, native to South America, haven been found by extensive testing to be far superior to the common nine-banded armadillos common in Central and Southern North America. :rofl:

 

[mr malarky]

I quite fancy "the clever little clock" - for only $399 it apparently improves the picture quality of your display, as well as your system's sound quality; now that really is clever!

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina41.htm

 

[RobinKidderminster]

The clock is good.science. The ticking is so annoying u turn the hifi volume right up and it sounds great.

 

[mr malarky]

The clock is good.science. The ticking is so annoying u turn the hifi volume right up and it sounds great.

If that's how it works then I don't need the clock - mrs m already performs a similar function...

 

[kmlav]

I suggested to my missis that I got some of these and she gave me a stoney stare

 

[mr malarky]

I just feel sorry for the poor scientists at CERN, spending billions of pounds looking for dark matter in a tunnel under the Swiss alps, when all along it was available to buy online in a little bottle for just $99!

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina51.htm

 

[kmlav]

The work best with rock music , the rolling stones never sounded so good

 

[mogsie]

all created by some guy called geoff kait, apparently he got sick of all the BS surrounding hifi products and their claims that he created all these bogus products, but it all seems to have gotten out of hand as some people claim that he is ripping people off ! ( if they are stupid enough to buy!) and there is some websites that have done product reviews, all seems bizarre, not sure if they are being serious or not ???

anyways good for a giggle !

 

[Sospri]

Why all the deision, its obvious that anyone with half a brain cell can see that the pebble device actally disipates any vibration in the cables theeby enhancing ones listening experiance to ones Hi Fi.

You lot should stict to your amstrads, Hmm..................

Disgusted

Tunbridge Wells..............

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

all created by some guy called geoff kait, apparently he got sick of all the BS surrounding hifi products and their claims that he created all these bogus products, but it all seems to have gotten out of hand as some people claim that he is ripping people off ! ( if they are stupid enough to buy!) and there is some websites that have done product reviews, all seems bizarre, not sure if they are being serious or not ???

anyways good for a giggle !

If people are stupid enough to fall for it, then they deserve to be pennyless.

I'm really moving rapidly to the "We're all being made mugs of" camp,

 

[steve_1979]

I just feel sorry for the poor scientists at CERN, spending billions of pounds looking for dark matter in a tunnel under the Swiss alps, when all along it was available to buy online in a little bottle for just $99!

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina51.htm

So dark matter is really a green liquid...

That one would be funnier if he was just selling selling empty bottles because (theoretically) dark matter is invisible and doesn't interact with regular matter in any way other than gravity.

 

[steve_1979]

The work best with rock music , the rolling stones never sounded so good

They sound even better if you get stoned first (which is probably true).

 

[kmlav]

These are my top 3 listening experience improvements

1. Comfy Sofa

2. Glass of wine

3. Log fire

Combine these things with some decent tunes and you will be in a happy place, note for afternoons the wine can be replaced by a nice cup of tea.

 

[steve_1979]

For some people, a lot of the aftermarket products you believe work are in the same category as these products (products that objectively can't have an effect, albeit a user may subjectively experience one), so the questions had a serious basis. Perhaps just answer the first one for me?

This is a very good point Cno.

We can all see that these magic pebbles will not really effect the sound because science and logic tells us so. But science and logic also tells us that magic speaker cables* are pointless and 24bit/192kHz music won't sound better than 16bit/44.1kHz music (unless mastered differently). Yet audiophools are happy to believe in audiophile speaker cables and excessively high rez music files. Why is this? Is it just because they don't understand the science involved?

*although in some very extreme cases where the cables have an excessively high capacitance or inductance they can effect the tone by causing phase distortion.

 

[CnoEvil]

For some people, a lot of the aftermarket products you believe work are in the same category as these products (products that objectively can't have an effect, albeit a user may subjectively experience one), so the questions had a serious basis. Perhaps just answer the first one for me?

This is a very good point Cno.

We can all see that these magic pebbles will not really effect the sound because science and logic tells us so. But science and logic also tells us that magic speaker cables* are pointless and 24bit/192kHz music won't sound better than 16bit/44.1kHz music (unless mastered differently). Yet audiophools are happy to believe in audiophile speaker cables and excessively high rez music files. Why is this? Is it just because they don't understand the science involved?

Well there you go......logic you can't argue with.......argument closed. :shifty:

 

[steve_1979]

.......argument closed. :shifty:

Never!

Mwhahaha! :twisted:

 

[mogsie]

For some people, a lot of the aftermarket products you believe work are in the same category as these products (products that objectively can't have an effect, albeit a user may subjectively experience one), so the questions had a serious basis. Perhaps just answer the first one for me?

This is a very good point Cno.

We can all see that these magic pebbles will not really effect the sound because science and logic tells us so. But science and logic also tells us that magic speaker cables* are pointless and 24bit/192kHz music won't sound better than 16bit/44.1kHz music (unless mastered differently). Yet audiophools are happy to believe in audiophile speaker cables and excessively high rez music files. Why is this? Is it just because they don't understand the science involved?

*although in some very extreme cases where the cables have an excessively high capacitance or inductance they can effect the tone by causing phase distortion.

reading all this makes me wonder to what extent the placebo effect could have to play in this ? if somebody genuinly believes it is improving sound quality will they believe they are hearing it ?

 

[CnoEvil]

reading all this makes me wonder to what extent the placebo effect could have to play in this ? if somebody genuinly believes it is improving sound quality will they believe they are hearing it ?

In short, very much so, but.....

- Sometimes the difference is imaginary

- Sometimes it's real

- Sometimes different people pick up on subtitles that are missed by others.

- Sometimes, one person's "day and night" is another's, "marginal at best".

- Sometimes people say they hear a difference (or get talked into hearing one) because of peer pressure......I was at a Chord cable demo recently, where they were (among other things) showing the difference made by better shielding and plugs on the same cable. With each upgrade, everyone in the room was nodding wisely at the improvement, due to being prompted by the person doing the dem.

IMO. The improvements were far from easy to hear on a short burst of music, and it was only when they got to mad priced stuff that I could hear a marked difference, but it was only on the Sarum Tuned Aray, that I actually liked what I heard.

Was it the price that made me hear a difference?........possibly, but i don't believe so. My ears haven't yet let me down when selecting the kit that I have, so i have grown to trust them over the years; though I don't expect anyone else to do so, without doing their own trials.

 

[steve_1979]

In short, very much so, but.....

- Sometimes the difference is imaginary

- Sometimes it's real

- Sometimes different people pick up on subtitles that are missed by others.

- Sometimes, one person's "day and night" is another's, "marginal at best".

- Sometimes people say they hear a difference (or get talked into hearing one) because of peer pressure

Good points.

 

[davedotco]

reading all this makes me wonder to what extent the placebo effect could have to play in this ? if somebody genuinly believes it is improving sound quality will they believe they are hearing it ?

In short, very much so, but.....

- Sometimes the difference is imaginary

- Sometimes it's real

- Sometimes different people pick up on subtitles that are missed by others.

- Sometimes, one person's "day and night" is another's, "marginal at best".

- Sometimes people say they hear a difference (or get talked into hearing one) because of peer pressure......I was at a Chord cable demo recently, where they were (among other things) showing the difference made by better shielding and plugs on the same cable. With each upgrade, everyone in the room was nodding wisely at the improvement, due to being prompted by the person doing the dem.

IMO. The improvements were far from easy to hear on a short burst of music, and it was only when they got to mad priced stuff that I could hear a marked difference, but it was only on the Sarum Tuned Aray, that I actually liked what I heard.

Was it the price that made me hear a difference?........possibly, but i don't believe so. My ears haven't yet let me down when selecting the kit that I have, so i have grown to trust them over the years; though I don't expect anyone else to do so, without doing their own trials.

Now you are spoiling a very entertaining thread by being serious......

I feel that there are two factors at work here, firstly the differences between cables is vanishingly small, if you take into account changes in level and obvious frequency response variations. That said, I would always buy a decent quality, properly constructed lead simply for peace of mind.

This brings me on to the second point, there are things that I believe make a difference that are extremely difficult to prove, even to myself.

For example, I plan to use a Sonos based system next time I buy a 'proper' system, a while ago I heard a (in deeply flawed, sighted dem) a standard Connect against a Cullen/W4S modified version.

At the time I thought the modded version sound 'cleaner' and less 'hazy', clearly superior and this impression has stayed with me. When I buy the system I shall buy the modded version for my main system without a moments thought, once again purely for peace of mind.

 

[steve_1979]

reading all this makes me wonder to what extent the placebo effect could have to play in this ? if somebody genuinly believes it is improving sound quality will they believe they are hearing it ?

Sometimes yes, they can hear a difference if they believe it. Try playing two identical music files to someone but tell them that one is a lossy MP3 and the other is a high quality lossless file. Many people will think that they can hear a slight difference even though the files are really identical.

You may find this thread on the subject an interesting one. Clicky