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No, this is when you gently caress with him and pull out some poo poo like "Man, I dunno, there's something really muddying the highs after you did that", bonus points for pointing out reduced clarity in the strings if it's a classical piece. Extra bonus points if you can pull off something about the strings when no strings are present in the music and he still buys it.
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May 31, 2013 20:16
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Great thread, just read all of it. I never knew about audiophile power cables until this thread. I found this picture of one of those garden hose power cables, which is connected via a standard extension cable, then into a regular-ish power outlet, which has a normal thin cable going to a socket... what exactly do they think this magic cable can do after the current has passed through all the standard wires? Not to mention the tiny wire in their household fuse and standard power cabling in their home.
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Jun 2, 2013 00:16
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Pilsner posted:Great thread, just read all of it. I never knew about audiophile power cables until this thread. I found this picture of one of those garden hose power cables, which is connected via a standard extension cable, then into a regular-ish power outlet, which has a normal thin cable going to a socket... what exactly do they think this magic cable can do after the current has passed through all the standard wires? Not to mention the tiny wire in their household fuse and standard power cabling in their home. "Thinking" rarely has anything to do with these sorts of questions. A better word would be "rationalize".
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Jun 2, 2013 00:23
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Pilsner posted:Great thread, just read all of it. I never knew about audiophile power cables until this thread. I found this picture of one of those garden hose power cables, which is connected via a standard extension cable, then into a regular-ish power outlet, which has a normal thin cable going to a socket... what exactly do they think this magic cable can do after the current has passed through all the standard wires? Not to mention the tiny wire in their household fuse and standard power cabling in their home. Go big or go home:  It's a 100 amp power cable for a Yacht.
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Jun 2, 2013 00:30
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My absolute favorite thing about these products aren't the analog ones; you can always reach for an impossibly clean signal with analog equipment, so it's easy for people with more money than sense to fall for it. Analog is spooky to these people. It's the digital stuff that really blows my mind. HDMI cables that claim to enhance contrast and color depth, or USB cables that somehow modify the data stream for clearer treble. There's an exploitation here that goes beyond regular audiophile bullshit.
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Jun 2, 2013 01:16
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BANME.sh posted:There's an exploitation here that goes beyond regular audiophile bullshit.
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Jun 2, 2013 01:23
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BANME.sh posted:My absolute favorite thing about these products aren't the analog ones; you can always reach for an impossibly clean signal with analog equipment, so it's easy for people with more money than sense to fall for it. Analog is spooky to these people. Are you kidding? Digital scares the poo poo out of these people. It's not an audiophile thing, it's a human thing. Do you know how many times a day I have to tell people at work that they won't see a speed increase spending 5 figures going from GbE over copper to GbE over fiber?
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Jun 3, 2013 01:49
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KillHour posted:Are you kidding? Digital scares the poo poo out of these people. It's not an audiophile thing, it's a human thing. Do you know how many times a day I have to tell people at work that they won't see a speed increase spending 5 figures going from GbE over copper to GbE over fiber? You obviously don't have a good handle on the encapsulation technology and how important it is when pushing pure quality audio at 1.5 Mbps. Ethernet is known for stomping out all the upper/lower vibrant RGB hue saturation and is basically a plebeian data link layer to be honest, sorry. Fibre channel frames have 5 bits left over to be turned on and off via the users preference, these include adjustable high muddyness levels, two soundstage settings (The Met, MSG), Hawking Black Hole (on/off), plus two more experimental settings we only share with customers. WinAmp jitter is basically a thing of the past on this tech. This puts all the fluffers out of work, but progress is progress.
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Jun 3, 2013 02:11
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Herv posted:plus two more experimental settings we only share with customers. I know one of them is stage placement! When enabled you can close your eyes and tell exactly where everyone was standing during the recording session. I was thinking it would have been great to have done this thread 100% tongue-in-cheek/sarcastic (with a title to match). Would have been hilarious to see random goons posting in here and losing their poo poo thinking we were serious and spending more on cables and magic crystals than the posters at AI were on new cars.
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Jun 3, 2013 13:20
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Blistex posted:I know one of them is stage placement! The best part of the stage placement test is switching from mono to stereo and back when you change cables (don't really change cables, just switch mono/stereo).
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Jun 3, 2013 15:44
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Just thinking about this, and I can't fathom the lack of cognitive dissonance these people have. Unless they are using a battery backup or something, how could this possibly make any difference in their minds? It's like taking tap water from your town water supply, and running it through a section of gold pipe directly before your kitchen tap. All you've done is take the exact same thing (water/electricity) and run it through something very expensive, that in no way affects the quality of it. Hell that picture is like the same analogy, but at some point in time your water has been filtered through a used gym sock (the APC taskbar).  I can understand the whole expensive speaker cable "thing", as proper shielding can make a difference when analyzing the signal using very sensitive scientific equipment, but this will in no way help the "cleanliness" of the electricity, unless those last 6' from your taskbar to the stereo happen to pass under a transmission tower. I think this might rank higher on the bullshit scale with me than Magic Crystals, as the very obvious is staring you right in the face with these cables.
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Jun 4, 2013 13:21
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Well friend, that's not an issue because they first run it through their $3000 A/C conditioner (not pictured) to clean the electricity first. It's like you don't know anything.
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Jun 4, 2013 13:52
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Blistex posted:All you've done is take the exact same thing (water/electricity) and run it through something very expensive quote:, that in no way affects the quality of it.
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Jun 4, 2013 14:35
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I know I am just giving somebody out there an idea, but I am surprised I haven't heard of audiophile products that change the ratio of gases in the room to attain better sound propagation through the air. Or at the very least, an air conditioner marketed towards audiophiles. Because as we all know, colder air is better at cleaning up muddy bass. Soon we should see listening rooms built inside walk-in freezers.
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Jun 4, 2013 16:20
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BANME.sh posted:I know I am just giving somebody out there an idea, but I am surprised I haven't heard of audiophile products that change the ratio of gases in the room to attain better sound propagation through the air. Or at the very least, an air conditioner marketed towards audiophiles. Because as we all know, colder air is better at cleaning up muddy bass. Soon we should see listening rooms built inside walk-in freezers. The colder room will also improve thermal noise, and I'd bet those air molecules moving about creates noise too.
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Jun 4, 2013 16:23
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longview posted:The colder room will also improve thermal noise, and I'd bet those air molecules moving about creates noise too.  it's all so simple
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Jun 4, 2013 16:29
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Khablam posted:Well friend, that's not an issue because they first run it through their $3000 A/C conditioner (not pictured) to clean the electricity first. I totally get you, (not autistic). My other problem is that they are powering their stereo as follows. Battery bank/AC conditioner -> $50 Surge Protector -> $2000+ cable -> Stereo You'd think just from their "more money = better" philosophy, they wouldn't let that stand, as everyone knows, anything under $2k is going to dirty the power going to your stereo and ruin the sound. It's both glaringly obvious, and not an expensive component. You'd think at least one of those would get to all the audiophiles.
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Jun 4, 2013 17:07
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Maybe they think Expensive Cables do something to 'clean up' signals (somehow) instead of just preserving signal?BANME.sh posted:I know I am just giving somebody out there an idea, but I am surprised I haven't heard of audiophile products that change the ratio of gases in the room to attain better sound propagation through the air. Or at the very least, an air conditioner marketed towards audiophiles. Because as we all know, colder air is better at cleaning up muddy bass. Soon we should see listening rooms built inside walk-in freezers. For the purest listening experience you need to chill your listening lounge to -40 and replace the air with pure hydrogen gas.
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Jun 4, 2013 18:08
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While we're at it why not replace that dreaded fleshy "ear" segment of the transmission chain with something that doesn't degrade over the years of use and aging and instead uses a load of buzzwords from a 1970s sci fi show. Also the ear nerve. And obviously the brain attached to it, who knows what kinds of messy distortions are introduced in there. RoadCrewWorker fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Jun 4, 2013 |
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Jun 4, 2013 18:25
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How about funnels that hook onto each ear so that you are getting 'reference' sound into your ear canal, that otherwise might be distorted by different ear shapes and sizes.
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Jun 4, 2013 18:29
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The non-repeatability and inconsistencies in the human body cause variance in sound vibration propagation. The holy way to get truly "pure" sound is to have a completely sealed off, unoccupied listening space. (Further, you should consider having the space be a vacuum, to prevent distortion from convection eddies in the air.)
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Jun 4, 2013 19:59
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By the way, I wonder how audiophiles handle the 300-hour burn-in periods that they claim some speakers, devices and cables have. Do they come home with their new equipment, put it on together, put on a piece of music on loop, then run out of their listening room with their fingers in their ears and not return until a month later? Or do they begin listening right away, and apologize to themselves for listening to what is sub-optimal, not burned-in? I wouldn't be surprised that they count the hours the equipment has been on, then when the day comes that they've hit the mark, they put on a CD and go "ahhh yes... THIS is what it's supposed to sound like!".
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Jun 4, 2013 21:38
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You can buy burn-in equipment that sends various signals through the audio equipment. I don't know if they have any that claim to speed up the process or not.
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Jun 4, 2013 21:42
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Any science wizards care to explain if there is any difference between a brand new cable that has never been used, a cable that has had 1 second of sound played through it, and a cable with 300 hours of sound played through it. Is there some manner of subtle change to it at the molecular, atomic, or even sub-atomic level? Any at all?
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Jun 4, 2013 22:16
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Blistex posted:Any science wizards care to explain if there is any difference between a brand new cable that has never been used, a cable that has had 1 second of sound played through it, and a cable with 300 hours of sound played through it. Is there some manner of subtle change to it at the molecular, atomic, or even sub-atomic level? Any at all? Only if you're an audiophile. If anything, a conductor would degrade infinitesimally over time due to normal aging and such.
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Jun 4, 2013 22:20
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Blistex posted:Any science wizards care to explain if there is any difference between a brand new cable that has never been used, a cable that has had 1 second of sound played through it, and a cable with 300 hours of sound played through it. Is there some manner of subtle change to it at the molecular, atomic, or even sub-atomic level? Any at all? No. Just, no. Honestly, if I could come up with a decent pseudo-scientific answer I'd be running my own
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Jun 5, 2013 01:38
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Blistex posted:I totally get you, (not autistic). Sure, there are those who replace one component that isn't the bottleneck and claim wonderous results, but more pitiable are the ones who will replace every component in the chain. $1000 surge protectors are a thing.
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Jun 5, 2013 10:59
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Socket Ryanist posted:Have audiophiles given a justification for why they still use unbalanced connections between components? You'd think if they're so concerned with audio quality they'd use one of the most universally agreed-upon techniques for cutting out noise. More then a few high end components use balanced connections. To be totally fair balanced connections only quash common-mode noise so if you don't have a lot of that there probably won't be a huge difference either way. Also balanced connections require conversion inside the components so unbalanced is technically a simpler signal path. I guess that could be your audiophile hook for unbalanced connections.
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Jun 5, 2013 11:22
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Blistex posted:Any science wizards care to explain if there is any difference between a brand new cable that has never been used, a cable that has had 1 second of sound played through it, and a cable with 300 hours of sound played through it. Is there some manner of subtle change to it at the molecular, atomic, or even sub-atomic level? Any at all? It's more that things like speakers actually do have a burn in period, and stupid people make the "logical" leap that if speakers need to burn in, the rest of their audio equipment does too.
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Jun 5, 2013 15:26
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Pilsner posted:By the way, I wonder how audiophiles handle the 300-hour burn-in periods that they claim some speakers, devices and cables have. Do they come home with their new equipment, put it on together, put on a piece of music on loop, then run out of their listening room with their fingers in their ears and not return until a month later? Or do they begin listening right away, and apologize to themselves for listening to what is sub-optimal, not burned-in? I burned my Magnepans in by just selecting a 100 song list every once and a while and letting it play out while I went upstairs/out to do other stuff. Most people just put a CD on repeat for a week.
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Jun 5, 2013 16:02
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Tweeters break in within seconds. Woofers within minutes. I guess if you have brand new speakers, re running your calibration stuff after a couple days of use wouldn't hurt.
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Jun 5, 2013 18:22
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I liked the description i stumbled on when looking for explanations of "burn-in" that "Nothing" changes in the cable "but something changes in the space between the L and R".
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Jun 5, 2013 18:54
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I'm gonna start a trepanning service for audiophiles. "Worried about your non-standard ears degrading the pure audio quality you've achieved with your sound system? No more! Now you can absorb sound directly in to your brain!"
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Jun 5, 2013 21:21
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Even if you build the perfect listening room the imperfect shape of your head and body would still distort the sound. To combat this, cover your body in egg cartons.
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Jun 5, 2013 23:04
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Khablam posted:Sure, there are those who replace one component that isn't the bottleneck and claim wonderous results, but more pitiable are the ones who will replace every component in the chain. I got a Monster surge protector. I think they are around 100-200 dollars. But it came FREE with a TV purchase I made back in '03. It has different labels for different equipment per socket, I ignore the gently caress out of those labels since they don't seem to do jack poo poo. I really don't understand some of this crazy audiophile poo poo.
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Jun 5, 2013 23:42
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Have you seen my apex seals? I seem to have lost them.
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Aeka 2.0 posted:I really don't understand some of this crazy audiophile poo poo. Aeka 2.0 posted:don't (...) do jack poo poo. crazy (...) poo poo. 
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Jun 5, 2013 23:43
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well there you go.
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Jun 5, 2013 23:44
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longview posted:Even if you build the perfect listening room the imperfect shape of your head and body would still distort the sound. To combat this, cover your body in egg cartons. You might be on to something. I'm seeing some kind of helmet that compensates for the shape of the individual audiophile's head. When you make it, I only want 10%.
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Jun 5, 2013 23:51
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Aeka 2.0 posted:I got a Monster surge protector. I think they are around 100-200 dollars. But it came FREE with a TV purchase I made back in '03. It has different labels for different equipment per socket, I ignore the gently caress out of those labels since they don't seem to do jack poo poo. I really don't understand some of this crazy audiophile poo poo. Not to defend Monster or their prices, but those labels are just for convenience. If you want to unplug a specific component for some reason, you just look at the label rather than tracing the cords back to the equipment to see which cable goes to what.
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Jun 6, 2013 00:09
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Mister Kingdom posted:You might be on to something. I'm seeing some kind of helmet that compensates for the shape of the individual audiophile's head. Real audiophiles just style their hair into big pyramidal spikes.
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Jun 6, 2013 09:30
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