Funniest snake oil theories

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A guy on a Facebook group didn't like me deriding one of his posts, praising a $20,000 USF power cord, limited edition, only 100 to be made. He attempted to back it up by posting a YouTube link, showing the manufacturer giving the reviewer a free one, and then started by saying his conductors were directional, which is very important in a power cable. Lost my interest completely then.
And stated so, along with asking what's with "directional importance" in an AC cord, since DC doesn't happen until well past the component's power input. I was gifted an older Powerplant Premier, and listed its features I value. A common ground, soft start for my tuned components, and voltage stabilization. His only response was to state that he is a dealer for power cord, and so has a list price for it at $10,000. And American dealers accept stuff on consignment, they don't outlay cash to buy stock outright. He finished by saying this means it's only a 50 point mark-up, and so is very reasonable. !!!!
Baffle speak.
 
From the Nordost website:

"How can cables be directional?

When cables are manufactured they do not have any directionality. However, as they break in, they acquire directionality.
Although the cable signal is an alternating current, small impurities in the conductor act as diodes allowing signal flow to be better in one direction over time. This effect is also called quantum tunneling, which has been observed in experiments over 25 years ago. Regardless of the purity of the metal used, there are still diode effects in all conductors. In addition, the insulation material will change when it is subjected to an electrical field."

SO, does that mean they "break in" the cables, then test for directionality and then label them?

I find that hard to believe.
 
I once had a customer come into my repair shop, and he insisted on verifying that audio cables that he brought in were directional - mainly because that was what was printed right on the insulation itself.

Trying to explain fundamental electronics and electricity to him was a waste of time.
You'll find a substantial amount of these kinds of people out in society these days.
I call them nutbags, you might find other colorful titles to add to the mix.
 
First time I heard of directional cables was my Friend in a band who told me I had plugged my guitar in the "wrong" way!

I asked him what he meant and then he explained it was a directional cable!
I was like WTF?

I'm so over this audiophile BS.

Another mate of mine is never happy with his sound.
Everytime I visit him, he's making some tweaks, he's stuck all these little metal cones around the room and has these round chunks of some sort of metal placed on his amplifier that are supposed to absorb EMF or something, he has some sort of rock or mineral on some of them too!

To top it off he has some sort of "quantum" field generator that runs 24/7 that is supposed to cancel out mains noise etc.
 
It seems your two friends have drank and got drunk from the proverbial Kool-Aid.
It's kind of funny, but these types of people have bloomed and multiplied tremendously since the birth of the internet.
Not to say that people haven'y always "tweaked" things, but the current style of their workings has followed all the junk the internet spews out.
Like that annoying "recapping" craze.
 
I once had a customer come into my repair shop, and he insisted on verifying that audio cables that he brought in were directional - mainly because that was what was printed right on the insulation itself.

Trying to explain fundamental electronics and electricity to him was a waste of time.
You'll find a substantial amount of these kinds of people out in society these days.
I call them nutbags, you might find other colorful titles to add to the mix.


I've worked as a technician for a high end audio shop and we used those arrows to make sure the shielding cables were all connected to the same side of the cable so we could use the pre-amp as the central grounding unit for the shielding. I was told that was the reason that directional arrow was on the insulation
 
I've worked as a technician for a high end audio shop and we used those arrows to make sure the shielding cables were all connected to the same side of the cable so we could use the pre-amp as the central grounding unit for the shielding. I was told that was the reason that directional arrow was on the insulation
The only explanation I can accept;)
 
Presumably, the small diode-like impurities, would be randomly distributed, as indeed would be their presumed polarity. Consequently there would be an equal number of pseudo diodes pointing one way as pseudo diodes pointing the other way. So even after "breaking in" the transmission properties of that particular wire would be identical in either direction. Just sayin ......
 
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