Basically, there's a realm in the audio industry that has more in common with religion than with science. So... just let them believe and the rest of us get on with our lives?
I stumbled across this "Noise Harvester" made by PS Audio, and was searching to see if body's taken it apart to debunk the manufacturer's claims, and found it, and much much more - a gem of a thread over at James Randi's site:
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=70890
http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=70890
Oh no, you don't get off that easy mister. You see for some of us, this is our lives. There is nothing else. 🙂
To save you from reading the whole thread, (which is worthwhile if you're really really bored), the paradoxically named user ExtremeSkeptic comes in to defend this power filtering device (which is deemed pretty useless at doing its job earlier in the thread by people competent in EE), and reveals that he lives in a tiny little apartment where he listens to 192kbps MP3s with headphones and buys Nordost Valhalla power cables, 3 of those noise harvester gadgets, and so on, and his gear has all of the safety fuses shorted because he heard audible improvements upon removing the "frail pieces of metal" that he couldn't bear to have interacting with his audio. A mod repeatedly implores him to put the fuses back in because of the risk of causing a fire and killing himself and everybody else in the building. Oh then he posted this gem of a video of his covering his entire rig with some boutique shielding paper, which looks more like toilet paper than anything else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KAz5vLV2_E
I have to say I felt depressed after seeing the video more than anything.
EDIT: Oh, not to mention the audible hum from his computer that should disturb his listening experience FAR more than the voodoo he's going on about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KAz5vLV2_E
I have to say I felt depressed after seeing the video more than anything.
EDIT: Oh, not to mention the audible hum from his computer that should disturb his listening experience FAR more than the voodoo he's going on about.
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I had to turn it off. I was getting creeped out by it's similarity to the Blair Witch Project.
Well, cases where it's apparent that it's snake oil being sold at huge profits to gullible "believers" - scam artists, in other words --I don't see any pity entering the equation.
Re relddifse:
"Noise Harvester" is so wonderfully 'New Age / Green' sounding. Turns unwanted noise into light. Those who live in really noisy places could light their homes for free.
"Noise Harvester" is so wonderfully 'New Age / Green' sounding. Turns unwanted noise into light. Those who live in really noisy places could light their homes for free.
😱 That's Patrick from Coconut Audio!no wonder it was so full of crap.
I found a link to Coconut Audio in another one of his vids, and now it all makes sense.
"To get the best sound, you should spend at least 98% of your entire system on our cables, 1.9% on our tweaks, and 0.1% on electronics."
So either he's a) a scam artist or b) one of the most elaborate and successful trolls I've seen ever on the web.
I'm leaning towards troll? A third option c) has occurred to me, he's actually just a raving lunatic.
Sigh, PS audio. Maker over time of very nice amps. $800 power cable? Now why would anyone buy a DAC, CD, or other actual product from a company selling power plugs for $249. ( I am sure they are actually real commercial spec, not the "spec" grade ( $.99, or contractor grade ( $1.29 ) but the real commercial spec with tighter plugs for $2.49 at the local store.
Vandenhul a mainstream manufacturer of cables cartridges electronics.........and yet...... Van Den Hul - Health Ring | Product
I wouldn't get too fussed, Dan ... most people don't get their systems working well enough to be able to hear these effects, hence the general ridiculing of such things. In the meantime all the silly, expensive snake oil products will continue to flood the market, because the "intelligent crowd" refuse to accept that there can be any sort of an effect - if a few more synapses fired properly then there would be some decent, serious investigation - and the need for 'snake oil' would steadily evaporate ...
Hypothetical situation, if I pooed in a really fancy enclosure, hermetically sealed it and made it really hard to open, and sold it as a karmic energy synthesizer that absorbs bad vibes in your recordings, and priced it high enough, say $20,000, does anybody ever discover the truth? Believers won't ever dare question the box right, and skeptics who might be tempted to open the box wouldn't ever buy the thing.... thoughts?
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