Middle Earth
Saw something weird on eBay this morning.
A Schumann Resonance generator, to deal with ELF (Extreme Low Resonances) caused by lightning.
Wouldn't that mean the products are ORCS?
Overt Resonance Control Systems?
What's Middle Earth compared to the usual grounding, then, and what's a high ELF?
Maybe a high ELF greased up a Schumann generator for home audio...
Saw something weird on eBay this morning.
A Schumann Resonance generator, to deal with ELF (Extreme Low Resonances) caused by lightning.
Wouldn't that mean the products are ORCS?
Overt Resonance Control Systems?
What's Middle Earth compared to the usual grounding, then, and what's a high ELF?
Maybe a high ELF greased up a Schumann generator for home audio...
The problem I have with all this snake oil nonsense is that I don't find any of it "funny", I'm pretty liberal minded but that doesn't mean that I think these people ought to be allowed to get away with exploiting people's ignorance and gullibility. I think they are the lowest of the low
I'm certainly less and less amused by it as I get older & grouchier about things in general. The thing is, as long as the market exists, someone's gonna keep squeezing those snakes. That's the part that bugs me more than anything these days - the whole "just trust your ears" mantra. It's about the worst advice you can give someone who really wants to learn about & enjoy this stuff.
Many moons ago when I first got into "serious" hifi I thought (in my ignorance) it would be a good idea to equalise my set up by ear with a tone generator, I thought, yeah that makes sense. Then I read about the Fletcher Munson curve and after a short period of denial I realised how wrong I'd been, used a microphone and did it properly, wow. Thankfully, once I had the facts at my disposal I was able to work it out for myself. Not everyone is so fortunate and it seems this makes them ripe for exploitation, it pisses me off that this is ok
Has Walker has found nirvana?
The following is their remark from the Crystal Reference Record Clamp snake oil.
"Note: This comment is about the previous version of the record clamp. Just imagine how good the new one is!!"
Then there are the Black Diamond Room Treatment Crystals. A miracle!
Epic hype and snake oil.
The following is their remark from the Crystal Reference Record Clamp snake oil.
"Note: This comment is about the previous version of the record clamp. Just imagine how good the new one is!!"
Then there are the Black Diamond Room Treatment Crystals. A miracle!
Epic hype and snake oil.
OK, I'm as skeptical as most about snake oil products. I tend toward zip cord for speaker cables and low-end interconnects (though I did on one occasion hear a difference between two interconnects, preferring the copper to silver variant). But here's another perspective. Since we're not talking about food or shelter here, is there really anything terrible about someone buying $600 interconnects or $2000 speaker cables IF it brings them satisfaction?
I prefer single ended amps despite the fact that they tend to measure poorly. I happen to like the distortions they introduce. I'm fine with that. So how different is that from someone's purchase of expensive snake oil gear if at the end of the day they sit down for a listen and drift off into audio nirvana? Just food for thought, since the idea of someone spending $2000 on something that doesn't make any difference to me makes me crazy. But still...
BTW, notwithstanding all of that, I still find this conversation entertaining. I LOVE to hear about the crazy things people spend money on.
I prefer single ended amps despite the fact that they tend to measure poorly. I happen to like the distortions they introduce. I'm fine with that. So how different is that from someone's purchase of expensive snake oil gear if at the end of the day they sit down for a listen and drift off into audio nirvana? Just food for thought, since the idea of someone spending $2000 on something that doesn't make any difference to me makes me crazy. But still...
BTW, notwithstanding all of that, I still find this conversation entertaining. I LOVE to hear about the crazy things people spend money on.
I was in a Salvation Army store a couple years back, looking to buy some work clothes.
I spotted an old M&K LP1-S passive low level crossover, sitting atop an M&K trapezoidal subwoofer, which looked like it had been stepped on by Godzilla.
Even the plate amp was bent!
I wound up paying $10 for the crossover, and didn't do much with it until last week, when I noted all the cap values inside, and bought replacements, along with some Deoxit.
Yesterday, after recapping it, and cleaning the pots, and the jacks, I reconfigured my system so the old Sumo Athena is the preamp in my system, and an old Arcam DIVA AVP700 just a multichannel DAC, full volume feeding the Athena.
When previously using the Diva as a full line stage, it's precise digital delay was easily audible while setting the bass crossover in its settings, but is bypassed now,by setting it's menu to SUB NOT PRESENT.
The LP1-S doesn't have a phase adjustment, but doesn't seem to need one, while signaling a Dayton plate amp.
Subjectively, everything sounds better. Dialogue is clearer on movies, at low enough volumes where the explosions don't scare the neighbours.
2 channel CDs have more ambience, from the analogue outputs of an old Tascam player.
And I now don't have to digitize my records to bass manage their playback.
Sub level is set by throwing the bypass switch to compare my nearly full range speakers' bass level with the sub added in.
All around, the bass is now better integrated than with the much newer digital crossover in the Arcam Diva, when used as a line stage.
So is that fancy adjustable (in 10 hertz increments, and single milliseconds delays) crossover fixing problems a digital volume control causes?
The DAC does sound better at full volume on its outputs to the analogue inputs on the other preamp. After watching some sci fi flybys, Hatari, and King Kong, I don't miss the centre and surrounds at all.
So is the modern design a poor one, or is Ken Kreisel just a really good circuit designer?
Ps- new caps in, but not fancy ones.
I chose ones with the same or higher voltage ratings; pennies per cap, by the bag, so I'd get to choose ones closest to the stamped values on the old ones.
Heresy, but it didn't make sense to spend a ton on a project which I wasn't sure I could do properly (as the pots were actually grinding around in the store), or need.
I spotted an old M&K LP1-S passive low level crossover, sitting atop an M&K trapezoidal subwoofer, which looked like it had been stepped on by Godzilla.
Even the plate amp was bent!
I wound up paying $10 for the crossover, and didn't do much with it until last week, when I noted all the cap values inside, and bought replacements, along with some Deoxit.
Yesterday, after recapping it, and cleaning the pots, and the jacks, I reconfigured my system so the old Sumo Athena is the preamp in my system, and an old Arcam DIVA AVP700 just a multichannel DAC, full volume feeding the Athena.
When previously using the Diva as a full line stage, it's precise digital delay was easily audible while setting the bass crossover in its settings, but is bypassed now,by setting it's menu to SUB NOT PRESENT.
The LP1-S doesn't have a phase adjustment, but doesn't seem to need one, while signaling a Dayton plate amp.
Subjectively, everything sounds better. Dialogue is clearer on movies, at low enough volumes where the explosions don't scare the neighbours.
2 channel CDs have more ambience, from the analogue outputs of an old Tascam player.
And I now don't have to digitize my records to bass manage their playback.
Sub level is set by throwing the bypass switch to compare my nearly full range speakers' bass level with the sub added in.
All around, the bass is now better integrated than with the much newer digital crossover in the Arcam Diva, when used as a line stage.
So is that fancy adjustable (in 10 hertz increments, and single milliseconds delays) crossover fixing problems a digital volume control causes?
The DAC does sound better at full volume on its outputs to the analogue inputs on the other preamp. After watching some sci fi flybys, Hatari, and King Kong, I don't miss the centre and surrounds at all.
So is the modern design a poor one, or is Ken Kreisel just a really good circuit designer?
Ps- new caps in, but not fancy ones.
I chose ones with the same or higher voltage ratings; pennies per cap, by the bag, so I'd get to choose ones closest to the stamped values on the old ones.
Heresy, but it didn't make sense to spend a ton on a project which I wasn't sure I could do properly (as the pots were actually grinding around in the store), or need.
LOL! I WISH I could afford a $110,000 turntable. That's what we spent on our house and land! But at least a turntable is a mechanical device for which improvements can be made that might cost that much. The only question is are those improvements WORTH $110,000? (Or in my case, $109,980 - I paid $20 for my Luxman PD277 at our thrift store a few years back and I'm pretty happy with it for now). I suppose there's some snake oil involved even in those turntables in terms of the claims about how they have improved on the basic turntable design.
I can't envision a $110,000 turntable sounding or looking much better than a $10,000 turntable. And to be honest I can't envision that $10,000 turntable sounding a whole lot better than my Technics SL-1100, Technics SL-1200 Mk II or Thorens TD-160 but I'm sure it probably does. It's just that the improvement in sound isn't 10 times better. The difference would be very slight.
If I had $110,000 to spend on a turntable I'd hire a cute college babe to spin records for me in a skimpy bikini for a year.
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The audio excuse
In these days, precision mechanics is cheap only at large factories. Products selling in low quantities, assembled partially with artisans in EU/USA land, like several makers, do cost a lot. But not $100k...
unless employ DU (depleted uranium) in platter, gold and silver even in cabinet... but anyway, my point:
In other segments, *sometimes* people buy things because is more beautiful ou fashionable, most of time. Scam exists, but the excuses are sparse. But in audio, always the excuse is the sound. is a GREAT SCAM! Why, why?
For sure people can buy a turntable because is a rich artisan piece (and not only audio) if audio market not belongs to "audio excuse". Of course, in a level where betterment is possible only in cosmetics...
Another example: I using now a Frank Blöhbaum MTA amplifier. Is a hybrid amplifier with high DF and low HD. The input and output is tube, and have a transistorized "VAS-like" stage (see Linear Audio), and output is tube again. Sometimes I like this cleanliness, sometimes I listen to my earlier 300BSE dream-HD. But I like to play with tubes, so why not to make a low HD amp with tubes? Is not only about audio; I like the tubes devices in a general form.
Why these snake oil guys don't think like that?
(well, obvious response: uneducated users and $$$$$$$)
Or, in other words, at least to a experimenter, the audio excuse is a weak argument. One day and mind changes.
PS.: I've put some emoticons in message but some error ocurred and appears like a image message. This message don't have attached images
In these days, precision mechanics is cheap only at large factories. Products selling in low quantities, assembled partially with artisans in EU/USA land, like several makers, do cost a lot. But not $100k...
In other segments, *sometimes* people buy things because is more beautiful ou fashionable, most of time. Scam exists, but the excuses are sparse. But in audio, always the excuse is the sound. is a GREAT SCAM! Why, why?
Another example: I using now a Frank Blöhbaum MTA amplifier. Is a hybrid amplifier with high DF and low HD. The input and output is tube, and have a transistorized "VAS-like" stage (see Linear Audio), and output is tube again. Sometimes I like this cleanliness, sometimes I listen to my earlier 300BSE dream-HD. But I like to play with tubes, so why not to make a low HD amp with tubes? Is not only about audio; I like the tubes devices in a general form.
Why these snake oil guys don't think like that?
Or, in other words, at least to a experimenter, the audio excuse is a weak argument. One day and mind changes.
PS.: I've put some emoticons in message but some error ocurred and appears like a image message. This message don't have attached images
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