Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Now here's a couple of links to some sites which will test your patience; see if you can control your incredulity/keep your dinner down after reading this little pile of nonsense:)

http://www.highfidelitycables.com/technology.html

And as if that wasn't baffling/idiotic enough have a look at this. Crikey!

https://sanfranciscoaudiophilesociet...-rick-schultz/

:shrug: :wall::thumbsup:

If you've had a bad day you might be best looking away now!!!

Cheers,
Steve:-D

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

After looking there I followed a link to UK dealers for prices - Well over £1000 for a power cable? Perhaps better parallel a couple of dozen Poundland lol. I wonder what input the Chinese have in the market?

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

One of the diagrams in the first link (bottom of the page) mentions 'Quantum electrical spin'

You have to admire their honesty(?)

ionburn, a chap where I used to work achieved fantastic sound using 'cooker cable' for his speaker leads, he made a set of I.E.C leads out of some 'stout' stuff too.

Mark

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Bewilderingly they managed to patent this nonsense. Has to be the same outfit - patent and company are both in Texas.

Because you have to "reduce to practice" (IOW build it, and prove it works) they have tables that "prove" that including magnets inside the connector pin, and using a ferromagnetic core in the cable (bet they used an oscilloscope probe cable for the test) causes reduction in distortion and improvement in signal to noise.

How those tests were performed in detail is not disclosed.

Which just shows you can patent any old hokum.

I tried to upload the file, but it exceeds the file size (allowed 1.91MB, and the file is 2.03MB)

So you'll have to look up US 8,272,876 if you are interested.

Craig

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Yeah - same guy. Patent was by Ricky David Schultz, and that is the guy in the second link.

Dear heavens, just read the detail of the second link "No-one understands magnetism...". Nonsense.

"Even if you had a doctorate in magnetic engineering, it wouldn’t be easy. And though Rick doesn’t have such a degree" well, there you go.

Craig

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

How do you mean?

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

For their entry level power cable cable only.

The CT1 Ultimate Reference power cable is $9,900 for one metre http://www.highfidelitycables.com/products/power/ct1ur/

Phono cables $8,900

And so it goes on...

Schultz must be following the teachings of Franz Mesmer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Mesmer

Craig

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Does anyone know of any university offering a doctorate in 'Magnetic Engineering'?
If there isn't, then it's impossible to get one up on Rick.

I thought he was following the teachings of P T Barnum.

If we follow the high-end dictum that the source is most important, then people had better upgrade their house wiring and the national grid before buying that IEC cable. We'll know if someone does this by Mr Schultz appearing at top of the Forbes list.

I liked the quantum electrical spin bit. It sits nicely with the rest of the hokum. I wonder if he's holding quantum magnetic monopoles in reserve for a future product. For safety reasons, these will have to only come packaged as matched complementary pairs, I guess.

It might be fun to collect truly hokey audio adverts, frame them and put them in your listening room. These claims have reached the level of an art form. I've seen collections of handbills for doubtful medicines and electrical/medical quack machinery.

David

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

You can do a PhD in just about any topic at all. All you need is a supervisor who has applied for and won a grant for a particular topic. And then your own personal interest, a first class degree, and fire in your belly to do it in the first place.

Mine is here for anyone wanting a little light bedtime reading https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/393635/1/82032212.pdf

Craig

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Speaker cable at $12.000 a metre ! Utter nonsense .

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

I imagine it makes a good deal of sense to anyone who can find a way of selling some ;D.

Cheers,

GJ

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Just read the first link... Wow! But it's all geared around magnets, and the magnetic fields that make the speaker cones move.

So if I use electrostatic speakers, will I still benefit for the cables? This time it's only charge that makes the speaker diaphragm move, and charge is carried by electrons isn't it? So as long as I make sure I don't lose any electrons from the cable, I'll be OK! But hey, the insulation does that, so I can save a fortune on speaker cables!

But I'm also thinking, one cable carries charge in, the other takes it out. So maybe one cable should be made of anticopper?

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

If you're using electrostatic speakers, I'm sure he'll offer to do you some special cables with electrets distributed through the insulation, shouldn't be that much more expensive.

BUT isn't there a step-up transformer at the base of the speaker, and that's magnetic! and then there's magnetism in the output transformer of a valve amp.

Maybe you also need a direct-to-diaphragm amplifier?

David

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Yes - it is called an OTL design (Output TransformerLess) design.

Usually manufactured for driving conventional loudspeakers https://www.transcendentsound.com/products-.html , there are those who have designed and marketed for direct drive of an electrostatic speaker. They are a bit of a beast, needing to swing high hundreds of volts into a significant capacitance; they never really took off for a variety of reasons. Although Beverage in the 1980's made a curved tweeter panel that was directly driven. But that was physically small, and much easier to drive than a large panel.

Craig

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

I must say how buoyed up I am reading your comments: thanks one and all because this sort of drivel starts a domino effect in my poor brain - linking into all the rest of the nonsense that seems to abound these days and before I know it I end up feeling isolated and in despair about the world.

Not this time though:laugh2::wave:

Steve.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

With the magnetically-guided electrons in the wire, it's bound to improve sound quality, give more presence, etc etc. After all, it says so in the advert doesn't it?

But I'm wondering about other applications. The same cable technology, used as a monitor cable, might make the text on my screen look clearer. And the photos will be more in focus. What about on my washing machine, will my shirts come out whiter? And in electric cars - I'm sure the range will be increased, after all, each electron will be doing useful work, none will leak away!

If we can persuade the high-end manufacturers to take up the cable technology, then economies of scale will start to kick in, prices will plummet, and in a couple of decades we will ALL be able to afford the benefits.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

That doesn't sound too bad,


Did you mean $12,000 perhaps? And wouldn't it have to be in meters?

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

But surely, concentrating the electron flow in the centre of the conductor would increase the effective resistance of the cable to the measurable detriment of its performance. :o

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

A bit tongue in cheek without going into detail but, on browsing, I saw mention of impedances in cables and suggest parallelling a few cheaper ones together to get improvement. If you mean the Chinese, I would say they see markets, and this would be a very lucrative sideline for a small operation with clever marketing. I suspect they are well in there with budget perfection, and probably manufacture of components.

Re: Audiophoolery?
 

Y'know, we make jokes and we laugh about audiophoolery, and that includes not only the buyers (those with the seemingly common combination of being rich enough and stupid enough) but the manufacturers also. Ok we can say, more phool the buyer for falling for such tripe, but I seriously feel that these self styled gurus who design (ha ha), make and sell all this stuff should be brought to account by trading standards in the same way that those who practise fortune telling and so on now have to state that their service is for fun only. So, it would be made law that it is not allowed to make claims for hifi/listening equipment that cannot be backed up by objective figures and specifications. References to sound stage and other purely subjective auras, statements and claims should be banned. That applying to ads, user instructions and packaging. I just don't see why rip off self styled gurus should be allowed to make money in this way. The audiophools I couldn't care less about, more phool them. But charlatans laughing all the way to the bank? no.