Funniest snake oil theories

Max Headroom · 2014-05-28 3:36 pm

Foobar causes a brief muting when selecting between A/B and X/Y.
Is there an ABX comparator freeware that switches between tracks seamlessly ?.

Dan.

SY · 2014-05-28 3:59 pm

The peeking crowd has much longer delays between presentations. Sometimes hours.

Foobar works quite smoothly for me, very short switching time; maybe check out your computer to see why it's taking longer for you? I've done it with switches and relays as well, but that's fairly clumsy.

Max Headroom · 2014-05-28 4:14 pm

SY said:
The peeking crowd has much longer delays between presentations. Sometimes hours.

Sure....and it's a PITA.
Also, relying on relatively long memory can throw a spanner in the works.

Foobar works quite smoothly for me, very short switching time; maybe check out your computer to see why it's taking longer for you? I've done it with switches and relays as well, but that's fairly clumsy.

My PC is a super duper Toshiba X505 18" laptop.....i7 CPU, 8 GB, Win 8 Pro...... I think that part ought to be ok

.

The switch over is abrupt...perhaps adjustable fade out/fade in time would be a nice improvement ?.

Dan.

Jakob2 · 2014-05-28 5:01 pm

Max Headroom said:
Foobar causes a brief muting when selecting between A/B and X/Y.
Is there an ABX comparator freeware that switches between tracks seamlessly ?.

Dan.

Of course, your are right memory and other issues are confounders in a controlled listening test.
There are other tools out there, but i don´t know if any will avoid all related delays or muting time- i´d guess these are mainly introduced to get rid off any unwanted ticks that might occur at only one file.

If delays and mute are issues depends a bit on the question the test should address. Wrt to every day relevance any delay or mute should not influence the result as you are looking for "better" quality overall.
Anything only detectable with rapid switching would not be important (as you would not be able to notice after a couple of minutes, a day .....)

From my experience the most important point in this sort of test is to avoid to listen in a different way than you would normally do.
(Seems to be easy but it is not)

With foobar there is a chance to use it as a preference test tool.
Listen to A and B and try to find which one you like more, or which is more or less of this or that;
After that only listen to X and Y ; choose the one that you like more in each trial (or the one that has more of this or less of that) depending on your decision between A and B.
This way you dont have to listen for "sameness".

From my experience it is easier this way, the traditional "ABX" will take longer training time to get the same results.

Speedskater · 2014-05-28 5:09 pm

jneutron · 2014-05-28 5:39 pm

Speedskater said:
This collage EE professor seems to be able to measure all sorts of differences in AC cords and power conditioners:

Is he actually a college prof? His profile just states EE.

An excerpt:

The IsoClean fuses are directional and there is an arrow printed on the glass case indicating the direction of current flow. Finding the direction of current flow in my amp's fuse holder was easy: I just tested for continuity between the hot male lead of the power cord plug and either end of the fuse holder. Continuity indicated the fuse holder end where the AC enters.

A rather interesting paragraph from an EE, no?

jn

SY · 2014-05-28 6:01 pm

jneutron said:
Is he actually a college prof? His profile just states EE.

His affiliation in his published article in JOSS (Impact factor 2.28) shows Southern University. No idea of what his position is.

edit: He is indeed a prof there. PhD from Tulane.

Speedskater · 2014-05-28 6:10 pm

Yes he is.
search for his audio paper:
"A Descriptive Evaluation Methodology For Consumer Audio Equipment"

SY · 2014-05-28 6:16 pm

Speedskater said:
"A Descriptive Evaluation Methodology For Consumer Audio Equipment"

I have a copy of it. It's rare that a paper cites such luminaries as Jason Victor Sirenius.

jneutron · 2014-05-28 6:16 pm

Speedskater said:
Yes he is.
search for his audio paper:
"A Descriptive Evaluation Methodology For Consumer Audio Equipment"

Thank you, that indeed helped.

It appears that an understanding of AC power delivery is not consistent with his area of expertise.

jn

a.wayne · 2014-05-28 6:41 pm

jneutron said:
Is he actually a college prof? His profile just states EE.

An excerpt:

A rather interesting paragraph from an EE, no?

jn

Using both sides of the brain is my hunch .. ....

MITsound · 2014-05-28 6:42 pm

jneutron said:
Is he actually a college prof? His profile just states EE.

An excerpt:

A rather interesting paragraph from an EE, no?

jn

Regarding direction of current flow- I'm a carpenter, so maybe that's way beyond me; how do you get steady one directional current flow in an ac circuit?

a.wayne · 2014-05-28 6:42 pm

Microdiodes ........

scott wurcer · 2014-05-28 6:53 pm

a.wayne said:
Using both sides of the brain is my hunch .. ....

And not much in between...

jneutron · 2014-05-28 6:57 pm

a.wayne said:
Using both sides of the brain is my hunch .. ....

When my brain tries that, both sides argue for a while, then stomp off into their respective corners..

MITsound said:
Regarding direction of current flow- I'm a carpenter, so maybe that's way beyond me; how do you get steady one directional current flow in an ac circuit?

Clearly it is not way beyond you..

a.wayne said:
Microdiodes ........

No. Nano-diodes.

We are currently working on picodiodes, with femptodiodes not far behind. Attodiodes are presently on the blackboard, but that is military grade oil. I can tell you, but then I'd hafta kill ya..

The sister product, attoboys, were released decades ago by a researcher who left a cage open...sigh..

jn

scott wurcer · 2014-05-28 7:05 pm

jneutron said:
Is he actually a college prof? His profile just states EE.

An excerpt:

A rather interesting paragraph from an EE, no?

jn

This has to be a put on.

jneutron · 2014-05-28 7:14 pm

scott wurcer said:
This has to be a put on.

I didn't check the date of publication. Perhaps april 1st?

jn

DavidL · 2014-05-28 7:44 pm

SY said:
I have a copy of it. It's rare that a paper cites such luminaries as Jason Victor Sirenius.

I cite him all the time on here.........but as an example of how much pure BS he writes for Stereophile

scott wurcer · 2014-05-28 8:08 pm

jneutron said:
I didn't check the date of publication. Perhaps april 1st?

jn

Not that, just the random rambling about things like sourcing those fuses and the cable burn-in stuff. I can't take this guy on face value.

jneutron · 2014-05-28 8:15 pm

scott wurcer said:
Not that, just the random rambling about things like sourcing those fuses and the cable burn-in stuff. I can't take this guy on face value.

I meant his PhD conferred date, the sheepskin publish date.. .

Seriously, if his writings are what he truly believes, I've no idea how he went down that path. Money perhaps?

jn

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