Author Topic: Snake oil  (Read 840743 times)

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Offline TheBay

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #350 on: December 21, 2013, 02:16:28 am »
I do repair work and "Upgrade" for so called high end hifi, the customers supply the parts and tell me what they want changed, I do tell them it's a load of nonsense, but they do not listen, but I do not want to argue with them as the customer is always right :D, they swear they can tell a difference, it's absolute nonsense! One friend paints his CD's with Green Permanent marker (Sold as something else) so the laser light does not escape? I ask you.

The irony is! sometimes when things produce a lesser quality sound, they think thats more "Natural" so a cheap CD player losing bits is often better to them, just like the old original playstation 1 as a high end CD player nonsense.

I want them to tell me why they think a $5k power cable makes a difference when you've got kilometers of average wiring outside in the air and under ground.

There (highlighted text above), is your argument's fundamental flaw, they just don't do that.

I've done my part toying with these species, just join them calmly, while they're talking how a song sounds more brighter, deeper tone, more clarity and etc, just jump in and voice it out loud that you sense and taste the sound is more "caramelized" , "spicier" , "salt & sour like" and "fart smelly like timbre" and etc using food taste as the new jargon.  >:D

Two possible outcomes, either they will hate you ... or ... some morons will start to admire you and a new sound's character names you've invented are born, and will be added into their sound characters dictionary.  :-DD
 

Offline don.r

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Offline calexanian

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #352 on: December 22, 2013, 08:52:01 pm »
Audiophile snake oil is the worst imho.

Never heard of such nonsense, unbelievable what gets sold and prices for a placebo.

Agreed!
Charles Alexanian
Alex-Tronix Control Systems
 

Offline TheBay

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #353 on: December 24, 2013, 12:49:13 am »
 

Offline Sigmoid

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #354 on: December 28, 2013, 05:34:29 pm »
"The germ has to be in the line of the circuit, the path of the power or it will not be affected by it."

OMG this is the best joke I've ever read...

...I mean, it's a joke, right?

...right?!

...

Enjoy!

http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/chris/2006/10/25/build_your_own_for_almost_free_electromedical_research_devices.htm
 

Offline don.r

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #355 on: December 28, 2013, 07:44:16 pm »
"The germ has to be in the line of the circuit, the path of the power or it will not be affected by it."

OMG this is the best joke I've ever read...

...I mean, it's a joke, right?

...right?!

...


<crickets chirping>
 

Offline VK3DRB

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #356 on: January 01, 2014, 03:10:31 am »
VHS versus Beta.

Beta was a far more reliable, robust and faster to load/unload mechanical arrangement and had a slightly better horizontal resolution than VHS. Snake oil sales companies like Panasonic were aggressive in dominating the market with their inferior product.

The public were caught hook, line and sinker. Of course many of them brought expensive Hifi stereo video recorders, but few installed it into a decent amplifier and speaker system; instead just using the TV for audio. The other thing I noticed was most video recorder owners left the plastic protection stickers over their digital displays and marketing stickers on their video recorders, which simply supported the theory that the human race is largely made up of morons.





 

Offline GeoffS

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #357 on: January 01, 2014, 03:35:31 am »
VHS versus Beta.

Beta was a far more reliable, robust and faster to load/unload mechanical arrangement and had a slightly better horizontal resolution than VHS. Snake oil sales companies like Panasonic were aggressive in dominating the market with their inferior product.

The public were caught hook, line and sinker. Of course many of them brought expensive Hifi stereo video recorders, but few installed it into a decent amplifier and speaker system; instead just using the TV for audio. The other thing I noticed was most video recorder owners left the plastic protection stickers over their digital displays and marketing stickers on their video recorders, which simply supported the theory that the human race is largely made up of morons.

 JVC's VHS format won out largely because it had a better recording time than did the Beta tapes of the time - 120 minutes for VHS vs 60 minutes for Beta.
VHS machines were more readily available for purchase or rent and were cheaper. By the time the Beta caught up on recording time, the war was over.
No argument that Beta had superior quality.
No snake oil, just superior marketing.
 

Offline wilheldp

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #358 on: January 01, 2014, 03:37:53 am »
And the pr0n industry adopted VHS early on which made nekkidness available to the masses.
 

Offline SeanB

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #359 on: January 01, 2014, 04:48:49 am »
Betamax lost because of the cost of the licensing, not much else. The VHS consortium were willing to sell rights to anybody, but Beta was Sony, with all the protectionist racketeering that they have in all their proprietary formats. Much better and such, but if you are an OEM and have a choice between a $xx fee and a $x one you will go for the cheaper always. As well VHS mechanicals were smaller ( no large loading rings to make out of precision castings) and simpler.
 

Offline Bored@Work

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #360 on: January 01, 2014, 11:35:55 am »
And the pr0n industry adopted VHS early on which made nekkidness available to the masses.

Maybe in America. We in Europe had nekkidness without video recorders.
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Offline Zbig

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #361 on: January 01, 2014, 05:46:17 pm »
[..] The other thing I noticed was most video recorder owners left the plastic protection stickers over their digital displays and marketing stickers on their video recorders [..]

Oh, the horror :palm: I hate this with a passion. As of recently, when I see someone's several years old gear still with full set of colorful "20 MPix!, 700x ZOOM!" etc. stickers intact, I proceed straight to peeling the crap off, no questions asked, not stopping while being shouted at, maybe only after he/she hits me with something hard and heavy. I used to be like "You see, it's only there so you could see the bragging features when seeing several seemingly identical models on the shop shelf. Look how it's not properly silkscreened like other markings but printed on the easily removable film so you could and should remove it the moment after you pull your gear out of the box." but I stopped bothering after achieving the success rate of zero.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2014, 09:57:22 am by Zbig »
 

Offline VK3DRB

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #362 on: January 01, 2014, 11:01:54 pm »
[..] The other thing I noticed was most video recorder owners left the plastic protection stickers over their digital displays and marketing stickers on their video recorders [..]

Oh, the horror :palm: I hate this with a passion.

Kindred spirits. I too used to vandalise their precious video recorders by ripping the foggy plastic film off the digital display to show a nice new display under the shabby film.

For some unknown reason many owners of digital multimeters leave the film on. What's the point of impeding a crisp clear display with an idiotic piece of film which fogs up the display, that the manufacturer could not be bothered removing? |O

I make no apologies. As Bush would say, "You are either for ripping off the plastic film, or you are with the terrorists."
 

Lurch

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #363 on: January 02, 2014, 04:59:09 am »
For some unknown reason many owners of digital multimeters leave the film on. What's the point of impeding a crisp clear display with an idiotic piece of film which fogs up the display, that the manufacturer could not be bothered removing? |O

I do the same when I see a protective film over a phone screen. Sometimes have to relent and leave it on though as I can't always tell the difference between protective factory fitted transport protection and purposely fitted aftermarket screen protector!
 

Offline Gribo

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Offline digsys

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #365 on: January 22, 2014, 10:55:50 pm »
Quote from: Gribo
This:
http://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-K2-Terminated-Speaker-Cable/dp/B000J36XR2/ref=cm_rdp_product
Did you buy a pair? Were they good at snaffling a gerlin? The comments weren't too clear.
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Offline Gribo

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #366 on: January 23, 2014, 10:23:13 am »
I bought a pair installed it in my car, now my car runs on unicorn's droppings.
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Offline Kjelt

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #367 on: January 25, 2014, 12:42:18 pm »
http://www.daluso-audio.nl/harmonix-big-bandastonishing-performance/

Perhaps these things also work on scope probes  :-DD
 

Offline gslug

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #368 on: January 29, 2014, 01:01:12 am »
Audiofool snake oil seems to be infesting the studio market too: . Gold guitar cables that sound better if you stand still when playing... :blah:
 

Offline jh15

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #369 on: January 29, 2014, 04:58:04 am »
Probably because the whole cable becomes a capacitive transducer.
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Offline denelec

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #370 on: February 24, 2014, 02:29:40 am »
Even when you're dealing with digital signal, you must use the best (read: most expensive) cable...  :blah:
You don't want the 0's and 1's somehow getting lost in the copper of an inferior cable.  :-DD  :palm:
 

Offline c4757p

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #371 on: February 24, 2014, 06:05:16 pm »
This was in the local paper this morning...

Yes, it's a coil. That goes around a pipe.
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Offline lapm

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #372 on: February 25, 2014, 08:06:33 pm »
This was in the local paper this morning...

Yes, it's a coil. That goes around a pipe.

Whoa, they are still selling that junk... Remember seeing one in electronics magazine about 20 years ago with schematics and pcb layout... :P
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Offline denelec

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #373 on: February 25, 2014, 10:56:15 pm »
This was in the local paper this morning...

Yes, it's a coil. That goes around a pipe.
I've seen something similar many years ago in an magazine.  It used magnets wrapped around the water pipe.
Supposedly the magnetic field will somehow keep the minerals dissolved in water, preventing scaling.  :-\
I've also seen an ad for a similar gadget that you placed around the fuel line of your car to improve fuel economy.  Again, the magnetic field was supposed to align the gasoline molecules, improving combustion...  :-DD
Didn't buy them. So I can't confirm that they don't work... ::)
 

Offline Noise Floor

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Re: Snake oil
« Reply #374 on: February 26, 2014, 04:48:59 am »
Don't forget about the magnets you can wear around your wrist, it cures pretty much any ailment.
http://www.magnetictherapymagnets.com/magnetic-wristbands.html
 


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