Another company that starts with an "h" that I worked at used a bloated SAP program to track such nuances. It was a big international operation. The polar opposite of Hovland. Another story, maybe later.
This is when dealers were telling folks if you don,t use these expensive cables then you won,t hear what your buying!
This was the beginning of the end of high end stores across the country IMHO
Regards
David
As a total newbie and therefore not able to appreciate the full technical significance of the mythical techniques employed, i really enjoyed the story, laughing out loud.
I became interested in hi fi in the 70s and remember all the bullsh*t about types of wire, gold plated this and that (when everything else wasn't gold plated). When i used to ask the salesman why i should pay £100 for one interconnect and would i really be able to detect the difference in quality between the expensive one and the one that came with the equipment,he would resort to the dowsing type arguments and be scornful of my even asking such ridiculous questions.
I rather think some of the mystique surrounding electronic components is analogous to art collectors; they almost require to be fed bollocks to justify the crazy prices they pay and keep the market going.
In my opinionated world, there is no alternative to scientific method; empirically test, subject your tests to peer review, keep an open mind and treat the mumbo jumbo with the scepticism it deserves.
In the meantime, i keep learning from all of you who post your findings, enter into good debate and keep entertaining us.
Thanks
I became interested in hi fi in the 70s and remember all the bullsh*t about types of wire, gold plated this and that (when everything else wasn't gold plated). When i used to ask the salesman why i should pay £100 for one interconnect and would i really be able to detect the difference in quality between the expensive one and the one that came with the equipment,he would resort to the dowsing type arguments and be scornful of my even asking such ridiculous questions.
I rather think some of the mystique surrounding electronic components is analogous to art collectors; they almost require to be fed bollocks to justify the crazy prices they pay and keep the market going.
In my opinionated world, there is no alternative to scientific method; empirically test, subject your tests to peer review, keep an open mind and treat the mumbo jumbo with the scepticism it deserves.
In the meantime, i keep learning from all of you who post your findings, enter into good debate and keep entertaining us.
Thanks
That is Fifty ONE to you sirThe way I see it is, if I was old enough to be aware of what was happening when Nixon looked into the camera and said "I am not a crook", Then I can be classified as old.
Besides, that stern, belittling "young man", staring down the bridge of the nose whilst lifting up the reading glasses; Gee whiz! Save it for the dudes with the underwear hanging out of their pants.
And to feel still older, remember that you are "in your fifty-second year" now. But worse still, in your sixth decade!
Your daughter was fortunate. Sid was skilled at making other peoples' coins disappear, period.
Sorry, couldn't resist the temptation to join the badmouth-former-employers club. Please take my remark in the spirit of jesting. After all, compared to the latest CEO, Harman was a paragon of wisdom and staunch defender of audio quality. And he did make money for the stockholders: shortly after I joined one of the Harman International companies in 1990, the stock hit an all-time low of about four dollars. When I left, by then a consultant, at the end of 2004, after a few splits it was hovering around 130.
Shortly thereafter it collapsed, but don't blame me. Really.
Sorry if I was rude. Didn't really mean to be. I loved your story. Back in the 1980's when I worked at Dolby Labs in SF I was the early bird young wippersnapper smartass, probably annoying to some, so I'm aiming my ridicule at myself as well. I guess I was a bit obsessed with trying to prove to myself that I was good, after my Engineer boss at Tektronix went gay on me, making me want to leave, and wondering if he just wanted to get rid of me... I wouldn't be surprised to find that we all have humorous stories to tell. Too much science might leave the mind a bit unbalanced.
No it more a vitamin d shortage from a lack of sun light . Audiophiles are unbalanced science is good job.
Rude! Isn't that what 1/3rd of the internet is for?
Oh, sorry about your Tektronix boss.
I got most of my "early bird, young wippersnapper, smartass"-ness out of my system at the first half of my Alesis career. All who worked with me at that time can attest to this. Science can do weird things to the mind after awhile as many of the real scientists that I have come across can demonstrate. And remember, Issac Newton is one of the most extreme examples of logic turned crazy. Yet what would our world be without his work.
This brings me around to my final (I think
) closing remarks about Hovland.
The guys at Hovland were truly dedicated to audio. They started innocently enough rebuilding/modifying gear that Bob had knowledge of. Then they made the Musicap and used that money to fuel their epic preamp endeavor. The constant tweaking/audition cycle with Bob's circuit knowledge and Mike's magical skills lead them down a strange path that Mike's ego was quick to digest then regurgitate a dish of self genuflection that was just too irresistible for the others not to share in like gorging swines.
But hey, put yourself in their shoes. If you were getting accolades from the trade publications, and selling healthy numbers of capacitors and tonearm wire and whatever else; Would you be the one to stand up and say "Let me off this ship"? I don't think any of us would if our pockets kept getting filled with cash.
) closing remarks about Hovland. The guys at Hovland were truly dedicated to audio. They started innocently enough rebuilding/modifying gear that Bob had knowledge of. Then they made the Musicap and used that money to fuel their epic preamp endeavor. The constant tweaking/audition cycle with Bob's circuit knowledge and Mike's magical skills lead them down a strange path that Mike's ego was quick to digest then regurgitate a dish of self genuflection that was just too irresistible for the others not to share in like gorging swines.
But hey, put yourself in their shoes. If you were getting accolades from the trade publications, and selling healthy numbers of capacitors and tonearm wire and whatever else; Would you be the one to stand up and say "Let me off this ship"? I don't think any of us would if our pockets kept getting filled with cash.
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This has got to be worth a bit of fun, to speculate what was happening with that radio
This has got to be worth a bit of fun, to speculate what was happening with that radio
OK I'm game..
Lets say the radio was picking up RFI and switching noise etc.
Ie her body was acting as an aerial and the resistor between her hands created a shorted turn with the inductance of the resistor interacting with her body and picked up less noise with it in one direction..
Of course this is a wild guess why else would you use a pheromone musical instrument.
I guess the ear pods were the aerial for the radio..
..I guess you could also say the hiss on a TV etc is the noise of the big bang and everything else, so if you can pick that up noise in a resistor should be a piece of cake..LOLRegards
M. Gregg
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OK I'm game..
Lets say the radio was picking up RFI and switching noise etc.
Ie her body was acting as an aerial and the resistor between her hands created a shorted turn with the inductance of the resistor interacting with her body and picked up less noise with it in one direction..
Or it was interacting with a ferrite rod antenna inside the radio.
Resistors are often a cut spiral in a coating on a former, so it has a direction, a right or left handedness to the spiral. So in a sense, the resistor has a 'direction'.
Any more takers ?
Well, after all they started their business selling caps so that was one way to sell their own caps?
No, if you reverse the resistor, the spin of spiral is the same
You forgot to rotate it through the fourth dimension.
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