Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

effect looks a bit better if you do something with it and don’t just glop it on to a generic sans serif fetishist solid background, but still: lol

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWLxxriIZuz/?utm_medium=copy_link

100 prints and 4 originals..... I'm assuming the music was actually played into the general direction of the originals?

did Aphex Twin do a scary looking waveform somehow or only that stereograph? Where do i order up an artisinal stereograph?

Howard Dumble has passed away.

https://www.instagram.com/ross_hogarthmix/p/CY2NMTuPYiq/?utm_medium=copy_link

rip. gonna play my wampler euphoria pedal in remembrance today.

honestly wrong thread for this. HAD was a weird genius but definitely not a snake oil salesman. If anything kind of the opposite - he’d barely sell to anyone lol.

I only posted it in this thread because this was one of the only threads where Dumble has been mentioned on ILX.

no disrespect on my end either. dumble "amp in a box" pedals are rad and probably my favorite drive circuits. wish i could say i've played a real dumble. i think remembering him on this thread is appropriate, as sometimes the hype is merited.\m/

peace, man <3

think I’m just triggered by a rash of threads in other places full of idiots on one side who think an eccentric recluse working out of his garage in an unfashionable part of LA was somehow ripping off today’s bar band guitar players and idiots on the other side insisting that amp they played for five minutes was full of magic angels and nothing else on earth comes close.

he had some really good ideas about modding fenders at a time where very few were doing anything similar. he could have been Randall Smith except he had zero head for or interest in business or, like, being responsible for employing people… all he knew how to do was build amps!

and anyone in the boutique amp biz today can tell you, it is a hard and shitty business. which is why so many boutique guys have a day in the sun and then disappear or move on to gainful employment designing circuits elsewhere. god bless the guy for finding a way to build in very low volume at his own pace and make it work.

exactly. not his fault people turned into weird fanatics over his work. i'm all about appreciating the eccentrics who are really damn good at what they do. and, by all accounts, he was one of the better ones in both respects.

Dumble was absolutely a snake oil salesman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVTj08qTwGw

That video is chefs kiss, lol. That’s Henry Kaiser, yeah?

I don’t even have to watch the video to know it’s the crystal lattice. laughed over it plenty back in the day and honestly dgaf now. back then information was rare and precious, bro science was everywhere, superstition passed from local hot players to cool older brothers by word of mouth…

but one thing was certain: tube amps sounded better than solid state when they broke up. if that’s how HAD wanted to explain the why of it, it really doesn’t bother me now.

most snake oil salesmen are, y’know, trying to sell you something. HAD reads as a weirdo, not a pitchman and certainly not a closer.

He was trying to sell his amps and he was very successful, though? He poured epoxy over everything so you couldn't see his magical tweaks.

Exclusivity is just another kind of marketing and that's very much in keeping with audiophile snake oildom - hunting for that one whale who'll pay $25k for diamond-encrusted RCA cables.

did he epoxy his joints? thought that was just little billy finnegan?

That video is chefs kiss, lol. That’s Henry Kaiser, yeah?

― Rockin’, and rollin’, and whatnot (morrisp), Saturday, January 22, 2022 1:30 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I had always wondered how Henry Kaiser - eccentric guitarist on SST, Shanachie, Tzadik, etc - had the money for a Dumble. Then I put it together that he was this Henry Kaiser's grandson.

Another grandson, Henry, is an Antarctic diver and experimental guitarist.

waht

https://i.discogs.com/ixp5zv_UITyZO95sSOuEeMBvLfKSe70s1oJ2AG5tYEo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWltYWdlcy9BLTE4/MDI3NS0xNDIxMzQz/NDU3LTMxMzguanBl/Zw.jpeg

https://img.discogs.com/rPo9Um1cSAnfd26zc9-Lk3_U1mQ=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-453860-1328890006.jpeg.jpg

Henry Kaiser is big part of Herzog's Antarctica movie - Encounters At The End Of The World

He was trying to sell his amps and he was very successful, though? He poured epoxy over everything so you couldn't see his magical tweaks.

Exclusivity is just another kind of marketing and that's very much in keeping with audiophile snake oildom - hunting for that one whale who'll pay $25k for diamond-encrusted RCA cables.

― papal hotwife (milo z), Saturday, January 22, 2022

"very successful" is relative. basically the audio engineering equivalent of a working musician is how I break it down to an extent.

he got by in LA building amps, and got to hang out with some great musicians. that's a win in itself, but it doesn't seem that lived especially high on the hog and I don't expect his estate's worth much. there are dopes with lawn care business a lot more successful than HAD.

yes of course he worked to build a mystique that let him get by building a small number of amps at his own pace. I don't see the crime there. at worst he's the Bill Finnegan of amps. a weird craftsman who most comfortable woking with customers and building with his own hands and was ultimately eclipsed by imitators who were better at business than he was (hi dere Two Rock)

shrug

someone on twitter shared this classical review and it probably belongs here

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FKAFOQuXsAIhJEd?format=jpg&name=medium

sometimes time is the best snake oil

that last sentence is so beautiful

"the download has settled into my wifi"

yeah man, gotta break that shit in!

beautiful

it's like those dudes who sincerely put in a white noise CD and run their stereo for 24 hours to "break in" speakers

Let it marinate overnight

it's like those dudes who sincerely put in a white noise CD and run their stereo for 24 hours to "break in" speakers

totally

it's like a lot of these audiophile things where there's a tiny shred of truth (that new speakers may be a little "tight" and loosen up after a bit) taken to to pathological extremes

Oh shit I just thought of my own audio snakeoil product to sell: “Speaker Wash” a CD of sine tones you play to ”unclog” the sound coming out of the speakers or to “cleanse” the speakers when you switch from one (gold MFSL of course) CD to another.

i would invest.

It should be a gadget, though, for maximum snake-oil upcharge potential. I want to see a blog post where someone cracks open the bespoke Speaker Wash unit to reveal a discman with the sine-tone CD permanently sealed inside. Not sure if it should be a wood-grained module resembling a high-end turntable, or have more of an amateur-radio look.

Not sure if it should be a wood-grained module resembling a high-end turntable, or have more of an amateur-radio look.

The woodgrain version is the one you sell on your website; the one that looks like you built it in your basement is the "prototype" model which you sell for 50% more, exclusively to members of your email list.

This business is going places.

Obviously the audiophile snake oil community's interest and credulousness is directly proportional to exorbitant cost. but check this shit out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ayQfMq9Rlw

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

snake oil?

Amateurs, they shouldn’t be putting that on YouTube for free!

“I never was satisfied with the sound of my CD collection on my high-end system, but a helpful Speaker Wash (r) technician came to my home and after examining my system, explained to me that what I was hearing was years of accumulated musical residue. My Mozart was mixed up with my Manowar! But after a professional flush (not cheap but worth every penny) I now cleanse my system weekly with the proprietary Speaker Wash(r) cabinet and my system sounds great! Much higher highs and lower lows and presence! The only drawback is that for the cabinet (yes, it’s six feet tall and you will definitely need to make room for it) to work I need an annual subscription (again, not cheap but worth every penny) to keep the software up to date to deal with the latest sounds. Thanks!!!

Close quotes

If on not getting an improvement in the 'soundstage' I wont buy it.

This whole "dry out your ruined phone" craze sounds like an opportunity for Alva Noto, Ryoji Ikeda and pals.

Nice to be reminded to do a frequency sweep once in a while (not the one above, which looks like it recorded off someone's telly, complete with background noises)... 13.5-13.8kHz at best with these 53yo ears. Hold the hi-res!

the apple watch does use a sound to blast water out of the speaker when you deactivate swim mode

it does not sound like the above examples

pic.twitter.com/aVC96UeW5m

— Shoegaze Dad 🇵🇭 (@yeoldedad) February 28, 2022

yes, but now i want healing crystal-encrusted gold plated cables.

Abbey Rd are yet again selling cardboard boxes with Pink Floyd written in biro for £200, who in the world would want to own such a hollow item?

https://shop.abbeyroad.com/*/*/Pink-Floyd-i-The-Dark-Side-of-the-Moon-i-EMI-Tape-Box-Folio-Side-One/6VJM0000000

The tape contained within this box was exclusively manufactured by EMI. Between the mid ‘50s and 1981, EMI produced both blank and pre-recorded magnetic tapes in many formats, including type H60 and type H65

What weird phrasing. "The tape contained within this box (well not this box... this box is empty)"

This box once contained bars of pure gold! It's empty now, but doesn't that make it feel more valuable just knowing that?

Selling a purely fetishistic item like that takes real ballz... at least throw in a "special edition" CD, or something?

I mean, for an extra, idk...£15 in manufacturing costs? They could throw in a tape reel and stick the quad version of DSotM on it, surely?

It’s a replica of the empty box!