Audio absurdities Options

[thesurfingalien]

Hi All,

I have been active in the (high end) audio world for about 25 years. My main interest has always been loudspeakers and design. As such, together with a friend of mine, we have created some pretty decent loudspeakers. We did this just for fun.

Contrary of what you might expect, I have not invested in expensive equipment myself, mainly because there is only so much money I am willing (or able for that matter) to spend on it , and I like to listen to the music and not to the equipment.

However, during this time I have run into what I would like to call "Audio Absurdities". By that I mean things that people do (usually this involves spending a lot of money) to make their setup sound better.

One thing you should know of me is that over the years I have become a very skeptical person with regards to audio. But that does not mean I have lost my sense of humor. Hence this tread...

I would like to invite you to post your experience with this type of things. Be it for either generate a good laugh, or warn other readers for costly "audio improvements" that can be categorized being scams.

Have fun or be warned :-)



My first contribution: The Magic Woodblocks

About four years ago I heard from a to remain unnamed person that he had obtained little pieces of wood, about 2" square, varying in thickness depending on application, that should be placed under the equipment's feet. According to the vendor, the wood was from a rare species of trees only to be found in the Amazon. The audible results were claimed to be like "upgrading your equipment to a model twice the price". And that for only US$250 to US$375 per set of three...

[thesurfingalien]

@dv1989:

Thanks for your compliment!


@All - Another one...

Some 10 years ago I visited an audio store in town I had never been before. I got into a conversation with one of the owners. After a little while, he introduced me to the Nordhorst brand they were dealers of. He apparently was very taken with a digital interconnect he had bought (at a discount) to connect his CD-player and external DAC, replacing the AudioQuest interconnect. According to him, the results were astonishing: lower & tighter bass, deeper and wider soundstage / imaging, you name it. And even his wife and kid could easily hear the difference.

I asked him what possibly could cause this result. He pointed out a Nordhorst poster that explained that the cable in question was capable of transporting electrical signals at 98 percent (or something like that) of the speed of light, while competing cables only could go up to 83 percent (or something like that). I replied that this information still did not tell me the WHY. His answer was: "Jitter, man, jitter. This cable eliminates jitter because it is so fast!".

I tried to explain to him that the electrical pulses still arrived in the same order, and with the same time interval, regardless of the speed they were transported, but I was unable to communicate that to him.

When I asked him if he would submit his findings to a blind test, he refused and basically accused me of calling him a liar.

[WonderSlug]

I asked him what possibly could cause this result. He pointed out a Nordhorst poster that explained that the cable in question was capable of transporting electrical signals at 98 percent (or something like that) of the speed of light, while competing cables only could go up to 83 percent (or something like that). I replied that this information still did not tell me the WHY. His answer was: "Jitter, man, jitter. This cable eliminates jitter because it is so fast!".

What I'd like to know is how they actually arrived at those 98% speed-of-light and 83% speed-of-light figures.