Funniest snake oil theories

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and I wonder if someone will ever take the time to answer the naive but nevertheless valid question: how come none of these tweaks reached into other engineering fields?
Chaps, how many times do I have to make the point? Tweaks affect the sound, because audio systems are not resistant to various factors influencing their behaviour, they're not 'robust. But the systems should be sufficiently capable, these tweaks should have no effect!

So, the answer is not to buy tweaks, but to understand what's going on, and engineer audio replay so that "silly" add-ons do do nothing ...
 
I see that reading further down ,the main culprit is noise coming into the AC power line. Fixing that problem would solve all the rest.I read "power supply failings" as meaning the power supply in the components but now see that you meant the power supplied by the power company.
With audio, there is no "magic bullet" solution -- go into a corner and repeat that statement 100 times ... 😀

You can't do anything about the quality of the power coming into your house - but you can clean it up before it hits the audio gear. And, inside a component you can 'immunise' against any leftover noise reaching the main circuitry. So the "failings" are totally under the user's control ...
You must have a horrible AC service supplied to your house or a really terrible amount of RF from a nearby transmitter or again poorly designed components Running an old fridge or Air Conditioner unit on the same line could cause noise injected into the line.
We're not talking about obvious audible glitches, we're talking about preventing dreary, boring, dull, uninteresting sound - which is caused by the noise that I worry about.
I have no idea what that might be referring to 😕
Static can cause audible problems, especially with digital. So you do things that minimise static buildup.
 
You CAN do something about the quality of the power. Complain. They are obligated to supply you with CLEAN electrical that doesn't vary in voltage or contain surges
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I listed what you could get checked but I guess that's too much trouble.

Dreary boring sound? NOW you are talking about make believe and subjective hoo ha. How do you know the noise is causing that? I give up, have fun playing with your doo dads.

Static from plastic rubbing? I myself keep my sex toys well lubed. Seriously, I think you are over thinking things too much. Just fix the basic power problem and all will be well.
 
David, the angles we're coming from are just too different - there are plenty of people who don't tune into the sort of issues that I 'hear', and if they're happy with what they get from their sound systems, well, it's all OK ... 🙂

How do I know noise is causing those issues? By the process of elimination - I shut down the rest of the house electrically, and the sound improves; I switch things back on again, and the sound degrades - a simple procedure that I've done 100's of times.
 
You can't do anything about the quality of the power coming into your house
Buy an UPS and hook all of your audio gear into it.

How do I know noise is causing those issues? By the process of elimination - I shut down the rest of the house electrically, and the sound improves; I switch things back on again, and the sound degrades - a simple procedure that I've done 100's of times.
Are you serious? Are you sure you don't have OCD? Serious question.
 
Buy an UPS and hook all of your audio gear into it.
People seem to have a problem with reading, I said "coming into the house" - once past the switchboard obviously you can do what like, so long as it's legal, to spruce it up ...
Are you serious? Are you sure you don't have OCD? Serious question.
The answer to the question is that I want to listen to realistic, "convincing" sound; as compared to conventional hifi quality. If I was happy with the latter, yes, I wouldn't bother with the extra effort involved ...

If you want OCD, try looking at people who insist on 24 bit over 16 bit digital; or better than 120dB S/N ratios ...
 
Why don't you tell us about these methods?
It seems a lot of the standard methods often create just as many problems as they solve - I've used a variety of techniques over the years. Much happier now then I used to be, but still not 100% there; a bit more robustness in the audio electronics would probably get the job done ... 🙂

I might mention again my favourite trick to check isolation from noise, 😀: extension cord plugged in next to audio setup plug, then high power incandescent lamp plugged into that cord. Then unplug lamp from extension cord to the point where one gets constant arcing and sparking at the contacts - so injecting huge levels of RF and other garbage into the power feed to the audio system.

With a normal system, at normal volume, no music playing, the speaker will erupt with a cacophany of noise and carry on; the last technique I used for filtering mains noise totally quelled that, zero audible glitching ... 😉
 
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