The Audiophoolery Thread.

[Radio Wrangler]

It is, of course, all an intelligence test. Failure is rather expensive.

I wonder how many audiophile products are actually research programmes by university psychology departments farming research papers and dissertations? Shades of Monty Python's upper class twit of the year awards?

David

[Malcolm G6ANZ]

If the fuse blows would you be able to claim under the warranty?

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by Craig Sawyers

It is a Hong Kong product https://quantum-science-audio.com/ . Whole load of mad stuff there, including the stupidly priced above fuse. No mention of "bottle neck distortion" though.

Craig

I looked at that, too. Given the promises made by the fuse I was expecting a posh website full of seriousness, white papers and equations.

I was somewhat disappointed!

As to directionality, that's got me thinking. I'm at work and we've had a 55kVA 3-phase PSU back from a customer with a complaint that one of the phases keeps dropping out.

I'd better go and check that some muppet hasn't put the fuse on that phase in the wrong way round...

[DMarchesi]

Originally Posted by greg_simons

I see it's directional as well, does it have semiconductor properties?!.
Greg.

Maybe if you get it cold enough it might just start to.... LOL i cannot believe how audio foolish some people are

[Craig Sawyers]

Note the use of the word "quantum". Any consumer audio product that bandies around the word is a purveyor of snake oil. Bamboozling money out of customers using pseudoscience.

Craig

[The Philpott]

I've updated my original theory on the genesis of this fuse nonsense and similar retail items....and i believe that it's now a combination of a) primarily, fishing to see if they can actually hook anyone at great profit b) attention seeking to effectively publicise the remainder of the product portfolio, some of which is more sensibly priced and c) baiting people like us, for entertainment.

Dave

[borjamar]

I found a cure for damaged, distorting vinyl records. Homeopathy, no less.

First, obtain some old damaged records. Grind them into a fine dust.

You need one cubic centimetre of that. Dissolve it into 100 cubic centimetres of distilled water.

Shake several times.

Take one cubic centimetre of the mother dillution and solve it into 100 cubic cm of water again. Shake.

Repeat the cycle 20 times (each time take 1 cubic cm of dillution, solve into 100 cubic cm of water) obtaining a 20 CH dillution.

Rinse your records in the homeopathetic medicine. Your records are cured now.

It might be a nice product, we might even produce different flavors depending on musical genres.

[jez_145]

The recent, four grand fuse, is all very well, but I still like to refer back to post #1365 by Kevin (back in April 2020) occasionally, showing us what I consider to be the ultimate IEC kettle lead:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...postcount=1365

It looks like it's still available - if you missed out the first time. If you would like the lead to go with your fuse, be sure to select the correct "wall end" option before placing it in your shopping basket to avoid any costly mistakes.


Jerry

[Radio Wrangler]

That cable doesn't make it clear whether an appropriately good fuse is included. This could be a very expensive oversight for anyone ordering one.

If all these mains cables, speaker cables, and 'interconnects' are so brilliantly wonderful, do you need any actual equipment between them? Their purchasers must have powerful enough imaginations to manage without.

David

[Outrun_uk]

I’m still taken aback by people who believe that the last few feet of a mains lead will make any appreciable difference to the sound of their system after the power has gone through the provider’s cabling, incoming fuse, consumer unit, house wiring twin and earth and the faceplate socket… ��

[duncanlowe]

Originally Posted by Outrun_uk

I’m still taken aback by people who believe that the last few feet of a mains lead will make any appreciable difference to the sound of their system after the power has gone through the provider’s cabling, incoming fuse, consumer unit, house wiring twin and earth and the faceplate socket… ��

Back in the late eighties, I did find an early audiophool who was planning to reduce this somewhat by having a dedicated consumer unit for the supply to the audio system and having the system hardwired without any nasty 3 pin BS plugs. What was hard to swallow he was actually employed as an Engineer!

[jez_145]

I auditioned the IEC lead with my Morrisons "Turin" kettle (on offer - 12 quid). The results were immediate and, quite frankly, astonishing. The tea stage was open, airy and, well, down right visceral. Even more marked than an earlier upgrade to a round pin mains receptacle. Sonically, the kettle now boils with precision and impeccable tempo and those little crackles that cut in a few seconds after initial power up now just seem to leap out and scream "we're here - we love you and there's nothing you can do about it!".

Be warned though. To realise this level of performance, you need to ensure that there are no other kettles in your brewing area.

[joebog1]

Originally Posted by Outrun_uk

I’m still taken aback by people who believe that the last few feet of a mains lead will make any appreciable difference to the sound of their system after the power has gone through the provider’s cabling, incoming fuse, consumer unit, house wiring twin and earth and the faceplate socket… ��

I have done exactly that!!! DONT laugh. As well as that I had to fit a 4mm cable from the fuse box to the point next to the stereo and fit a junction box. Into the junction box went the standard BP connectors that held the solid mains cable to the solid 4mm feed cable.

The stereo was a pair of Quad amps, plus preamp, a Michel Gyrodeck, and a pair of electrostatic speakers. THis was on the second floor of a timber queenslander, whose floor could be made to jump up and down about an inch simply by jumping up and down myself.
I weigh a huge 68 kilos.


Go figure that one.

Joe

[Trevor]

If these idiots only knew how non linear the rectifiers were in the amplifier power supplies

[Radio Wrangler]

They will fight to the death against anyone armed with knowledge and facts, in order to protect their pristine cluelessness.

Of course, they believe the writings of internet/magazine gurus, shop assistants and, marketeers without question. But then, these people are by and large residents of the fact-free zone and are fully acclimatised to their environment. They pose no threat.

David

[Craig Sawyers]

The real world problem with commercial audio electronics is that designers know diddly squat about RF ingress. Alas in the modern world we live in an RF polluted environment.

As an example, if I am doing audio measurements using a good old 7A22 Tektronix differential amplifier, that goes down to 10uV/div, I have to switch off all LED lights, and even turn off the central heating (the Honeywell controller is a real source of garbage). And even so I'm plagued by an AM radio station.

Alas out of band RF causes dire problems with audio gear - to the extent that a mobile phone doing a station seek will break through into audio gear (zzt zzt zzt...).

If you look at the mains wiring you will see one possible source of RF ingress - wiring is usually open, and easily forms resonant loops. As an example of a source of this in a microphone have a look at a paper from the pro audio company RANE https://www.ranecommercial.com/legacy/note165.html

Now sure that is a pin 1 problem in balanced connections, but it makes the point that even small loops can inject RF.

Instrumentation designers have long known about these effects, often with long runs in high interference environments. They became past masters of multiple box shielded mains transformers, with primary/secondary capacitance of a pF or so. Difficult to specify, source, and apply (and expensive!) perhaps it is easy to see why consumer equipment uses a simple toroid with either no shielding, or a single simple shield grounded with a long pigtail.

So why not use a filtered IEC? Fine as far as it goes, but they are usually only specified to 30MHz, with the odd example specified to 60MHz. The RF problem goes well beyond that - the mobile phone example is breaking through into audio equipment at close to 1GHz, being rectified by semiconductor junctions, and being amplified and heard. Not even mentioning power line networking!

This is a longwinded way of saying that if a mains cable has been designed to have broadband RF attenuation, then it can make a significant difference to RF ingress from the mains.

There are examples out there that do exactly that. They are few however by comparison to the huge barrel of snake oil.

Another interesting approach comes from the radio ham crew. Mains born interference is a major problem here, with an interesting design here https://gm3sek.com/2019/10/11/clean-up-your-shack-2019/

Craig

[Beobloke]

Originally Posted by jez_145

I auditioned the IEC lead with my Morrisons "Turin" kettle (on offer - 12 quid). The results were immediate and, quite frankly, astonishing. The tea stage was open, airy and, well, down right visceral. Even more marked than an earlier upgrade to a round pin mains receptacle. Sonically, the kettle now boils with precision and impeccable tempo and those little crackles that cut in a few seconds after initial power up now just seem to leap out and scream "we're here - we love you and there's nothing you can do about it!".

Be warned though. To realise this level of performance, you need to ensure that there are no other kettles in your brewing area.

I'm surprised you were able to do this as the audiophile mains lead will have an IEC C13 connector, and your kettle will have an IEC C16 inlet, and the former will not plug into the latter

I can't help thinking that you're making up all the results you found and am shocked that you would pollute a serious thread with such tomfoolery.

[Valvepower]

Much like The Infinite Improbability Drive [from Hitchhikers Guide] give your audio system a fresh cup of really hot tea ... and turn it on! And hey presto audio nirvana

Terry

Originally Posted by jez_145

I auditioned the IEC lead with my Morrisons "Turin" kettle (on offer - 12 quid). The results were immediate and, quite frankly, astonishing. The tea stage was open, airy and, well, down right visceral. Even more marked than an earlier upgrade to a round pin mains receptacle. Sonically, the kettle now boils with precision and impeccable tempo and those little crackles that cut in a few seconds after initial power up now just seem to leap out and scream "we're here - we love you and there's nothing you can do about it!".

Be warned though. To realise this level of performance, you need to ensure that there are no other kettles in your brewing area.

[deliverance]

Originally Posted by jez_145

I auditioned the IEC lead with my Morrisons "Turin" kettle (on offer - 12 quid). The results were immediate and, quite frankly, astonishing. The tea stage was open, airy and, well, down right visceral. Even more marked than an earlier upgrade to a round pin mains receptacle. Sonically, the kettle now boils with precision and impeccable tempo and those little crackles that cut in a few seconds after initial power up now just seem to leap out and scream "we're here - we love you and there's nothing you can do about it!".

Be warned though. To realise this level of performance, you need to ensure that there are no other kettles in your brewing area.

Like it :

[mickm3for]

Hi the people that sell this stuff know its snake oil someone i know sells/fits some of this stuff he admits its a rip off ££££££££ for a cable but says " if i quote for a job and its not expensive (more than the one i did last week ) i will not get the job even if using the same items, he says its more " mine cost a lot more than yours so it sounds better" thing The times have gone the best teck. at a cost reflecting the quality. I have had this myself a dry joint on a radio how much to fix it £5.00 "will let you know" took to said av installer above how much £50.00 he got the job but i did the soldering as he cant solder
but i can not justify that amount for 10 minutes work Mick