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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 8:20 am   #381
Craig Sawyers
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

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Now things get life cycled at a software level, like a print counter IC in a printer, that disables the unit when its reached a max count. This guarantees obsolescence.
It has ever been thus. In the mid 80's I worked for a company who had invested about 15 years before in a Honywell computer (a big beast) whose main task was to invoice customers. We invoiced monthly.

Now this old machine was so ancient in today's terms that it worked in octal.

What no-one realised was that when the invoice counter got to 77777 (32767 in decimal) that was the end of the road. So when we tried to print invoice number 32768 the machine just gave an error message saying that its counter was full.

Panic! No invoices, no revenues, run out of money, dead company. Honeywell (once they finally arrived) took several days to resurrect the machine; it was so old that there were very few who knew how it worked at the level of re-zeroing the counter. And charged us a small fortune to do so.

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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 9:05 am   #382
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

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The effect is not only in the head, it is also in the wallet.

I don't see anything wrong if it affects only a single individual or someone rich enough to afford it without consequences. What concerns me is the effect on a family of lesser means.
Totally agree.

Even in the event that the claims that are made for this "audiophool" ephemera were true, It's not worth spending hundred or thousands on exotic accessories which, even if they were somehow 'better', are like worrying about the added weight of a gnat landing on an aircraft carrier affecting operations. You might be able to find a system somewhere that could detect the improvements but, otherwise, you'll never know.

Basically, I don't give the furry crack of a rats behind what the "phools" or "philes" (note: two completely separate and different sets of individuals to my mind), spend their cash on, but I do get niggled when I want to buy an ECC83.

Andy.
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 9:47 am   #383
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

It's diminishing returns, like anything else. Whilst a £40 pair of binoculars may be twice as good as a £20 pair, A £200 pair of binoculars are not twice as good as a £100 pair. A £13.99 wristwatch will keep better time and will be more robust than a £1.99 one off a market stall but a £400 wristwatch (cost of parts approximately £50) does not tell the time ten times better or more accurately than a £40 one (cost of parts perhaps £8), nor is the case ten times 'better'. Perhaps the name on the dial attracts ten times more adulation from some people?

And so it is with audio. The issue here is all in the mind. Whilst the desire to acquire the best thing one can have may have a kernel of atavistic truth, there comes a point where spending inordinate amounts of money on something which may or may not be a proven advancement scientifically and academically 'just because one can' goes far beyond rational understanding - to me, anyway.

Those people who enjoy more lavish lifestyles and who appear to exist on a different stratum to me may disagree, but for now, I just don't get it. It would be wrong here to open the can of worms containing the power of advertising, the inequity of education, the evolution of capitalism, the exploitation of the weak through fear and subjugation and the politics encompassing it all, but that is where the answer lies.

If life came to a choice between the freedom to indulge in audiophoolery as one wished, for whatever reason, or to live where no freedom whatsoever was granted to indulge in anything, I know which one I would choose.

Live and let live.
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 9:51 am   #384
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

I suppose my aforementioned post might be shortened to 'There's nowt as queer as folk'!
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 10:09 am   #385
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Wow this thread has to be one of the longest discussions ever.
Maybe non-believers in audiophoolery are just practical persons and who cant afford the gadgets, like me.

Mike
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 10:43 am   #386
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

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I suppose my aforementioned post might be shortened to 'There's nowt as queer as folk'!
And then there is the U-tube video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHlCWuQOPJk
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 11:07 am   #387
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

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Wow this thread has to be one of the longest discussions ever.
Maybe non-believers in audiophoolery are just practical persons and who cant afford the gadgets, like me.
Or they have dabbled (at the more affordable end) and made their own conclusions on what actually makes a difference.

Andy.
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 12:23 pm   #388
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

The gadgets are very expensive if you buy them from the manufacturers, but in a lot of cases, you could experiment and make your own much more cheaply. You could do just as well, but you'll lack the cult support.

Whether what you try works or not is your own look-out and subject to your own determination. What you don't get is the warm and fuzzy feeling in the gregarious instinct department.

Overpriced things are open to being undercut.

David
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 2:03 pm   #389
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Usage habits based on spread word and/or belief without fact can have catastrophic results, take the MMR scandal for example. "Don't believe scientists at all they get it wrong" occasionally, yes, but that is part of the scientific method. And it will be corrected.

I would go livid if I bought a house measured with a 10" foot rule.
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 2:17 pm   #390
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Worse than a decimal inch ruler, how about decimal music (ie dividing an octave into ten tones)

http://www.derek-hasted.co.uk/assets...d/ten-tone.mp3
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 2:32 pm   #391
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

I wasn't thinking decimal, just a smaller house than expected, see your point, I guess that would need even specialer cables.
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 2:34 pm   #392
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Pedantic point, a ruler isn't a rule. (one of my pet hates along with calling a cell a battery)
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 2:59 pm   #393
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

I have an interest in slide rules, and a similar cringe misuse on auction sites is when they are listed as a "slide ruler"
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 3:10 pm   #394
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Ooooh, we're into the misuse of English language now? Fabulous!
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 3:31 pm   #395
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

It was only a matter of time, Richard
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 5:10 pm   #396
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

I've enjoyed this thread; a real 'page-turner' if that's the right expression. Thanks to all contributors.

Perhaps we should remember that we spend considerable time, effort and often money on items that are measurably worse in parameters such as sensitivity, selectivity and power consumption than the modern equivalents we could buy for a few tens of pounds?!
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 5:57 pm   #397
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

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I have an interest in slide rules, and a similar cringe misuse on auction sites is when they are listed as a "slide ruler"

What about ones that do have a ruler scale as well?
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 6:02 pm   #398
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Well lots of them have that, but that is not the main use of them. But that a slide rule has a ruler has a certain pleasure as a statement

Although quite a few Faber Castell slide rules have an Addiator on the back - a planar adding machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addiator

Craig
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 6:17 pm   #399
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

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Worse than a decimal inch ruler, how about decimal music (ie dividing an octave into ten tones)

http://www.derek-hasted.co.uk/assets...d/ten-tone.mp3
The Czech composer Alois Haba used quarter-tones and sixth-tones ; and the American composer Harry Partch divided the octave into 43 unequal tones. Microtonal music became fairly common last century.
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Old 23rd Oct 2017, 6:43 pm   #400
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Default Re: Audiophoolery. 'Cable Break In' - I never knew that!

Yes - there was a strong movement to microtonal music, with all sorts of strange music resulting.

The link I sent really appealed because of the really silly ditty - almost like something from Hitch Hiker's Guide.

I looked it out because there was a radio April Fool I recalled regarding the decimalisation of music, but alas I can find no reference to it on the web. But I well remember hearing Beethoven's 5th using ten notes in an octave. Once heard, hard to forget....
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