Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

lololololol

"The very best sound was obtained when I slightly loosened the screws on the Duplex Covers. And they sound great!!.

8]

lolololol

every product on the site is like New Hope for the Ape-Eared

i love that website! check out this fancy table: http://machinadynamica.com/machina25.htm

it's supposed to isolate your amplifier from vibrations, "especially the 0 -10 Hz variety produced by Earth's crust movement, traffic, subways, tides, etc. "

how a spring could cancel out waves slower than 1 Hz?

but the best is this "teleportation tweak"
http://machinadynamica.com/machina60.htm

everything on there is great but I'm still standing by the Tru-Tone Duplex cover as the most balls-out

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_3/marigo-labs-signature-3d-mat-7-2005.html

oh wait though codename turquoise is pretty fucking rad

Brilliant Pebbles is my favorite one on that site i think

From cidepress' link, this was amusing:

"Where most audiophiles would agree, however, is that tweaks are a minor aspect of system building. Defined by the dictionary in Microsoft Word® as "a slight adjustment or change in..."

italics mine.

http://machinadynamica.com/water.gif for brains

Somewhere, audiophile dude pushes the leather sofa away from the wall, sees four-socket outlet, shrieks.

Well, these are great, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to improve sound:

http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/Free_Techniques/Free_Techniques.html

Holy shit the Teleportation Tweak! We are dealing with <i>balls</i> here, gentlemen. Big, round, shiny balls, of finest brass, lovingly hand-polished to a mirror shine by a taskforce of brilliant Sound Artisans. These balls can be yours for the astonishingly low price of $680 (Big Shiny Brass Balls are not subject to our 30-day money-back guarantee)

it doesn't actually take any courage to be a con man, is the thing. you just have to really, really hate everybody.

The interesting thing about these tweaks is that they abandon the pretense of scientific support. Whereas w/ feet for speaker stands in Stereophile or whatever they'll be some physicist explaining how the damping works, here's it's just like, Hey, put this magic clock in the room and it'll improve the sound. I love it.

Sorry, maybe I'm Billy-doesn't-get-it, but is this site real or an elaborate spoof?

I had initially assumed spoof, but I followed some links and poked around and it appears to be real, or at least elaborate enough a spoof to include three or four different sites. Stereophile had an article on some of these tweaks a few years ago anyway:

http://www.stereophile.com/news/10415/

even if it is a spoof there's certainly enough real snake-oil products with extremely similar purposes/explanations

here's a collection of some more: http://www.ilikejam.dsl.pipex.com/audiophile.htm

i know someone who swears by this ....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280182123367&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=018

"extremely flat"

I don't even know what "a richer, fuller sound, with less emphasis of detail" means. it's supposed to be a good thing?

My latest tweak = this chair;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/Photo624.jpg

i'm actually buying a glass platter for my turntable. i might even buy that mat for it. i'm a sucka 4 luv.

actually the chair i'm assuming was a joke, but honestly i was suprised how much getting speaker stands and "correctly" positioning my chair i listen in and the speakers in the room made a HUGE difference in how good things sounded.

The chair's totally not a joke; it's expensive and comfortable and easily moved but it's not likely to make me fall asleep in it (no headrest); if I'm comfortable and awake, I can concentrate on listening more. I bought it (almost) with the sole intention of it being a 'headphones' chair.

But yeah, basic physics says position your speakers correctly and sit in the right spot; you simply don't get stereo-imaging without it.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/

...a coat hanger.

that's AMAZING.
audiophiles are some weird people, man.

actually the chair i'm assuming was a joke, but honestly i was suprised how much getting speaker stands and "correctly" positioning my chair i listen in and the speakers in the room made a HUGE difference in how good things sounded.

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:39 PM

totally true

actually properly treating one's room acoustically would probably do a better job than moving your chair and speakers about

is there already a company selling audiophile interior house paint?

because if there is, I should start selling audiophile EXTERIOR house paint.

(xpost)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/Dbsts2.jpg

I was much, much less impressed with this enormous fucking Naim set-up than I should have been given how much it ought to have cost. Sure it went LOUD, but sound-wise I wouldn't swap it for my own system, I don't think.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0126.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0128.jpg

Is it just perspective on that first photo, or are your speakers nearly at shoulder height?

Oh, no - is that a Cyrus CD player? Or tuner? And why isn't everything on Mana shelves? That's why it doesn't sound that good. And has it been on continuously for five years? Another biggie with Naimists. (Seriously, that doesn't look like a great room for those huge - and amazingly ugly - speakers).

What's the turntable - Nottingham Spacedek or something? Oracle Delphi?

mp3s out a old marantz amp someone gave me and 15 y/o bottom of the line cambridge soundworks speakers all day babay

although i did love to read sudiophile magazines when i worked at a bookstore just for the lulz

The speakers are nearly to chest height - I'm 5'8".

The Cyrus is just a DAC for his wireless streaming thing. Dunno what the turntable is. The room is big but odd; it's a loft that used to be three bedrooms. There's a (low) double bed behind the speakers, plus a desk, which is where I slept (not the desk) (although that picture was taken at 6am so sleeping wasn't exactly urgent and key that weekend).

Yeah, I really wish someone had just given me a peek into my co-habiting/flat in communal block/married-with-kids future when I was handing over the moolah for all my gear in 1996-97. I wish I'd just got something good/2nd-hand with a small footprint (Cyrus CD/integrated, ProAc speakers, something like that; maybe a Pro-Ject record deck, old Marantz cassette deck, NAD tuner, cables from Maplin) and STOPPED there. Think of all the photographic gear I could've bought with the money saved if I'd just contracted that particular hobbyist bug a decade earlier!

(Ah, DAC for wireless streaming; the Naim box-stacking is kinda insane - external power supplies for everything. Makes my Audiolab pre/mono arrangement look positively understated).

The speakers are Naim DBLs. They weigh about 15st each. Retail these days at £15k. When he got them, in 2000, they should have been £12k. He got them for £4k cos they were "shop-soiled" - the band he's in had an arrangement with Naim and they'd been using them as a playback set-up when they recorded an album in a country house, and the guitarist's dog had taken a bite out of the bottom corner of one, or something.

I'm kind of glad I've had a brush with stuff that's seriously high-end because it's warned me off a bit. Our flat's not that small, but it's a flat nonetheless, and, you know, I want stuff on the walls and holidays and a new camera and stuff maybe too.

I think my main response to audiophilia these days is that the best way to make your hi-fi sound great is to play better records on it.

actually properly treating one's room acoustically would probably do a better job than moving your chair and speakers about

How so?

the best way to make your hi-fi sound great is to play better records on it.

b i n g o

if anyone is looking for really great speakers that won't break your bank....i bought these about a year ago and couldn't be more pleased with them...they are really surprising given the price and size:

Epos ELS 3 mini monitors:

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73457

i run them with a Cambridge Audio integrated amp w/Cambridge phono pre-amp.....

My turntable is a Rega P1 -- one thing on that i would recommend is buying a glass platter and also i replaced the original ortofon cartridge with a Denon DL 160 cartridge which is a fucking amazing cartridge for the price...

For CD player I run a really really old NAD one that I got off craigslist for $35...it works pretty well, has a hard time tracking CD-Rs but will play them after awhile (it's from 87 though so I guess there weren't even CD-Rs then)

Post more pics of slobs in garrets seasoned with with ridiculous sound systems and ugly furniture.

I really like the coffee table.

I think my favourite way / place to listen to music these days, rather than the big sofa and NAD / Cambridge Audio / Tannoy / proper rack & stands set-up in the living room, with everything anchored in a nice triangle, blah blah, equidistant from rear walls, speakers toed in, is the hotch-potch system in the back room, with the knackered Marantz CD, 20-year-old Marantz amp, DAC, and diddy Q Acoustics speakers. Cos I have space, peace, my comfy chair, books, headphones, no TV or console to distract.

Those are the kind of speakers you buy to justify having previously bought Monster Cable.

What's the sensitivity rating on those things? It might be all show, but they certainly look like they could bring on an involuntary bowel movement.

Specifications
Frequency response (in room)

17Hz - 20kHz 3dB

Sensitivity

92dB/1W/1m

Impedance

4 Ohms (minimum)

Power handling

200W (music programme)

Dimensions H x W x D

1200mm x 650mm x 400mm

Finish options include

Cherry
Maple
Piano Black [to special order]

like i said before, it's been my impression that tru-skool audiophiles think monster cable is for philistines and ppl that buy stereo equipment at best buy.

It's just a damn swindle, is all.

Tru-skool audiophiles do think that. I've never seen Monster cables mentioned in a hi-fi mag. Not that I read them that often. I have one Monster cable, and that's a 3.5 stereo mini-jack to 2 phono thing, for the iPod dock.

It's the new gold-plated CD.

The main rig's cabling: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0267.jpg

The little rig's cabling: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0268.jpg

my CD player connects and the connects for my phono pre-amp are monster...i got them for $7 a set from some online store...actually pretty good if you can find them for cheap, but nowhere near worth the money they usually charge.

it's a $500 ethernet cable!

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp

fucking ridiculous

actually properly treating one's room acoustically would probably do a better job than moving your chair and speakers about

How so?

-- Scik Mouthy, Wednesday, May 7, 2008 1:50 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

i never answered this.. basically in a room with a balanced frequency response, the only difference you should theoretically hear by positioning yourself differently in a room would be volume changes based on how far you are away from the sound source. if your music sounds different by shifting yourself a foot to the left of your speaker, it's because the frequency balance is not even across the room. you could be sitting in a bass null or peak which may affect the sound positively or negatively to varying degrees

effectively in a room without a balanced frequency response, the room is affecting what you hear to a very large degree. probably 10000x more than expensive cables will in a million years

See, I was thinking more just about getting accurate stereo-imaging re; speaker placement, rather than frequency-response; you can't get proper stereo-imaging if the speakers aren't in front of you.

Just buy a fucking sixpack and listen to something good, jesus

What audio equipment uses ethernet cables?

http://www.musictoyz.com/images/jpg/gtfat2.jpg

Not sure if this quite belongs here, though is audio related and I suspect this is some serious snake oil.

Anyone know about this fuckin thing?

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Groove-Tubes-Fat-Finger-Guitar-Sustain-Enhancer?sku=420270

lol i have used it

Denon's 1.5 meter (59 in.) ultra premium Denon Link cable was designed for the audio enthusiast. Made from high purity copper wire and high performance connection parts, the AK-DL1 will bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction from any of our Denon DVD players with the Denon Link feature. Attention to detail when building this cable was used by empoying high quality insulation, tin-bearing alloy shielding and woven jacketing to reduce vibration and to add durability. Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer. Rounded plug levers help prevent breakage.

It's a digital signal! Either you have a dropout or you don't! There's no gradual loss of quality that may happen with other signal types. Furthermore, with the error-correction that's surely present in whatever communications protocol is used here, the correctness of the signal is probably 100% minus whatever % is represented by the droppage of a single bit every 1,000,000,000,000,000 years. The PCB is going to corrode into unusability before a bad frame is transmitted.

signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer

So there's an arrow on the cable telling you which way to plug it in? It has an RJ45 plug at each end, it shouldn't make any difference! But I can just see audiophile magazines doing A-B tests with the cable each way round, and solemnly claiming that "yes, the Denon ID-10T does sound better with the PEBKAC amplifier when the link cable is oriented this way around"

One of my friends likes to "burn in" new audio hardware. I can buy that the sound of a speaker changes with time and use: It's a moving part, so it's plausible that its bits can get rearranged with shaking. Also, the speaker's magnet might change somewhat (probably not for the better), and humidity and other environmental conditions probably change the responsiveness of the cone.

So, OK, no argument there, but I probably would be unable to hear the difference myself. However, my friend doesn't stop there. No, he burns in new cables with white noise for 30 days. I have no idea of what's supposed to change inside the cable during this process, but he says it makes a world of difference. At his insistence, I "burned in" new headphones for a 3-day weekend, but I couldn't tell any difference afterward. I'm probably just deaf or something.

I'm probably just deaf or something.

Probably, after listening to white noise for 3 days...

The comments on the Amazon page for the cable are awesomely hilarious.

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM

A caution to people buying these: if you do not follow the "directional markings" on the cables, your music will play backwards. Please check that before mentioning it in your reviews.

I was disappointed. I consider myself an audiophile - I regularly spend over $1000 on cables to get the ultimate sound. I keep my music-listening room in a Faraday cage to prevent any interference that could alter my music-listening experience. Sending any signal down ordinary copper can degrade the signal considerably. While ordinary listeners might not notice, to somebody with even a rudimentary knowledge of sound, the artifacts are glaring. Denon should have used silver wiring (hermetically sealed inside the rubber sheath to prevent any tarnishing, of course), which has a significantly higher conductivity than copper. Furthermore, Denon needs to treat the wires they use in the cable with a polarity inductor to ensure minimal phase variance.

Needless to say, I returned the cable and wrote an angry letter to the so-called engineers at Denon.

mp3s out a old marantz amp someone gave me and 15 y/o bottom of the line cambridge soundworks speakers all day babay

-- jhøshea, Tuesday, 6 May 2008 16:30 (1 month ago) Bookmark Link

MP3s out of an iBook with a noisy headphone connector (so I have to use an iMic USB thing), into a JVC amp I bought for £5 ten years ago (no lie). I win!

So did it DO anything?

oops, was responding to this:

lol i have used it

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, June 14, 2008 11:44 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

I'm retarded.

The notion isn't entirely crackheaded, Rabies. I mean, you get more sustain when the guitar's capacity to dampen vibrations is diminished. Adding intertia to one end would probably help accomplish this. If you played a guitar of solid steel or a very hard metal, it would have less effect on the sustain to add a weight at the end, but musician fools seem to prefer mushy wood guitars for some bizarre reason.

A good way to test out the theory would be to attach a heavy clamp to yr headstock (with something to protect the finish if you care).

burning in CABLES for thirty DAYS????????

(xp) Yeah, I read how it's supposed to work. What I should have said is, does it DO anything noticable enough to justify looking like an idiotic gear bozo--which I kinda am, but, y'know...
I wonder if I could just make one if I looked around a hardware store.

I very briefly considered building a solid steel guitar. I imagined it would sustain well but sort of flatten the sound and not be terribly responsive. (A hypotheses I neither put thought into or bothered to research because I don't have the means to build one.) Anyone played anything like that?

Honestly I think I'm just pissed because it's 25 bucks for a tiny little clamp.

I very briefly considered building a solid steel guitar. I imagined it would sustain well but sort of flatten the sound and not be terribly responsive. (A hypotheses I neither put thought into or bothered to research because I don't have the means to build one.) Anyone played anything like that?

Albini has something very like this and it's available for use when you record at Electrical, or was the one time I recorded there. It sustained like crazy.

someone hand-makes copper or metal guitars; vudi from AMC plays one. I can't remember the name though. they are not cheap.

Are they like the basses you can get with metal necks and headstocks? Always thought the reason was so you could have weird tunings/string combinations (that would fuck up a regular bass)...

Is that his Travis Bean, J0hn?

The guitarist in Public Image Ltd had a guitar with an alu neck. It can be heard all over The Metal Box. Basic upshot is: longer sustain but slightly discordant harmonics which may not be to everyone's taste.

Albini has something very like this and it's available for use when you record at Electrical, or was the one time I recorded there. It sustained like crazy.

-- J0hn D., Sunday, June 15, 2008 11:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Unless this is some entirely different guitar than the one's he's known for playing, I think the body is actually wood. The neck is aluminum and is "neck-thru" or whatever, as opposed to bolt on, which also ups the sustain. I've heard the heavier neck makes it a little unbalanced awkward to play (standing up). Rrrobyn has one (a Kramer, right??) and it's beautiful!

Didn't Teisco make some all-aluminum (or some metal) guitar?

Kramer / Travis Bean, The Electrical Guitar Company...any others? (alum neck guitars i mean)

Argh.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0444.jpg

It's for Em. She doesn't like the hi-fi.

what does this strange, fluffy piece of equipment do?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0712.jpg

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/727932K speaker cables.

^^^ er, $12K speaker cables.

On the bright side, the dude who breaks into yr home and steals yr stereo probs will leave behind the cables.

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/72793

i'd be depressed if i made those cables knowing they would predominantly be carrying the music of phil collins. then i would remember that idiots made me rich and feel good again

can't believe this thread is a year old holy fuck

Mannheim Steamroller.

"reference" just means "an extra $10k" right?

Audiophiles love the word 'reference' because it makes them feel like archivists of the true essence of sound. Eejits.

http://machinadynamica.com/water.gif

After the $500 ethernet cable upthread, this:

A £395 kettle lead

From the blurb:

The Power-Line brings gains in all areas of system performance with its influence increasing as it is used on each component in a system.

Audio snake oil on Amazon.. The reviews are hilarious!

http://www.amazon.com/Wattgate-Audio-Grade-Duplex-Socket/dp/B000930W4M/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Creative's XFI technology sounds BETTER THAN THE ACTUAL INSTRUMENTS DID IN THE STUDIO

http://images.asia.creative.com/images/inline/products/xtreme_audio/xfi_graph.jpg

I have never, in my life heard audio like this. I finally understood Mozart, Beethoven and Nirvana. I understand music on a whole new level. I have become...a music God. I only drink Tuscan Whole Milk. I am one.

While electrified, I swear I heard the sweet, sweet voices of a multitude of angels all singing in perfect harmony.

I was headed straight to an early grave via suicide when I though "What the heck? I'll order one of these sockets."

These are amazing.

"Picked this one up at the Tosche station." ftw

lol @ not one but two refs to Tuscan whole milk in the reviews

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/09milk.html

Thanks for that link, J0hn!

I love the Times:

Whatever the explanation for that, once the gremlins are in the grocery, it may be hard to keep them from spreading.

“Grapes, when combined with 2 parts nitric acid, 1 part dihydrogen oxide, a pine cone, and glue sticks,” wrote a reviewer of California green seedless grapes on Sunday, “actually make a great ammunition for everything from shooting down enemy airplanes to blowing apart spaceships from the fifth dimension.”

"Albini has something very like this and it's available for use when you record at Electrical, or was the one time I recorded there. It sustained like crazy"

The band Tar also used these aluminum guitars which were custom made in Chicago.

http://www.specimenproducts.com/instru/originals.html

those aluminum guitars look really cool though

Albini plays Travis Bean guitars http://www.travisbeanguitars.com/

Sunn 0))) also use them, I noticed at their last gig.

Not really made of beans :-(

why stop at the outlet, why not get all of the wiring in your house replaced, get a gold-plated fuse box, have the wiring from the substation to your house replaced with monster cables...

Dear Amazon.com Customer,
As someone who has shown an interest in the music of Miles Davis, you might be interested in Miles Davis Tribute Jazz Headphones from Monster. These headphones have been engineered specifically to reproduce music the way Miles heard it onstage.

This limited-edition product is the perfect portable in-ear speaker for jazz lovers and audiophiles alike. Learn more about the cutting-edge technologies behind these headphones--including certified Monster cable and speaker technologies--on the product detail page.

That might be the most ridiculous niche product I have ever heard of.

if it could recreate the experience of hearing the electric stuff through the fug of cocaine abuse, it could be amazing you know!

yeah somehow I don't think the cutting edge technologies can reproduce an eightball.

if it could recreate the experience of hearing the electric stuff through the fug of cocaine abuse, it could be amazing you know!

Cocaine's cheaper.

I figured anyone willing to run an unsecured wi-sock network, especially with a 381 in-line, was OK with others sharing the experience. I found one nearby with the humorous network name "Download Viruses to your Shakti Stones." I laughed, but just to be sure, I unhooked the silver bi-wired cables from my Shaktis and stored the stones and cables in my lead-lined closet. When I logged on to my neighbor's network, some strange shiat began to happen. Among other strange things, my Matrix 801s began to phase in and out of an optical and sonic illusion of being Wilson MAXX 3s, the electrical cords on my room lamps took on the appearance of Siltech Emperor Crown cables, and the entire room, me included, was engulfed in a spiritual and non-annoying 60 cycle hum. I terminated the connection when my wife interrupted me and said I was scaring the dog.

^^ awesome

hahaha

I had an invite to the "unveiling" of those Monster headphones, and even the promise of an open bar (and its NYC and I am broke and I like to drink and I could have brought a plus one) still was not enough to conquer the embarrassment I would have felt being there.

this is the greatest thread ever. thanks for the LOLs, i needed them.

http://www.shakti-innovations.com/hallograph.htm

but they don't even say how they work and what little explanation they give seems impossible...

http://i48.tinypic.com/244nuyu.jpg

oh, okay. sold!!!

btw, the "hot stampers" guy sells these!!!

I'm all for reducing EMI.

yeah i consider the fact that the hot stampers guy sells them a large chink in his armor. Yes the prices he charges for vinyl are high but I think his reasoning (regular press in good condition usually better to remasters on 180g) is fairly sound.

http://wallywashis.name/mp3/%5Bno%20artist%5D/CD%20Laser%20Lens%20Cleaner%20With%20Voice%20and%20Music%20Instructions/

http://www.combak.net/otherproducts/OTHERPRODUCTS.htm

Having never heard of record clamps at all before today boy am I excited about Tuned Record Stabilizer Clamps!!!

Tuning Record Matte TU-800EXi Improved Version

Tunes your record platter assembly at a frequency outside the audio band and eliminates the resonance which affects your sound. Improves balance and clarity, adds depth, and boosts information concentration across the entire sound range. Each instrument is clearly delineated and the naturalness of the tone is enhanced. The mat is lighter than ever before, and is now compatible with almost any turntable.

・ Width: 29.3cm (11.53')
・ Thickness: 3.0mm (0.117')
・ Weight: 210g (0.462 lbs)
・ Color: Black, gold, or silver

Sells for $1,350!

my record clamp cost $20 and was a worthwhile purchase

Mine came with the Gyro as it's sort of an essential part of the system (there's no mat). I think they're about £15 to replace.

record clamps are awesome. though for a really high-end setup, i could see spending around 100-200 for a big chunk of inert, non resonant metal, for 1350 it better also do the dishes too.

Since I know nothing about them - do they attach to something under the record or just work by being heavy?

it's amazing how much verbiage these sites can produce that is just this side of making sense. it's like it lends the illusion of making sense without actually being the slightest bit coherent

"the whole musical presentation seems to be naturally set in its recording venue to a greater degree."

"The Hallograph Soundfield Optimizer is a mouth-full to say, looks strange in pictures, is hard to comprehend at first sight how or why is should even work, and does everything as advertised."

indeed.

this shit is like 9/11 conspiracy theories, it mostly makes me kind of sad that anyone is invested in it.

Since I know nothing about them - do they attach to something under the record or just work by being heavy?

Trichord/Michell's own website is reassuringly/disappointingly un-snake oil about it:
[Modern vinyl records are thin, flexible and often warped or bowed. As most records do not lie flat on the turntable platter, sound reproduction suffers due to undamped vinyl resonances caused by the stylus riding on an unsupported record. Records which are bowed downwards contact the platter at the outer edge but not in middle. Conversely, records that are warped or bowed upwards tend to rock on the platter. In these instances anti-skating compensation is less effective and record wear is increased substantially by the lateral or vertical see-saw motion of the tonearm/cartridge combination.

The Michell Record Clamp solves the above problems by bringing the record into more intimate contact with the platter.

Whoops - hadn't finished formatting that. Oh well.

I've wanted to get a record clamp but to deal with warped records, I don't know if this is just buying into audiophile conspiracy-theories or not, places don't seem to sell them, ones like these:

http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/features/2009/james-murphy-richard-branson.jpg

Warped records also seem to play less consistently pitch-wise, which matters for things like solo piano especially.

"the whole musical presentation seems to be naturally set in its recording venue to a greater degree."

a lot of this stuff is badly written - it really rivals DJ writeups on flyers for trying to use a limited and vague and boringly repetitive vocabulary to describe something that is much more trivial in words that in reality ("DJ [x] consistently rocks parties from [x] to [x].")

that being said, the above as a desireable goal and audible benefit makes sense. whether the product in question actually provides it is impossible to tell without hearing it.

do you people who think this is all bullshit think so for recording as well? you can find versions of all of the typical audiophile debates happening in serious recording forums amongst trained professionals (ie not just dudes with $50,000 to spend on a stereo system)

Oh, it's much less prevalent though, isn't it? One of things I noticed when I got into sound engineering and started to venture into the world of mastering studios, pro-audio and the like, is how much less attention is paid to absurdly expensive cabling, fancy isolation systems for solid state electronics and various bits of audiophile lore. It's all about room prep, speaker tuning, etc.

studios definitely spend good money on cabling, but buy in bulk and do the soldering themselves. you can probably save 75% or more doing this but you might have to buy 500 feet of cable ;-)

absolutely some of the outlying tweaks of the audiophile world havent made it to the pro side, but the attention to very small details and how they effect sound certainly is shared. Lost of pro studios = dedicated AC circuits for certain components, all sorts of AC line noise filtration systems, careful choice of construction materials, sound treatment materials, careful placement of speakers in the room, concern over the sonic effect of speaker being placed on the bridge of large consoles and the attendant reflections, etc. not to mention the long arguments certain mastering engineers might get into over EQs and compressors, etc., or that mix engineers might have over how well one lexicon reverb "attaches itself" to a snare drum versus another...

to some people all of the above stuff would be a stupid tweak.

Surely no one would characterise careful speaker placement as a stupid tweak. As I say, it's all sensible stuff on the pro side, and with a fairly sound scientific basis. I can totally understand a dedicated mains spur for a $100k mixing console, where any AC breakthrough is going to be in the recording forever, but not so much for someone's home system (assuming the amps' power supplies are doing their jobs properly). As for cables, are studios buying decent shielded OFC (in whatever configuration they need) in bulk or are they buying the Nordost/van den Hul exotica?

As for EQ/compression, you're talking about subjective impressions of sound manipulation by various flavours of modelling algorithm and people are gonna have their favourites. It's not really in the same realm as domestic hi-fi reproduction.

I don't read either thesedays but the difference I noticed as I drifted from audiophile discussion groups to pro-audio discussion groups about 8-10 years ago (as my interests changed) was how all manner of wackiness was indulged on the former (or at least provoked heated exchanges) but mention of a $200 SPDIF interconnect or a $400 mains cable on the latter was pretty much laughed out of the room. I thought that was kinda revealing.

Surely no one would characterise careful speaker placement as a stupid tweak. As I say, it's all sensible stuff on the pro side, and with a fairly sound scientific basis. I can totally understand a dedicated mains spur for a $100k mixing console, where any AC breakthrough is going to be in the recording forever, but not so much for someone's home system (assuming the amps' power supplies are doing their jobs properly).

depends on what you mean by a home system. very high-current amps benefit from dedicated mains. EMI uses Classe and B&W consumer gear. those classe amps want a lot of current. I am sure EMI makes sure it is available, why not at home? but yeah, it would totally be silly to have a dedicated line for an Onkyo HTR.

As for cables, are studios buying decent shielded OFC (in whatever configuration they need) in bulk or are they buying the Nordost/van den Hul exotica?
I have seen some exotica go into studios. Most nice studios seem to go somewhere in between, certainly better sounding and more expensive stuff than Monster (type "Mogami" into the Gearslutz search engine and watch your computer explode). Shunyata power conditioners ($$$) have a good rep in the pro world.

As for EQ/compression, you're talking about subjective impressions of sound manipulation by various flavours of modelling algorithm and people are gonna have their favourites. It's not really in the same realm as domestic hi-fi reproduction.

I think there is, for instance, a lot of similarity between how engineers might discuss a mic preamp and how audiophiles might discuss a phono preamp. Not the features, functionality, etc, but how two gain stages with knobs might render music in very different ways. And a lot of the same words are used "air", "roundness", etc.

I don't read either thesedays but the difference I noticed as I drifted from audiophile discussion groups to pro-audio discussion groups about 8-10 years ago (as my interests changed) was how all manner of wackiness was indulged on the former (or at least provoked heated exchanges) but mention of a $200 SPDIF interconnect or a $400 mains cable on the latter was pretty much laughed out of the room. I thought that was kinda revealing.

I think things are changing a little bit on this account, which is good, not because a $2000 SPDIF cable is always better, but because it is usually better to experience something firsthand before having an opinion.

Funny how I always end up discussing high-end audio at Xmas/New Year...

I've no issue with dedicated mains spurs if you're wiring from scratch, for example (a friend of mine did this when he rewired a decade ago - separate loop for his Naim amps), but it's pretty difficult to A/B this stuff to tell if it's really worthwhile. In a recording environment - fine, do whatever you can to isolate your gear from mains nasties (though a well-designed power supply in an amp is supposed to do this).

Mic preamps, phono preamps - well, we're talking about very sensitive, interdependent, high-gain systems there (mics and carts not producing much in the way of signal and being at the mercy of the downstream cabling too, in a way line-level devices and ordinary power amp-speaker combos really aren't), so I can believe small changes in design make a big audible difference. I'm all for florid language too!

it is usually better to experience something firsthand before having an opinion.

Well, one can't listen to everything and going out of one's way to audition (or double-blind test - if you're serious) an expensive example of something that physics and electrical engineering tells us is very unlikely to be audibly different to something costing $20 seems like a waste of time. The science behind signal transmission in conductors is fairly well understood and in the audio range it's pretty trivial stuff. Now, I'm sure you can mess it up with exotic materials, unconventional designs and badly mismatched loads, but if it's fit-for-purpose, it should be pretty transparent. The pro-audio people seem to know this stuff, hence their dismissive stance.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and, as you say, the badly-written sales puff for a lot of this stuff really doesn't do it any favours. But that Michell blurb I posted upthread for its record clamps - straightforward, sensible, a solution to a known issue that works in a fairly clear mechanical way. If you have a product that really makes a difference, why obfuscate or talk in pseudery? Bring the facts. Cos you must've tested it to know it does this thing you claim, right? Or how else did you arrive at the design?

And Happy New Year!

this is a very reputable website so... but... what is this shit?

http://www.needledoctor.com/Dynavector-DV-507-Limited-Edition-Tonearm?sc=2&category=6

also weird ESL-style copy:

In part that is probably down to the excellent geometric accuracy of the 507 (you'd expect nothing else from such an obviously engineered product), but it also suggests a deep and abiding understanding of the flaws in so much reproduced music. Listening with the Dynavectors went a long way to removing the system from the equation. It wasn't that they were invisible, more that they didn't intrude. It's a trick that the current products haven't forgotten. Twenty years ago, when the accepted benchmark was an SME 1 11 with a V15-IV, the combination of the 505 and the 13D must have been either a culture shock or something of a revelation, depending on your point of view. The fact that it still makes a valid musical statement today suggests which it should have been. I for one have thoroughly enjoyed our long awaited introduction.

like those sentences parse on their own, but they don't actually seem to mean much of anyhing.

haha yeah that is weirdly written

i cannot tell you how much i love living in the city where the needle doctor is based, being able to buy anything and have it installed for free in the store rules so much

how can a TONE ARM make a "valid musical statement"--or a "musical statement" of any kind?????

you live in minneapolis?

Sometimes I wonder if those reviews are written by actual people, or auto-generated from a perl script or something

Xpost - yes, needle doctor has a storefront here though most of their business is online, really nice guys work the counter and will do minor install and repair for you if you're buying the part there

"these new coaxial cables i bought are sort of halfway between jazz and classical... kind of remind me of henry threadgill. whereas my older cables make more of a postpunk statement."

http://www.mymusicmask.com/en/home.html

Oh my god! That's beyond your average audiophile snake oil, that's just about utter fraud!

I already bought three

you really need three for the proper listening experience

Actually that makes sense to me. It's just about focusing your concentration on one sense, though. You could stick a pillowcase over your head for the same effect though.

Or buy a $1.99 sleep mask.

I wish I could find it but I saw a link for these power cables that were about $20,000

Oh man... is it hard to break into these circles? I'd only want to sell one cable!

50% off! ONLY 10 GRAND

artisanal banana plugs

Banana plugs made from real banana. Only £5000 a set, but they go off quickly, so the repeat business will be massive.

See also: pineapple rings for isolating your speakers from the floor.

coconut-audio.com/extreme/power.htm

Man, this audiophile idiot magazine called The Absolute Sound is amazing. Now they're pimping audiophile USB cables.

http://www.dj-rooms.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/126212_preview1-600x465.jpg

http://www.dj-rooms.com/avdesignhaus-dereneville-vpm2010/

I'd rather buy a couple supercars or a house for that kind of money but that video thing is really cool.

that looks like they took apart robocop and rebuilt him as a turntable

talking elsewhere about audiophile digital players i did a quick google to see if they exist and found a bunch of things. particularly funny were the portable players, all of which have that clunky audiophile aesthetic...

http://www.mavromatic.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/c4_front.jpg
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0109/5672/products/hm801_medium.jpg?1157
http://hifipig.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/studio-1-300x244.jpg

The top one looks like what an MP3 player would have looked like if they were making them in 1970

HiFiMan is supposed to be pretty damn good, and insanely expensive.

Considered by many to be the world's finest headphone, without regard to price, the HiFiMAN HE-6 features the company's proprietary planar magnetic technology in a no-compromise design. With sensitivity of 83.5dB, the HE-6 must be paired with a headphone amplifier of comparable quality such as the HiFiMAN EF5 which delivers 2 watts per channel. The HE-6 is the reference choice of critical listeners around the world.

that first thing is actually pretty appealing to me, it looks like it both carries cigars & performs longform scientific calculations, which is pretty much optically what i want from an accessory

that and the smell of Rich Mahogany wherever you go...

and accidental volume changes whenever you put it in your pocket.

The name "HiFiMAN" kinda kills me. Like, if I spent years developing the most perfectly forged, ergonomic, precise, sharp, amazing knives ever. And then I decided to call the line "FoodieBAWSE."

that top one, very steampunk i thought, is the Colorfly C4:

http://www.colorfly.eu/

and here's the other one i tried to post (the image url on it's own chokes the ilx parser)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/QLS-QA-550-SD-Card-WAV-Digital-Audio-Player-Portable-player-free-2GB-SD-memoery-/180776312623

says it's a portable but then has a coax socket sticking out the top...

Wow I kind of love the Colorfly C4. I'm gonna guess... $600 U.S.?

RRP is 655... euros. £590 on amazon.co.uk

Colorfly cases look steampunk but the product itself more generic 1970s tech aesthetic, more like what Sony, Panasonic, and Atari had going on during that era:

Early Advent cassette deck, 1971
http://urbandwells.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Advent-201.jpg

Early Panasonic VHS VCR, 1977
http://retrothing.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/beta.jpg

Atari Video Computer System, 1978
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/photos/atari_2600_1.jpg

A Colorfly would have fit in nicely.

that atari is the best thing

and also what most resembles the Colorfly

and accidental volume changes whenever you put it in your pocket.

― kmfdotm (ledge), Tuesday, 14 August 2012 14:14 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

c'mon you know there is a artisan brushed-leather holster accessory for this thing

Finally, something that will do justice to that six-hour Morton Feldman 24/48k stereo DVD that I own! If it fits on there.

And so glad someone has finally addressed the need for 108dB dynamic range in a portable audio device. I often walk around anechoic chambers wearing an iPod.

also these Marantz HQ mobile cassette decks that I used extensively in the '70s and early '80s for recording my bands:
http://www.audio-ideas.com/reviews/analog-sources/graphics/marantz-pmd430-2

http://www.hifiengine.com/images/model/marantz_pmd420.jpg

These things made you look serious. Sounded pretty good too.

better pic:

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/files/marantz_cp_230_104.jpg

That's really nice.

unfortunately I traded that in for a suposedly improved Tascam ministudio 4-track cassette that gave you four tracks running the same direction (so only one side of the tape could be used), and all recorded using the DBX compression/expansion technique that gave wow! measured specs with great signal-to-noise ratios and inaudible background noise. But in real use, it subtlely corrupted everything recorded on it, by applying that gawdawful dbx companding algorithm to everything, yielding unnatural sound and weird artifacts - like a singer's voice would suddenly get louder if an instrument came in while she was singing. I'd have rather used Dolby or no NR at all, put up with the limited dynamic range and tape hiss, but had the music intrinsically sound good.

by serendipity i had to look up this company

http://thebuttkicker.com/

seems real-ish but still mighty snake oily imo

I had the idea a few years ago to make lo-techy looking mp3 players, surmising that it was the only effective way to compete with the iPod since no one was ever going to design a cooler looking nu-techy one than Apple.

like a singer's voice would suddenly get louder if an instrument came in while she was singing

AAAHGH this drives me crazy though I feel like I hear it the other way round-- a quiet, steady instrumental accompaniment fluctuating in volume whenever the singer is singing.

The example that comes to mind is one of my favorite songs - 'Triangle Song' by Thin White Rope

Ah, so there's no problem with the Colorfly volume, if you replace the humidor lid before you slip it in your waistcoat

http://www.colorfly.eu/images/PRODUCT_c4.jpg

Wow I kind of love the Colorfly C4. I'm gonna guess... $600 U.S.?

Only $100 more than what I paid for my first iPod...

Introducing... audiophile shoes!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_WsE6M_RjBIY/TDKe4bDsfSI/AAAAAAAAbS8/L_9OnPCx67I/s1600/get_smart_shoe_phone.jpg

$10,000 Gold-Braided Vacuum Tech Laces with special mahogany lace-tips to cut negative vibrations

I sort of love that 70s, next to the drinks cabinet aesthetic

Yes, the "I openly read Playboy" aesthetic

via get bent

http://www.hammacher.com/Product/Default.aspx?sku=11987&promo=Electronics-Media-Accessories&catid=104

SPEEDSNAIL!!! My Accept albums are gonna sound so good coming out of those.

Requires four separate amplifiers per speaker (not included).

hahahahahaha... I love this line so much

only 3 grand for the acoustic immersion pod!

http://digital.hammacher.com/Items/11727/11727_1000x1000.jpg

re: ok, about that very first that very first link on this thread

i mean i will i no way attest to whether or not that very first piece of stupid audio snake oil works, BUT.

as a guy running a p decent home studio in the third world, i can attest that electrical issues absolutely can screw up/degrade the sound of yer stereo signal. i mean, i doubt that outlet thing would make a hell of a difference, but in certain dire electrical situations i could imagine a bit of well placed electrical shielding could help sound quality, perhaps even to the point where you'd actually notice.

please! i'm not defending the usefulness of this particular product per se. but i'm pretty sure some of my (reputable, high end) gear touts it electrical shielding as part of it's awesomeness. and i've def had some gigs, and even studio sessions, all but ruined cause of crappy electrical interference fuckin with our sound

i'm not saying you should rush out and buy that $500 electrical outlet cover, mind. but i wonder what it's made of and if there might be ANY use to it. like, if it was made with a small faraday cage (page?) coated in highly non-conductive ceramic or something?

just a thought. ianaei electronic geeks please feel free to explain why this would be actually be impossible/useless in scientific terms for all of out edification :)

Oh for sure. You just need your equipment isolated or on a real, grounded and isolated circuit. Basically comes down to proper wiring, not audiophile gear. Ground hum is a thing.

xxp wanna buy that pod

Why does it have teeth?

The teeth are sound absorbing foam to prevent echos and reflections caused by the chair and speakers being inside a semi-enclosed pod. Although a better solution would be to, er, not have the chair and speakers in a semi-enclosed pod.

http://the-egg-chair.com/wp-content/uploads/men_in_black_stereo_egg.jpg
in stereo...

I don't think the stuff in this revive qualifies as snake oil. Snake oil is ineffective. The stuff in the revive may be effective. They've just ignored the cost portion of the cost-performance trade-off. The tru-tone duplex covers, however, make no scientific sense. The website says they can provide shielding beyond steel duplex covers. A sheet of steel is pretty conductive. I don't believe that the areas surrounding your wall outlets are the most effective emitters of EM noise in your room anyway.

the "snail" speaker looks ridiculous. but one can give a scientific argument for the design. The active vs. passive crossover argument is odd to me, though. I'd think that a passive filter has much lower noise limits than a circuit with an active device, which is its own source of noise.

There probably exists a group of dudes that becomes excited over the idea of using the most amplifiers ever with their snail speakers, though.

So, uh, this thing called SoundPimp. It doesn't qualify as vanilla snake oil obv, as it very clearly does something audible -- I was just wondering whether greater audiophiles than me have anything to say about it; e.g. whether the idea seems legit or whether it actually does something dubious to the signal for a (claimed) superficially pleasant effect?

The premise, as I understand it, is that the stereo field as heard through earphones is seen as the baseline ideal. However, when using loudspeakers, crosstalk (ie left ear hearing the right channel and right ear hearing the left) confuses the stereo field. This piece of software is supposed to correct for this in some way. (The claim is that it works significantly better the crappier your speakers are. Also, it seems reasonable to assume it works best for recordings aiming to recreate some sort of physical space perhaps.) There's a demo video on the site with samples in normal stereo/treated stereo.

Any thoughts? Anyone used it? Am I gullible for even asking? ;)

Any thoughts?

Heh, disregard last line, it fell beneath the editing horizon.

yeah i dunno, if you had good speakers and a good amp and good placement of your speakers, how is this even an issue?

i bought an "audio enhancer" thing, this box thing from audioquest and it was kind of a ripoff

this is a terrible solution to the bad speaker placement 'problem'

Yeah fair points; I guess it's about when you don't have good stuff & placement, see my mention of crappy speakers. I read about this thing in a Norwegian tech magazine, where the journo claimed to get notable separation even from a tablet-type device...

i dunno, the extreme separation of headphones doesn't really exist in real life anyway

seems like there are a lot of things you could spend money on to make your setup sound better that would be money better spent

my newer amplifier had a little microphone you hook up and then move to the spots in the room where you'd sit and it'd do some adjustments. kind of neat!

damn that's kinda sick, what kind?

marantz receiver, with audyssey algorithms or whatever: http://www.audyssey.com/audio-technology/category

I guess this is the specific page for it. They license it to a handful of receiver manufacturers: http://www.audyssey.com/audio-technology/multeq

oh shit algorithms, that's serious stuff haha

did you feel like it made a difference?

My headphone amp has a crossover switch to GET RID OF the extreme and unnatural separation of headphones and make for a more realistic soundstage. People complain about the extreme stereo separation of Beatles stereo mixes, for example. So this seems like an odd concept to me. But I listen through a nice pair of B&W 685s that are positioned on stands to produce a sweet spot right in the middle of the sofa.

I need to rerun it, but yeah, it did do some neato shit

(I rearranged my furniture, I didn't change the inherent accoustics of my living space. Yet.)

The idea is that instead of one sweet spot in the whole room, it tries to balance at multiple points

The calibration bit is basically it playing different tones, iirc

Oh ok like those test tone records and cds they used to sell?

People complain about the extreme stereo separation of Beatles stereo mixes, for example. So this seems like an odd concept to me.

yah I think the whole conceit about that software I mentioned is that it is for music actually recorded in a room with mics a head's-width apart from each other etc, not for more "engineered" stereo images, as surely much more music is.

http://tomross.com/300px-Dummyhead.jpg

disembodied android microphone head OTM

Nah, more like BEEEEP
or BOOOOP
only pretty fast because it's a robot

It's really just adjusting the EQ per speaker to try to make it consistent as it can, I guess. And it doesn't require you to make judgment calls

It doesn't make too much sense to EQ for a point in the room. If you turn down a frequency band at one point in a room, you turn it down everywhere. So if you EQ to make a point to the side better, you are likely making the 'sweet spot' in the center worse. Perhaps it makes a point to the side much better, while only making the center a little worse. It's just too much, imo.

http://tomross.com/300px-Dummyhead.jpg

was this taken from up one of these guys' asses?

Guess at mh's mic: in addition to general EQ, it might possibly do some phase-delay type majic to cancel out unfortunate/unnatural superpositions in one's current location etc? I dunno; a middle C has a wavelength of well above one metre, so it doesn't sound entirely impossible to do this, but on the other hand, reflections from walls etc must complicate things considerably.

was this taken from up one of these guys' asses?

Nah, that's a not entirely unused recording technique.

Buy Sufjan's RKTF Stereo Upgrade System:

Remove the jagged rock from its cardboard housing
Kill a person that owns better stereo equipment than you
Take the stereo equipment
Frame a sleeping drifter by slipping the rock into his or her coat pocket

After setting up the new stereo equipment, press the button labeled "GO!" on our iOS/android app to begin your new listening adventure!

xpost

btw the mobile fidelity 180 gram reissue of "hated in the nation" sound great

stereo field as heard through earphones is seen as the baseline ideal

what absolute twaddle

http://wow.heavylistening.com/

We're all ordering three, right

a woman dropped a promo copy off at my work.
i am scared to listen to it, tbqh. it will probably not live up to my dreams.

Since fake stereo is definitely a form of auditory snake oil, maybe I can ask this question itt: anyone know a nice freeware app which would let me add a non-hideous very slight amount of spread to pure mono WAV files? The simpler the better...

Actually do really want to listen to that WOW record, but I got a Buddha Machine for Xmas, so, y'know...

It does sound pretty fucking fun!

that WOW thing is not snake oil that's a badass piece of work imo

the snake oil that actually works

I want the WOW record. I want 2, actually. Damn. 33.33333 pounds though, fuck!

I'd like to make a similar record, only instead of a steady unending sine wave, it consists of a pulsating sine wave (staccato 8th notes at 120 bpm). if you played two copies at the same time, it would not only highlight the wow and flutter differences on the two record players, but also would create cool steve reich-style phasing as it would be impossible for the two to spin at the exact same speed

Since fake stereo is definitely a form of auditory snake oil, maybe I can ask this question itt: anyone know a nice freeware app which would let me add a non-hideous very slight amount of spread to pure mono WAV files? The simpler the better...

audacity

xpost i would call it PULSING WOW and sell it for 33.222222222 pounds

Cool. is there a particular preset you'd recommend on there?

xpost

also, would buy PULSING WOW

i haven't used audacity in forever. it's possible there's a Spread preset. but if not, here's what ya do:

1. start with a single, mono track.
2. copy the track. now you have two mono tracks.
3. adjust the pan on each mono track however you see fit - one leaning toward the right, one to the left.
4. combine the two tracks into a single stereo track (either by bouncing down or just saving the whole project as a wav or mp3)

if i was fabulously wealthy i really would press some copies of PULSING WOW, along with a series of other minimal concept records gloriously ripped off from the ideas of heavylistening. i'd call my fake label heavenlywhistling, too, just to emphasize what a rip off it was. but the actual final products - the pulsing minimal wav, the collection of harmonic trio waves, etc - would be so great to listen to, regardless of the originality.

but no, what rich people appear to do is purchase additional rooms

Hm, I have a single-sided 7" where the blank B side is grooved with a very faint sine wave. It's much higher-pitched than that and too quiet to listen to without risking an unexpected pop destroying your eardrums but the grooves do shimmer nicely in the light, which is pretty.

I think it's Fridge + D - "Indeguise" but my memory is fuzzy and I'm too lazy to go and look for it:
http://www.discogs.com/Fridge-D-Indeguise/release/724681

It is not the beautiful ART that the Wow record is but then it was less than a tenth of the price, so.

just listened to about 10 minutes of WOW. unimpressed.

If it came as a double pack for you to cue up on two turntables and futz with the pitch control, that would be more interesting.

Or you could do the same for free (in a less tactile manner) in any sound software of your choice, admittedly.

By co-founding HEAVYLISTENING in 2011, his approach towards sound took a more conceptual turn. He is influenced by contemporary art as much as by mainstream popular culture, seeking for universal truth in both Roman Opalka and Jersey Shore.

JWOW

^^^^ winner

just listened to about 10 minutes of WOW. unimpressed.

try again in a cathedral and tell me you're not impressed

Use more than one system to play several records simultaneously and the air around you will start pulsating.

Even audiophiles don't have multiple systems in one room.

also, try looking at the record while listening for the full experience. it has these really cool looking GROOVES in it

JWOW

― ~farben~ (Jon Lewis), Friday, December 28, 2012 2:40 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^ winner

― i guess i'd just rather listen to canned heat? (ian), Friday, December 28, 2012 2:40 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

J-WIN

ladies man • 22 days ago
me and my girl fuck to this every night

If someone plays WOW and Metal Machine Music at the same time, the universe ends.

PULSING SHAMWOW

http://www.inc.com/uploaded_files/image/170x170/shamwow-bkt_6547.jpg

Even audiophiles don't have multiple systems in one room.

If you're a Linnie, even having a transistor radio in the same room as your system would be considered deleterious.

(I'd try and verify that piece of Linn folklore but it would mean searching audio forums and I've been clean for 10 years, man).

3. adjust the pan on each mono track however you see fit - one leaning toward the right, one to the left.
4. combine the two tracks into a single stereo track (either by bouncing down or just saving the whole project as a wav or mp3)

Hmm, is this going to add any stereo width to the track? Or is it just going to offset a monoaural sound laterally (i.e. pan L-channel more than you pan the (identical) R-channel and the sound is over to the left). You need some delay or reverb or phase reversal to give the illusion of stereo, I think, not merely copying the monoaural track twice and panning.

That sounds right. Reverb with certain frequencies emphasized to left channel, and reverb with other frequencies emphasized to right channel? Something like that?

Never mind that record, just get one of these...
http://www.buchla.com/series200e.html
...and be sure it includes the Polyphonic (FM) Tuner
http://www.buchla.com/model_272e.html

the other side of the 12" that came with vinyl copies of Chapterhouse's "Whirlpool" ("Die Die Die") just had a single tone on it iirc. and there was that Spiritualized "Tones For DJs" that was similar, was meant to be played at both 33 and 45.

((kinda tempted to make a 1" version of Wow for lulu))

hahahahhahaha

http://app.audiogon.com/listings/media-servers-core-audio-technology-kryptos-ultimate-media-server-a-cost-no-object-marvel-2012-12-10-computer-audio-91403

hahahahahhaahahahaha

They have to be asking for at least 6x the cost of components for that box.

I'm going to go back and read this whole thread soon because I love this bullshit.

Hahaha, that's brilliant.

4 TaraFlops
http://markandrewholmes.com/plantation-tara.jpg

There's basically so much bullshit on that page that I'd be quoting at least every other line.

oh cool, I needed a new media server

I have spent all of a few minutes on Newegg picking out parts and I'm only up to $12,000. Including $4000 for the PCIe SSD and $3500 for the Nvidia Tesla. I think that they took the advertised clock speed of their processor and multiplied it by two because Intel doesn't make a 6 core Xeon clocked at 4.25GHz.

96Gb of memory essential for decoding flac

90 gb for running iTunes iirc

http://catacombosoundsystem.com/

To those of you know about these things: does bi-amping actually make the sound better in some significant way, or is it just a case of audiophile snake oil? I just bought a new pair of speakers that supports bi-amping, and I think my amp has that function too, but is worth it to buy the extra cables and set this up? The speaker manual claims bi-amping should make a clear difference in sound, but an article quoted on Wikipedia says the difference is subtle, if at all noticeable.

I think it probably depends on the speakers and how much separation your receiver does. When I got a new receiver capable of doing so I went ahead and bi-amped my speakers, but I am not sure how much of the change in sound is attributable to the receiver versus the bi-amping.

It's been a few years since I researched it so I can't give a lot of specifics, but yeah, snake-oil. It's a nice way for companies to allow for audiophiles to indulge in their crazy and buy extra amps. As long as you are providing enough power to the speakers, I've seen no scientific evidence that bi-amping makes any difference.

(I'd try and verify that piece of Linn folklore but it would mean searching audio forums and I've been clean for 10 years, man)

this gave me such a smile this morning

Aw.

on the other hand, this is awesomely ridiculous: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-wiring

However, there are many people in the hi-fi community[who?] who fully accept that bi-wiring brings an audible improvement over standard single cabling[citation needed].

feel like this belongs here

http://www.knobfeel.co.uk/

great url

This is the best thing ever. I watched every video

Although it has a plastic feel, the lights and change of tone in the material between face and flange is a plus!

replicantpleasuremodelreviews.com

Great weight (not too heavy, not too light), and lovely stiffness.

I have a feeling they've spent a lot of time feeling their knobs. Seriously though, I kind of do like the knob on my Marantz pre-pro, though I usually just use the remote!

That is brilliant.

http://i.imgur.com/1t3BLa0.png

I have another audiophile question: I bought a new Bluray player that I'm also gonna use as a CD player. The player and my amp support both HDMI and regular analog RCA cables. Now, obviously it'd be easier to use just the HDMI, as I need to plug it in for movies anyway. But when I'm playing music, is there any real difference between HDMI and analog?

If there is any audible difference, it will rest on the relative quality of the digital-to-analog converters (DAC) in your blu-ray player and amp. If you connect the player to the amp via RCA, the player's internal DAC will do the work, if you connect over HDMI then you can choose to let the amp's DAC do this instead (there will be an option on the player's settings to output a bitstream or similar which should enable this). Best thing is probably to try it each way and see which your ears prefer.

Thanks for the info! Now, if I understood correctly, analog cables would be better only if the player's DAC quality is higher than the amp's?

Seems to me they both have the same DAC. The specs page for the player, Philips BDP7700, says this:

D/A converter: 24 bit, 192 KHz

And the specs page for the amp, Yamaha RX-V673, says this:

Burr-Brown 192 kHz/24-bit DACs for all channels

So, since the player's DAC can't convert the digital signal any better than the amp's DAC, using analog cables between the player and amp would make no difference? Or did I misunderstand your post?

No, that's all technically correct, but, although the numerical stats might be the same, one might still sound different to the other - it's like comparing cars purely by engine size; other factors play a part. The Blue-Ray player might have a DAC made by an inferior company, for instance (although I doubt it).

tuomas the best thing to do is to listen to both configurations and decide which you like better

The Blue-Ray player might have a DAC made by an inferior company, for instance (although I doubt it).

I don't quite get this part: if the DAC processes digital data and has the exact the same numerical rates, how can one be better than the other? Sound-wise, that is.

tuomas do you listen to music or do you listen to numbers?

Well yeah, but if the point of the DACs is simply to convert the numbers to an analog signal, and they have the same stats, where does the difference between them lie? The numbers remain the same, so the difference must be in the output... Do different DACs somehow produce qualitatively different signals?

yes

Construction might be inferior; components might be inferior; there might be interference; one might overheat more than another and impair (or improve!) performance; any number of factors other than numbers derived from pre-assembly testing or whatever can be at play.

I mean, I'm totally not an expert on this at a technical level, AT ALL, and I know nothing about how electronics work, but I know I've looked at a Panasonic TV and a Samsung TV or whatever with the same 'stats' and preferred the picture on one of them.

That's a fair analogy, and it really does come down to whichever you prefer = best.

On a purely practical note, having a single HDMI cable from the player to the amp and letting the amp do all the work to decode and output HD and CD audio is a much tidier option than having 5 chunky RCA cables between the two, so I'd really only go for that if there's a noticeable improvement via RCA as opposed to HDMI.

regardless of what the numbers mean, it really depends on your ears - some people have 'golden ears' and can hear minute differences between equipment even when double blind tested, others have tin ears. I have shitty ears because I stood next to too many speaker stacks at punk shows growing up, but...

and as for what those numbers mean, they just refer to what level of digital signal they'll accept - to take sick mouthy's car analogy, it's like saying these two cars both are able to take 93 octane gas. what the cars do with the gas is another story.

The fact that both DACs are 24/192k devices doesn't say anything about their analog-side performance. However, I notice that Philips advertise their 9000-series BD players as having "Burr-Brown DACs", which suggests the 7000-series have something (considered) inferior. "Burr-Brown" used to be a name to drop in audio circles (my old Copland CD player had Burr-Brown HDCD devices, I think), though they're owned by Texas Instruments now and I have no idea whether they're considered class leaders or whatever.

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/pcm1791a.pdf if you want to get geeky.

HDMI does seem like the easier option but it should be pretty easy to do an A/B comparison, switching between HDMI input and a stereo analog input, playing back the same CD. Of course, the levels may differ.

http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2013/10/this-hypnotic-turntables-glowing-platter-floats-on-magnets/

i'm surprised it took them this long (or have there been other maglev turntables?)

Aren't magnets a really bad idea near cartridges? I guess that's been the barrier to other maglev designs.

Quite a few vacuum-based turntables over the years, like this one - but, come to think of it, that's just for fixing the record to the platter rather than suspension of the platter:
http://www.sotaturntables.com/newtables/millennia.htm

A turntable of that quality would be using a moving coil cartridge (which with some exceptions are what most high quality carts are) not moving magnet (which are generally what lower quality carts are (with some exceptions like my ortofon 2m blue)

An MC cart still has a magnet in it.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/audiophiles-luring-youngsters-into-boring-conversations-2013110180809

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/2013-tas-editors-choice-awards-digital-interconnects/

Wireworld Silver Starlight
$275/1m
wireworldcable.com
David Salz’s thoroughly researched assault on USB’s sonic handicaps delivers a relaxed, well-defined, dynamically evocative, and rhythmically taut performance. The Silver Starlight projects strings without screechiness, which cannot be said of most USB cables. For those seeking a mid-priced USB cable with obviously high build-quality and performance, the Silver Starlight is a solid choice.

Mid-priced! Watching the audiophiles get into computer audio stuff has been hilarious.

Even when used to carry nothing but the clock signal in the dCS Vivaldi, it improves image focus, increases coherence, and produces a smoother and more organic presentation.

capable of resolving the finest detail

Maybe if We record some hard truths about audio cables at sear sound and press to 180g vinyl...

The announcement of Pono (launching via Kickstarter!) definitely belongs in this thread. A 128GB device that will hold 1000/2000 albums? That's 64MB per album, which is roughly equivalent to 128kbps AAC files if we assume an album = an hour of music. Doesn't seem particular "high-resolution" to me...but maybe the "PonoMusic recommended earbud and headphone products" make all the difference.

Yeah I've never been able to make sense of what Neil is doing... just in general...but also w Pono...I mean hi-rez digital files (24/192) are pretty common now & there are already options for iPod type devices made by audiophile companies, so I've never understood Pono...unless he's claiming they've invented some new codec that can make hi-rez quality in a much smaller data footprint??

it's probably some terrible filters

I like all the "Unknown artist"s on the screen. They couldn't be bothered to tag the files properly for the photo!

Neil Young has been saying that PONO will be 24 bit 192kHz PCM. If that is the case a 30 minute 24/192 FLAC music album is over 1 GB, a 1 hour 24/192 FLAC music album is over 2 GB. So that would be 60 to 120 albums depending on length.

I'm guessing the target audience here - gadget-freak, divorced or empty-nest dads - probably will not really need more than 60 to 120 albums worth of space anyway.

Also, the shape of this thing. It looks designed to be as uncomfortable as possible in a pocket.

that is now saying

"PRESS RELEASE UPDATED AT 2:57AM Monday March 10th 2014."

and

"The PonoPlayer has 128GB of memory and can store from about 100 to 500 high-resolution digital-music albums..."

which is more like it.

I mean hi-rez digital files (24/192) are pretty common now & there are already options for iPod type devices made by audiophile companies, so I've never understood Pono...

I have a regular 50 Euro Sansa MP3 player that can also play FLACs, and with a 20 Euro added memory card it has the total space of 40GB, which is more than I'll ever need. So yeah, paying over 300 dollars more for the extra memory seems pretty stupid.

I'm sure this has audiophile grade DAC and headphone stage though... file format and nitrate isn't the whole story

http://cached.imagescaler.hbpl.co.uk/resize/scaleWidth/620/?sUrl=http://offlinehbpl.hbpl.co.uk/news/OKM/94FA9503-D259-4ED9-9EFB84892E4A2FC1.jpg

ok .. placing this here as opposed to the pono thread.

i have encoded most of my archive into digital form (256 mp3).
i run music from my laptop headphone output socket into my amp aux input.
up until tonight the vaio has been set to a 'clearaudio for music' setting that seemed to boost bottom and top.
question : would a dragonfly dac make that much of a difference ?
tonight i have switched the clearaudio setting off, and now have a 'clean' set up.
or, would the dragonfly dac do little to improve over the 'clearaudio for music' preset as that seems to add a lot of colour to the groove.

[ note : i am not a high end audiophile. i have a basic all in one mid level teac amp/cd system, with entry level cambridge audio floorstanders. ]

i'm pretty skeptical of those kind of preset things....it would definitely change things because the dragonfly would be decoding the digital, not your PC

yeah ..thats what i thought, but the clearaudio setting sounds rather bloody good ..

the question is : flat output + dragonfly vs clearaudio music setting

if a dragonfly was £50 i would run the risk, but £120+ i want to figure out my options.

Can you get hold of the dragonfly from a supplier that does a no quibble refund/returns policy? It's going to be a significantly better than the DAC built into your laptop, which are notoriously cheap and at the mercy of interference from the rest of the computer. But you won't know if you prefer the sound of it until you try. I do know that my little headphone amp/dac which I use to run my Alessandro MS1s sounds heaps better than just plugging them into the laptop.

mark e - i mean it's kinda hard to answer this stuff not being able to hear what you're hearing...

when i ask questions like this it usually means i want to buy something and feel kinda like i shouldn't spend the cash so i want someone else to tell me to buy it, so i'm gonna do it: buy the dragonfly, it will sound way better than this clearaudio setting stuff i've never heard :)

yeah, i have now switched off the clearaudio setting, and used the amp to add top/bottom and already i prefer this to the stressed out processed grooves.
i just know i will succumb and get the dragonfly ..
i mean i listen to everything via the laptop/amp set up, and so, think its worthy of the ££££
once i get the car MOT'd and such, this is top of my wishlist.
ta for the nudges folks ..

if you even care enough to ask these questions, why on earth would you rip CDs to 256 mp3 and not to FLAC? it's not like it costs any more.

$/bit

I care about these things but storage still being a precious commodity in this day and ago, I stick to mp3 rips

if you even care enough to ask these questions, why on earth would you rip CDs to 256 mp3 and not to FLAC? it's not like it costs any more.

1. i have to use zune to port music from laptop to phone .. no FLAC support.

2. i started ripping my cd archive to mp3 a few years ago prior to upgrading my kit, and i dont want to have to redo the whole thing again, so sticking with what i have ..

3. "[ note : i am not a high end audiophile... ]" i.e. 256 = perfectly fine for my needs/phone etc.

however, if i can improve the groove with a bolt on, then i may just be tempted.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/New-Furutech-Duplex-Outlet-Cover-Plate-Brass-Carbon-Fiber-103-D-/181346731031?pt=US_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item2a391b8417
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ELP-Laser-Turntable-High-End-Model-Record-Player-Remote-Line-Phono-Out-78-LP-45-/181171384746?pt=US_Record_Players_Home_Turntables&hash=item2a2ea7f1aa
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/AUDIO-DESK-Deske-VINYL-CD-CLEANER-RECORD-Vacuum-CLEANING-MACHINE-New-/181387719602?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item2a3b8cf3b2
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Furutech-Nano-Liquid-Contact-Treatment-Cables-Connectors-XLR-RCA-/181406703983?pt=US_Vinyl_Record_Cleaning&hash=item2a3caea16f
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/FT-D20A-R-Furutech-Duplex-Receptacle-Rhodium-Plated-Consent-20A-/181346726756?pt=US_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item2a391b7364
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Audiotop-Digital-Disc-Cleaner-for-CD-SACD-and-DVD-Blu-Ray-/171326280967?pt=US_Vinyl_Record_Cleaning&hash=item27e3d79507
Come the fuck on

really, you don't think a carbon-fiber electrical outlet cover plate will improve sound quality?

It makes the electricity faster!

Formula: Highly purified (99,999%) non specified substance.

Seller info: cheapgamestuff...

a laser record player is kind of a fun project that should not seriously be offered for sale

The outlet cover plate is upside down in the photo; don't they know that will make everything out of phase?

the phrase "laser sound quality" is also fun. it needs tracking lasers, though, just to deal with imprecise centering of the record. and it can still "groove skip" because apparently whatever feedback they're doing with the tracking lasers can be fooled.

electromagnetic stabilizer stone!!

http://✧✧✧.musicdir✧✧✧.com/p-7506-shakti-electromagnetic-stabilizer-st✧✧✧.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=10-10-14&utm_content=&utm_campaign=soundbytes&utm_email_address=m✧✧✧@gameinfor✧✧✧.c✧✧

The SHAKTI Electromagnetic Stabilizer (aka "the Stone") has three internal trap circuits (Microwave, RF and Electric Field) to absorb the broadest spectrum of EMI... In automotive applications, where space allows, the unit should be securely taped and/or cable tied to the top of the CPU.

damn. microwave, RF, and electic field!

pretty cool that they can absorb EM waves that aren't even incident on 'the Stone', though. I'm sure the NSA could use 'the Stone'.

Shakti are the ones who make all the craziest shit, right? Like those zig-zag wooden pitchfork things that harmonify and magnanimize your soundicles.

http://www.audio-magic.com/Prod-pulsedelectron.html

finally they made something for my cohesive path. i was like "ahhh all these spin-up and spin-down cycles are DRIVING ME CRAZY I HAVE LIKE ZERO TRANSPARENCY AND MY COMPONENTS DON'T HAVE ANY DETAIL MY MIDRANGE IS SO FUCKED"

soundstage more like a sound cage

so it's a magnet?

(there's probably a single resistor in that box)

fuse reviews you can use. solid shapes on your soundstage. cymbals decaying like fireworks as you see into the blacker blacks and the beautiful bells

http://www.audio-magic.com/RaveReviews.html

Interconnects & Digital:
-- Large conductive liquid polymer conductors
-- Eichman bullet plugs
-- Passive shielding
-- Cryo treated
-- MST treated

Speaker Cable:
-- Large conductive liquid polymer conductors
-- Gold banana and spade lugs
-- Cryo treated
-- MST treated

quality find los blue jeans, nice work

I used my golf ball finder / mine detector

the reference to "spin" makes me feel like the claim being advanced by the Pulsed Electron Alignment box (if it indeed is making a claim) is that it's exerting quantum-level effects on the electrons in your circuitry, all on two AAs.

It would not be hard to do! It sounds like it's a pulsed electromagnet. It just doesn't help anything.

"audio magic" is an appropriate name, since this stuff operates exclusively on wishful thinking

someone really ought to do some kind of ethnographic study of this subculture

im going to hazard a guess and say old white ppl

GIS for "men with high-end stereos" both confirms your suspicions with some stereotypical lookin bros and suggests that actually men of all ethnicities seek that elusive high-end sound

http://www.tonepublications.com/blog/the-future-of-audio-is-women/

Audiophile buddy of mine just crowed about his recent acquisition of these (for his speakers) on FB:

http://shop.mapleshadestore.com/departments.asp?dept=96

No idea if this is legit or snakeoil, completely out of my realm.

Spiky feet for speakers and turntables aren't snakeoil. These are a bit pricey though.

This photo from their site is O_o though: (url is a million miles long, this may not work)

https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrB8pwoFJtUXHUAAHWJzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTIybGM0Mm02BHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAM0Nzk1NDU1ZGU1ZjhmMDBmZWQwNzNlMjA0YTU3NWI3MQRncG9zAzQEaXQDYmluZw--?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dmapleshade%2Baudio%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D4&w=1068&h=1600&imgurl=www.mapleshadestore.com%2Fimages%2Fmaingallery%2FMainGalleryImages-1.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapleshadestore.com%2Fgalleries.php&size=496.9KB&name=Below+are+some+featured+images+of+our+%3Cb%3Eaudio%3C%2Fb%3E+products.+To+view+customer+...&p=mapleshade+audio&oid=4795455de5f8f00fed073e204a575b71&fr2=piv-web&fr=&tt=Below+are+some+featured+images+of+our+%3Cb%3Eaudio%3C%2Fb%3E+products.+To+view+customer+...&b=0&ni=21&no=4&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11c69kpjm&sigb=13n0cccmr&sigi=1226pt8av&sigt=12huedb9v&sign=12huedb9v&.crumb=p/veegT1alS&fr2=piv-web&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla

Enh, thought so.

https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrB8peoFJtUIjcAmW.JzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTIybGM0Mm02BHNlYwNzcgRzbGsDaW1nBG9pZAM0Nzk1NDU1ZGU1ZjhmMDBmZWQwNzNlMjA0YTU3NWI3MQRncG9zAzQEaXQDYmluZw--?.origin=&back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fyhs%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dmapleshade%2Baudio%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26hsimp%3Dyhs-001%26hspart%3Dmozilla%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D4&w=1068&h=1600&imgurl=www.mapleshadestore.com%2Fimages%2Fmaingallery%2FMainGalleryImages-1.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapleshadestore.com%2Fgalleries.php&size=496.9KB&name=Below+are+some+featured+images+of+our+%3Cb%3Eaudio%3C%2Fb%3E+products.+To+view+customer+...&p=mapleshade+audio&oid=4795455de5f8f00fed073e204a575b71&fr2=piv-web&fr=&tt=Below+are+some+featured+images+of+our+%3Cb%3Eaudio%3C%2Fb%3E+products.+To+view+customer+...&b=0&ni=21&no=4&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=11c69kpjm&sigb=13n0cccmr&sigi=1226pt8av&sigt=12huedb9v&sign=12huedb9v&.crumb=p/veegT1alS&fr2=piv-web&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=mozilla

I give up.

This is as good a link as any:

http://mapleshadestore.com/galleries.php

There is a certain irony in someone buying Amish crafted wooden racks for their hi-fi gear.

Spikes under your speakers, spikes under your turntable if you really must, but this is really overkill.

If an amplifier on spikes isn't snake oil, nothing is.

A friend-of-a-record-collector-friend had a concrete pillar built from his basement floor into his living room on which to place his turntable. For me, he's the winner of the Batshit Snakeoil Turntable Stability Olympics until someone builds a turntable housing into the pillar itself.

I just want to start a band called Threaded Megafeet.

I hope record collector friend used Geopolymer concrete, that so-called "high performance cellular" concrete has a quite pronounced drop off in the 16-22kHz range.....

Reducing vibrations on a turntable is definitely not snake oil but it is diminishing returns past a certain point.

I hang all of my equipment off of acoustically isolated roof anchors with lots of sonically invisible string.

Coma-style.

I wonder if your hi-hi system works better the closer you are to the equator.

Yeah I mean decoupling and trying to isolate from vibration is actual pretty normal, same reason they make shock mounts on microphones

prbly don't need to isolate your amplifier though

b-b-but earth hum percolates through the substrate of the transistors and polymodulates the incoming signal in the sub-bass otherwise!

the percolation of earth hum into one's transistor substrates can be such a bother to my ears

thank god I always have my audiophile geodes with me

Yeah amps no but speakers and turntables it's not some esoteric thing, plus w turntables it's good so the needle won't skip if you have kids jumping around & stuff

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a9/Kris_Kross_Jump.jpg

RIP Chris Kelly :(
Sad the way things turn out

That tuner in the middle of the Maple Shade gallery looks really cool, hate to think of what it costs.

this is basically the home audio equivalent of morgellon's disease

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hificritic/vol5_no3/listening_to_storage.htm

ahhhh hah i came right in here when i saw that

now where are my gold cat 5 cables

OK that's amazing

this orange juice tastes horrible after brushing my teeth, and now there are even fewer answers why

Thought about this thread earlier when I was reading about Sonys new $1200 Walkman

I was just about to post that.

http://gizmodo.com/sony-walkman-reborn-again-as-a-1200-hi-res-audio-han-1677643981

The market for a $1200 portable music player can't be very big.

especially one whose only reason for existence is the rights to the name "Walkman" - a brand name that has little to no connection with audiophile sound.

I was kinda looking at this as a potential replacement for my iPod classic when that eventually dies, but at $1000 they can fuck right off.

can it play PONO files?

I was kinda looking at this as a potential replacement for my iPod classic

For $200 you can get a Fiio X1 with a 128gb micro SD card - plays FLAC, too. Fuck a Walkman.

(I just had to replace my iPod classic with a Fiio and am pretty happy with it, although the operating system's really basic compared to the iPod.)

saw what you want about pono but the neil remasters sound amazing

Per that Gizmodo piece, "Your ears can only ear so much."

that was an interesting read

but yeah as i've said upthread a few times the thing that bums me out about this is that all this snakeoil crap convinces ppl that no one can really tell the difference between a good quality playback system and shitty skullcandy heaphones or a bose sound dock, and it's like man you are literally spoiled for choice today with more cheap options for great sound, analog or digital, than ever

xposts isn't there a fiio which can take two micro SDs at once? 2 x 128 GB = my beautiful dream

although this morning i just experienced a micro sd failure for the first time when one of my 128 GB cards fried itself while docked in my macbook slot, got super hot and now is dead to the world. But I've been pretty happy with the "assortment of micro SD cards in a Sansa Clip" approach in the 9 months I've been doing it.

taking mental notes on this "Filo" for when my Cowon O2 eventually dies

oh it really is "Fiio", sorry

Still love my shitty skull candy Titan earbuds with their not flat frequency response and indestructibility thank you.

yeah but could get get monoprice ones that are better for peanuts

Agreed, there are a lot of great choices for a wide variety of price points. At some point there is a diminishing return per dollar, but there is slightly improved potential performance for those who are willing to pay more for certain things. I'm just relieved that I really don't need to replace/upgrade my 8,000 albums of 16/44.1 FLAC files that took me 25 years to accumulate.

Considering how great gadgets like Fiio sound, I have spent more than I really need to on a Meier Corda headphone amp/DAC set and various headphones, but am happy with the results.

hey m@tt can you tell me what kind of hard drives are the best for video game genres? I am thinking samsung for first-person shooters as I have heard they have a smoother feel, but perhaps a western digital for MMOs

Magnetically opaque hard-drive cables will make a bigger difference than drive brands. Other than the enclosures, which you obviously have to take off to maximize kinetic expansion.

otm

Mh I prefer that vintage warmth of 5" floppies, you only have to change disks a hundred and fifty times but worth it imo

cool, can't wait to trade account info so we can play that Borderlands Pre Sequel together, I assume you won't mind if it takes me a little while to join the game :)

y'all are making sure to make the 0.8 mm diameter trepanation hole just behind each ear right? Otherwise I don't know how you can even claim to have heard what brothers in arms sounds like

proper attenuation of your skull as it relates to your tympanic membrane is so key! I prefer a 0.7 with a slight left/right offset to compensate for ocular drift (my right eye is a little lower than the left)

"I prefer a 0.7 with a slight left/right offset"

Yes - "standard" symmetry and diameter (and depth) will not always provide even halfway tolerable sound quality.

Getting it right inevitably involves a lot of trial and errorrrxoentogwspgpg

[sorry, I rally must clean this keyboard sometime]

http://xiph.org/%7Exiphmont/demo/neil-young.html

this was great. thank you.

^ v interesting thx

Misinformation and superstition only serve charlatans.

this guy will never be in audiophile magazines

I think the only things the article doesn't address are:
- People doing home mixing of recorded music, whether it's for DJing or remixing, where the extra headroom of 24 bit would be useful as it is in pro mixing
- Bass on recordings that is inaudible by the ear but intentionally in the recording

excellent article

Also, there are (and always will be) reasons to use more than 16 bits in recording and production.

I think that addresses yr 1st one mh

- People doing home mixing of recorded music, whether it's for DJing or remixing, where the extra headroom of 24 bit would be useful as it is in pro mixing

he acknowledges this, essentially, but moves on as he's writing about audio playback, not recording.

xpost kismet

true, but the source you're going to get for such things is mostly going to be whatever is commonly available and ehhh you're right

- Bass on recordings that is inaudible by the ear but intentionally in the recording

I'm probably wrong here but I got the impression that it's only the upper limit that's extended on 192kHz vs 44, and the lower limit remains the same?

I have no idea because I'm an idiot and it wasn't implicitly addressed

yes, the increased sampling rate should only extend the upper frequency limit (though, as he points out, this could in theory then make the low frequency response worse by introducing IMD at the differences of signal frequencies, which would show up in the lower frequency response). I'd guess that the lower limit of a setup is still set by the capacitive coupling of the audio signal to various circuits in a given setup. So buy some of these.

(and pray that nothing ever shorts them when fully charged)

that will do well for me when I finish my rotary subwoofer

omg I've never read about these

yeah I was joking because there is no way you could build your own without a loooot of expertise but they are basically the most awesome thing

the other deep bass thing I ran across in the last few years was an installation where they drilled motors into the concrete floor of a building and used their frequency to create bass vibrations in the whole structure

another interesting article, more about the science of hearing than audiophile stuff

http://reverb.com/blog/psychoacoustics-a-practical-guide-to-how-our-mind-distorts-sound?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rn010915&_aid=newsletter

i get the sense that recording something at a greater bitrate than can be appreciated by the human ear makes sense for largely the same reasons that e.g. david fincher likes to shoot in 6K even though his films will never be screened in more than 4K ... because doing so allows you to preserve everything when mixing down and mastering. there's much less possibly of losing audible information via generation loss.

but actually buying /recordings/ at 24 bits, esp. at a premium cost, makes about as much sense as, i dunno, buying a 50" 8k TV. or so it seems to me.

the McGherkin effect: you perceive sounds differently with sweet baby gherkins stuffed in your ears

...hey, has anyone seen those crazybaby ads on youtube?
it's a levitating bluetooth speaker thing!
...i suspect the real audiophiles will sneer, but... the freaking thing levitates! even if it only sounds as good as other $200 bluetooth speakers, that is pretty cool.....

man when your speaker levitates you gotta ask yourself, "how good would this sound if all of that levitation money was put into the crossover!"

plus bluetooth signals sound richer in the lower mids when you hang a (WRINKLY NOT PRISTINE) sheet of 0.08mm robin's egg blue cellophane between the signal source and speaker

obv

goes without saying

Since this seems to be the place where ILM audiophiles hang out, I thought I'd ask this question here:

I bough myself a Fiio E07K DAC/headphone amplifier, and I wonder if anyone's had problems with getting the sound to it from the computer via USB? It's supposed to plug-n-play, i.e. once you plug it to the USB port, it will automatically work as DAC, and it works exactly like that on my work laptop, everything was fine with that. But with my tabletop computer, I can't get the signal to travel to it via the USB cable, so I have to plug the analog cable to the headphones plug in the computer.

I can't figure out what's wrong: the E07K shows normally on the device list, the driver software is up to date, everything seems to be correct. But when I go to the Windows sound mixer settings and try to change the sound device from the internal speakers to the E07K, I get an error message, even though the mixer shows E07K on the list of devices I can choose from. Also, while the E07K shows on the list of available audio devices, I can't change it to the default device; the option to make it the default device is there, but even if click, the it internal speakers still remain the default. I've tried everything, updating drivers, disabling the speakers so the E07K is the only sound device that's abled, but nothing helps. The laptop has Windows 7 and the tabletop has Windows 8.1, so I wonder if this problem is somehow related to 8.1?

See if it works on another computer.

As I mentioned in the post, it works just as it should on my work laptop.

Though I guess I should try to find someone who has Windows 8.1 (since my work computer has Windows 7) to see if it works on their computer...

try this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLSDQ_Zh0zI

oh god, drivers

I tried what the video did, but the Fiio driver was already up to date, so it was no use. I really don't understand what's wrong: the driver's been installed, my computer recognizes Fiio, it's listed in the Device Manager under audio inputs and outputs, and when I go to the sound mixer, it allows me choose between the speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio) and Fiio (SPDIF OUT), but when I choose the latter, I get an error message saying "No audio device is installed". It's mystifying.

1. See if the system has USB drivers that need updated, like for the motherboard or w/e
2. Try a USB hub
3. Try all the diff USB ports

Did you try input with just the 3.5mm jack? If it works via jack, it could indicate USB or bus drivers (c'mon Windows, get it together already!)

Maybe try un-installing device drivers, reboot, and start fresh.

Yeah, the 3.5mm jack works fine, and like I said, the DAC works perfectly on my laptop via its USB port... So the problem is must be in the tabletop computer. And I've tried plugging the Fiio to every USB port in the tabletop (it has both USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports), that doesn't solve the problem.

I guess I could try to update the USB drivers, but I'm not sure where to start with that... Is there some centralized way to check if all the drivers are up to date?

Google has plenty of results for "Windows 8 driver Fiio Eo7K".

Couple people on a headphone forum I look at occasionally fixed issues with Windows 8 and a Fiio by calling up the command line prompt and typing:

sfc /scannow

It repairs problems on the boot drive. Though the problem they were having was Windows crashing when the Fiio was plugged in, not your problem. Still sounds like it was some sort of USB issue that was getting fixed.

Yeah, it'd be worth looking at the system event log to see if something is crashing

tl;dr buy a mac, right

just don't use computers, they're awful

can't argue

Record player are the best DAC of all

but then you get into the argument of what the best phono preamp is :)

a record player does a very poor job of converting digital signals into analog signals imo

*puts tim hecker cd on record player*
*drops needle*

no, seems to be working fine

LOL

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AudioQuest Columbia Interconnects
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hey actually can anyone instruct me into how to rip regular old decent-sounding 320 MP3s from hi-res 24-96 FLACs? Do I have to downsample the flacs first or can I just throw them in xAct and make MP3s from them?

use this:

Columbia employs AQ’s patented Dielectric-Bias System to dramatically lower the noise floor and smooth frequency response.

(also asfaik you can just throw them in itunes or w/e and they will make Mp3s out of them)

I've used Switch to convert FLACs

Maybe it's not so surprising after all. Columbia uses the same snake oil as Colorado, the same snake oil as Niagara and the same snake oil as Sky, and costs a fraction of their prices.

i was just concerned specifically about the hi-res aspect, like I know you can't just convert a 24-96 flac into a wav without some sort of downsampling process, wasn't sure if the same applies to MP3s.

What? Of course you can have a 24/96 wav. That's what they made the flac from

hey actually can anyone instruct me into how to rip regular old decent-sounding 320 MP3s from hi-res 24-96 FLACs?

I use All2MP3.

xld imo
My standard for audio conversion is to look at the guidelines for whatever the snootiest private torrent sites use

http://bgr.com/2015/02/19/sony-premium-sound-memory-card/

i also use all2mp3

Perfect for the potential Audiophile Snake Oil aspect, Mediamonkey allows you to set both the bitrate and the "Encoding Quality". I have found no documentation, but i presume the highest encoding quality regards the extent that the tracks are read, written and compared.

------------------------------------------------

On other things Snakeoil; Sony claims this SD card makes your audio sound better by minimizing excess electrical noise......... sheesh

the problem I found with Mediamonkey (MM in itself was really great) is it seems to play badly with itunes. Like unfortunately I have to have itunes on my machine bc of owning an iphone, this is literally the only reason itunes is still tolerated by me bc I play my music on a Rockboxed Sansa Clip with SD cards, I tag my files with xAct and do my lossless to lossy conversions with xAct... anyway just the fact that MM and iTunes were both active on the same machine led to some serious snafus for me and I probably won't fuck with MM again until I have done away with itunes altogether...

Good luck.

More props to Rockboxed Sansa Clip!

so fucking great! only pitfall is battery life of course.

might try the 200 dollar walkman that takes micro SD cards this year. Basically I don't foresee ever using a player that doesn't have expandable memory ever again, it's just too fucking satisfactory for me.

Ha, I thought the revive was about this bit of preciousness today:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/02/audiophiles_neil_young_s_pono_has_brought_unfair_scorn_for_lovers_of_high.html

#notallaudiophiles

question : how can a 40W amp blow speakers that are rated at 120W ?

i need to replace my floorstanders as the tweeters have blown.

arse.

(that said i got my bonus today, so, good timing as it means i can move to the next level of floorstanders .. )

Like unfortunately I have to have itunes on my machine bc of owning an iphone, this is literally the only reason itunes is still tolerated by me

this is exactly what my situation is

question : how can a 40W amp blow speakers that are rated at 120W ?

i need to replace my floorstanders as the tweeters have blown.

arse.

(that said i got my bonus today, so, good timing as it means i can move to the next level of floorstanders .. )

― mark e, Friday, February 20, 2015 1:18 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

did you turn it up really loud? because i think the thing w/higher rated amps is they deliver clean power, not distorted signal which can be damaging

yes i did.
no neighbours .. so i went full on.
cannot deny, it was truly awesome
i was prepping myself for the j&mc/psychocandy gig this week basically
i can compensate via adding more treble via the amp etc, but hey.
time to upgrade.
any excuse.

40W into what impedance?