Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

Joek fail. :/

On my part, that is.

I was never big on "vinyl sounds better", but inspired by the Back to the Future thread, I just put on "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S on my stereo - streaming 320 kbps Spotify Premium through USB cable to a Lyngdorf TDAI 2170 digital amplifier. I was surprised to find it didn't really rock, so I found my 12" 45rpm single and put that on instead (on a Technics SL-1200 and a cheap NAD RIAA, and into my digital amp, which has a v expensive AD-module but all the same should handle digital sources better than analogur) and there were a few pops and crackles but then the beat kicked in and OMG it fucking ROCKED!!!!

Quite surprised by this, maybe the mp3 Spotify has is just poor quality - this is certainly not something I regularly experience. Maybe the CD reissue it's sourced from is a cheap remaster.

Anyway, pretty cool! Vinyl rulz ok!

come to think of it, made me
PUMP UP THE VOLUME

If I were djing though this would really mean a world of difference

The vinyl ritual prepared you spiritually to PUMP UP THE VOLUME

Haha totally

but then I went back and pumpep up the Spotify volume bit it just wasn't any fun

My new audiophile product is a literal pump you use to manually pump up the volume.

a rube goldberg machine for pumping that volume up

there was a decent article in the last tape op (not the current issue) about cutting vinyl. there's a lot happening in that process.

marty would probably say it's 'heavy'

Looks like "Pump up the Volume" was first released on CD in 1987, I'm not sure if it's ever been remastered since then? If that's the case, and that CD master is the source for all subsequent digital releases, including the Spotify one, I wouldn't be surprised if it sounds inferior to the vinyl version. Back in the '80s many mastering engineers hadn't yet learned how to make CDs sound as good as possible, since obviously most of their experience was with vinyl mastering, which is way different from its CD counterpart. It was only in the '90s (when CD mastering was perfected but before the loudness wars) that CDs really became the medium with the best sound. That's why Prince fans have been asking for remastered versions of his '80s albums for so long, because the CD and digital versions currently available are still based on the '80s masters.

that sounds like a reasonable explanation - I'm glad I have the good version of PUMP UP THE VOLUME on vinyl but they should do a proper digitla remix/remaster so new generations will know the greatness of this track

http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-gift-for-music-lovers-who-have-it-all-a-personal-utility-pole-1471189463

He met a utility-company engineer who disputed the notion that a pole would make any difference. “He was so adamant,” he says, “and that actually made me want to install it more.”

A Japanese magazine, “Power Sources & Accessories,” specializes in power sourcing for audio equipment, including the deployment of private poles.

Electricity is like blood. If it is tainted, the whole body will get sick,” says Mr. Morita. “No matter how expensive the audio equipment is, it will be no good if the blood is bad.”

Otm

fuck the world I bought an external power source for my TT and I'm gonna put that shit in line this week and confirmation bias my way to audio bliss

i have a shire horse on a treadmill powering my customised phonograph and i can't believe how much fuller and deeper the sound of my wax cylinders is now - it's like the imperial minstrels are right there in the barn with you

I honestly think electrical interference esp with a tube amp is one of the least bizarre audiophile things

xp its like there really IS a turkey in the straw

lol

http://reallifemag.com/pet-sounds/

This description of an excessive information giver evokes another figure: the mansplainer, a person who speaks without purpose, pause, or perspective, offering unsolicited explanations that overwhelm bystanders. If women are conventionally represented as patient listeners who accommodate such insensitivity, men are positioned as those compelled to inform, evaluate, and explain. Of this character type, the audiophile is the most intriguing iteration because he is the most ironic: a person who loves sound yet doesn’t listen.

That essay is excellent. Thanks!

It's well written and addresses relevant issues, but I can't help but find the generalizations on audiophiles a bit offensive

There are a lot of non-mansplaining audiophiles out there

gonna make a transformer that synchronizes the frequency of the electrical current to the bpm of the music for that lush fully-integrated sound

#notallaudiophiles

hehe yeah

RECOMMENDED!

http://www.stereophile.com/content/2016-recommended-components-miscellaneous

P.W.B. Electronics Rainbow Electret Foil: £20 for three 170 by 15mm strips
These small (170 by 15mm), prismatic stickers are meant to be cut into smaller strips and placed directly over the "331/3" on an LP label , or over the Compact Disc logo on the label side of a CD. With the strips properly applied, LPs sounded slightly stronger and more colorful, but CDs sounded less involving and immediate, said AD. Write to f✧✧✧@pwbelectron✧✧✧.c✧.u✧ for a free sample of Rainbow Electret Foil. (Vol.35 No.5 WWW)

A+

Chock-full of ridiculous nonsense.

liked newton's essay but wasn't really able to follow her last section or how it related to the rest of her piece.

Re mansplaining audiophiles, it gives me such joy that the classic unquantifiable bullshit "measure" of power cords, cable hangers et al. is "pace, rhythm and timing", or PRAT for short.

lolll at the foil stickers

P.W.B. Electronics Cream Electret: £20 per 15ml jar
The active ingredient of this nontoxic, odorless balm was discovered by Peter W. Belt to improve the listening experience by relieving stress. AD heard slight increases in nuance and force when he spread the cream under the front edge of his preamp, but heard no change in the sound when he spread the cream on his speaker stands. "No one with an open mind, a sense of whimsy, and $40 in his pocket should fail to try this tweak, which is made my two of the most sincere people in the industry," sums up AD. Write to f✧✧✧@pwbelectron✧✧✧.c✧.u✧ for a free sample of Cream Electret. (Vol.35 No.5 WWW)
Read more at http://www.stereophile.com/content/2016-recommended-components-miscellaneous#jz3s0uP0wZOtc8I8.99

holy shit what??

http://pwbelectronics.co.uk/product/ref/ref.html

Amazing that a disc spinning at half a Hertz has energy patterns adjacent to hundreds of terahertz

great find, these guys are nuts http://pwbelectronics.co.uk/product/mmf/PWB_Morphic_Message_Foils.pdf

http://pwbelectronics.co.uk/product/images/safe_hole.jpg

I'm safe hole

that site is magic - check this: http://www.pwbelectronics.co.uk/cable-controversy

thread is a cornucopia of nuttery

is it safe?

*glances at turntable*
is it safe?
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/de/61/f2/de61f297b97e8b7589080a7005d5f0a1.jpg

"No one with an open mind, a sense of whimsy, and $40 in his pocket should fail to try this tweak, which is made my two of the most sincere people in the industry," sums up AD

But, nevertheless, subconsciously, we are still attempting to resolve these energy patterns and anything we cannot resolve causes us to remain under tension. Or, we are actually interpreting these (new, strange) energy patterns to mean, ‘danger’, ‘predator’, ‘intruder’ and we therefore remain under tension because we can never resolve them.

That because of everything in the modern environment (and this includes the very audio equipment and wiring) and because of the resulting tension we (human beings) are under, we cannot perceive correctly all the information which IS IN THE ROOM and which has been in the room all the time we are attempting to listen. This is why the more you treat items of equipment, wiring and cabling and objects in the environment to give a ‘friendly’ ‘relaxing’ energy pattern the more the quality of the sound improves, the more the quality of the TV picture improves and why live music sounds so much better.

that whole stereophile article is a goldmine

Ayre Acoustics Irrational But Efficacious System Enhancement CD: $20 ★
Ayre's test CD includes five tracks of various white, pink, and brown noise, as well as two glide tones that sweep from 5Hz to 20kHz. The disc produced a less electronic sound in JM's system, while lowering the noise floor and improving microdynamics. "I am flabbergasted," said he. "Highly recommended."AD adds that this CD should be used "with caution, and with the understanding that, as with trying to measure a transformer with a DVM and unintentionally magnetizing the core, negative results may ensue and may take a few days to fade away." ST points out that "weird shit goes on in hi-fi. Don't dismiss it until you try it. I use this thing, too.

these last few are the best yet because they really drop the veneer of science and truly embrace the religiosity that's core to trv kvlt audiophile snake oil...."weird shit goes on", "irrational", "sense of whimsey" - it's all strange forces beyond our understanding that must be appeased with weird little reflective stickers

yeah, getting very close to winona ryder grasping at bundles of christmas tree lights in Stranger Things. I know...it sounds... crazy.

but she was right

SO ARE THESE GUYS