Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

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.

New username harvested from the ground box website...

hat tip to the "Eartha" cable name