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TomR
Apr 1, 2003
I both own and operate a pirate ship.
I'm not sure about ECC but there is a special brand of computer audiophile. http://www.ap-linux.com/

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Chafe
Dec 17, 2009
There's a not-zero number of people who intentionally buy Xeons and workstation boards for the purpose of a music server.

They're the same people that intentionally use linear PSUs for their desktops.

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


taqueso posted:

Do audiophiles sperg about ECC memory? Seems perfect for them: it protects against mysterious cosmic rays, the errors protected against are very rare and hard to identify, and it costs a bunch of money versus the typical solution. I guess the only downside is that it actually serves a practical purpose.
Audiophile nonsense aside, non-ECC memory is susceptible to flipped bits and errors due to cosmic rays, which is one of the reasons it's important in computers performing important tasks, especially those with long uptimes.

EL BROMANCE
Jun 10, 2006

COWABUNGA DUDES!
🥷🐢😬



TomR posted:

I'm not sure about ECC but there is a special brand of computer audiophile. http://www.ap-linux.com/

Pretty sure this is a practical joke. Working sound drivers? On a Linux? In 2015? Next they'll be telling us that networking is up too. You won't catch me out like that.

Khablam
Mar 29, 2012
RIGHT OR WRONG, I CAN’T HELP BUT EXPRESS MYSELF LIKE A BRATTY CHILD. DON’T LISTEN TO ME.
There was / is an audiophile computer with matching power supply that sets you back an insane amount of money.

No doubt it had ecc ram.

Factory Factory
Mar 19, 2010

This is what
Arcane Velocity was like.

GWBBQ posted:

Audiophile nonsense aside, non-ECC memory is susceptible to flipped bits and errors due to cosmic rays, which is one of the reasons it's important in computers performing important tasks, especially those with long uptimes.

Statistically, RAM suffers a good number of failures in a large population. Enough of these failures are single bit at a time that ECC actually protects against about 2/3 of what would otherwise be hardware failures.

Frobbe
Jan 19, 2007

Calm Down
here's a PDF from a danish audiophool with some interesting ideas on how the world works.

http://www.steenduelund.dk/download/kabler%20intro.pdf

and here's his company's website: http://duelundaudio.com/

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


In Denmark, adding the word "Duelund" to anything audio-related will allow you to at least double your price, when selling to a certain subset of crazy audiophiles. It's a cult within the cult, and it got even worse when Steen died a couple of years ago.

I've posted previously about a DIY cable made using Steen Duelund's principles. It's a hilariously crazy combination of silk, lead, silver, paper and linseed oil, and it looks like something that's been sitting at the bottom the sea for centuries.

E: Here it is: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3166333&userid=135033&perpage=40&pagenumber=5#post432059546

And another one about suspending speaker cones with sewing thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3166333&userid=135033&perpage=40&pagenumber=5#post432275483

KozmoNaut fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Feb 17, 2015

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


and coating the cones with asphalt to absorb "unwanted energy build up."

:psyduck:

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

GWBBQ posted:

and coating the cones with asphalt to absorb "unwanted energy build up."

:psyduck:

BRB filing a patent for a concrete-driver speaker. [sensitivity 0.4dB at 1 meter}

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Here's another cable epiphany:

Some dude decided to take apart his newly-bought ~$900 "Entreq Discover" USB cable, since it wasn't working. Keep in mind that Entreq has this blurb front and center on their website (emphasis mine):

quote:

Today at Entreq, a truly Swedish company, we are one of the very few companies that develop,manufacture and produce our own products. Because of this approach you will never see us immitate other brands or their technical solutions. Consequently our products are not only distinctive in their constructive materials & design but also in their connective processes.

So what did the dude find when he pulled apart the cable?





A $5 basic USB cable, of course. With a separate earthing plug soldered onto the shield.

Lots of other users agreed that it was an obvious scam, but a number of people actually took the "well, that cable is obviously a scam, you should buy this cable instead, since it totally isn't a scam" stance, which is kinda sad.

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Showing instead of telling would help for one. Working in the cable industry, I'd be delighted to see their magical machines made of pixie dust.

TomR
Apr 1, 2003
I both own and operate a pirate ship.
Speaking of concrete. I had the idea to make a concrete subwoofer enclosure. I was thinking of a hollow sphere of polished concrete. Probably something like 1 or 1.5 cubic feet of internal volume with the sub down firing on the bottom. Maybe it would look nice enough that you could place it where it sounds best in the room and claim it's art. :v:

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

The BeoLab 19 is the coolest looking overpriced subwoofer.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

I'd not checked up on what new stuff B&O have been up to in years. Used to work for them as an installer so I got to put in some real nice equipment. Lab5s are amazing sounding speakers and they look funky as gently caress too but they just made all my music just a little too clinical and accurate sounding. Lab9s were more my poo poo with their little penguin looks and a little less clarity.



In the grand scheme of audiophilia B&O kit is a loving bargain... Had quite a few audiophiles come in, listen to the 5s with their favourite CDs and grudgingly agree they sounded great. It was pretty funny.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


What really got me about the 5s was how solid the bass is. It's just so tight and well-defined.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

Yeah they really did some work on those speakers, certainly a lot more than on certain other 'high end' stuff I've heard. A lot of it is down to the DSP in conjunction with the little setup mic that pops out of the bottom of them. Pop them anywhere in the room, set the calibration off one at a time and they're pretty much perfect.

Palladium
May 8, 2012

Very Good
✔️✔️✔️✔️
Sony unveils 64GB microSD card “for Premium Sound” (for $155)

http://blog.gsmarena.com/sony-unveils-64gb-microsd-card-premium-sound/

As usual, the "how do you know it won't make a difference" placebophile comments.

AFewBricksShy
Jun 19, 2003

of a full load.



KozmoNaut posted:

Here's another cable epiphany:

Some dude decided to take apart his newly-bought ~$900 "Entreq Discover" USB cable, since it wasn't working. Keep in mind that Entreq has this blurb front and center on their website (emphasis mine):


So what did the dude find when he pulled apart the cable?





A $5 basic USB cable, of course. With a separate earthing plug soldered onto the shield.

Lots of other users agreed that it was an obvious scam, but a number of people actually took the "well, that cable is obviously a scam, you should buy this cable instead, since it totally isn't a scam" stance, which is kinda sad.

Could a company that does this end up being sued?

RoadCrewWorker
Nov 19, 2007

camels aren't so great
Isn't the common pattern that idiots who buy this poo poo to look rich and knowledgeable in front of their friends never sue it because that'd make them look like the total gullible morons they are all their rants about how much better it sounds were just self-delusion?

KillHour
Oct 28, 2007


AFewBricksShy posted:

Could a company that does this end up being sued?

Depends on if the claims they made about the cable count as a warranty or not.

A claim like "Made of 99.999999999% pure gold" is verifiable and would count as fraud if not true. A claim like "Proprietary *Insert Bullshit Here* provides an amazing soundstage and gives you an eargasm" is legally referred to as 'puffery' and implies no warranty.

So if they said in their marketing material "This is not an off the shelf usb cable that we threw some bullshit on top of. We promise." then there might be a case. I doubt they did that, though.

Edit: The best analogy I've heard is that if I advertised a '99 Ford Taurus as "The most dynamic, exciting car in the world!" I'd be fine, since that's obviously not true and no person would ever believe that. If I advertised a '99 Ford Taurus as an '02 Ford Taurus, I'd be up poo poo creek, legally speaking. :iiaca:

KillHour fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Feb 19, 2015

TopherCStone
Feb 27, 2013

I am very important and deserve your attention

KillHour posted:

Depends on if the claims they made about the cable count as a warranty or not.

A claim like "Made of 99.999999999% pure gold" is verifiable and would count as fraud if not true. A claim like "Proprietary *Insert Bullshit Here* provides an amazing soundstage and gives you an eargasm" is legally referred to as 'puffery' and implies no warranty.

So if they said in their marketing material "This is not an off the shelf usb cable that we threw some bullshit on top of. We promise." then there might be a case. I doubt they did that, though.

Edit: The best analogy I've heard is that if I advertised a '99 Ford Taurus as "The most dynamic, exciting car in the world!" I'd be fine, since that's obviously not true and no person would ever believe that. If I advertised a '99 Ford Taurus as an '02 Ford Taurus, I'd be up poo poo creek, legally speaking. :iiaca:

They claim to "develop, manufacture, and produce" their products and it's sold with a tag that says "made in Sweden." It's going to depend on where they can be sued but it smacks of false advertising.

grack
Jan 10, 2012

COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!
If somebody could figure out a way to sue audiophile companies for false advertising 90%+ of them would be out of business in a week.

cosmo321
Jan 6, 2011
How about a Premium Sound microSD card?

E: I can't read Japanese, but I think the images speaks for themselves.

cosmo321 fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Feb 20, 2015

Combat Pretzel
Jun 23, 2004

No, seriously... what kurds?!
Something something reducing electrical noise in the system. Given that this moon language graph suggests that it's distortion in the megahertz range that's mainly improved, I'm not sure who the gently caress should care.

KozmoNaut
Apr 23, 2008

Happiness is a warm
Turbo Plasma Rifle


Audiophiles who are paranoid about every little bit of inconsequential noise in their systems.

Non-related, I set the tracking weight on my newly-acquired turntable to 1.75g, by balancing the tonearm by feel and then setting the counterweight appropriately. I borrowed a precision scale to check it just for fun today and it was 1.78g.

I'd say that's pretty good for a non-audiophile :v:

Frobbe
Jan 19, 2007

Calm Down
That SD card was posted on an hifi facebook group i'm in, and spawned a discussion, mostly of people calling it out for being dumb poo poo. i mentioned that if the storage media affected the data, i'd have real issues with all my digital photograpy, which led to someone interjecting that of course the quality of the SD card affects image quality. if you have a cheap card, you get noisy pictures!

gah!

Endless Mike
Aug 13, 2003



TopherCStone posted:

They claim to "develop, manufacture, and produce" their products and it's sold with a tag that says "made in Sweden." It's going to depend on where they can be sued but it smacks of false advertising.

If they put the ground wire and fabric around the $5 USB cable, I'm not sure you can't claim it wasn't developed, manufactured, and produced in Sweden even if 99% of it rolled off a line in China.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

Frobbe posted:

That SD card was posted on an hifi facebook group i'm in, and spawned a discussion, mostly of people calling it out for being dumb poo poo. i mentioned that if the storage media affected the data, i'd have real issues with all my digital photograpy, which led to someone interjecting that of course the quality of the SD card affects image quality. if you have a cheap card, you get noisy pictures!

gah!

Man how do people that stupid manage to live so long?

Phanatic
Mar 13, 2007

Please don't forget that I am an extremely racist idiot who also has terrible opinions about the Culture series.
Audiophile defends his ridiculousness:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/02/audiophiles_neil_young_s_pono_has_brought_unfair_scorn_for_lovers_of_high.html

quote:

Well, some people believe that we’re kidding ourselves, that we somehow think we’re hearing things that we’re not really hearing. They point to “scientific” blindfold tests in which people can’t tell the difference between costly high-end components and the stuff that normal people buy on the cheap.

In a blindfold test, someone hooks up two components to an “A/B box” (one to input A, the other to input B), then switches—or doesn’t switch—back and forth, to see whether the subject can hear the difference. But this is more complicated than it seems. First, most A/B boxes have their own sound, due to poor circuitry; it’s not a pure listening test. Second, it’s hard to hear differences right away, especially when listening to music or equipment that you haven’t heard before.

And more along those lines.

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

I feel it's time somebody made an audiophile grade ABX box.

BANME.sh
Jan 23, 2008

What is this??
Are you some kind of hypnotist??
Grimey Drawer
there is literally no circuitry in an A/B box :negative:

Olympic Mathlete
Feb 25, 2011

:h:

Exactly, it needs to be better. And made with gold internals and blinky LEDs and wood.

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


88h88 posted:

Exactly, it needs to be better. And made with gold internals and blinky LEDs and wood.
But unstained wood. You wouldn't want to risk coloring the sound.

Mr. Funny Pants
Apr 9, 2001

And aside from that, I've seen tests done with no ABX box, where they physically switched the cables between components and of course, no difference was detected.

GWBBQ
Jan 2, 2005


Mr. Funny Pants posted:

And aside from that, I've seen tests done with no ABX box, where they physically switched the cables between components and of course, no difference was detected.

Some of us are destined for the audience, others are destined for the soundstage.

Zorak of Michigan
Jun 10, 2006

Mr. Funny Pants posted:

And aside from that, I've seen tests done with no ABX box, where they physically switched the cables between components and of course, no difference was detected.

That ensures that the cables haven't burned in to match the components! You can't possibly get the best aspect out of a system without matching and burning in the cables.

grack
Jan 10, 2012

COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

Zorak of Michigan posted:

That ensures that the cables haven't burned in to match the components! You can't possibly get the best aspect out of a system without matching and burning in the cables.

I met someone IRL last week who actually believes this. It should be legal to slap audiophiles when they start spouting crap.

RoadCrewWorker
Nov 19, 2007

camels aren't so great
Even better, it's legal to take all their money with garbage you sell at 10000000000% markup!

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Palladium
May 8, 2012

Very Good
✔️✔️✔️✔️

grack posted:

I met someone IRL last week who actually believes this. It should be legal to slap audiophiles when they start spouting crap.

Did you ask what he thinks the billion other things that could possibly affect the sound that also deserves the same treatment too? E.g PCB traces, caps, inductors, room temperature, air humidity and pressure, elemental composition of air, ground cables, ear wax accumulation, germs in room, heatsink material, insulation material/resistance of cables, magnetic and electric fields in room, RF/IR/ionizing radiation...

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