Funniest snake oil theories

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#13,461
Max Headroom said:
The effects that I have described and have not yet described are solid in the subjective domains, repeatable and preferred.
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Would appear to me a major oxymoron here. Esp as no published test method or data of tests for analysis.
The objections cause me to feel pity for those with minds so indoctrinated or senses blunted, this is true in many fields of endeavor and not just audio.

Dan.
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I pity them too, but I don't see any of them here. I just see people who are able to think and question which are both signs that they are not indoctrinated.
 
#13,462
Markw4 said:
.....Moving along to another subject: Regarding the sometimes-claimed issue of "your equipment isn't good enough" and the ability to hear some things, here is an interesting article offering some scientific thought on the subject: http://cyrille.pinton.free.fr/elect...nson-Putting_science_back_in_loudspeakers.pdf
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Using a codec to measure the bit rate of a speaker gives a direct assessment of its figure of merit.
The use of this technique has had some further interesting consequences.
Traditional loudspeakers use ferrite magnets for economy.
However, ferrite is an insulator and so there is nothing to stop the magnetic field moving within the magnet due to the Newtonian reaction to the coil drive force.
In magnetic materials the magnetic field can only move by the motion of domain walls and this is a non-linear process.
The result in a conductive magnet is flux modulation and Barkhausen noise.
The flux modulation and noise make the transfer function of the transducer non-linear and result in intermodulation.
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Should that read "non conductive magnet" ?.

An opportunity arose to compare the same commercially available recording on CD and MiniDisc and the MD version was obviously inferior.
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Way back when MD was newish, I had a bench test Kylie Minogue CD and a MD player came in for repair containing the same EP on prerecorded MD.
The dominant sound sources were reproduced fairly accurately, but what was most striking was that the ambience and reverb between was virtually absent, making the decoded sound much drier than the original.
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Pretty much exactly word for word copy of my comment/appraisal of MD at the time.

Dan.
 
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#13,465
indra1 said:
Engineers like me use science. We usually prefer to work within technically understood bounding box and kind of put the unexplored a little to the side.🙂

Scientists focus on what was previously unexplored or unexplained to add to the body of science. Sometimes by adding new science other scientists and engineers unable to grasp.
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At least the folks I'm lucky enough to work with tend to fluidly cross both characterizations. We do a lot of "these things have all been done individually in other applications, but not all together and definitely not for this idea". Which could be construed as not pushing the envelope/science or doing so through integrating disparate parts.

But the long and short of my point is that it's convenient, but probably wrong, to box people in as such.
 
#13,466
Markw4 said:
Moving along to another subject: Regarding the sometimes-claimed issue of "your equipment isn't good enough" and the ability to hear some things, here is an interesting article offering some scientific thought on the subject: http://cyrille.pinton.free.fr/elect...nson-Putting_science_back_in_loudspeakers.pdf
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I don't have any issues with the major thrust of the article (i.e. speakers, but I'll add room), but:

1.) Holy lack of citations, Batman. I'm not entirely comfortable taking the author at his word about the summary of the body of knowledge in this field.

2.) Hasn't much of the threshold of hearing work been done with headphones to minimize many of the very issues he's concerned with?

In any case, thanks for the link, Mark.
 
#13,467
Barkhausen noise.png

Dan.
 
#13,474
Markw4 said:
Except now it is common for copper shorting rings to be used so as to counteract that problem. They reduce distortion from magnetic field modulation by allowing a current to flow that cancels out the modulation.
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RE Max's attachment 658595 and previous attachments on speakers:

Reading that article made me think of something I had thought of in the past, but brushed aside.

Do capacitors in crossover networks wear out?

I have two sets of Klipsch Heresy speakers, one from 1977 which I think is the E crossover, and a second set from 1983 (1xxY8xx/y). From what I have read the Series II didn't come out until 1985 so both sets are original series vintage Heresy speakers.

The second set probably uses the E2 crossover.

If the woofer crossover used a non-polarized capacitor (most likely Al) it should have a life expectancy of about 10-20 years. Any PIO caps should have a longer life expectancy.

I don't see where inductors should have a wear out problem.

So, do I need to rebuild the crossover networks?

Replace the big non-polarized caps only? Replace all the caps?
 
#13,475
I'd imagine the electrolytic caps should go, but mind that the high ESR of the old caps might have been a feature of the xover design. The pio should be okay, but might not be bad to price out some film replacements if not too much.

Pretty sure there's plenty of power distribution copper and iron that precedes your speakers. As long as the enamel is in good shape you are good to go.
 
#13,478
Markw4 said:
Except now it is common for copper shorting rings to be used so as to counteract that problem. They reduce distortion from magnetic field modulation by allowing a current to flow that cancels out the modulation.
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My mix applied to speaker/headphone magnets cleans the sound very nicely.
I caught up with the naturopath chick last Saturday....loves the modified pair, doesn't want to give them back....'forgot' to bring them to the store lol.

Dan
 
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