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Old 17th Mar 2019, 11:03 am   #461
julie_m
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Default Re: Audiophoolery?

..... Especially if the threads in question were BSM and UNC, respectively! (Or JIS and UNF.)
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Old 17th Mar 2019, 12:24 pm   #462
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Ah, but classic Brit hifi was built with BA threads, and BA was defined in metric units (which came as a surprise to me many years ago)

Some Americans are quite mellifluous, some even have a sense of humour! I'll be selective, I certainly don't want my hifi to act in any way their current chieftain. Things European do seem, on the whole, to be more sophisticated. I like metric. Not only does it give a modern, accurate sound, the units all ft together with less fudging.

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Old 17th Mar 2019, 1:05 pm   #463
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Ah, but classic Brit hifi was built with BA threads, and BA was defined in metric units (which came as a surprise to me many years ago)

Some Americans are quite mellifluous, some even have a sense of humour! I'll be selective, I certainly don't want my hifi to act in any way their current chieftain. Things European do seem, on the whole, to be more sophisticated. I like metric. Not only does it give a modern, accurate sound, the units all ft together with less fudging.

David
It's the sound that's important after all. Objective measurements mean nothing..
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Old 17th Mar 2019, 1:15 pm   #464
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Interesting to hear that ICs were made with 2.5mm pin pitch. In the early 1970's we had a Cambion catalogue that had sockets with this pitch in addition to the usual 0.1" pitch. I did wonder why at the time and wondered if it was another example of the overenthusiastic metric madness that was prevalent at the time. The first Cambion metric catalogue had a page of useful data where they just multiplied everything by 25.4, including π!
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Old 17th Mar 2019, 1:18 pm   #465
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It's the sound that's important after all. Objective measurements mean nothing..
Sound?, so turning an amplifier chassis from a functional piece of electronics into an objet d'art, and an indication of one's wealth doesn't really help then?
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Old 17th Mar 2019, 1:53 pm   #466
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Sound?, so turning an amplifier chassis from a functional piece of electronics into an objet d'art, and an indication of one's wealth doesn't really help then?
That is the Power of Suggestion at work. You put your blood, sweat and tears into it; it had better sound good, otherwise you did all that for nothing!
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Old 17th Mar 2019, 2:45 pm   #467
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At first I thought it was expense that made an audiophoolish icon attractive. Close, but not always

And then I wondered if it was the twinkly jewellery nature of things. Again, close, but not always.

No, I think it's exclusivity that draws them in, the feeling that everyone (except their gods) are excluded from enjoying something they have. Something that elevates them to a smugness factor of at least 100 milliRobinsons. It needs to be something requiring any one of : great wealth, great luck, special friendships with gurus, or serious skills as a hunter-gatherer to obtain.

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Old 17th Mar 2019, 5:12 pm   #468
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Who'd be an audiophool on here eh?!
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Old 17th Mar 2019, 9:34 pm   #469
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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.
I suggested mercury some time back on this Forum, although I was thinking of polythene pipes as speaker cables, which were to be filled after routing and tacking in place. No connection with this chap, though it's pleasing to know my thoughts are on par with extreme audiophiles!

However, I had another idea which I thought I'd share with Forum members, concerning my attempts today at connecting the output of my amplifier (PCL82 single-ended, which I built years ago out of old TV parts. We know SE beats P-P hands down) to my speaker. I'd been worried that I might not have been getting the benefit of all that the PCL82 has to offer. I thought, replacing a few inches of cable might alleviate the 'deadness' of copper - it is such a dense metal after all - and I'd get a more vibrant sound with a lighter conductor. So, I replaced a short length of copper with 50mm sodium ingots.

Sodium is, of course, a light metal (less dense than water). It's also a good conductor. And, being pretty reactive, it should add a measure of immediacy to the sound. My specimens have been stored in liquid paraffin for a year at room temperature, so should be completely de-stressed. To make connections, I just screwed woodscrews into the metal. See photo.

The results are breathtaking! I'm listening to a 'songs from the shows' CD asI type. There's a sonic 'presence' no doubt caused by the fairly extreme electropositivity of sodium. It certainly has a positive effect! The willingness of sodium to lose its electrons is adding zest and sharpening the 'attack'.

Down side is that in air, the stuff oxidises fairly quickly. I'd need to keep the Na conductors immersed in oil for a permanent installation. But I wanted to share results with my Forum friends, free-of-charge.
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 12:25 am   #470
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If someone mistakenly drank that liquid paraffin for its traditional medicinal application, they might get more of a reaction than they expected!

Would beeswax act to protect your sodium from atmospheric oxygen? Then you could haver two beneficial effects at once.

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Old 18th Mar 2019, 8:53 am   #471
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Beeswax, Paraffin, cheapskate solutions, the true audiphool would build a vacuum chamber for the whole thing.

Funny, where did the sound go?
Peter
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 9:04 am   #472
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Originally Posted by julie_m View Post
Quote:
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Sound?, so turning an amplifier chassis from a functional piece of electronics into an objet d'art, and an indication of one's wealth doesn't really help then?
That is the Power of Suggestion at work. You put your blood, sweat and tears into it; it had better sound good, otherwise you did all that for nothing!
That sounds like everything I make. Inferior, unreliable and emits fire occasionally. I have no trouble admitting that
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 8:35 pm   #473
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Huge thanks to everyone who has posted, I didn't realize just how far down the rabbit hole this stuff has become.

"At those prices I would have expected pure silver conductors! It's.not 1st April yet, is it?"

At those prices I would expect room temperature super conductors delivered and installed by wonder woman
on the back of a flying unicorn .

I don't think it's necessary to spend ludicrous amounts of money on leads, I use 2.5 mm twin and earth
for the speakers on my system as it satisfies three important parameters, one- it is conductive, two- it is of a more
than suitable gauge for the job and three- it didn't cost me anything as I have plenty of it.
I doubt very much leads costing thousands of dollars would make any noticeable difference in a double blind test,
it sounds great and I'm happy with it. I wont be sticking stones to the leads or baking them in an oven for several
hours or putting them on little pylons or shot blasting them with pixie dust or any other such nonsense. But if this
this is what make folk happy then let them get on with it.

I imagine the folks that buy these leads will be able to hear a difference just that nobody else will. Instead of wasting
all that money on leads they should hire the band to come and play in there living room, you really cant get a more
real sound than that and it would probably be cheaper.
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Last edited by Silvered_Mica; 18th Mar 2019 at 8:45 pm. Reason: made the second paragraph less aggressive
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 10:12 pm   #474
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Default Re: Audiophoolery?

These sorts of differences can only be heard by their effect on the right test record...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W747FdqeFpA

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Old 18th Mar 2019, 10:18 pm   #475
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I remember reading an article in a power journal that recounted how, during WWII, the shortage of copper in the USA led to the windings of some new power transformers urgently needed to supply electricity to a factory supplying the war effort, were made from silver bullion from the US Federal Reserve. As they weighed many tons and were operated at lots of kV, they were secure enough. The silver was reclaimed on cessation of hostilities. Apparently they exhibited low "copper losses" and had excellent on-load regulation, as might be expected.

A world of difference from low level signals where the resistive losses in the wires will be negligible, although I am sure I read a review many years ago of someone selling pure silver wires for connecting the cartridge of your pick-up to the amplifier, I think via a transformer that also used silver wire.
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 10:54 pm   #476
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... I use 2.5 mm twin and earth
for the speakers on my system as it satisfies three important parameters, one- it is conductive, two- it is of a more
than suitable gauge for the job and three- it didn't cost me anything as I have plenty of it ...
Yes, it works just fine. The only problem with it is if you need to flex it e.g. because you move your speakers around a lot (I realise most people don't !). Then it can fatigue and snap, usually at the connector. When I use it I usually run the earth in parallel with the neutral. I don't really need the extra copper, but since it's there it seems a shame to waste it .

Cheers,

GJ
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 11:16 pm   #477
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I remember reading an article in a power journal that recounted how, during WWII, the shortage of copper in the USA led to the windings of some new power transformers urgently needed to supply electricity to a factory supplying the war effort, were made from silver bullion from the US Federal Reserve. As they weighed many tons and were operated at lots of kV, they were secure enough. The silver was reclaimed on cessation of hostilities. Apparently they exhibited low "copper losses" and had excellent on-load regulation, as might be expected.

Wasn't that the Manhattan Project?
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Old 18th Mar 2019, 11:35 pm   #478
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I suppose the earth core could be used as a conductor, I normally just snip it off. Maybe I could
connect it to mains earth, cover it in mesh tubing and make up some tosh about how good it is then
sell it to the Audiophoole's for thousands

No worries with the stiff cables as the speakers are never moved.

kalee20-
Maybe there's room for an Audiophile Energy Supplier,

emeritus-
the shortage of copper in the USA led to the windings of some new power transformers urgently
needed to supply electricity to a factory supplying the war effort, were made from silver bullion from
the US Federal Reserve


I think your on to something, they would be falling over each other to sign up for only £5 per kWh.

Another interesting business model is cutting the power leads off old toasters and electric fires,
sticking banana or spade connectors on the ends, attaching bits of wood to those cables and then
charge sixteen thousand pounds for them- atlantis-serie-ii-speaker-cable enjoy
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Old 19th Mar 2019, 11:17 am   #479
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Another interesting business model is cutting the power leads off old toasters and electric fires, sticking banana or spade connectors on the ends, attaching bits of wood to those cables and then charge sixteen thousand pounds for them- atlantis-serie-ii-speaker-cable enjoy
I like the drop-down option selectors. Good to see that you can select different burn-in periods to suit your budget. However I'm disappointed to note that you can't choose the type of wood for the beads - I'd have thought different people might have different expectations: Balsa for lightness in the highs; teak for good solid bass; pine for entry-level, all-roundness; mahogany for a rich, red sound; etc.
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Old 19th Mar 2019, 12:07 pm   #480
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This lot are making us IT contractors look relatively respectable suddenly

I had a flashback earlier to someone I was talking to a couple of years back who spent £170 on a toslink cable and was convinced it sounded better
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