Re: Audiophoolery?
 

An Arcam amplifier of the late 80's had two rings of copper about an inch across on the PCB to "make it sound better" this was suggested by Peter Belt... https://www.stereophile.com/content/...belt-1930-2017 Arcam hired him at some cost for this, 'spose it was good for advertising.

Re: connectors made from exotic materials
 

A recommendation in itself!

Re: connectors made from exotic materials
 

Agree, but the mains cables can only supply power as good as is fed into them. Maybe there's room for an Audiophile Energy Supplier, one whose electricity comes only from nuclear reactors fuelled by magnetically treated, oxygen-free, enriched uranium? Or pulverised, re-crystallised, cryo-treated coal? The thought of random pressure fluctuations in the boilers affecting the supply's source impedance scares the hell out of me!

I'm suddenly wondering if that will be shown to be the cause of the B737 crashes, not using grain-oriented, oxygen-free, cryogenically treated, lead-overwound cables and connectors for the digital fly-by-wire signals?

Re: Connectors made from exotic materials.
 

Well again yes and no. A note from Analog Devices regarding errors arising from RF pickup here

https://www.analog.com/en/analog-dia...d-errors.html#

There are papers on line from much earlier than that (2008) pointing out the same phenomenon in instrumentation systems. In other words a sensor, a cable and an amplifier.

Anyway, although those truly skilled in the art can certainly design a suitably wideband input filter, I'll bet a quid that the vast majority of commercial domestic audio amplifiers are not at all well filtered.

Craig

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Totally OT for this thread (love that it is now a sticky, what fun). Always fibre optic for digital audio, cheap and no chance of a hum loop. And I like the red light.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

There is always two sides to the coin. Fibre optic is fine and dandy provided it is of high enough quality at Tx and Rx ends. And I don't mean snake oil optical cables. I just mean the highest speed devices, and not necessarily TOSLINK.

Coax actually can work much better if done right. By that I mean galvanically isolated at send and receive, with true resistive 75 ohms at each end (and there is a much longer story about that relating to pulse transformers actually not being best at 75 ohms), and a halfway decent 75 ohm cable.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

How long it stays that way rather depends on what's posted. It's intended as a depository for the way OTT items as in post 1.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

How many of the darn things do they actually sell?

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Have some more rubbish....

http://www.machinadynamica.com/machina31.htm

Check the rest of the products as well.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

That is ridiculous in the extreme. Like beeswax filled fuses https://highend-electronics.com/prod...wax-super-fuse ($175 per fuse or $225 for the super version), Bybee Quantum Purifiers https://bybeetech.com/products/#puri...%93diy-and-oem

And in fact any audio product that includes the word Quantum. And there are quite a few. Quantum fuses https://highend-electronics.com/prod...-quantum-fuses

Or the Quantum Line Strip, which features Quantum Tunneling Treatment (what tosh) https://highend-electronics.com/prod...tum-line-strip

The audio world is full of this sort of nonsense, all with a massive price tag.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Any sufficiently radical audio technology is indistinguishable from a wind-up

'E's a witch! And you know what we do to witches.......

(With apologies to Arthur C Clarke and Monty Python)

Without help from the Spanish Inquisition or a crowd of scientists with burning torches and pitchforks, we haven't got a hope in hell.

David

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

And the sound is indistinguishable from a wind-up gramophone (sorry, could not resist).

I don't think I'd want wax-filled fuses. Sound like a major fire risk if they blow. I want my fuse wire surrounded by something that won't burn, like sand.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

A fuse is just an ordinary piece of tinned copper wire. Why should it benefit from beeswax and not every other conductor?

Making and selling non-BS1363-compliant plug fuses could be taking on a lot of liability.

The thing is it's so easy to fake these advances. The first of April is close, so how about a suggestion that amplifiers, speakers, turntables etc made in imperial dimensions sound better than those made in metric dimensions? It would have to be padded out with florid prose and tales of exalted listening tests then an attempt to flog imperial-sized CDs at exorbitant prices with the promise that an imperial CD player would follow. It was no coincidence that we played 12" records on 12" platters with 9" arms and cartridges on 1/2" hole centres through 12", 4" and 1" speakers.

David

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

I recall hearing about a HiFi enthusiast who went to such lengths to reduce the effects of the cable to his speakers that he had channels dug out out his concrete floor and filled them with mercury.
Now there' a new marketing idea, it has the advantages of being both expensive and toxic.

Peter

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

..... All the while our Continental cousins were quite happily listening to 30cm. records on 30cm. platters, with 23cm. tonearms and cartridges on 12.7mm. centres, through 25cm., 10cm. and 5cm. speakers with 1.4T magnets! Europeans are stereotypically sophisticated; Americans are stereotypically brash and vulgar. Would you rather your hi-fi sounded like Mr Hamilton from the Waldorf Salad episode of Fawlty Towers, or Mme Peignoir from The Wedding Party? Birdsong on the lush banks of the tinkling Danube, or paddle steamers clanking and tooting their way up the Mississippi?

Also, if you are going to measure your tracking force in grams (probably centiNewtons in Germany .....), it would be bad ju-ju to go mixing your units. Some early Eastern European ICs were made on a 2.5mm. pin pitch, not realising that the extra 0.04mm. was no error. Would their rarity compensate for the rough-and-ready, make-do-and-mend attitude stereotypically associated with Eastern Europeans, though?

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Not sure if this has been seen before but I thought 'wooden capacitors' made for amusing reading https://www.dhtrob.com/projecten/elna1_en.php

Improve the sound of your hi fi by giving electrolytics a wooden case......

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Good thinking! Just imagine how a system might sound if the 'speaker cables were routed through copper tubing filled with... well, ideally beeswax, but even liquid paraffin would surely be transformative. Give it a month to settle before use, then listen to the difference it's made, and you'll be itching to seal the base of your amplifier and fill it up with wax through those handy perforations at the top or my name's not Jack Robinson. It'll need an hour or two to burn in of course.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

He’s very skilled with the teaspoon and tea light. Looks like he’s has lots of experience there :-D

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

The thing with wood is, every piece is different. It's a natural product and its density, moisture content, absorbancy etc etc can vary even for pieces cut from the same chunk. Now given the extent to which the audiophool is attempting to 'gild the lilly', leaving no stone unturned in his quest for perfect sound, this rather shoots him in the foot when it comes to the use of wood in many places in hifi equipment. Particularly so where wood is used for cartridge housings costing thousands of pounds. It's just not a repeatable material compared to man made ones that can be produced to be exactly the same over many years of production, thus maintaining specification.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Someone would come back at you agreeing absolutely that there's a night-and-day difference in the sound but pointing out that the measurement system can't be the explanation for it. What you've 'obviously' missed, and what can 'easily' explain it, is the real difference between the metric and imperial thread forms in all of the systems' screws. Schoolboy error :-).

Cheers,

GJ