ARTICLE: A Last Helping of Snake Oil - Modern Hi-Fi and the Impact of Accessories

Uh-oh... *Ed clicks "post" and walks away*

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As we move more and more to wireless methods of connection then the accessory business will no doubt invent cans of audiophile air to improve wireless transmission fidelity - never underestimate their ability to invent then un-necessary based on FUD and dubious physics

Obviously the cable companies will move into flogging us oxygen free air to flood our listening rooms with.
 
What I'd like to see is some actual engineering analysis of the effects of cables. Especially speaker cables. That would convince me rather more that there was any difference in any of the cables on offer. I understand there is a limit of the size of the cable, i.e. you don't want to use a cable that's definitely undersized for the distance and load, but what happens to the audio signal after you 've reached a certain point? Do different cable construction alter the sound in any way that's measurable? etc.
Has anyone carried out this kind of analysis of cables?
Is there a method of calibrating audio (I'm thinking of music rather than DIRAC style home cinema calibration) as we would have with video, where there's a reference to work with?
 
..and therein lies the rub. What is it we are trying to achieve? What the studio engineer heard when he mixed the track on a pair of very neutral sounding monitors? What the musician heard in his earpiece / monitors when he played the piece? What the vinyl / CD mastering engineer heard when he produced the studio master? What the pressing engineer heard when he was QA'ing the pressings?

Nobody, as far as I know has actually defined what the 'end sound' is supposed to be replicating ?
 
There’s always plenty of folk out there daft enough to buy this stuff and with enough money too. So daft that you wonder how they got the money. Even now you still get people who will claim one hdmi cable will give them a better picture and sound quality on their tv even when you try to explain to them how hdmi works. I’ve given up trying to educate them
MONSTER!!!!!
 
Yeah, I need some of this for all of my cables at £100 a pop...invisible snake oil...

From the Russ Andrews Website

Super Burn-in
is the name we give to a unique cable enhancement that we've co-developed. One of our most exciting innovations, Super Burn-In uses a revolutionary technique to treat Kimber and Russ Andrews cables.

About the process
Super Burn-in can be applied to almost all Kimber or Russ Andrews cables. Even if you have a cable that has been run in for many years, our tests have shown that there is a significant performance upgrade to be gained from this unique process.


Super Burn-In is achieved via a custom-designed and built machine that treats the cable to a specific ‘recipe’. As the process is applied 'in house', we aim to process cables in 2-3 days. There are two levels of treatment that we can apply to cables; the first is standard Super Burn-in which can be applied to power, interconnects and speaker cables. The second is an enhanced level of treatment - Super Burn-in Plus - which is a two-stage process, suitable for our PowerKords and SuperKords only.

I am going to ask the VP of our Space and Defence divisions if we can use this on all of our Mil-Spec and ECSS (Space Spec) cables to enhance them.
 
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"the idea of using a higher quality cable to attach a printer in the pursuit of higher performance is entirely absurd."

Probably why nobody even thinks this.

You can't compare listening to music with printing a Word document, but I understand the sentiment... to a degree.

Not true - a Russ Andrews USB printer cable to my printer removed all spelling mistakes and improved my poor grammar when I printed the document so it must work - RA said it would so I believe him ;)
 
I always boil my cables in a vat of jelly before using them, blackcurrant for improved low end, then transfer them to the raspberry tank for better highs.
 
A guy on Youtube who reviews hi-fi equipment did a video on the chord Qutest DAC (which Ed reviewed) he is convinced when placed on an isolation pad (which costs £100's of pounds) the sound is a massive improvement. I have never laughed so much.
 
Another one that always got me...

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I can’t say I have tried this but really?

Adam.
 
..and therein lies the rub. What is it we are trying to achieve? What the studio engineer heard when he mixed the track on a pair of very neutral sounding monitors? What the musician heard in his earpiece / monitors when he played the piece? What the vinyl / CD mastering engineer heard when he produced the studio master? What the pressing engineer heard when he was QA'ing the pressings?

Nobody, as far as I know has actually defined what the 'end sound' is supposed to be replicating ?

There are so many variables it would be almost impossible to define. The biggest variable is probably the human, end recipient of the sound. What you can actually hear and the type of sound you like and don't like would be infinitely variable person by person If the sound engineer mastering the sound was 21 years old, would a 50 year old hear the same thing anyway and visa versa just as far a frequency range was concerned?
As for things like cables and accessories, there must be some subliminal messaging in the marketing material that turns off peoples logic? Just step back, think about the claims and apply rational thought based on even a basic understanding of physics and electronics - £100 directional fuses, please...………….

Did you know the Oxford English Dictionary has removed the word "gullible" from it's latest revision?
 
@Spyro @Coulson yes it was an April fools spoof from a few years back but this thread reminded me of it.

I actually typed this before posting the vid, not sure what happened to the text :censored:
 
If you've a system costing just a few quid, I've no doubt that any well-made and appropriate cables will do the job. But if you're trying to achieve some version of nirvana, why skimp? I can't really say whether particular individual elements of my stereo's power conditioning, cabling or isolation add the element of magic I seek, or whether the individual boxes well-matched and set up in the room was all that mattered, but either way, magic there is.

If I ever hear similar from a system with cheapo cables, I'll be duly impressed, but it hasn't happened yet. Or anything close. I post a photo for the amusement of the lighting flex brigade; that's only the left power conditioner, so I'm a double sucker?

I'm fully aware of the irony that my entire surround system cabling loom cost less than any one of these cables (barring the 12v triggers). But I sincerely doubt that loom was hand made the thousand naked virgins who toiled on my stereo, and can only speculate whether explosions and car crashes would sound better if it were.
 

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If you've a system costing just a few quid, I've no doubt that any well-made and appropriate cables will do the job. But if you're trying to achieve some version of nirvana, why skimp? I can't really say whether particular individual elements of my stereo's power conditioning, cabling or isolation add the element of magic I seek, or whether the individual boxes well-matched and set up in the room was all that mattered, but either way, magic there is.

If I ever hear similar from a system with cheapo cables, I'll be duly impressed, but it hasn't happened yet. Or anything close. I post a photo for the amusement of the lighting flex brigade; that's only the left power conditioner, so I'm a double sucker?

I'm fully aware of the irony that my entire surround system cabling loom cost less than any one of these cables (barring the 12v triggers). But I sincerely doubt that loom was hand made the thousand naked virgins who toiled on my stereo, and can only speculate whether explosions and car crashes would sound better if it were.

Picture looks like a PS Audio Demo; however, even IF the cables did make difference, the cable management is so bad that it would totally negate it.

Bill
 
Picture looks like a PS Audio Demo; however, even IF the cables did make difference, the cable management is so bad that it would totally negate it.

Bill
........and they need to be a double anticlockwise helix twist in the northern hemisphere to be truly effective.

@HiTracey - so the FUD based, pseudo-science marketing works then :clap:. Glad the accessory companies didn't waste all that budget.:smashin:
 

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