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.

$138 in shipping to Australia alas

jeez louise that's a lot

https://blackmountainpicks.com/pages/black-mountain-tagua-flatpick

$5 a pop! Or is that $5 a guitar dad. Gotta debone a lot veggies to get that vegetable ivory

(I don't doubt that these are good, but the sell is a pretty puffed up)

$5 isn't all that much once you've fallen down the thick pick rabbithole: https://www.wegenpicks.com/

Woah

https://www.maat.digital/fidef/

timecube-level bullshit

As an engineer, it’s a fact that you do not listen like your clients. Most likely, you are an analytical thinker and listener. You listen to the sound, but your clients and the public listen to the music. Because FiDef is a psychoacoustic process, it may not have any impact if the listener resists its charms. We’re talking full–on Jedi mind tricks, folks. If you are like many of us audio engineers, you are very much a “left–brain” person and discount what you cannot understand or explain. You are used to dissecting what you hear, you simply can’t help it. Unfortunately, your conscious higher level brain function will suppress your unconscious brain, and FiDef acts subconsciously. Result? If you try too hard to hear it, you probably won’t!

Total Vibes

sounds legit

Looks like a brouhaha erupting over whether one-steps are an overpriced scam. Maybe people should make a point NOT to buy ridiculously-priced records that are newly-manufactured simply because of some gimmick.

OG or GTFO IMHO

hell I'd take a needledrop of an OG over any of this new-fangled shit

Spoken like a damn fool who's never heard a quarter-speed cut lacquer disc! I can only play it three times but the first time I saw GOD.

lol

side note, this is why sites like profstoned exist, they tide me over until I can afford that OG Beefheart mono or whatever

in the past six months I have had my mind absolutely blown by procuring and giving dedicated listening time to mono OGs of "Safe As Milk" and the 13th Floor Elevators debut (finally, after literally decades of looking/saving/selling/buying), no I don't have a dedicated mono cart but I can't imagine it sounding any better

sorry, I realize this is the snake oil thread!

profstoned deserves a medal for the 13th Floor Elevators transfers. It's insane how terrible Charly's reissues have sounded when they could've done a much better job by doing what profstoned does and transfer a clean record from someone's collection.

thanks for the tip. also, what has Charly been doing?

the Elevators thing in particular is a long sad story that involves Hoffman forum deep dives, tl;dr, basically everything since the OG pressings has been run off of inferior backup tapes since IA apparently lost the masters

iirc this includes the 1979 Elevators pressings that were part of the IA box from that time, although at least one person on Discogs vouches for the '79 press of the Golden Dawn LP

even the 70's Radar reissues are apparently from these faulty backup tapes which iirc have some kind of phasing issue

It's insane how terrible Charly's reissues have sounded when they could've done a much better job by doing what profstoned does and transfer a clean record from someone's collection.

That's what they did for the mono editions that were in the 3-Eyed Men box and the subsequent two-discs of Psychedelic Sounds & Easter Everywhere. Or was that disproven?

FWIW, Sundazed's long OOP mono vinyl reissue of Psychedelic Sounds was taken from a high-quality tape dub a collector had that was itself dubbed from a production master tape that somehow wound up in an (unfortunately long gone) storage locker full of tapes used for Record Club editions.

Elevators stuff is always going to be problematic because the records were poorly mastered and pressed to begin with (and Bull of The Woods was badly mixed to boot), and on top of that, several supposedly 'OG' copies were in reality poorly made period bootlegs. Also the original mono Easter Everywhere pressing was a very-limited edition earmarked for radio distribution and the odd special order from stores. Supposedly only 150 or so copies were pressed.

just popping in to say 2 things:

.1 those wegen picks initially had me howling, and then residually giggling for hours. one of them is as thick as a cd jewel case! he details the color of the packaging in the product descriptions! what magnificence!

.2 i love this thread, but i especially love it when this thread goes for serious discussion. thank you all for posting.

Anyone have experience with room sound treatments? Did anything make a big dofference?

have you ever walked through an empty apartment before you moved in?

love my little living room and dread the possibility of moving to an open concept place. maybe i should start saving egg cartons.

thanks for the context, sleeve

It's insane how terrible Charly's reissues have sounded when they could've done a much better job by doing what profstoned does and transfer a clean record from someone's collection.

it's interesting you say this because apparently there's a new Charly reissue from last year sourced from a needle drop of an OG promo Psychedelic Sounds

I have not heard any info on Charly's reissue from last year but regarding past official releases that pre-date it, this is what I gathered from another forum:

- the original untampered stereo mix is ONLY found on the original IA LP. All later versions, including all CDs are from the narrowed and reprocessed 70's "mix"

- the mono mix can be found on the original mono IA LP, the Sundazed LP (from an nth gen copy tape with the longer fades added from a needledrop) or on the Charly box/2-CD set from an NR'd needledrop from an original IA LP.

Not sure it counts since it probably didn't cost $2000 at the time but

https://sonicstate.com/news/2025/01/31/the-stanton-linemaster-make-anything-sound-like-vinyl/

lol i remember those! i thought it was stupid then because any 2 channel dj mixer worth anything had 2 inputs for each channel that you switched between: phono+line. just get an rca->⅛" and plug into one if your line inputs. gimmicky and totally unnecessary.

stanton did great cartridges at the time, though. very solid, cost-effective midline. i still have my 680s.

little update on the home setup

About 6 months ago I decided to upgrade the cheap M-Audio monitors I had in my little home studio because I hated them. I replaced them with a pair of Adam Audio A4Vs which I found for quite a bargain. I had previously wanted the A7Vs, but they were a bit too pricey, so I went with the smaller model. They are just about loud enough, although I get to their upper limit quite easily, but they sound absolutely fantastic, punchy yet incredibly transparent.

Unfortunately, this has just reinforced my lack of enthusiasm for the big Polks I have in the TV/stereo room. They are super powerful and get to extreme volumes without the slightest bit of distortion, but the sound is just too thick and flat, when what I want is punch and air and 3D levels of detail. So now I'm pondering selling off the Polks and replacing them with a pair of Emotiva XB2s. They apparently have a level of clarity that is way above their $500 price. I think bookshelf speakers will work better in such a small space, although I do worry that they may not go loud enough. I like the fact that they have ribbon tweeters like the Adams. Does anyone on here have experience with Emotivas? I'd love to know if they are really as good as the hype.

"incredibly transparent" *sighs*

how would you prefer I describe them?

Maybe with an adjective that describes sound?

Isn’t transparent a synonym for neutral here?

does it make sense to talk about a difference between clear and muddy sound? is transparent a synonym for clear? what's the problem here

My intent was to describe the fact that the speakers have a very high level of 3D clarity that borders on the hallucinogenic, no idea if that helps. My deepest apologies to Calstars for not using the approved audio reviewer lexicon in my highly inconsequential post. The point of the post was to see if anyone had experience with Emotiva bookshelf speakers and whether they might lead me towards what I'm trying to hear from my stereo.

this thread should be a series of Bode plots without commentary

Sorry if I overreacted
In the last few weeks while researching a turntable purchase I’ve read hundreds of comments and reviews of audio components that use ambiguous and frustrating terms
Transparent, yeah. Clear, not muddy (muddy?). Neutral. (Balanced?). Yeah

I'll admit, I have used this just as a general audio thread, with not as much snake oil content. Not sure if there's a better place for just regular stereo talk.

here's the official list of words that can be used to describe sound, courtesy of chatgpt:

Here are some adjectives that describe sound:

Loud
Soft
Quiet
Muted
Harsh
Melodic
Grating
Crisp
Mellow
Sharp
Dull
Echoing
Resonant
Hollow
Rumbling
High-pitched
Low-pitched
Clear
Raucous
Whispering
Buzzing
Squeaky
Booming
Tinkling
Thundering
These adjectives can be used to describe everything from music and speech to environmental noises!

no other words may be used. hope that helps!

angular

/ducks

Missing skronky, AI loses again

always understood "transparent" wrt audio gear to mean that it doesn't color ("alter" if you prefer) the signal, it's not a description of the sound itself but the performance of the gear aiui.
at least, that's how i think it should be used.

but i really want bookshelf speakers that sound more squeaky, i didnt know they could do that. mine sound too raucous.

poll plz

colour is often intentional, as i understand it

sure, transparency is not a quality i value in a gonkulator

gonkulator veiled or recessed? probably needs a recap