|
Blistex posted:I sometimes wonder how someone so spergy could manage to have a job that allows him to afford such a device without pissing off everyone to the point where he no longer has that job. One word: engineering.
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2012 08:24
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:45 |
|
|
Radbot posted:The truly scary thing is an engineer being this way. I wouldn't want an engineer working for me who didn't believe in double-blind A/B testing. I'm not a crazy audiophile-ologist so maybe I'm wrong but a lot of the craziest audiophiles on internet forums seem to be fairly successful, often retired, (electrical) engineers. EDIT: At least they claim to be whenever someone questions their expertise on any matter.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2012 13:46
|
|
|
The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Ridicule audiophiles and internet stalk them Why is the house all not straight and stuff?
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2012 14:56
|
|
|
It must exist already. I'm too afraid to go on any of audiophile forums, though, because they make my soul hurt.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2013 12:07
|
|
|
Combat Pretzel posted:Q-tips with gold fibers in the cotton. Laughable. Oxygen-free 99,9999999% cotton with oxygen-free 99,9999999% ocelot whisker in a 50/60 mix is the only way to go. Then you gold-plate it.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2013 12:34
|
|
|
I can definitely hear the difference in sound between a CD and an LP though. CDs make a kind of "PLIK" sound whereas LPs are more "KLOP".
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2013 13:26
|
|
|
Speaking of marketing, are Koss Portapotties still a thing?
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2013 13:07
|
|
|
DELETED posted:The best part is that they don't seem to list any kind of specifications for the drat things on their website. This is probably the most technincal thing on their page: To be fair, weight and length of cable are pretty much the most important specs for headphones.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 18, 2013 14:10
|
|
|
One's tubes can never be saturated enough.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 25, 2013 14:39
|
|
|
grack posted:No. Actually the answer is "no, and even if it did it wouldn't make a difference in the sound".
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2013 01:39
|
|
|
grack posted:Well, yeah, but how am I supposed to charge stupid people $43/foot for single strand copper wire with 10 cent RCA connectors on the ends with that answer? "HOWEVER, burn-in will subtly change the standing acoustic wave pattern field matrix levels in the room the cable is installed in."
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2013 02:14
|
|
|
Confounding Factor posted:I am almost convinced burn in is a total loving myth. Not so sure if that extends to tube amps, for example. But cable burn in is loving hilarious. How exactly do cables "burn-in"? Did you see the thread title? (Also: "almost"  )
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2013 03:55
|
|
|
eggsovereasy posted:Do phono cartridges actually need a break in period or is that also just audiophile garbage? It makes sense since it's has moving parts, but I don't want to spread bullshit through my own ignorance. A few seconds, maybe even more? Can't imagine it being more than a few minutes. The cantilever suspension is the only thing that gets 'broken in'. Carts don't really sell like hotcakes so I can imagine one having sat in a storage for years or decades so it's quite possible it'll sound different after a moment's use.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 12, 2013 06:18
|
|
|
"Just get the cheapest possible HDMI cable from Monoprice" is probably the most popular opinion on the Internet ever (no, wait, that would be "Just get an SL-1200 Mk II") and it's always seemed really stupid to me since I've bought 'the cheapest available' cables, connectors, headphones, etc. (not HDMI) at times and more often than not they're crap. They're cheap because they don't have any quality control, not because of some weird magic. You're supposed to buy the second cheapest cable.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2013 07:06
|
|
|
Ron Burgundy posted:For a reason. Yeeaaah. The problem is that for the past 30 or so years, whenever someone has asked something like "I just got an old Dual 1218 [or whatever] and was looking for any info on it, maybe even a manual?" on the Internet, the answer has patently been "Just get a Technics dude" which is really stupid. (Nowadays we have Vinylengine* and stuff so there's been some progress.) *) I mean the database, not the forums.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2013 08:00
|
|
|
BANME.sh posted:I haven't had an audio or video cable break on me (including plenty from monoprice) since I was a dumb 13 year old. What is it that you manchildren are doing to your cables that breaks them so often? Take care of your poo poo. On the very cheapest RCA cables it's really hit-and-miss whether or not the connectors actually conform to any reasonable definition of RCA. A lot of the time they will simply fall off the mixer because they are so loving loose. Sometimes they simply won't fit. Bad solders are very common. (As you can probably tell by mixer, I'm talking 'professional' audio here.)
|
|
#
¿
Jul 8, 2013 17:13
|
|
|
Well, yes. Is there a Ridicule winophiles thread by the way?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2013 06:23
|
|
|
Audiophiles > Oenophiles > Beer nerds > IPA nerds > Pepper nerds. This is how I see it, so it's the absolute truth. People who pay 40000€ for some cables are down right crazy but people who have ever used the term scoville outside of academic conversation are deplorable scum.   (I don't know where camera geeks fit in because I've happily not been subjected to camera geekery.)
3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Jul 11, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jul 11, 2013 21:35
|
|
|
Wild EEPROM posted:One time, I bought a Virtual Dynamics cable. And cable feet. Where's a cable gonna walk?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2013 07:43
|
|
|
Mister Macys posted:Could you quantify the bolded parts for me? Like, is there an actual accepted measurement for those? Wider soundstage = it feels as if your ears are suddenly further apart from each other Dimensional imaging = visions of fell creatures from dread netherworlds flit across your field of vision: listening to music while under the influence of hallucinogenic substances Bright = you are listening to music in the daytime, or have some sort of artificial lighting; stuff just seems to sound better when you can see your 40000€ wooden knob modifications
|
|
#
¿
Jul 12, 2013 08:51
|
|
|
KillHour posted:What kind of equipment inserts classical stringed instruments in all your music?  obviously you'll be so impressed, you'll want to celebrate with cheese.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2013 03:43
|
|
|
Skeleton Ape posted:A sort-of solution I've found for too-tight cables is to twist them while connecting and disconnecting, like a screwing motion. It breaks the static friction and lets them slip on and off a little easier without putting tons of stress on your jacks. Still a pain in the rear end, though. Doesn't it actually put hell of stress on your jacks? Because twisting is how I've broken most of the jacks I've broken (  ).
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2013 22:30
|
|
|
Opensourcepirate posted:I've never ordered from them, but I've read a bunch of the technical articles they have posted and it seems like they know their poo poo. Here's one talking about problems with HDMI. Don't ever read 'articles' or even articles by manufacturers/vendors.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2013 06:17
|
|
|
Opensourcepirate posted:Oh god, what have I done?!?! I've exposed myself to filth like this by reading their 'articles' Now quote the passage where they tell you what they have done to make their cables good. e: Found it myself: quote:But attention to these questions is what makes the difference between American broadcast-quality cable and the cheap Chinese stuff which is so very common on the consumer audio/video market. Oh well yes let's compare our non-cheap product to the cheapest possible product. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 06:35 on Jul 21, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2013 06:30
|
|
|
I checked their prices on the site and even though I have no idea how long 10 feet is, I'm fairly certain 48½ USD for a 10 foot stereo cable is way too much. (It's too much for 10 metres of stereo cable and I know a foot is less than a metre.)
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2013 06:37
|
|
|
Detroit Q. Spider posted:I don't generally pay a lot of attention to Audiogon these days but this caught my eye: http://hub.audiogon.com/amarra-symphony/ Or maybe the / just throws off the alphabetization  ? (OK we all know that's not what happened.)
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2013 06:18
|
|
|
I stand by my golden rule: don't buy the cheapest Chinese RCAs, buy the second cheapest Chinese RCAs. Never buy anything branded because it's going to be a rebrand of the second cheapest Chinese option. Beyond that, the premium you're paying for in Monster (or whatever) cables is not for engineering or build quality (quality control, actually), it's all for marketing. And "Made in America" is pure marketing* (for markets that still care). *) I'm not saying things don't get made in America, just that it doesn't make any difference except for image. 3D Megadoodoo fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Aug 8, 2013 |
|
#
¿
Aug 8, 2013 23:07
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:More like $5 cables instead of $0.50 cables. And I hate our modern buy-use-throw-away approach to consumer goods, so I prefer the repairable alternative, even when it is more expensive. Same reason I repair my bicycle myself instead of just throwing it away and buying a new one every couple of years. Do you do a lot of off-road cycling or did you just buy a lovely bike?
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2013 11:21
|
|
|
Skeleton Ape posted:Pfft, you guys are actually throwing down 89¢ for RCA cables? You know 90% of that cost is just marketing, right? Real audiophile-ridiculers use a couple of straightened coat hangers wrapped in electrical tape, there is absolutely no reason to pay more.  It's hard to make coat hangers interface with RCA jacks correctly. (Also, I'm turning 35 next week and I don't think I've ever seen a wire coathanger in my entire life. They're all plastic or wood around here. It would probably cost me more than a € to find and buy one.)
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2013 22:13
|
|
|
AlexDeGruven posted:Dry cleaners still return your clothes on wire hangers. They're dirt cheap and stack well so there really hasn't been a need for that industry to change. I know that, I've seen how dry cleaners' establishments operate on foreign television programmes. Mainly Seinfeld, I guess. Every other Seinfeld episode is about dry cleaning.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2013 22:18
|
|
|
88h88 posted:Are these the good kind or bad kind of microwaves? I can imagine someone sitting listening to their music slowly getting cooked from the inside out. They probably don't emit any kind of waves.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 16, 2013 14:24
|
|
|
Good connectors don't cost several dollars, cable doesn't cost enough to factor in at the usual lengths one would use, and the amount of work is really really small. (Design work is worth zero dollars because any engineering beyond the obvious is overengineering.)
|
|
#
¿
Sep 9, 2013 18:36
|
|
|
longview posted:Common mode noise resulting from putting the DAC inside a high powered computer has caused far too many noise problems for me to ever consider using a internal sound card in a desktop computer. Older laptops were awful, all my newer laptops have pretty great analog outputs over all though, same thing for my last three phones. I use a Behringer U-CONTROL UCA202 for connecting my docked laptop to my stereo since the quality of the analog output is well known to be excellent, and when I undock the analog output isn't left floating. What a story, longview. Those audiophiles sure are ridiculous. (I'm not saying this isn't interesting though.)
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2013 22:19
|
|
|
Blistex posted:The only thing that I can come up with that's similar are people who believe in faith healers. Although that isn't even a fair comparison, as the placebo effect is an actual thing that has been scientifically documented with double blind tests, as opposed to cable burn in. Actually, it is a fair comparison. Hearing happens in the brain so if you think something sounds better, it actually does so it's an 'actual thing'.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2013 00:05
|
|
|
RoadCrewWorker posted:To be fair the quote is "there was a greater level of perceived clarity and scale", so the logical chain is really just "loads of money spent -> larger psychological investment -> altered psychological perception". Ah but sometimes audiophile 'tweaks' aren't even expensive. Adding "horns" to your cart, for instance, or placing Lego blocks under the cables. Of course, someone will sell someone else a 1900$ cart horning service (super-gluing a bent staple on it) and we all know about cable raisers. I don't know what point I'm making here, crazy is still crazy
|
|
#
¿
Oct 1, 2013 08:00
|
|
|
Ron Burgundy posted:Moved into my new house and my projector was too far from the preamp. I needed a cable with enough cores for the solar cell signal (lower output than phono) and the changeover so I just cut the ends of some cat5. I also laid it in parallel with power cables for good measure. Sounds great. Looks fine to me. Reminds me of my car set-up (when I still had a car).
|
|
#
¿
Oct 12, 2013 16:33
|
|
|
KozmoNaut posted:One for the pre-amp and sources, and one for each of the two 1200w amps that drive each speaker. If he does actually drive them at full power at times, it's not 100% insane to have dedicated breakers for them, to avoid tripping the breakers for the rest of the house. It actually is insane because by using this thing he just proved that a single outlet can handle all his load.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2013 20:21
|
|
|
Khablam posted:Don't be so sure, he looked rather nervous about whether or not it was up for the task of "distributing" all that power, as though there was any way electrics can control this. I think it's completely possible to build a power strip that can't handle x amount of poo poo, and audiophile gear is often built to lovely specs so I'd be worried too.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 10, 2013 22:38
|
|
|
Khablam posted:You guys might be joking, but there are literally tear-downs where people have shown very costly audiophile equipment is just a standard item in a different case. One semi-infamous one was a Blu-ray player that had rave reviews, but was just the mid-range unit in a box. You forgot to mention one thing: audiophiles do not consider that fraudulent in any way.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2014 22:32
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 25, 2024 21:45 |
|
|
Neurophonic posted:That extra box acted as a faraday cage that dramatically reduced my interdevice jitter thankyouverymuch I have an old hifi magazine where they reviewed some CD player "improved" by Sandmark Audio. They opened it up and the improvements were basically putting a lump of blue tack on top of the CD spindle and gluing a Sandmark Audio badge on the case*. Verdict: Definite improvement, great buy. *) I can't be arsed to dig it out right now but they may have also replaced a twisty tie with a zip tie or something to that effect.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2014 00:00
|
|