Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

The reference to William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was not entirely random.

In order to prevent the disturbing sound of His Lordship turning in his grave, we should remember one of his best-known assertions: “When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers, you know something."

Audiophiles have to bear in mind that it's this fundamental scientific maxim that's followed by the designers of the recording studio kit that generates the source material for their hobby.

Martin

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

Err, yes I get that Martin....

Still want more phoolery;D
Donald's magic pebbles from post #700 look like fine value for money. :laugh2:

Cheers,
Steve.

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

The Bombus sylvarum might be a good start, getting rare too.

On the other hand if acoustical attenuation of the higher notes is required then the feathers of a vampire's budgie (aka Megascops asio) work really well.....Have fun.

Lawrence.

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

Here you go: fuses that contain Graphene. And also the word "Quantum" USD150 each.

https://www.synergisticresearch.com/fuses/blue/

Or some sort of mains gizmo that includes the phrase "... Earth, which acts as a reservoir of charge..."

https://www.synergisticresearch.com/...ound-block-se/

Craig

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

To save some money I've organised a visit to a beach over the Easter Weekend with the family and the dog - will pick up some pebbles, stick them in a plastic bag and sell them on eBay! ;D

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

I like that grounding box with all those little leads that connect to bits of rattly clutter on the audio leads.
Those fuses are pretty expensive too.
I wonder if you can make the sound sharper if a beeswax filled fuse is filled with wax from hawthorn fed bees or a warmer sharp sound stage if the bees are given access to firethorn flowers.
Oil seed rape would be good if the electrons need to be lubricated to make them slip through the cables more easily.

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

Bees. Don't talk to me about bees.

They have set up shop in my incinerator (the one that looks like a fancy dustbin) right next to a fence I'm trying to paint. They are not impressed. I have been strafed comprehensively.

The basically blew a fuse 8-o

If it was my hifi system I'd be trying to find what the hum was! It was worse than listening to Glenn Gould!

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

You'll have to polish them first, though, which could wreck the business plan unless you've already got a suitable tumbler.

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

Indeed. And not just any old tumbler.

Cheers,

GJ

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

I see that the new 'blue' fuses on the webpage Craig pointed to are directional!

If these fuses were used in the power plug of the tumbler used to polish the smart pebbles which then get placed in the listening room, just imagine how much better they would work!

Well, so long as they were put in the right way round...

David

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

This is the ultimate in technical gobbledegook, so similar to the nonsense in the sort of products we have been ridiculing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

After that video, Youtoob followed it up with "A history of the turbo encabulator" and in the datasheet for the G-E version I spotted mention of N0-BLO (tm) fuses which fits in nicely with this thread. I wonder what they're filled with?

The history video says it started with an IEE article in the late 1940s, so the turbo encabulator is yet another British invention that the yanks made off with! Still, they made a good job of it and so long as it's *their* government which paid for it....

I should add that 'Smart rocks' and 'brilliant pebbles' were genuine US military ideas. The idea of dropping precision guided masses from orbit to hit someone on the ground. Someone over here seems to have nicked the name.

David

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

Brilliant Pebbles wasn't about hitting targets on the ground. Its aim was to destroy mid-course ICBMs simply by hitting them with a fast-moving massive projectile (given the speeds involved, it wouldn't need to be that massive). The projectile would be 'brilliant' in the sense that it would have all the target sensing, propulsion and guidance systems onboard, rather than being controlled remotely.

During the late 80's I was working in the US on another SDI project (on the sensing side) and that was when the use of massive projectiles took over from the proposal to melt ICBMs using space-based X-ray lasers powered by nuclear bombs. That was an idea which makes extreme audiophoolia look entirely reasonable, and compared with it Brilliant Pebbles looked very straightforward indeed.

Cheers,

GJ

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

All of which brings us back to wind-up gramophones and 78s, assuming at least one intact eardrum.

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

About a year ago, I was asked to look at a Project turntable.

There was a very loud hum which couldn't be cured. I noticed he had some very expensive cables connecting the turntable to the amplifier, he told me he paid £200 for them.

Electrically I couldn't find anything wrong with them but on a hunch made up a phono cable from my reel of reasonably good quality cable and some gold plugs.

My cable completely cleared them hum and the system worked perfectly.

I dont know if he was happy or angry.

Happy that I'd cleared the fault. or Angry that my cables that cost a few pounds worked whereas his £200 cable did not.

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

There has to be a point where throwing money at a problem doesn’t solve it. Maybe it takes a certain size of cahones to admit that.

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

Sounds like he would have been happier if you'd made up some technobabble for him and charged him £300. Being confronted with truthfulness and fair pricing would take him into new and scary territory.

90% psycho, 10% acoustics.

David

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

I must take and share a photograph of my latest invention. Designed to (subjectively, of course, although there is a danger of objective measurable improvement) reduce vibrations in the Bakelite case of my old GEC that's been dropped on it's face prior to ownership, and thus allow cranking of the volume to maximum without any annoying buzzing from the cracks...

(Hint-: it's some mucky tissue paper shoved in strategic places to place tension on resonating parts!)

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

Many audiophiles do not realise that there are three ways to get really bad cables:
1. buy really cheap cables
2. buy really expensive cables
3. make your own cables from a recipe you found online, often involving some form of plaiting and often omitting any screening

Re: The Audiophoolery Thread.
 

"Cables" meaning..