Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

lololololol

"The very best sound was obtained when I slightly loosened the screws on the Duplex Covers. And they sound great!!.

8]

lolololol

every product on the site is like New Hope for the Ape-Eared

i love that website! check out this fancy table: http://machinadynamica.com/machina25.htm

it's supposed to isolate your amplifier from vibrations, "especially the 0 -10 Hz variety produced by Earth's crust movement, traffic, subways, tides, etc. "

how a spring could cancel out waves slower than 1 Hz?

but the best is this "teleportation tweak"
http://machinadynamica.com/machina60.htm

everything on there is great but I'm still standing by the Tru-Tone Duplex cover as the most balls-out

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_3/marigo-labs-signature-3d-mat-7-2005.html

oh wait though codename turquoise is pretty fucking rad

Brilliant Pebbles is my favorite one on that site i think

From cidepress' link, this was amusing:

"Where most audiophiles would agree, however, is that tweaks are a minor aspect of system building. Defined by the dictionary in Microsoft Word® as "a slight adjustment or change in..."

italics mine.

http://machinadynamica.com/water.gif for brains

Somewhere, audiophile dude pushes the leather sofa away from the wall, sees four-socket outlet, shrieks.

Well, these are great, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to improve sound:

http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/Free_Techniques/Free_Techniques.html

Holy shit the Teleportation Tweak! We are dealing with <i>balls</i> here, gentlemen. Big, round, shiny balls, of finest brass, lovingly hand-polished to a mirror shine by a taskforce of brilliant Sound Artisans. These balls can be yours for the astonishingly low price of $680 (Big Shiny Brass Balls are not subject to our 30-day money-back guarantee)

it doesn't actually take any courage to be a con man, is the thing. you just have to really, really hate everybody.

The interesting thing about these tweaks is that they abandon the pretense of scientific support. Whereas w/ feet for speaker stands in Stereophile or whatever they'll be some physicist explaining how the damping works, here's it's just like, Hey, put this magic clock in the room and it'll improve the sound. I love it.

Sorry, maybe I'm Billy-doesn't-get-it, but is this site real or an elaborate spoof?

I had initially assumed spoof, but I followed some links and poked around and it appears to be real, or at least elaborate enough a spoof to include three or four different sites. Stereophile had an article on some of these tweaks a few years ago anyway:

http://www.stereophile.com/news/10415/

even if it is a spoof there's certainly enough real snake-oil products with extremely similar purposes/explanations

here's a collection of some more: http://www.ilikejam.dsl.pipex.com/audiophile.htm

i know someone who swears by this ....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280182123367&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=018

"extremely flat"

I don't even know what "a richer, fuller sound, with less emphasis of detail" means. it's supposed to be a good thing?

My latest tweak = this chair;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/Photo624.jpg

i'm actually buying a glass platter for my turntable. i might even buy that mat for it. i'm a sucka 4 luv.

actually the chair i'm assuming was a joke, but honestly i was suprised how much getting speaker stands and "correctly" positioning my chair i listen in and the speakers in the room made a HUGE difference in how good things sounded.

The chair's totally not a joke; it's expensive and comfortable and easily moved but it's not likely to make me fall asleep in it (no headrest); if I'm comfortable and awake, I can concentrate on listening more. I bought it (almost) with the sole intention of it being a 'headphones' chair.

But yeah, basic physics says position your speakers correctly and sit in the right spot; you simply don't get stereo-imaging without it.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/

...a coat hanger.

that's AMAZING.
audiophiles are some weird people, man.

actually the chair i'm assuming was a joke, but honestly i was suprised how much getting speaker stands and "correctly" positioning my chair i listen in and the speakers in the room made a HUGE difference in how good things sounded.

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:39 PM

totally true

actually properly treating one's room acoustically would probably do a better job than moving your chair and speakers about

is there already a company selling audiophile interior house paint?

because if there is, I should start selling audiophile EXTERIOR house paint.

(xpost)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/Dbsts2.jpg

I was much, much less impressed with this enormous fucking Naim set-up than I should have been given how much it ought to have cost. Sure it went LOUD, but sound-wise I wouldn't swap it for my own system, I don't think.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0126.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0128.jpg

Is it just perspective on that first photo, or are your speakers nearly at shoulder height?

Oh, no - is that a Cyrus CD player? Or tuner? And why isn't everything on Mana shelves? That's why it doesn't sound that good. And has it been on continuously for five years? Another biggie with Naimists. (Seriously, that doesn't look like a great room for those huge - and amazingly ugly - speakers).

What's the turntable - Nottingham Spacedek or something? Oracle Delphi?

mp3s out a old marantz amp someone gave me and 15 y/o bottom of the line cambridge soundworks speakers all day babay

although i did love to read sudiophile magazines when i worked at a bookstore just for the lulz

The speakers are nearly to chest height - I'm 5'8".

The Cyrus is just a DAC for his wireless streaming thing. Dunno what the turntable is. The room is big but odd; it's a loft that used to be three bedrooms. There's a (low) double bed behind the speakers, plus a desk, which is where I slept (not the desk) (although that picture was taken at 6am so sleeping wasn't exactly urgent and key that weekend).

Yeah, I really wish someone had just given me a peek into my co-habiting/flat in communal block/married-with-kids future when I was handing over the moolah for all my gear in 1996-97. I wish I'd just got something good/2nd-hand with a small footprint (Cyrus CD/integrated, ProAc speakers, something like that; maybe a Pro-Ject record deck, old Marantz cassette deck, NAD tuner, cables from Maplin) and STOPPED there. Think of all the photographic gear I could've bought with the money saved if I'd just contracted that particular hobbyist bug a decade earlier!

(Ah, DAC for wireless streaming; the Naim box-stacking is kinda insane - external power supplies for everything. Makes my Audiolab pre/mono arrangement look positively understated).

The speakers are Naim DBLs. They weigh about 15st each. Retail these days at £15k. When he got them, in 2000, they should have been £12k. He got them for £4k cos they were "shop-soiled" - the band he's in had an arrangement with Naim and they'd been using them as a playback set-up when they recorded an album in a country house, and the guitarist's dog had taken a bite out of the bottom corner of one, or something.

I'm kind of glad I've had a brush with stuff that's seriously high-end because it's warned me off a bit. Our flat's not that small, but it's a flat nonetheless, and, you know, I want stuff on the walls and holidays and a new camera and stuff maybe too.

I think my main response to audiophilia these days is that the best way to make your hi-fi sound great is to play better records on it.

actually properly treating one's room acoustically would probably do a better job than moving your chair and speakers about

How so?

the best way to make your hi-fi sound great is to play better records on it.

b i n g o

if anyone is looking for really great speakers that won't break your bank....i bought these about a year ago and couldn't be more pleased with them...they are really surprising given the price and size:

Epos ELS 3 mini monitors:

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73457

i run them with a Cambridge Audio integrated amp w/Cambridge phono pre-amp.....

My turntable is a Rega P1 -- one thing on that i would recommend is buying a glass platter and also i replaced the original ortofon cartridge with a Denon DL 160 cartridge which is a fucking amazing cartridge for the price...

For CD player I run a really really old NAD one that I got off craigslist for $35...it works pretty well, has a hard time tracking CD-Rs but will play them after awhile (it's from 87 though so I guess there weren't even CD-Rs then)

Post more pics of slobs in garrets seasoned with with ridiculous sound systems and ugly furniture.

I really like the coffee table.

I think my favourite way / place to listen to music these days, rather than the big sofa and NAD / Cambridge Audio / Tannoy / proper rack & stands set-up in the living room, with everything anchored in a nice triangle, blah blah, equidistant from rear walls, speakers toed in, is the hotch-potch system in the back room, with the knackered Marantz CD, 20-year-old Marantz amp, DAC, and diddy Q Acoustics speakers. Cos I have space, peace, my comfy chair, books, headphones, no TV or console to distract.

Those are the kind of speakers you buy to justify having previously bought Monster Cable.

What's the sensitivity rating on those things? It might be all show, but they certainly look like they could bring on an involuntary bowel movement.

My little entertainment room is pretty cluttered, but I have a space carved out for the sub in front of the stereo between a couple vinyl crates. I spend about 90% of my waking time at home in this room, and no one else usually comes in here, so I'm cool with the encroaching mess.

I'm aiming for what woof described, subtly filling out the low frequencies that the mains can't quite handle, I think I can tweak it to be fairly balanced. It will also give me an opportunity to try out the sock trick, because I may no longer need the lows coming out of the towers.

should be able to set the crossover on the receiver so the speakers aren't sent much bass

as a lifelong apartment dweller having a sub would make me feel too guilty

Ditto—I don’t even have one on my home theater system for that reason, especially as I am someone who is often annoyed at others’ apartment noise.

Has this been shared yet?

https://hypebeast.com/2024/2/brian-eno-light-changing-turntable-ii

my kids have night lights that are similar to that turntable, it's just that they're animal-shaped rather than turntable-shaped, I will try to remember to look at them the next time I listen to some music

I should be receiving the sub sometime today, so in anticipation, I've been fooling around with the placement of the Polks. I pulled them forward by about 1/2 foot, which immediately reduced the boominess and added transparency, possibly too much but I'm assuming the sub will help fill that out. I also straightened them out instead of having them pointed in a triangle shape toward me to help emphasize the stereo image over the center. It's a pretty dramatic change soundwise and I'm not yet sure if I will stick with it, but it's good to know that it can be adjusted rather dramatically through small speaker movements.

yeah I have these bigass Paradigm speakers on stands in a room maybe 16 x 16? and inches of adjustment definitely make a difference

this was helpful in showing me how to think about it, I like the emphasis on trusting your ears as you adjust

https://imgur.com/MhkQwCo

one thing i'd really like to do is getting into room treatment, i.e. hanging carpets or other soft stuff up on the walls to reduce echo. of course they sell special audiophile foam stuff for this too.

I've been pondering this for my music studio room. It seems that a few well-placed high quality panels is preferable to putting a bunch of those inexpensive tiles up. I probably won't mess with it until I first replace my studio monitors because the ones I have now are garbage.

Generally I think reflections are the easy targets for room improvement - thicker pile rugs, a sheet of (even thin) fabric hanging an inch inside the wall, deadening material concealed on the underside of tables, etc.
Glad that getting the Polks away from the wall sharpened things up!

I got the sub, it's enormous! My biggest challenge is going to be figuring out how to set it so that it is audible without completely overwhelming everything else. Trying to keep it tight and punchy, rather than full house shaking rumble. This is resulting in rather dramatic shifts to the overall EQ scheme to help find the right balance. I have a feeling I'll be messing around with this for a while until I'm fully satisfied.

I would say to err on the side of house shaking rumble :)

this is pretty helpful on setting the crossover

https://www.svsound.com/blogs/subwoofer-setup-and-tuning/tips-for-setting-the-proper-crossover-frequency-for-a-subwoofer

on the level i sort of dialed it in just to the point where it was noticable

I think I have this mostly set how I want it. The big sub has a pretty different sound from the Edifier one, but it sounds good, more deep and rubbery vs the chest thump of the Edifier sub.

Here's what it all looks like, the sub is down on the floor by the right loudspeaker
https://dl.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mi08xg1wysms3uea2rllz/20240219_165934.jpg?rlkey=cb5dip7ovmrmpavxl2l1amozy

oh good, now I can stop holding my tongue about how wood paneling and carpet work pretty well with acoustics 😉

to say nothing of the acoustically beneficial properties of mickey mouse gnome figurines

I didn't really know if the wood is good or bad, I could imagine it reflecting some stuff but maybe not because it's more porous?

I was trying not to be creepy with "Wait, I know the room he's describing! I've been there!"

lol, it's a true statement and not at all creepy, mh happens to be the only ILX person to have visited the Moodles home, although a bunch of folks from here have seen this same room in zoom sessions

But why place the Eames chair off-center?!

it's the only place it will really fit in that room, photo was taken from the perspective of the big sofa on the opposite wall where I spend most of my time, there's a cluttered coffee table next to the Eames chair that I moved out of the way for a better shot

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C20vGfiv1qK/?igsh=dHVlbDMxeGY4bndk

this is primo snake oil

https://www.musicdirect.com/equipment/accessories/audio-additives-sorbothane-6-x-6-damping-sheet-each/

on sale!

if you’re not using damping sheets are you even really listening to music?

the word “thereby” does a lot of work in these pitches

You need the cold-pressed sorbothane otherwise it can really mess with the soundstage...

the fact they are 0.125 inches thick is so hilarious

Sorbothane is a legit shock-absorbing material - watch at 1:48 for the attempted hand-smashing (it's actually pretty impressive):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVN98EwM3l0

yeesh

Hate the marketing, not the material! Hahaha

Place them anywhere you have vibration and let your components deliver better performance.

pretend you don't have any context whatsoever for the above sentence.

seems quite rude + intrusive now, doesn't it? with all due respect, what could you possibly know about my components?

sorbothane does seem pretty cool. unfortunately the link posted seems to be the going rate

goddamn it I'm gonna end up buying this crap

Pretty easily debunked - sorbothane is a high impedance material for physical vibration, so it would absorb vibration passing from one thing to another. You can't place it on something and expect it to "suck in" vibration, or stick it to something vibrating in the hope of damping it down; mass is pretty much the only way to do that.
Also worth pointing out that sound is, y'know, vibration, so I wouldn't be keen on a material that absorbed ambient vibration around my audio system.

i was thinking it'd be good to use as speaker feet? or turntable feet?

For sure, I’m just guessing they hope people will use it like magic stones

xps according to sorbothane.com, it can be used both for vibration isolation and vibration damping, so not sure that is correct:

https://www.sorbothane.com/technical-data/articles/vibration-damping/

Is it named after Kevin Sorbo

lol

Urethane is named after Kevin Sorbo's urethra

pls stop posting about that person. thanks.

xps I think that describes two different modes of reducing vibration between things, not sucking it out of the air. I’m sure it would prevent e.g. sound from bouncing off a surface (which is also a coupling thing) but I strongly doubt you’d unwrap a sorbothane mat and the room would go quiet.

people I think we all need to consider this incredible breakthrough: I present the ground box.
https://www.entreq.com/en-GB/products/ground-boxes-17667704
Sceptical? What if I told you that

By attaching an Entreq ground box with Eartha cables to your gear, you can eliminate high-frequency pollution, resulting in more detailed and clear music. You will experience a better flow, more air, and improved dynamics.
It's like driving a car with the handbrake on and then releasing it, everything works smoother.

oh I need a whole bunch of these

they tried not to advertise their prices but I can't be deterred in my pursuit of a box with some plates in it https://www.futureshop.co.uk/brands-category/entreq/entreq-grounding-boxes

reminds me of an orgone box https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orgone

New username harvested from the ground box website...

hat tip to the "Eartha" cable name