Funniest snake oil theories

Status
Not open for further replies.
Including the implied statement that speakers sound differently, even if they measure identically. They don't.

I've never seen two speakers that measured identically. Unless you confine the measurement to something like "count the number of woofers". Even with just frequency response (which is only one characteristic to measure) it's not easy to get the same measurement twice when measuring the same speaker on different days.
 
I'm not sure if this counts as snake oil, but somewhere on this board there's a thread where a guy insisted that he could hear an improvement in an audio file he ripped with a Blue-Ray player versus one he ripped with a standard CD player.... even though numerous checksums showed the two files to be identical.

Definitively delusional!

Sony inverted phase on their regular CD versions of their SACD releases to make the apparent difference between CD/SACD even bigger. Try flipping the phase on the CD edition when comparing with the SACD issue. They will sound much closer to each other, hard to tell a difference.
Also, we noticed that when burning a CD on PC (with Roxio), it flipped the phase for the copy. We had a CD-copier (insert the original to top drawer, and it had 3 burners to make 3 copies) and that one did not flip the phase.
 
John, this thread is pretty loose and is not exactly constructive for the most time. However there are posters who have good ideas and constructive comments, so I'm not too disappointed. Surprised at the vehemence, yes. Seems as if I dropped in in the middle of a Cardassian tribunal. (Star Trek reference😉.
My last additions on Bybees on this thread - I agree with you, they will make a good addition to a great system when it is already well set up. If a rig is not there yet, the money is better spent for upgrading to better components. First gen Bybees are definitively a potential finishing touch to a rig, not something to start with.

Still, I use what works, rather than ignoring it, just because I do not completely understand it.

How true - same here. I doubt that people know exactly how their cell phones work. Even when one looks, will not find the schematics of the new iPhones, the specifics are industry secret. Despite my blatant ignorance, I still use the cell phone every day. It's way too expensive, and much worse audio quality than real talking. Has to be snake oil 🙂
 
How true - same here. I doubt that people know exactly how their cell phones work. Even when one looks, will not find the schematics of the new iPhones, the specifics are industry secret. Despite my blatant ignorance, I still use the cell phone every day. It's way too expensive, and much worse audio quality than real talking. Has to be snake oil 🙂

Science and engineering can explain how cell phones work, even though you don't know how. Can science and engineering explain how Buymes work?
 
Last edited:
Also, we noticed that when burning a CD on PC (with Roxio), it flipped the phase for the copy. We had a CD-copier (insert the original to top drawer, and it had 3 burners to make 3 copies) and that one did not flip the phase.

What is this supposed to prove? Phase inversion would technically not be a copy of the original hence flawed please address the same issues when the file passes a Unix or DOS diff with 0 errors.

Talk about sidestepping an issue, mixing "is absolute phase audible" and bit perfect copying until everyone is confused.

Question for the computer folks will a file and its inversion pass a checksum?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.