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Damned audiophiles

LOL, while viewing that video, youtube kept wanting me to take a 3 minute chakra test. So I did, but at the end, Carol Tuttle asked for my email to send results. Grr, now I'll never know.
 
John Albert said:
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Wows. His room is WAY too hard-surfaced. I don't know how he could hear any difference in anything in there.

And cables "dressed" across the floor on little maple blocks? Obviously not a breeder.

I can hear the difference in certain pieces of equipment -- like a big old Yamaha stereo receiver I bought at a thrift store last year. Fake woodgrain, big shiney knobs, tuner indicator track over a foot long.... Awesome sound, much better than the black plastic thing it replaced. But cables? Are these twits really serious? I've known people who replaced all (ALL!) the capacitors in equipment, and that's gonna have an actual difference. But the freaking wire to the speaker? WTF?
 
ApolloGnomon said:
Wows. His room is WAY too hard-surfaced. I don't know how he could hear any difference in anything in there.

And cables "dressed" across the floor on little maple blocks? Obviously not a breeder.

I can hear the difference in certain pieces of equipment -- like a big old Yamaha stereo receiver I bought at a thrift store last year. Fake woodgrain, big shiney knobs, tuner indicator track over a foot long.... Awesome sound, much better than the black plastic thing it replaced. But cables? Are these twits really serious? I've known people who replaced all (ALL!) the capacitors in equipment, and that's gonna have an actual difference. But the freaking wire to the speaker? WTF?
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Plus, I think the main thing he listened to, iirc, was mp3s of techno music.
 
The vids John Albert posted were of a different guy, but he's got that same cable and powersource woo. Balancing them on maple blocks with a silicone block in between, so they don't touch the floor. He's also not being overrun by rabbits. :bunnyface

ETA - and the speaker cables he's endorsing cost $1588 for a 3-foot cable!
 
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Am I the only one who read the OP and thought, "Who the hell listens to CDs anymore?"
 
I recall a very pleasing demo at a broadcast trade show where a supplier decided to demonstrate that the dismissive saying that 'you could use a piece of wet string' to carry a signal was actually true. They had an A/B comparison of sending AES digital audio from a CD player to a DAC/amp and it could take one of two paths - one through a conventional coaxial cable and the other through a couple of feet of string soaked with brine. Both worked just fine.
 
I had to speak with a manager when I refused to buy the highest end HDMI cable for my new 3D TV / blueray setup. Sales Guy was adamant that the regular cable couldn't "handle" the 3D.
 
No, that's for real.

Quite a lot of the stuff published in Stereo Times is pretty outrageous.
 
I have been posting on hifi forums for years now. I have been banned from Hifi Wigwam and The Art of Sound after vociferous reactions to my posting of evidence to show cables make no difference. I don't know if those bans are permanent or not, but the abuse I got means I would never go back. I have had temporary bans from the What Hifi forum and Head-fi, but have been accepted back so long as I only post in specific parts of the forum and that I post evidence and do not participate in any argument/debate.

The dedicated audiophiles who have money to spend and are convinced they have golden ears get very, very upset at anything which suggests, let alone proves they are mistaken in their beliefs.
 
If I had a spare grand and a half I would love to buy an H2 package and take it apart to see what's inside.

Mind you, that's been done for the e-meter and some of those "gold sniffers" you can buy, and yet people still buy them...
 
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I bought my high-end stereo stuff second-hand from a speciality store in 1995

NED amp
Pioneer CD player (you have to put the CD in "on its back")
Dynaudio spakers

Paid an equivalent of $ 800, about half the original retail price.

With the shopaholic incentives (media driven) pushing the audiophiles towards fancy docking stations for their iPhones and iPods, they sell their older high-end stuff on Ebay.

That's where I would look if I were you.
 
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