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  #41   Report Post  
TimPerry
 
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"play on" wrote in message
...
On 3 Mar 2005 13:25:07 -0800, "Karl Winkler"
wrote:


Jim Gilliland wrote:
Agent_C wrote:
I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...


Some of my favorite snake oil products have come from the Shakti

company:

http://www.shakti-innovations.com/audiovideo.htm

They not only improve your audio, but the same technology will make

your
car run better!

http://www.shakti-innovations.com/automotive.htm

And here's their latest innovation:

http://www.shakti-innovations.com/hallograph.htm


Those things improve the sound in the room so much that they make it
*look* like there's a violin in the room with you! Amazing.


They had to have something real in the picture to give it some cred.

Al


the violin was just there to string you along


  #42   Report Post  
play on
 
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On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 00:13:55 GMT, Mike Diack
wrote:


And the winner is.....
http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Me.../merchant.mvc?
Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NOB_C37_C&Category_Code= VOLUME&Product_Count=2



I prefer the magic laquer myself... although it is less expensive.

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Me...ory_C ode=C37
  #43   Report Post  
play on
 
Posts: n/a
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On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 19:44:27 -0500, Boris Mohar
wrote:

http://www.amusicdirect.com/products...=280&sku=AELEV


Nice... I especially like the cable elevators, quite reasonable at
$159.

Al
  #44   Report Post  
Jerry G.
 
Posts: n/a
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After seeing that link, I have to say that there should be government
regulations about audio equipment. I have never seen good physics of
electronics be able to be applied in such a fashion!

--

Jerry G.
=====

"Mike Diack" wrote in message
.. .

And the winner is.....
http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Me.../merchant.mvc?
Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NOB_C37_C&Category_Code=V OLUME&Product_Count=2


  #45   Report Post  
Jerry G.
 
Posts: n/a
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A number of years ago, I have seen something called a "CD Demagnetizer".
Yet, there is nothing magnetic about an optical CD. The seller of this,
really did some fancy explanations about this one.

Another one that I see from time to time, are AC cords for several hundred
dollars that are supposed to make the sound more accurate, and have less
noise. But, when questioned about the electrical system in the house, the
seller of these did a lot of skating around the question.

Many years ago, another one I saw was a special flashlight that should be
shined on CD disk before playing it. The idea was to neutralize any optical
noise patterns that can be formed on the disk. This special flashlight was
selling for about $100. The replacement lamps were $10, and the enhanced
batteries were something like $20 each.

There is another little gadget that I have not seen for a while. This one is
the cell phone bug. It is supposed to reduce dangerous radiation, and give
better reception. It looks like a little bug that the user sticks on to his
or her phone, located near to the antenna. I wonder if this one was pulled
from the market.



--

Jerry G.
=====

"Agent_C" wrote in message
oups.com...
I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...

Mine comes from Lyric HiFi here in New York, when they tried to sell me
little coin size metallic stickers. At $250.00 each, they supposedly
improved the sound by "dampening the field-effect resonance" on your
individual components. What??? I could hardly contain my laughter!

Then there was the afternoon at Sound by Singer (a more appropriate
name for this rug merchant would be 'Sound by Swindler'), where he had
a customer convinced his prospective $500,000.00 system was so precise,
that one could actually distinguish between two identically titled CD's
- by the subtle differences on the pitted surface of the disk.

I'm not even going to start sharing what salesmen have said while
trying to sell me cables...

A_C




  #46   Report Post  
jtougas
 
Posts: n/a
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On 3 Mar 2005 05:43:04 -0800, "Agent_C"
wrote:

I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...

I'm not even going to start sharing what salesmen have said while
trying to sell me cables...


I had a salesman try and convince me that the three foot RCA cable I
had in hand wouldn't transfer S/PDIF info, because it was an analog
cable.

Not because it was the wrong type of connector (which it wasn't) but
because the cable would only transfer analog electricity.

I snickered all the way out of the store.
jtougas

listen- there's a hell of a good universe next door
let's go

e.e. cummings
  #47   Report Post  
Colin B.
 
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In rec.audio.tech james wrote:
In article ,
TimPerry wrote:

remember the "ZeroStat" gun for records?


I remember that it worked quite well if you used it properly.
And used improperly it also did a fine job of getting your kid sister
out of your room.


What do you mean "improperly?" Seems to me that that was EXACTLY the
primary designed use for it. :-)

  #48   Report Post  
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Here is one I made up once:

WAVE ENHANCE is an antispurious ion wave charged aerosol spray to
improve the
acoustic wave transmission in any normal listening room. Just spray
this
special aerosol formula before any intense listening session and you
won't
believe the improvement in sound wave transmission. Deeper lows,
smoother mids
and oh such sweet highs that give you the tingles. Many high end
speaker
manufacturers were spraying their listening rooms with our spray at the
last
CES.


Only $12.99 per 12 oz can.


OK, this was JUST A JOKE for all you guys who debate speaker wire and
cable
sound! Hope you enjoyed it.


Now for some SERIOUS used audio deals please visit:


http://members.aol.com/KDresch/audio.net.html

  #49   Report Post  
Richard Crowley
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Jerry G." wrote ...
There is another little gadget that I have not seen for a while. This one

is
the cell phone bug. It is supposed to reduce dangerous radiation, and give
better reception. It looks like a little bug that the user sticks on to

his
or her phone, located near to the antenna. I wonder if this one was pulled
from the market.


http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi....cgi?item=PA-5


  #50   Report Post  
Ben Bradley
 
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In rec.audio.pro,
rec.audio.tech and
rec.audio.marketplace,
on 3 Mar 2005 05:43:04 -0800, "Agent_C"
wrote:

I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...


There's the person who is posting to (among others) the pro audio
newsgroup selling the "MP3's of the '70's", 8-track cartridges and
record/playback equipment...

A_C


-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley


  #51   Report Post  
Ben Bradley
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 17:15:56 GMT, John wrote:

...


I confess to having a set of these ceramic doodads for my little Tannoys,
bought soley because the Tannoy tech folks said they indeed were worth
having. At $5 a set I wasn;t worried for the experiment.
I'm still not sure if the black ones sound darker than the brown ones.


If they do it's probably synesthesia.

-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley
  #52   Report Post  
OFFICIAL RAM BLUEBOOK VALUATION
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article , "Agent_C"
wrote:

I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...



Thank you for again drawing attention to the few but prolific (like roaches)
scammers here!

Here is the summary of 'snake oil' scammers flushed out here, thanks to
DEPUTY'S like yourself!

PERIODIC LISTING-QUESTIONABLE SELLERS & UNLICENSED DEALERS & PROVEN SCAMMERS
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


SCAMMERS EJECTED FROM USENET BY GROUP ACTION
--------------------------------------------

RANDYSSTEREOOUTLET.COM
SOUND EMPORIUM

AUDIO TWEAKERS
TEKLINEAUDIO.COM & MR-CABLE.COM
PERROTTACONSULTING & MUSICTOOLS-USA.COM
DAVID & CAROL MORETTO THEAUDIODEPT.COM/DISCOUNTS-N-DEALS.COM/CARDIFFROSE.NET
HOLOMAXX CABLES
AUDIOESSENTIALS - TORONTO ONTARIO
DOCDVD.COM
SAVANT AUDIO JOSHUA CINTRON AND MARY MALLERY
RICHARD MARKS DESIGN AKA GOOD AUDIO


& aka TARGET HIFI

KLJ TECHNOLOGIES
GRESH AUDIO
PUT SEUNSOM
COASTLINE CABLES
LOWTHERSPEAKERS.COM
TREVOR STOREY - NEWARK

MOON AUDIO HIGHERFI.COM

SCAMMERS REMAIN, ALONG WITH THE DARK MASTER, ROBERT MOREIN. EVER VIGILANT!


RANDYSSTEREOOUTLET.COM BOGGSTUBE (EBAY) RANDY AND PATRICIA BOGGESS
----------------------------------------------------------------------

LAWSUITS FILED AGAINST RANDY'S STEREO OUTLET - WV ORDERS BUSINESS CLOSED

**WEST VIRGINIA AUTHORITIES FILE LAWSUIT AGAINST BOGGESS, TV REPORTERS CHASE
HIM DOWN STREET AS HE HIDES LIKE THE SICK INDIVIDUAL HE IS***

WEBSITE AVAILABLE TO ORGANIZE THOSE SCAMMED AND GET THESE CHARLATANS PUT IN
JAIL WHERE THEY BELONG -

http://www.monkeyfreak.com/RSO.htm

SCAMMER GIVEN SUSPENDED JAIL SENTENCE BUT APPARENTLY STILL ACTIVE -BEWARE!

W ENTERPRISES NORTHWEST
-----------------------

Maybe Mr. WENW Donald Winslow can explain why his corporate registration has
been cancelled?

http://sos-venus.sos.state.or.us:808...rch_inq.show_d
etl?p_be_rsn=331097&p_srce=BR_INQ&p_print=FALSE

Maybe he can also "explain" why the State of Oregon shows him going into
business, and then out of business, at least three times!

Business Address of 3439 NE Sandy Blvd is in fact a MAIL BOXES ETC maildrop.

The city of Portland Oregon has NO business license and has begun an
investigation.

ACTIVE SCAMMER ALERT!
---------------------

SOUND EMPORIUM
--------------
Robert Benson
Suzanne Manka

Are the likely culprits, although they are hiding behind layers of anonymous
email addresses.
Service? Nope. Support? Nope.

No phone number. No verifiable email address. Hiding behind sockpuppets
and anonymous email servers isn't the hallmark of a "quality" vendor.

Claims to offer "the consistently lowest price available on-line"

"Consistently Low"? What a laugher. Others are far lower on Ebay and
elsewhere.

Except "Robert Benson" was ejected from TCInternet. Also ejected from Ebay,
wherethey established another account and loaded it up with phony "praise".
A known scammer tactic used to support the scam.

The St. Paul city treasurer's office, can find no such business
registered in St. Paul! The only two words people know with "sound
emporium" is "certified scamsters"!!!

Then there is what SENNHEISER USA has said:
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"This outfit is not an authorized Sennheiser Dealer and as such we
cannot guarantee the authenticity or the legitimacy of this product
offering. I suggest you purchase your HD600 from one of our authorized
dealers in order to secure legitimate, factory fresh product."

Sincerely,

Robert G. Douglas
Manager, Consumer Electronics
Sennheiser Electronic Corp.


BOB MOREIN
----------
GUILTY of protecting scammers and fraudsters, and attacking those that have
made such great strides toward protecting the innocent scammed by these
frauds!

Bob Morein is an unemployed and unemployable 40 year old alleged pederast
living in his daddy's house in Dresher, Pennsylvania, a wealthy suburb or
Philadelphia.

He is conducting his life in a most unseemly manner; despite numerous
entreaties from his father and recently deceased mother, he continues to
live in the same sorry 10' x 12' room in Dresher, PA. The parent's proud
jewish hopes of an intellectual son were dashed when he was denied a degree
at Drexel University, and subsequently demanded daddy fund a lawsuit. . . A
true vision of integrity (hahahahaha).

And the courts found explicitly against Morein, showing him as the lying
twisted individual we have all come to know. In fact, court documents point
to witness credibility being critical to their decision. And keep in mind,
this case was reviewed by appeals courts!

These allegations have made him a new target for the lawsuits of those who
have been subject to this slander and libel.

Seems like there are many standing in line for their "pound of unleavened
flesh" from this king of the charlatans and scammers.Registrant:
Robert Morein
501 Edgehill Road
Suite A9
Glenside, PA 19025-1238
US
2123888287


Registered at daddy's office, btw.

HIGHENDAUDIO.COM
----------------
Owned by a pitiful shell of a man, Ted has had so many lines pulled from him
he has decided to list used gear on his website.


AUDIOBUYS
---------
This seller has NEGATIVE rating on Ebay! No business license from District
of Columbia, required for all retail sellers.


-----------------
Not listed as authorised dealer, although he claims to have "new" products
with no rational explanation. Manufacturers all deny he's a dealer

Warranty? Stolen? Who knows?


**RESULT: EJECTED FROM USENET**


---------------
Not listed as authorised dealer, although he claims to have "new" products
with no rational explanation. Manufacturers all deny he's a dealer

**RESULT: EJECTED FROM USENET**

  #53   Report Post  
play on
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 19:28:09 -0800, "Richard Crowley"
wrote:

"Jerry G." wrote ...
There is another little gadget that I have not seen for a while. This one

is
the cell phone bug. It is supposed to reduce dangerous radiation, and give
better reception. It looks like a little bug that the user sticks on to

his
or her phone, located near to the antenna. I wonder if this one was pulled
from the market.


http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi....cgi?item=PA-5


Yeah that's the antenna, but there is another product that you would
stick over the little speaker that was supposed to protect your brain
waves from the cell phone waves.

Al
  #54   Report Post  
Mr.T
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Agent_C" wrote in message
oups.com...
Then there was the afternoon at Sound by Singer (a more appropriate
name for this rug merchant would be 'Sound by Swindler'), where he had
a customer convinced his prospective $500,000.00 system was so precise,
that one could actually distinguish between two identically titled CD's
- by the subtle differences on the pitted surface of the disk.


Possible if the differences were not so subtle, ie. lots of C2 errors.
Getting a new CD would cost less than $500K though :-)

MrT.


  #55   Report Post  
Mr.T
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"Harvey Gerst" wrote in message
...
The current "SBEM"* rate of 1 is still probably about the same as it was
in P.T. Barnum's day,


I disagree, I think the rate increased during the baby boom, and therefore
the total is a lot higher now than in P.T's day.

MrT.




  #56   Report Post  
hank alrich
 
Posts: n/a
Default

wrote:

Here is one I made up once:

WAVE ENHANCE is an antispurious ion wave charged aerosol spray to
improve the
acoustic wave transmission in any normal listening room. Just spray
this
special aerosol formula before any intense listening session and you
won't
believe the improvement in sound wave transmission. Deeper lows,
smoother mids
and oh such sweet highs that give you the tingles. Many high end
speaker
manufacturers were spraying their listening rooms with our spray at the
last
CES.


THC in a spraycan! "Total 'Hancement Conditioner"

--
ha
  #57   Report Post  
hank alrich
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Mark wrote:

My favorites are those little teflon sticks being sold to audiofools to
support speaker cables up off and away from the lossy dielectric
plastic fibers in your carpet.


Actually, those are just to make it easier to vacuum clean the carpet.

--
ha
  #58   Report Post  
David Morgan \(MAMS\)
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"hank alrich" wrote in message .. .
Mark wrote:

My favorites are those little teflon sticks being sold to audiofools to
support speaker cables up off and away from the lossy dielectric
plastic fibers in your carpet.


Actually, those are just to make it easier to vacuum clean the carpet.



NO.... You can't vacuum the carpet! The motor in the vacuum cleaner
creates an electromagnetic field that will cause you to have to go out and
spend $100,000 on little miracle devices to clean that horrible magnetic
mess off of your entire stereo system.... if the salesman doesn't convince
you first that you have to just replace the whole thing. You've 'exposed'
the electrons to confusion and they're... um... well, confused!


  #59   Report Post  
Ricky Hunt
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Mike Diack" wrote in message
.. .

And the winner is.....
http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Me.../merchant.mvc?
Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NOB_C37_C&Category_Code=V OLUME&Product_Count=2


Man, you beat me to it.


  #60   Report Post  
Robert Morein
 
Posts: n/a
Default


"OFFICIAL RAM BLUEBOOK VALUATION" wrote in message
.. .


Bull****.




  #61   Report Post  
Bruce Burke
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Thu, 03 Mar 2005 19:44:27 -0500, Boris Mohar
wrote:

On 3 Mar 2005 05:43:04 -0800, "Agent_C"
wrote:

I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...

Here is my partial collection. About 0.01% of what is out there.

http://www.amusicdirect.com/products...380&sku=AAQEV8
http://gallery.consumerreview.com/au...es/opus-mm.asp
http://www.bybeetech.com/


** Ahhh yes, those infamous Bybee Filters that use cooper pairs in a
room temperature supercondutctor that know the bad electrons from the
good electrons......


You can to the list, anything by Jon Risch.
Regards,

Bruce
Hitting reply is futile, use the following:
).
  #62   Report Post  
Mark
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Dave Platt wrote:
In article ,
dt king wrote:

In theory, a patented invention must be "useful", "novel", and
"non-obvious". Most would say that "useful" requires that it

actually
work, at least to some extent. It used to be the case, long ago,

that
you had to actually build at least a working model and be able to
demonstrate that the device worked.


They say one of the simplest patents ever granted was for the number

1.65.
It was granted to Phillip H. Smith as the optimum diameter ratio for

a
coaxial transmission line.


Neat - that's the ratio which gives the lowest loss per weight/cost
of materials given standard (WW II) dielectrics, right?


It is a common mis-conception, but dielectric loss is not significant
for most coax cables at frequencies below a few GHz. The copper losses
are by far dominant. Teflon dielectric reduces cable loss because it
allows the use of a thicker center conductor which reduces copper loss.

http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/Coaxloss.cfm


Mark

  #63   Report Post  
Bill Van Dyk
 
Posts: n/a
Default

There was a guy who wanted to spend $350 billion dollars getting rid of
WMD's somewhere. I heard he did very well. Lately, he's offering to
improve everyone's pension plans!

Jerry G. wrote:
A number of years ago, I have seen something called a "CD Demagnetizer".
Yet, there is nothing magnetic about an optical CD. The seller of this,
really did some fancy explanations about this one.


  #64   Report Post  
Jerry G.
 
Posts: n/a
Default

That looks like one of the ones I saw! I know of someone who bought one for
$20. Naturally he found no difference, other than that it looked impressive
on his phone. Everyone was asking him what it was. After a lengthy
explanation we were all laughing all the time.

One thing of interest is that he met his wife with it, because it made for a
good conversation at a local bar. He bought her one while they were dating.
It was funny to see that.

There was also one that looked like a little lady-bug. The women went for
that one.

--

Jerry G.
=====

"Richard Crowley" wrote in message
...
"Jerry G." wrote ...
There is another little gadget that I have not seen for a while. This one

is
the cell phone bug. It is supposed to reduce dangerous radiation, and give
better reception. It looks like a little bug that the user sticks on to

his
or her phone, located near to the antenna. I wonder if this one was pulled
from the market.


http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi....cgi?item=PA-5



  #65   Report Post  
Jerry G.
 
Posts: n/a
Default

That sounds interesting. I assume that antenna does not matter with this
gadget! In fact where the speaker is, the radiation is of the least. It is
at the antenna where most of the radiation comes from. Obstructing the
antenna in any way will worsen the performance of the phone.

--

Jerry G.
=====

"play on" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 3 Mar 2005 19:28:09 -0800, "Richard Crowley"
wrote:

"Jerry G." wrote ...
There is another little gadget that I have not seen for a while. This one

is
the cell phone bug. It is supposed to reduce dangerous radiation, and
give
better reception. It looks like a little bug that the user sticks on to

his
or her phone, located near to the antenna. I wonder if this one was
pulled
from the market.


http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bi....cgi?item=PA-5


Yeah that's the antenna, but there is another product that you would
stick over the little speaker that was supposed to protect your brain
waves from the cell phone waves.

Al




  #66   Report Post  
Jerry G.
 
Posts: n/a
Default

You have to be careful with such jokes. Some scammer may find it interesting
and use it!

--

Jerry G.
=====

wrote in message
oups.com...
Here is one I made up once:

WAVE ENHANCE is an antispurious ion wave charged aerosol spray to
improve the
acoustic wave transmission in any normal listening room. Just spray
this
special aerosol formula before any intense listening session and you
won't
believe the improvement in sound wave transmission. Deeper lows,
smoother mids
and oh such sweet highs that give you the tingles. Many high end
speaker
manufacturers were spraying their listening rooms with our spray at the
last
CES.


Only $12.99 per 12 oz can.


OK, this was JUST A JOKE for all you guys who debate speaker wire and
cable
sound! Hope you enjoyed it.


Now for some SERIOUS used audio deals please visit:


http://members.aol.com/KDresch/audio.net.html


  #67   Report Post  
Alex Rodriguez
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article ,
says...

Agent_C wrote:
I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...

Some of my favorite snake oil products have come from the Shakti company:
http://www.shakti-innovations.com/audiovideo.htm
They not only improve your audio, but the same technology will make your
car run better!
http://www.shakti-innovations.com/automotive.htm
And here's their latest innovation:
http://www.shakti-innovations.com/hallograph.htm


Gee those folks at shakti are stupid. On their web site they show acceleration
times of Cheby Tahoe. The before time is 10.83. The after time is 11.16 . So
it clearly shows their snake oil stones makes things worse.
------------
Alex

  #68   Report Post  
Dave Platt
 
Posts: n/a
Default

In article .com,
Mark wrote:

Neat - that's the ratio which gives the lowest loss per weight/cost
of materials given standard (WW II) dielectrics, right?


It is a common mis-conception, but dielectric loss is not significant
for most coax cables at frequencies below a few GHz. The copper losses
are by far dominant. Teflon dielectric reduces cable loss because it
allows the use of a thicker center conductor which reduces copper loss.

http://www.microwaves101.com/encyclopedia/Coaxloss.cfm


Understood! However, the decreased losses come at a significant cost
disadvantage - the Teflon dielectric is more expensive, and the
thicker center conductor uses more metal and is thus both heavier and
more expensive.

My recollection is that the 1.56 diameter ratio (and a 52-ohm
characteristic impedance) were selected because this placed the cable
design in a "sweet spot" in the "RF loss per dollar spent making the
cables" curve. Again if I recall properly (possibly not) this
occurred during World War II, when the wartime economy required
producing the military equipment as cost-efficiently as possible.

Lower losses are certainly possible, using different characteristic
impedances and different dielectrics, but (if I understand the story
right) the materials and prices available back in the era in question
were such that the lower-loss coaxial cable designs were restricted in
their application.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Hosting the Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!
  #69   Report Post  
kituyjkm
 
Posts: n/a
Default

I can't believe no one has mentioned mpingo disks!

For $50 you get a coin sized piece of mpingo (ebony, for those of us
who are less politically correct) wood with a chinese character
engraved on it. You are supposed to place them (the more the merrier)
on your audio components and scatter a few about the room.

But, you must be careful whether you place the character up or down,
and the angle at which you rotate it. Obviously, there is a lot of
room for tweeking with these!

Jonathan "Numb" Scull at Steamingpile - oops, I mean Stereophile,
actually reviewed a $50k Boulder amplifier (makes rocks bigger?) and
claimed the sound was lacking just that little something until he
placed a couple mpingo disks on the amp.

What I want to know is, how does one get to be a reviewer in
Steamingpile? What are the qualifications, or are there any?

What about the "Tice Clock"? It was a special, audio-grade, digital
clock that you plug into the outlet with your CD player (or other
digital components) and it somehow magically "cleaned-up" the sound!

And what about "hospital grade" power outlets?

Green Pens?

Blue lights inside your CD player?

Bi-wiring (buy-wiring?) speakers?

It would be refreshing to see a few of the wealthier high-end audio
companies get together and place a series of "educational" ads to
teach their more gullible customers about what can and can't possibly
have any effect on anything but their wallets. If the industry would
police itself a little they might end up with more customers in the
end. As it is, normally intelligent people (who are becoming fewer
and fewer these days) see the BS promulgated by the scammers and just
walk away from the whole thing.

I guess even the big companies who have high-end product lines depend
so much on the gullibility of their customers that they don't want to
risk turning any of them off by revealing a little truth.

With the average intelligence dropping at the rate it is, we'll all
end up working for companies that make CD demagnetizers, green pens,
and all the other crap that littlers the high-end audio market.


  #70   Report Post  
Agent_C
 
Posts: n/a
Default

On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 15:28:51 -0600, kituyjkm fchg wrote:

It would be refreshing to see a few of the wealthier high-end audio
companies get together and place a series of "educational" ads to
teach their more gullible customers about what can and can't possibly
have any effect on anything but their wallets.


Never happen... They'd be alienating their dealers.

A_C




  #71   Report Post  
TonyP
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Agent_C wrote:
On Fri, 04 Mar 2005 15:28:51 -0600, kituyjkm fchg wrote:


It would be refreshing to see a few of the wealthier high-end audio
companies get together and place a series of "educational" ads to
teach their more gullible customers about what can and can't possibly
have any effect on anything but their wallets.


Never happen... They'd be alienating their dealers.


The "hocus pocus" of hi-end is truly amazing. I am not of the "all amps
and wire sound the same" group, but there is a lot of hyperbole in this
stuff. A well engineered piece is exactly that. I remember the VPI
Bricks. I own their turntable (truly a great piece of simple
engineering). Buy these 8lb wood encased laminated steel things, place
them over your transformers and it "absorbed" stray magnetic fields.
They were good for chasis 'dampening' at most. They made tremendous door
stops, dumb bells, book ends, etc.. They did look nice on the equipment.
But, I didn't hear any difference. None. And my system was not a mid-fi
one either. The same with Tweek and Cramolin. Never heard any difference
with use. As long as the connections on the pre/power amp were clean, it
all sounded the same to me.
I have heard differences in speaker cables though. Something in those
MIT boxes.....

  #72   Report Post  
 
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http://www.rfcafe.com/references/ele...of_50_ohms.htm



There are probably lots of stories about how 50 Ohms came to be. The
one I am most familiar goes like this. In the early days of microwaves
- around World War II, impedances were chosen depending on the
application. For maximum power handling, somewhere between 30 and 44
Ohms was used. On the other hand, lowest attenuation for an air filled
line was around 93 Ohms. In those days, there were no flexible cables,
at least for higher frequencies, only rigid tubes with air dielectric.
Semi-rigid cable came about in the early 50's, while real microwave
flex cable was approximately 10 years later.


Somewhere along the way it was decided to standardize on a given
impedance so that economy and convenience could be brought into the
equation. In the US, 50 Ohms was chosen as a compromise. There was a
group known as JAN, which stood for Joint Army and Navy who took on
these matters. They later became DESC, for Defense Electronic Supply
Center, where the MIL specs evolved. Europe chose 60 Ohms. In reality,
in the US, since most of the "tubes" were actually existing materials
consisting of standard rods and water pipes, 51.5 Ohms was quite
common. It was amazing to see and use adapter/converters to go from 50
to 51.5 Ohms. Eventually, 50 won out, and special tubing was created
(or maybe the plumbers allowed their pipes to change dimension
slightly).


Further along, the Europeans were forced to change because of the
influence of companies such as Hewlett-Packard which dominated the
world scene. 75 Ohms is the telecommunications standard, because in a
dielectric filled line, somewhere around 77 Ohms gives the lowest loss.
(Cable TV) 93 Ohms is still used for short runs such as the connection
between computers and their monitors because of low capacitance per
foot which would reduce the loading on circuits and allow longer cable
runs.


Volume 9 of the MIT Rad Lab Series has some greater details of this for
those interested. It has been reprinted by Artech House and is
available.

  #73   Report Post  
Ben Bradley
 
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In rec.audio.pro,rec.audio.tech,rec.audio.marketplace , on Fri, 04 Mar
2005 10:27:15 -0500, Bill Van Dyk
wrote:

There was a guy who wanted to spend $350 billion dollars getting rid of
WMD's somewhere. I heard he did very well. Lately, he's offering to
improve everyone's pension plans!


I recall his contribution to the field of audio. It was the words
"Can you hear me now?"

Jerry G. wrote:
A number of years ago, I have seen something called a "CD Demagnetizer".
Yet, there is nothing magnetic about an optical CD. The seller of this,
really did some fancy explanations about this one.



-----
http://mindspring.com/~benbradley
  #74   Report Post  
 
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Agent_C wrote:
I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...




Here is a cool device from Rane:
http://www.rane.com/pi14.html

make sure to download the PDFs.

Peter

  #75   Report Post  
kituyjkm
 
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I forgot one- the little sticky tape dots that were supposed to battle
evil resonances in your equipment.

I seem to recall a sand box to set your tube amp in- there was
supposed to be some sort of mystical resonance between the sand and
the glass envelopes that made it a particularly beneficial
combination.


  #76   Report Post  
TimPerry
 
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wrote in message
ps.com...
Agent_C wrote:
I'm sure we all have our favorite snake oil story...




Here is a cool device from Rane:
http://www.rane.com/pi14.html

make sure to download the PDFs.

Peter


but this is a harmless (and hilarious) spoof. not true snake oil at all


  #77   Report Post  
TimPerry
 
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"Jerry G." wrote in message
...
A number of years ago, I have seen something called a "CD Demagnetizer".
Yet, there is nothing magnetic about an optical CD. The seller of this,
really did some fancy explanations about this one.

Another one that I see from time to time, are AC cords for several hundred
dollars that are supposed to make the sound more accurate, and have less
noise. But, when questioned about the electrical system in the house, the
seller of these did a lot of skating around the question.

Many years ago, another one I saw was a special flashlight that should be
shined on CD disk before playing it. The idea was to neutralize any

optical
noise patterns that can be formed on the disk. This special flashlight was
selling for about $100. The replacement lamps were $10, and the enhanced
batteries were something like $20 each.

There is another little gadget that I have not seen for a while. This one

is
the cell phone bug. It is supposed to reduce dangerous radiation, and give
better reception. It looks like a little bug that the user sticks on to

his
or her phone, located near to the antenna. I wonder if this one was pulled
from the market.




remember the "CD stabilizer rings" ?

here is one that isn't necessarily a scam.... but $30K for a cello audio
suite?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...7100 694&rd=1




  #78   Report Post  
Agent_C
 
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On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 09:47:46 -0600, kituyjkm fchg wrote:

I forgot one- the little sticky tape dots that were supposed to battle
evil resonances in your equipment.


Sounds like a variation on what Lyric was pushing.

I seem to recall a sand box to set your tube amp in- there was
supposed to be some sort of mystical resonance between the sand and
the glass envelopes that made it a particularly beneficial
combination.


Yeah, sand and audio equipment - great combo!

A_C


  #79   Report Post  
Steven Sullivan
 
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lordy, it never ends..


http://www.soundstage.com/weaver04.htm


(I've read tthat the green pen tweaks started as an online hoax....
taken as truth by some gullible audiophile...and the rest is
history. I haven't been able to trace the story back
far enough to verify that)






--

-S
It's not my business to do intelligent work. -- D. Rumsfeld, testifying
before the House Armed Services Committee
  #80   Report Post  
Steven Sullivan
 
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and here's more about the Armour-All tweak brouhaha -- perhaps Mr. Atkinson
can comment on its accuracy.

http://www.soundstage.com/weaver06.htm



--

-S
It's not my business to do intelligent work. -- D. Rumsfeld, testifying
before the House Armed Services Committee
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